Episode 50 – How to get a training contract with Allen & Overy

October 7, 2016 Podcast

In episode 50 of the Graduate Job Podcast, I am joined by Hannah Salton, Graduate Recruitment Manager at international law firm Allen and Overy. In this half-hour, we explore the different options available to graduates at Allen & Overy, from their sought after training contracts to their vacation schemes and open days. We delve into the application process for the training contracts, the different methods of entry, what they look for from candidates and how to ensure you stand out throughout the application process. We also explore the vacation schemes in detail and look at whether this is really the easy way in for a career in law. You might be surprised at some of the answers.  If you’ve ever thought about a legal career, then this is definitely the episode for you. Even if working for a law firm has never crossed your mind, keep listening to understand why over half of the graduates that Allen and Overy take on didn’t study law at university. As always, all links to everything we discuss and a full transcript are available in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/allenandovery.  Right, let’s not mess about, and jump straight to my chat Hannah from A&O.

MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • What A&O are really looking for from their applicants
  • The secrets to impressing through the online application
  • Whether a vacation placement with A&O is a shortcut to landing a training contract
  • What to expect from the application process at Allen and Overy
  • Whether Allen & Overy prefer candidates through a Legal Practice Course (LPC), or Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)
  • Why the odds of getting a training contract with Allen and Overy might be better than you think

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:

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Transcript – Episode 50 – How to get a training contract with Allen & Overy

James: Welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, with your host James Curran. The Graduate Job Podcast is your weekly home for all things related to helping you on your journey to finding that amazing job. Each week I bring together the best minds in the industry, speaking to leading authors, entrepreneurs, coaches and bloggers who bring decades of experience into a byte size weekly 30 minute show. Put simply, this is the show I wish I had a decade ago when I graduated.

James: For episode 50 of the Graduate Job Podcast, I am joined by Hannah Salton, Graduate Recruitment Manager at international law firm Allen and Overy. In this half hour we explore the different options available to graduates at Allen & Overy, from their sought after training contracts, to their vacation schemes and open days. We delve into the application process for the training contracts, the different methods of entry, what they look for from candidates and how to ensure you stand out throughout the application process. We also explore the vacation schemes in detail and look at whether this is really the easy way in for a career in law. You might be surprised at some of the answers.  If you’ve ever thought about a legal career, then this is definitely the episode for you. Even if working for a law firm has never crossed your mind, keep listening to understand why over half of the graduates that Allen and Overy take on didn’t study law at university. As always, all links to everything we discuss and a full transcript are available in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/allenandovery.   Right, let’s not mess about, and jump straight to my chat Hannah from A&O.

James:  I’m very pleased today to welcome Hannah Salton to the show. Hannah is a graduate recruitment manager at international law firm Allen & Overy. Hannah, a very warm welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast.

Hannah: Hi there. Thank you very much. Pleased to be here.

James: Today, we’re going to explore what it takes to get a training contract at Allen & Overy. But, before we do, Hannah, would you like to tell us a little bit more about the firm and your role as a graduate recruitment manager?

Hannah:  Sure. I’ve been at the firm for almost two years. I look after all of our graduate recruitment, so all of our training contract and vacation scheme recruitment in the UK. We hire around ninety trainees a year into our London officers, but we do recruit other trainees internationally as well.

James:  Today we’re going to go into detail to explore the different graduate options at Allen & Overy and how you can go about getting into a training contract with them. We’re also going into the detail on what the application process looks like and how you can stand out in your application.

Starting at the beginning, Hannah, with your training contracts, what does a training contract at A&O entail?

Hannah:  In terms of the structure of a training contract, it lasts two years, it’s made up of four six-month seats so you’ll rotate around the business. As part of that, we do offer the opportunity for international or client secondments for trainees to really do in their final seat.

James:  Oh, cool. Will you be based in London or do you have options to work around in the UK?

Hannah:  We do recruit internationally. I look at the graduate recruitment in the UK which is just into our London office, but we do have a lot of opportunity for international secondment, so we have trainees from London go to offices such us Hong Kong, Paris, they go to Singapore, New York, all around the globe, really.

James:  And we have listeners from all over the world that download from more than a hundred countries, can they apply to work in the UK?

Hannah: Yes. We do have the opportunity to sponsor people for visas, so we do regularly recruit international students. We have a global mobility team dedicated to this. There are more details on our website around sponsorship.

James:  Excellent. Thinking about the training contract, does the type of work you’ll do differ depending on your entry route whether it’s through Legal Practice Course (LPC) or Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)?

