TLT Vacation Scheme - February 2025
What was the full recruitment process?
1. Application
2. Assessment centre
3. Vacation scheme
Which aspect does this report cover?
Vacation scheme assessment centre
Where did the assessment centre take place?
Manchester office
What did the assessment centre involve?
1. Group exercise: placed in groups of 4-5 people to discuss a business strategy for a fictitious commercial client (50 minutes preparation time and 10 minute discussion with a partner and recruitment manager)
2. Written task: draft email to a fictitious client about growth strategy (40 minutes)
3. Interview: strengths-based interview, motivation and commercial awareness questions (50 minutes with a senior associate and training principal)
Group exercise
We were all given the same brief about a company looking to improve its profitability. The brief contained general information about the company, its finances and its clients. We had 10 minutes to read this.
We were also given 6 different ‘issues’ to consider, for example declining mental health in the company’s staff, concerns about equality and sustainability in the workplace, networking opportunities for the company, potential new hires etc. We had to decide as a group who would take on each issue and make notes about the risks and opportunities each issue raised for the company.
We also had to discuss with one another the order of priorities for each issue and create a 2–3-minute pitch summarising our recommendations. However, with only 5-10 minutes left, the assessors gave us a 7th ‘issue’ unexpectedly, to see how we would respond. We had to rearrange our priorities and justify why.
After the 2-3 minute pitch we were then questioned for about 5-10 minutes on how we think we worked as a group and what we thought we could have improved on.
Written task
This was a 40-minute task concerning a supermarket company (the client) looking to purchase a smaller food producer, known for its sustainability initiatives, in order to promote its company’s ESG commitment. I had to decide a location to open the new store and what sort of business model it would operate under, for example whether the branding of the two stores would be merged, or whether the larger company would completely absorb the smaller one.
I received a document around 6 pages long relating to information about the two locations, each company’s customers, their reputation, finances etc. I then had to use all this information to draft an email to the client with my recommendations on where to put the store and how to incorporate the brand of the company that it was absorbing into its business model. I had to keep time myself.
Strengths-based and motivational interview
Competency questions
Legal and commercial awareness questions
What was the outcome?
The firm called me 2 weeks later to tell me that I had been successful.
Do you have any specific advice on how to prepare?
For the group exercise, make sure to speak up and be confident about your issue and follow the instructions from your assessors as to what exactly they want you to address. Our group struggled to keep to time as many people, when explaining their issue, took too long meaning others didn’t get an opportunity to speak, so it’s important to be concise when explaining it to the rest of the group. The time goes by very quickly, so keep an eye on it. Aim to leave around 10 minutes at the end to discuss how you’re going to pitch the issue to the assessors.
For the written exercise timing here is key. When reading through the documents highlight the important parts so it’s easy to come back to. Keep your writing concise and really analyse how the different factors interplay. There’s no right or wrong answer, they’re looking to see how well you can synthesise information and analyse it in a way tailored to the client’s particular market, branding, business model etc.
In the interview try and stay relaxed. The interviewers were very good at making me feel comfortable, so I felt really relaxed and confident. Take your time when answering questions and try and draw on your own experiences and explain them in a clear and concise manner. Make sure you keep up to date with current affairs and some of the firm’s work. I found its legal tech and future-oriented focus a very good topic of conversation for the interview.
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