In case you were wondering why there was no ‘this week in legal education’ for last week, I had enhancement week. This meant I had the week off to relax and, apart from the bootcamp on Saturday, I did not engage in any sessions.

15th – 19th November

In this event, we went over the various activities that someone may take part in during a City style assessment centre.

We were told the top tip to succeed – preparation. To prepare well we were told to make sure to have documents containing example answers to the questions you are likely to be asked, showing up early with a pen and paper, staying on top of the news, learning about the interviewer before the interview etc.

We then went over the most common exercises individually and what would be expected from us, what they are assessing at each stage, and top tips on how to succeed.

For example, icebreakers:

• they are expecting us to be stuck in
• they are not actively assessing us at that point but they want to see us fully engage with the exercise
• We should try to prepare our answers beforehand so we can answer the question with confidence

For this open day, we had several sessions with different individuals at the firm.

The first session was with the D&I and CSR manager. We heard about the 8 work streams available at the firm and how these have a tangible impact on everyone in the firm and the ways we can get involved in events held within the streams.

Next we had a trainee Q&A panel with 4 trainees at various stages of their training contract. A common theme in why they were attracted to RPC was the culture of the firm. All 4 trainees noted that everyone in the firm was friendly, approachable, and actually cared about you as an individual. They then spoke on the great level of responsibility you are trusted with as a trainee, especially due to the firm having a culture of continuous development.

We then had an individual networking session with 3 of the trainees in 15 minute rotations. We got to hear more about each of their seats and what work you could expect to do.

We then had a session dedicated to answering our questions about the application process and the best ways to succeed.

This session helped me decide that RPC is a place I would be interested in training at.

In this session, we spoke about training at a regional firm compared to training at the city.

A few key questions we were made to ask ourselves during the event were:

• Do you know yourself and what you want in life/ your career?
• Is law/ this location/ this firm right for you? If not, decide before making applications
• Do you have an interest in a slower paced life or do you want a fast paced city life?
• Do you value a better work life balance or are you okay with working very long hours?

I found the event made me question my motivation for working in London deeper. While I knew that I wanted to work in the City, the event did help me articulate what draws me towards a City career.