Hannah:  We do recruit a really good mix of law and non-law students. It varies. Typically around 50% of our intake haven’t studied law as an undergrad. All of our trainees, whether they’re law or non-law students, will go through the tailored A&O LPC before they start their training contract. That’s a Master’s level qualification very tailored to A&O. We work on really closely with our training provider to make sure that it features all the LPC requirements. It is tailored to our business, how we work, to really enable trainees to hit the ground running once they start.

In terms of the GDL, non-law students will do that before the LPC, but, again, there are more details around sponsorship, and grants, and things like that on our website as well.

James:  I’m surprised 50% of the people you take don’t have a law degree. Do you have any preference whether people have a law degree when they apply or you’re completely open?

Hannah: No, we’re really open. And I think one of the things that we do value is having a diverse workforce particularly with our trainees. We don’t have a quota, so we don’t have a fixed we need half to be law or non-law. We just found that with our applications and with our hires, we do get a nice mixture, and we haven’t found that there has been any difference in who succeeds better once they get here whether you’ve studied law or non-law.

James: Oh, brilliant. Going back to the training contract, once people join the scheme, what sort of training can they expect over the two-year course?

Hannah:  There’s a lot of training that goes on before, during, and after the training contract, really. Everyone gets paired with a buddy before they join, so that’s, kind of, an informal support from a current trainee. Every person joined as a trainee will get a formal trainer to sit with them in their seat who they’ll share an office with and work very closely with on their seat.

There’s also quite a lot of support internally. We have a mentoring network. We also have a dedicated HR team specifically for trainees. There’s quite a lot of work that gets put in in terms of making sure that we get people in the seats that they want and supporting people right through so at the end of their training contract, yeah, supporting them with qualifications.

James:  How would you describe the working culture at A&O? What would it be like as a trainee? Is it going to be nice and glamorous like the TV show Suits or are you going to be working long, long hours?

Hannah:  I think culture is always one of those things that’s very hard to articulate unless you’ve actually lived it. I do get some feedback from students that a lot of law firms describe themselves in a very similar way. So, my biggest piece of advice in terms of finding out what the culture is like is to try and meet us, to come on one of our open days, to do a vacation scheme with us, chat with us at a careers fair, because I do think that our culture is one of the things that makes us really special and we always get people say, “You say it on your website, but I didn’t really understand what it was like until I actually lived and breathed it.”

It is very collaborative. It’s a high-performance culture, so people do work hard and standards are high, but the support is there. It’s about getting the work done, it’s not about who gets the credit for it. I do think that it’s one of the things that sets us apart, but I recognize that that’s said quite widely, so I would just encourage people to come along and meet us, and experience it first-hand.

James: That’s great advice. We’re going to touch upon, later in the show, about the open days you mentioned and also the vacation schemes.

Hannah: Great.

James:  One follow-up question on the training contract. What can listeners expect would be their—once they finished the training contract, what sort of roles would they be doing in the business?

Hannah: After the training contract, we find that trainees go into a really wide range of different areas, really. Obviously, when you qualify you become an associate and we work closely with you to try and get you to qualify in the part of the business that works best for you.

I think in recent years there’s definitely been a more broader—there’s been a lot more widely spread different career paths. Some people that join us, they will want to go to the typical associate, senior associate, partner route. We have other people that want to stay with us for a few years and then work in-house or work more flexibly.

A&O has a couple of different initiatives internally such as Peerpoint that really allow experienced, strong lawyers to work more flexibly to work on client projects. So, I’d say there’s really not a typical career path, actually, and that’s probably one of the big shifts, I think, in the industry that people do often have a lot more varied, broad ambitions after the training contract.

James:  Excellent. I’m sure we’ve whet the appetite of the listeners now, so let’s move on to the application process.

When do applications open for the next scheme and how far into the future are you recruiting?

Hannah: We open for applications this year on the 1st of October. So, we’re open 1st of October until the 31st of December. We’re open for both vacation scheme and training contract applications during that time.

You can apply to either, so anyone in their penultimate year onwards, so second year of a three-year course, final year, or if you’ve already graduated can choose to apply for either our vacation scheme or a training contract. But it is—you focus on one application or the other, and there are more similar information, again, on our website if you want to read a little bit more about which option might be right for you.

James:  Excellent. Speaking of your website, I’ll be linking to everything we discussed in the show notes today, which you’d be able to find at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/ao.

