Thursday 8 May 2008

Ohh Bother




Yes bother, why am I looking at work experience opportunities, such as being a witness helper, an independent police station visitor, an admin/paralegal, or even doing some work for the FRU(oh boy would they be up shit creek if I had to defend someone).

I think serial procrastination should probably be a criminal offence, just like having Boris as Mayor should be (I voted for Ken). Not withstanding the fact that I do in general hate bendy buses but they are the only decent way of getting round London at silly o clock in the morning and he wishes to scrap them!

So I have been investigating work experience opportunities, however some seem too onerous for the current time, and may have to wait for my potential gap year after I finish my degree to gain some more experience/live a little. Unfortunately I do not have a CV with a flowing list of relevant work experience(Minx knows shes seen it) however I do generally feel better about myself(what is blogging for?) that some people I know have NO legal work experience let alone an ACTUAL CV. I can be known to be lazy and demotivated, however these people in their 2nd year not actually having any legal work experience or not even contemplating a CV really does give me a bit of confidence that there are probably a lot of knobs that want to go to the bar.

I'm fairly (overly) set on going into criminal law, yes i know poor pay, the criminals in jail will be living a better life than me, so I a hoping that my mini-pupillage with a criminal chambers will help me. However I do wish to explore other areas of law, and had I worked harder this year and not generally covered an entire course in a week, I would have realised that whilst Admin law and Trusts are generally quite boring, when you know everything about it its actually quite enjoyable! Perhaps I should have applied this to the bane of my existence last year (contract law) Which for various reasons of my tutor being the devil incarnate I didn't quite enjoy.

I'm wondering about the potential of other work experience, and I know that chambers also like the fact that if you have volunteered or traveled that this also looks good on your application.
Hence why the BIG plan for this summer is to go interralling round Europe for a month or so!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

And there's me thinking I had procrastination down to a fine art! I now find myself in the company of an absolute master!
Interailling about Europe, though, in all seriousness, will look pretty good on the CV as well as bieng bloody good fun - AND you will still have time for work related experience!

Android said...

Hey,

At your stage, I didn't have ANY work experience on my CV, let alone legal stuff! :)

Travelling seems like an awesome idea. I hope you do get to do it this summer and have fun :)

Lost said...

Hi Minx
me and another friend are planning to go for 22 days and do all teh countries!!! bit ambitious but should be really fun, probably be sleeping on the train instead of booking hostels etc.

Hi Android
Some people in my year have had several interviews for vacation placements etc, by the time I thought I should do one because it would look good I had missed the January deadline! Loads of people have a lot of work experience ahh!

Android said...

Nothing is stopping you from just going round your local solicitor firms and asking them if they could offer you some work experience. The worst that could happen is that they say 'no'! :)

Anonymous said...

... Hey don't knock your CV - it got you a Mini at the type of set you aspire to joining, did it not?!
Once you get one under your belt, others are sure to follow!

Lost said...

Yeh I did Minx after smoozing the QC for a bit.

I'll try Andro to go round local solicitors/CAB and try and get some work experience. Thing is most of them aren't replying to my emails, so I'll just go in person!

Android said...

The most difficult part is getting past the receptionist

Lost said...

Hey Andro, I know, the amount of times I have sent "enquiry" forms off, and to have never heard again from the people! It's so annoying! I do not like!