Work experience/ internships

[shutthatbloodydoor]

DD is a 2nd year law student and is currently trying to find something for next summer, even if it's just a couple of weeks.

Most of the major law firms are understandably in London or the big cities, how on earth do they expect students to pay for transport and accommodation if they don't live locally?

The rail costs are prohibitively expensive, we could possibly run to some cheap Travelodge type place but there are lots of students and families that just couldn't do it.

It seems terribly unfair.

[Me2017]

They get £500 a week! Law is the internship which is fair to the poor. It's journalism and fashion and stuff like that which don't pay.

If they don't have the ability to fix up somewhere to stay I am not sure we want them in law actually.

Many solicitors' firms recruit from their graduate schemes in year 2 of the law degree so it is worth doing them and they are paid anyway as I say.

There are all kinds of ways to find accommodation. First many students amazingly make friends at university who live or are based in London so can share a floor or sofa. Others can use the £500 for some rent

[Needmoresleep]

Bobbo, sorry I am with the mum on this. Resilience is so important, especially in an uncertain world. Over the last decade or so I have met plenty of very successful City types. Some are fine, but others are bewilderingly one-dimensional, the worst making it obvious they judged people on the college you went to and the size of your annual bonus. (And worst still are those wives who appear to assign rank on the size of a husband's bonus.)

Equally we met people, worried they might be affected by the latest round of City redundancies, who would quietly ask about public sector prospects (and how we managed both the London mortgage and school fees without a City salary.)

So far DDs gap year is proving a great experience. After three or more years of ticking boxes for medical school, and the prospect of 40 or more years of studying or practicing medicine, I am so pleased she has a chance to do something very different. She is working very long hours at her internship and not being paid. (She volunteers for the evening and weekend work!) But she now knows what running a small business involves, she is picking up a whole lot of very different skills, at this point it suits her to do something non-academic, and she is having fun. If her Plan A career does not work out, and these things do happen, she will have a useful level of confidence and adaptability that will help her with a Plan B. In the same way as we have known City folk start small businesses, become musicians, go into teaching, or work for Housing Associations.

I worry that kids who have had admirable focus from quite an early age, whether it is a career in finance or medicine or whatever, might wake up one day and wonder whether they have made the right decision. A bit of time out, doing something difference, allows for perspective and a chance to review. Worse still might be to simply keep plodding along the same path, unaware of having made decisions on career choice, till retirement or redundancy.

[sassymuffin]

DD is hoping to fit two or three vac schemes during next summer but given how competitive the applications are for city law firms she will be very lucky to secure that amount. Thankfully she will be staying with her boyfriend if they are still together or friends houses.

I know this doesn't apply to your DD but if there are any first year students who want to go into the legal profession and who study in London or South East unis then City Solicitor Horizons is an excellent programme. They must of previously attended a state school and fulfil certain other criteria but it really offers great opportunities in the way of work experience and workshops.
DD applied to this last year and last summer and she found it very helpful. The only drawback is that they do not pay accommodation costs but do reimburse travel costs. We live in Merseyside and my DD used Megabus to travel to London for £6 and stayed at friends houses when attending their events.

[Bobochic]

I don't know about lawyers but consultants are a bit pointless without a case to consult on! DSS1 enjoyed his consulting internship and was proud to be able to add value to the team with his extensive statistics skills.

[GetAHaircutCarl]

bobo yes, July/August is always quiet in law firms (these things being relative). I don't know whether that's better - the lawyers are more available, or worse as there's less work?

In publishing you'd probably spend the whole day in the pub .

[Bobochic]

In some industries e.g. Consulting there isn't always much interesting work over summer. June offers much better experience than July/August. And in other industries splitting the internship (DSS1 did three separate sessions in one firm, over two summers) allows you to experience different departments and gain perspective over time.

[GetAHaircutCarl]

goodbye I hope we can do that together...though he shows no sings of wanting to take early retirement!