How many applicants do you tend to get for the training contracts but also for the vacation schemes?

Hannah:  I get asked that question quite a lot by students on campus. I always think it’s quite an interesting question to ask because if you say a really high number, students can often get put off from applying. What I would say is we do receive a high volume of applications. We receive a lot for our vacation scheme and training contract, but we also hire relatively a lot as well. We hire around ninety trainees a year, between sixty and seventy vacation scheme students a year. We do receive in the thousands often for all of our applications combined, but I would say is don’t let that put you off because we do hire people, so it’s not a case of “Oh, I’ve got no change of getting anywhere with that.”

James:  You’ve got even less of a chance if you never apply.

Hannah: Exactly.

James:  What does the application process look like? Opens on the 1st of October. Is it an online application, initially?

Hannah:  It is, yeah. We have quite a simple process, if you like, in the sense of we don’t have any online tests, we don’t have any psychometrics or anything like that. It is an online application. There are a few questions based around your motivation for wanting to join A&O and your experience. Then, if you’re a successful application and get shortlisted for interview, there are two interviews that take place in our office – so one competency interview and one case study interview.

James:  Okay. Do you do the psychometric testing at the assessment centre or you just don’t do this at all?

Hannah: No, we don’t at the moment. We don’t do any of that.

James:  Oh, okay. What—I imagine you have—like we talked about loads of people applying, what differentiates, on the online application stage, the people get through from the people who don’t get through?

Hannah:  I would say that our online application is the single most competitive part of our process. If you make it to interview with us, we do hire quite a positive proportion of the people that come to interview.

But, I would say that, yeah, the application form is where we’ve seen more people drop out, so I just really encourage people to take their time. Often, students say to me, “Oh, it’s a numbers game. I’m going to complete ten applications in one day,” but I would really, really encourage people to focus on quality over quantity. We do spend a lot of time looking at your application form, reading it in detail, so it really is important that you’re really happy with it and you’ve invested as much and got across as much as you can on there.

I think with a few basic things which sound really obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many people have typos or haven’t got their spelling and grammar as good as it could be. But, I think just really thinking about what question we’re asking as well on the application form, not tailoring it to what you think we might be asking, but really reading the question. Using the full word count as well. We see some students rushing in and only using half their word count and it’s very hard to get across the depth that we look for if you’re not using the full word count.

And, really, just think about your strongest example. If we’re asking “Tell us about the time when you’ve done this,” just really think and reflect on what we might be looking for and what, out of all of your experience, is the strongest example.

We may come on to this later, but one point that I just wanted to make is it’s not a requirement for you to have done legal work experience before applying to us. We really value so much more than that, so we recognize that not everyone has the opportunity to do legal work experience. The type of skills that we look for, you really can get them from a broad range of different activities whether that’s working as a waitress in a busy bar, whether it’s volunteer work, whether it’s leading a society. We really do recognize that the skills we look for come from a really broad range of different things, so I say try and bring in different examples as well on your application form. They don’t all have to be work experience-related.

James:  Excellent. You make some brilliant points there and I completely agree. Some of the people that I coach through their applications, it’s just trying to get them, initially, to change their mindset from that scattergun approach of just trying to get as many applications out as quickly as possible, to focus down, and take the time. I’ve been on your side of the fence sifting through online graduate applications. You can easily see the applications where people have copy and pasted their answer. “I’ve got one from a previous application and it sort of fits in this box, so I’ll just paste it in and change the name of the company” and it just stands out a mile.

Hannah: Exactly.

James:  We had a question, actually, online from our listener Sanj in Harrogate on Twitter who asked about the work experience and said “What are you looking for apart from straight-As and a first-class degree?” Does the place you went to, university, is that as important as the grades you’ve got?

Hannah:  I would say academics are obviously something that we look for and take into consideration. Our minimum entry requirements are AAB and a 2:1, so it’s absolutely not the case that you need all straight-As and a first  to come and work for us. Academics are important, but they’re only one part of an application form. We look at the whole form, academics as well as any work experience or experience that you talk about, and your competency, and answers.

University, I would say is less important than what your academics actually are. We, obviously, have certain universities that we visit, but we don’t have a preferred list of universities. We really do hire from a broad range of different universities. That’s really important to us, actually, because the talent is spread around, so we need to make sure that we’re recruiting from a range of different universities.

James:  One other question via Twitter from Andy who asked about what your opinions were on gap years, so gap years after university, whether they were encouraged or you just prefer people to continue the academic track?

