Sophia Cox: At Gowling WLG the application form is the first stage to apply for our early talent opportunities and to make a fantastic first impression. We are proud to have no minimum grade requirement and therefore our focus is to get to know the real you and learn about your skills and attributes.
Our application form is designed to test your self-reflection and research skills. The application form provides the opportunity to articulate your strengths, attributes and transferable skills, and to research an engaging topic relevant to the industry.
So how can you ace the application form?
We are proud to host a wealth of virtual events available for anyone to attend to learn more about the firm and the legal profession.
You have the chance to hear from partners, trainees and business services professionals about their areas of expertise, career journeys, advice and how to build your professional network by engaging and asking questions.
The event series is the perfect opportunity to develop your understanding about who we really are.
What makes us different to other law firms?
Why are we proud to work for Gowling WLG?
Beyond our virtual event series, the firm has a wealth of resources across our website, social media accounts, and our fantastic blog, LoupedIn. Read about legal updates, client work, awards and our brilliant people.
The more you can learn about the firm and understand who we are, the better idea you have as to whether we are the right firm for you and whether you can see yourself having a successful career with us.
Be curious. Build upon your knowledge of the legal industry and keep up to date with how we advise our clients through an ever changing landscape.
As we mentioned, grades are not the be all and end all for us. Life happens and we cannot be defined by the grades we have achieved.
Everyone deserves the opportunity to succeed.
Therefore, our application process tests whether you have the skills and attributes to be a successful trainee at Gowling WLG.
Our application form is made up of two halves. Work experience and two essay style questions.
Legal work experience is absolutely not essential to apply for our opportunities. In fact, it is our unique experiences, passions and hobbies that make us different and that is exactly what we are looking for.
At Gowling WLG everyone brings something different.
Gaining legal experience does not define your ability to succeed. But instead, building upon the transferable skills from your life experiences is what shaped you to become a fantastic trainee.
Have you worked in a customer facing role in a fast paced environment?
Do you have a passion that has taken lots of your time and developed key skills?
Or have you worked on a challenging project or had a key role in a society at university?
These are all great examples of gaining experience and developing transferable skills, whether that is communicating with others, team work, solving challenges, meeting tight deadlines or juggling priorities.
Take some time to list all of your experience to date. Think about which experiences have shaped your skill set the most.
Reflect upon what you did and how the transferable skills you acquired would make you a successful trainee at Gowling WLG.
We want to hear about three of your best experiences. What you did and, most importantly, the transferable skills this has equipped you with.
Attention to detail is absolutely key. As a trainee, this is a key skill that you are expected to demonstrate and develop from the outset of your training contract.
Excellent spelling and grammar is expected on the application form and therefore it is important that you check, check and check your application again.
Read through your application line by line. Ask a peer for their feedback and look out for any words that may have been auto corrected.
Paying attention to word counts is also really important and the essay questions on the application form will always give you a word count to adhere to.
This is a really useful tool to use to understand how much detail we are looking for.
Where a word count is provided, this demonstrates the length of response we are expecting. So try your best to meet the word count as close as possible.
So, to summarise, research, self- reflection and attention to detail are three key points to remember when applying to us.
I am sure that writing applications can feel like a challenging process, but remember that everyone brings something different and we want to hear about the real you.
Your applications are reviewed by real people and we want you to succeed.
We wish you the very best of luck and look forward to receiving your application.