That said, I'm not agitating yet. I'm seriously enjoying my own work and don't want him here. Another writer friend's husband recently had an extended period of gardening leave and she emailed me saying how having him under her feet was doing her nut in. When I asked what in particular he was doing, she replied.

'I can hear him breathing' .

[GetAHaircutCarl]

That's not too bad then bobo.

I suppose it depends when the firms do them. The ones plonked right in the middle are a bit of a bugger.

I dunno, it's not that I'm against internships, it's just that those long Summers are so unusual and special. One of the few times when young adults can spend extended periods doing something other than academic work, work work, or child rearing.

[goodbyestranger]

I meant DS2. DS3 was....travelling! :)

I think a lot of people who didn't travel feel that Carl. Still, you can do that together if he takes early retirement!

[goodbyestranger]

Oxford doesn't break up until the end of June if you include the ninth week big parties as part of term, which mine do, and if you have to go back for pre-season training in the second week of September that does not leave any time once you've stuck in ten weeks of interning, as DS3 did.

[Bobochic]

There's an awful lot of time left after an eight-week internship to go travelling. Like... 8 weeks . Plus the Christmas and Easter holidays.

DSS1 split one of his internships in two - 5 weeks in June, and 3 weeks in September. He had the whole of July and August "off".

[GetAHaircutCarl]

I hope mine have these adventures. I look back on those two summers very fondly. Not to mention the whole year between university and law school!

That's DH's only regret actually. That he didn't take any time off to go travelling...don't get me wrong, he's been all over the world on holiday and with work, but not the same thing really.

[goodbyestranger]

Well lots do Carl, and if they can swing a free return open ended air fare to HK in return for a three week paid vac scheme then so much the better!

[GetAHaircutCarl]

Don't students spend their Summers travelling these days?

I spent the summer after year 1 Greek Island hopping and the one after year 2 travelling around the US .

[goodbyestranger]

Bobo you are seriously taking this too far! I don't see how daughters doing two week vac schemes rather than ten week internships makes them unengaged with the world....

You make everything seem like such hard work actually, when it really doesn't need to be.

[Bobochic]

I don't think that it's dull to be engaged with the world to the full and hungry to learn when you are young. And it certainly doesn't mean that you won't be able to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour (and allow your family to enjoy them) in due course. I think you have to let young people follow their dreams. Plenty of time to be bored in their old people's home.

[goodbyestranger]

Bobo what I'm describing is hardly idleness! Not knowing how to relax or have downtime is not a valuable trait. All work and no play makes Jacques a dull boy etc etc.

[Bobochic]

Absolutely, and I know quite a lot of young people who find idleness incredibly unpleasant!

[goodbyestranger]

Bobo surely the art to cultivate is that of arriving at the same destination by the pleasantest route?

[Bobochic]

I think it's important to recognize that a lot of "time off" is not what some young people want or need. They are in a hurry to get on with life.

[goodbyestranger]

Ah but that's the bad mother isn't it Bobo, who can't do any right?

I don't want mine not to do internships, I just like them to have enough time off too.

[Bobochic]

Interestingly, my DSS1's mother does tend to vociferously argue against internships and pro-holidays. This annoys the hell out of DSS1

[goodbyestranger]

Sorry, Court of Appeal.

[goodbyestranger]

Bobo your DSS1 isn't a mother who likes to see her DC having some down time too during high pressure university courses. That said, my DDs who did vac schemes seemed to think they were fit for purpose (one accepted the offer of a TC, the other is now a judicial assistant in the Court of appeal, before taking up a pupillage to do public law). One of my sons has just spent a long hot summer in London doing ten weeks of financial interning and seemed to enjoy it a lot, but from a mother's perspective, and given that he's in his final year at Oxford, I would have preferred him to have had some time off to do nothing at all.

[Bobochic]

DSS1 didn't think his internships were too long - he thought they were fantastic and that he learned absolutely masses. He's going to do an internship in a law firm too, though as you point out it won't be as long. We'll see what he thinks, both of commercial law and of the quality of the shorter internship.