Hannah:  Yeah. I can certainly give you my opinion on that, but more from a personal perspective. I think that gap years are an amazing opportunity and should be taken advantage of when an opportunity presents.

I think what’s really important is how you articulate that gap year to employers. Are there examples from your gap year that you can talk about if you’re in an interview situation? If you’re doing volunteer work, did you work as part of the team? Did you develop your communication skills? If you were working in a bar in Australia, did you deal with high-pressure situations? Were there difficult clients?

I think, really, it’s a very personal decision and if you want to do one, I’d absolutely encourage that if you feel like it’s the right thing. But, I’d also think about whatever I’ve done during that year, what could I bring forward? What experiences have I gained? Even just traveling, you can gain that international exposure, which, if you’re applying for global firms, can really help and you can bring that into your answers as well.

James:  I completely agree. You’ve got a long time if you’d like to be working, so grab these opportunities to travel when you still can, when you’re unencumbered by mortgages and relationships, and the like.

Speaking about traveling there, how important are languages and having the language skills in an application?

Hannah:  I think language skills are always valuable. It shows a commitment to something. It shows that you take initiative, I mean you’ve done a class, or studied abroad, or something like that. There’s always the chance that it might come in useful directly if you are working in a team that has employees based there, if you’re talking to a client who’s based there. I would say that they’re very valuable, but I would say that they’re not essential. I wouldn’t want anyone who has not studied any languages to think that they’re at a necessarily a disadvantage because language is also a very useful skill, but there are lots other things that we value as well.

James:  Yeah. You mentioned the two interviews at the assessment centre – one competency-based. Is that the one involving the presentation?

Hannah:  The competency-based interview is up to an hour, one to one interview exploring things such as your application form, your motivation for wanting to join, etc.

The case study interview is one where you will have some time to prep on your own before, so you’ll have some time to read a case study, do some analysis, plan, evaluate what you think, what you take from it. Then, after your individual preparation, you’ll then have the interview. That will be a bit of a mixture, so there’ll be a short presentation element and then there’ll be discussion around it, and Q&A, and probing your findings and a bit more detail.

James:  What separates the alright candidates from the exceptional candidates in these two interviews?

Hannah:  I think there’s not one singular thing. It’s not one thing that we always look out for and it brings all of our trainees together and means that they’ve all got one in particular quality. I think that’s more and more employers are looking for resilience, the ability to bounce back quickly, to learn from mistakes, and to really just keep going when the going gets tough.

Commercial awareness is, obviously, always going to be important. I think with commercial awareness, it’s not a case of reading the Financial Times all the way through and reciting it back, commercial awareness is much more on having opinions and having a broad insight into the industry. It’s not learning facts and figures, it’s about being genuinely interested, having an opinion, and having that broad understanding of the marketplace in which we operate.

James:  Are there any final stages after the assessment centre or is it then through to the offer?

Hannah:  No final stages. After the two interviews in the office, you’ll get told whether or not we’re progressing into offer.

James:  Excellent. It’s good when the application process isn’t too drawn out as a candidate going through it yourself.

Hannah: Yeah. I imagine, yeah. It is always tricky. We want to process people as quickly as possible, but we also want to make sure we’re assessing people correctly, so sometimes it may take longer than others, but we do always, of course, try and go back to candidates as soon as we can.

James:  Yeah. You mentioned this is open from the 1st of October through to the end of December. Do you find that there’s the natural rush at the end of December as people just get the applications in?

Hannah:  Yeah. You do find that. We’d always encourage people not to leave it into the last minute, particularly, it might ruin their New Year’s eve plans. We recruit on a rolling basis, so we do start screening applications and interviewing from when we open. We do encourage people to submit applications as early as they can while still feeling confident with their application forms. Inevitably, yes, a lot of people do leave it towards the end and we always screen all the applications, but I would encourage people to absolutely submit their application sooner rather than later.

James:  Super. Before we move on to looking at vacation placements, any final top tips for people applying for the training contract?

Hannah:  I think that the tips are similar really for both training contract and vacation scheme. It’s read your application form, talk to people, so you can get some feedback from people at the university, or at careers advisors, or things like, but really just think about why you want it, try and personalize it. If we’re asking why you’re interested in working at A&O, we don’t necessarily want a textbook answer. We want to genuinely hear why you’re interested and what you’re personal motivations are, so we really do try and tailor it to you.

James:  Excellent. Part of that personalization process will naturally come if you’ve gone through the vacation scheme. So, thinking about the vacation placements, what do they involve and when do they take place?

Hannah:  We run three a year. We run one in winter, one in spring, and one in summer. We hire between sixty and seventy in total into all of our vacation schemes. It’s really just an opportunity to get to know our business more.

In terms of what they entail, there are a lot of different things. You’ll sit in a seat throughout your duration, so you sit with a trainer. We try and get you involved in as much as we can, as much exposure to what really life is like at A&O. It’s a two-way process. If you get on our vacation scheme, you will be assessed for a training contract, but it’s also about finding out if A&O is right for you – if you like our business, if you like the work that we do. It’s a lot of fun as well. We organize networking, we organize socials, and really just try and give you as much exposure to our business as we can.

James:  Who are the vacation placements open to?

Hannah:  They’re open to anyone in their penultimate year onwards. If you’re in your second year of a three-year course, or a final year, or have already graduated, you can apply to any of our vac schemes. That’s a change that we made last year, actually, and it’s one that I’m really pleased about because I think it offers students a bit more flexibility. We spread our vacation schemes out so that we do offer one in spring now and there’s no restriction, so if you’ve already graduate, you can apply to anyone of our three schemes.

James:  The selection process for the vacation placement, is that exactly the same as for the training contract?

Hannah: It is, yeah. It is an application form and two interviews in the office. We might ask slightly different questions in your interview or be expecting slightly different things, but in terms of the structure and the process, it is the same for our vacation scheme or our training contract.

James:  If I did a vacation placement and really stood out, is that the route for an automatic offer to get a training contract?

Hannah: Yeah, there is. Everyone that’s on our vacation scheme will get assessed for a training contract and you’ll find out at the end of the scheme if you get an offer. We do find that we have quite a good conversion rate, so people do generally tend to do well.

But, one point I would just make is students sometimes think that doing a vacation scheme is potentially a bit of an easy route into A&O. My advice would be—I think vacation schemes are a great opportunity if you’re not—if you still want to explore what commercial law is about or if you still want to explore Allen & Overy. If you are in a situation where you’ve maybe already done work experience, or you’ve already experienced being in a commercial law firm, or you’re really set that you know A&O is the right place for you, there’s nothing to stop you applying directly for a training contract. I think it’s a bit of a myth, actually, from students that they assume that they won’t get anywhere if they apply directly, but, actually, numbers wise, we do get more applications for our vacation scheme. Both the options are there and it’s really just down to you as to which one that you think is right for you.

James:  Okay. For candidates, what’s the best way for them to stand out whilst they’re on a vacation scheme?

Hannah: I think one of the good things about doing a vacation scheme is the kind of two-way opportunity. It does give us the opportunity to assess you, but it also gives you the chance to assess us. What we really look for are people that take that opportunity up. They are proactive, they’re engaged, they talk to people, they ask questions, and really get as much from it. I think it’s one of those things that are a bit cliché, but you get out what you put in. If you really do invest the time to get to know the people, and the work, and just, yeah, take as many opportunities as you can, would be my advice.

James:  Yeah. It would be a lovely place to be if you did that in your penultimate year and knew you had a training contract lined up for when you finished, that would be certainly take the pressure off in the following year.

What other opportunities do you have for listeners to get involved and find out more about A&O?

Hannah: We have a first-year program called “A&O First.” We’re making some exciting changes to it this year, actually, to make it a little bit more interactive. There’ll be more information coming about that. We’re going to open for applications in the new year, so around January time. We also have a big open day that we’re running in the new year and we want to offer that opportunity to as many people as we can, really. So, keep an eye on our website on the new year. There will be a lot more information about our first-year program and our big open day as well.

James:  Definitely. And it’s highly recommended just to get in touch with the companies that you’re interested in working for, and spend the time getting to know them and the people there just to see if it’s the right place for you, but also to give you a great thing to talk about when you get through to the interview and they say “Why do you want to work here?”

Hannah:  Exactly. And, you know, sometimes you can get that experience and exposure from a vacation scheme, sometimes it’s an open day. There are lots of different ways. I would really also encourage people to interact with us in social media. We encourage questions. We like people to be curious. So, if you do have any questions about being a trainee or any particular seat, ask us on Facebook, tweet us, and we’ll get back to you.

James:  Hannah, unfortunately, time is flying today. One final question before we move on to our weekly staple questions: What would you say to persuade someone who’s in two minds about applying to A&O?

Hannah: I think the thing with A&O is we feel very passionately that we want people to make the decision that’s right for them about coming here. Inevitably, we do always get people who we’ve offered a job to and they might have other offers as well.

I think, for us, it’s just about making sure that it’s the right decision for them. It doesn’t do us any favours to pressure people into us or encourage them into something if it doesn’t feel right. I think one of the things that we really try and do with our social media, with our open day, with our vacation day, is really just give you the opportunity to get to know us and know our business. So, if anyone is on the fence about applying, I would say, just do more research, come and talk to us, and find out genuinely if you think that A&O is a place that’s right for you.

James:  Excellent. As I’ve mentioned earlier, and all the things we’ve discussed today, and all the links to A&O site and all the different schemes, check out the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/allenandovery.

Hannah, moving on to our weekly staple questions, which one book would you recommend that our listeners read?

Hannah: That’s a very tough question. I read a lot of good books. I read a couple recently by a motivational speaker called Steve Chandler. He’s a coach and he writes a lot about choices and motivation. I find him fascinating – he talks a lot of sense. It’s not very legal-specific, but I do think that Steve Chandler has got a lot of interesting things to say.

James: Excellent. That’s a new one for me, but I do like a good bit of motivation, so I would definitely check that one out. Is there any one particular—one of his books that you’d point people to first?

Hannah: Oh, gosh. Not on the spot. I would say, he’s also got his audiobooks on Youtube, I believe, so you can have a look for him there.

James:  Super. I’ll dig out some good ones and link to them in the show notes.

Hannah: Right.

James:  Finally, then, Hannah, what one tip can listeners implement today to help them on their job search?

Hannah: I would just encourage people to keep going. I think that from talking to students sometimes that it can be disheartening if you feel like you’re not being successful or you get rejected throughout the process. I think, as I mentioned earlier, resilience is really important and learning from experience. I say if you’re really passionate and committed to a career in commercial law, my advice would just be to keep going, keep exploring options, keep seeking feedback, and just keep at it if you truly are passionate about something.

James:  That’s great advice. Getting advice is definitely a journey, there are many steps along the way.

Hannah: Exactly.

James:  Hannah, thank you so much for your time today. How can people find out more about A&O and the work that you do?

Hannah: I would encourage people to, first of all, visit our graduate website www.aograduate.com. There is a lot of information there. Hopefully, that helps people learn about us as a business. But, also, our social media pages, so our Facebook page and our Twitter account. There’s just a lot more informal information, I would say, there. We sometimes place—share employee blogs, photos. We really just try and open and up to give people more insight into what we’re like as a firm.

James: Hannah, thank you so much for your time and appearing on the Graduate Job Podcast today.

Hannah: You’re very welcome. It’s great to talk to you.

James:  Many thanks to Hannah Salton for her time today. I really enjoy speaking directly to the recruiters themselves and I know from your feedback that you’ve been enjoying them too.

Now, I hope whether you’re a law graduate or not, today’s episode has inspired you to apply to Allen & Overy. Now, remember, 50% of graduates they take didn’t come from a legal background at university, so whatever subject you studied, even if it’s Geography, don’t let that put you off.

The part on applications takes me on to my thoughts to leave you with today. Now, often with some of the marquee, high-profile firms such as Allen & Overy, students and graduates can be put off from applying because they assume that everybody else will and the chance of them getting in are miniscule. Well, they certainly are miniscule if you never get around to applying. Set your sights high. Why not you? You have as good a chance from anyone and probably better as you’ve got the wherewithal to be listening to my dulcet tones here today.

If you need some inspiration, check out my interview with Geoff Thompson in Episode 34 where we discuss fear in your job search and how it might be holding you back from some of the companies you want to apply for. Put the effort in, do the work, follow Hannah’s tips and you can find yourself at A&O before you know it.

Now, on that positive note, I’ll leave you with a final request from me. If this episode or any of the other forty-nine have been useful to you, you can thank me in one or two ways. One is to do my super quick, very easy survey at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/survey, and the other is to leave me a review on iTunes. Now, Apple put lots of weight to iTunes reviews and it keeps me nice and high in the charts, so please fire up iTunes (I know it can be a bit of a dog to use) and leave me a review, and I’ll love you forever.

Now, one review to leave you with from iTunes from ezeerb in the UK who has left a nice, short, and sweet review, which simply says, “Love the show.” Now, you can’t say fairer than that.

All that’s left is to say do join me next week when we have a bit of a recap of some of my favourite bits from the last fifty episodes. I hope you enjoy today, but more importantly, I hope you use it and apply it. See you next week.