I am often asked “what work experience should I include on my application form?”, especially where firms only allow a limited number of work experience entries.

Ultimately, if you have a great range of work experiences, but not enough space to cover them all, it can be tricky to decide what to focus on. So what should you prioritise? 

Here are the key questions you should be asking yourself...

Is the work experience relevant to the role I’m applying for? 

Firstly, I would generally prioritise work experiences that are more relevant to the role you’re applying for. 

However, if you have the freedom to include a range of work experiences, then I would probably still try to ensure you are including a good breadth of examples, even if some of those you include aren’t directly relevant to law. 

This is especially the case if certain other work experiences are high profile (for example, a role with United Nations, the World Bank, a huge global corporation, a large investment bank etc.) and/or help to demonstrate capabilities that weren’t utilised during your law experiences. 

Does the role actually demonstrate my skill development?

Candidates often seem to think that casual jobs or non-industry specific work experience isn’t relevant. However, I strongly disagree. I openly discussed my casual roles, including my paper round, working as a bin man at Glastonbury Festival, catering, working on a building site etc. After all, you’re often far more involved when working these types of jobs than you are when taking part in (often fairly passive) law firm open days or insight experiences.

As explained by Hannah Salton - former Magic Circle recruiter and author of Graduate Careers Uncovered: 

“Casual jobs and work experience can sometimes be just as effective, if not more effective at demonstrating your skills than 'relevant' industry work experience.  

For example, you are more likely to develop skills such as communication, people skills, client service etc. whilst volunteering or working casual jobs than you are passively work shadowing a lawyer for a day.  

You can learn a lot about dealing with difficult customers (i.e. “clients”) working as a waiter or a waitress in a busy restaurant. You can learn a lot about delivering customer service from working in a supermarket. Don’t underestimate the power of part-time or weekend jobs – they can teach you a lot, and firms really value them on applications.”

Is the work experience office-based or selective? 

As a general rule, I would also give weight to work experience that is paid, selective or office-based. Nowadays, there are so many non-selective virtual experiences out there, so highlighting paid, selective or in-person experiences can really help you to stand out.

Virtual work experience, such as law firm programmes delivered via The Forage and Bright Network’s Internship Experience UK, can be great for demonstrating that you’ve used your free time to learn more about the career, which in turn reflects well on your motivation. However, it is often less useful for demonstrating skill development, as firms will know that you don’t tend to do much during such experiences.

It's fine to mention one or two (or consolidate them into a single entry, as discussed later on), but don’t include only virtual non-selective experience on an application form if you have other experiences to mention (even if the other experiences are not as relevant to the role you’re applying for). 

Can I consolidate my work experiences? 

If you have loads of similar work experiences – for example, a broad range of law firm open days, virtual work experience placements, or casual part-time roles – it might make sense to consolidate those similar experiences into a single entry.

For example, you might stick all your selective law firm open days into one work experience box, then mention all the firms you visited, and summarise the highlights of what you did during these (possibly without linking each specific task or workshop back to the relevant firm). 

If you’ve attended an open day at the firm you’re applying to, perhaps you could break that open day out into its own entry however, just to make sure the recruiter sees that you have been there already. 

If in doubt about this approach, definitely check with the firm’s graduate recruitment team though! 

You could also take this approach on your CV and LinkedIn profile, for example by creating entries such as: 

Selective law firm open days  I   Attendee 

• Selected to undertake open days at [list firms].
• Worked on [summarise key work highlights from across all of them].
• Attended [summarise the workshops / presentations you attended].

Consolidation like this can really help to give an overview of your work history, even as your career journey develops and you accumulate more and more experiences. 

In first year, I included all my open days as separate entries on my CV. When I secured vacation schemes, I consolidated my open days into one CV entry, and listed each vacation scheme separately. Nowadays, I only have my training contract and subsequent legal experience on my CV. It’s an ongoing process.

What shouldn’t I include?

Don’t include work experience for the sake of it. Hannah Salton agrees, adding that...

“Just because there are unlimited boxes, this doesn’t mean you should include unlimited amounts of experience! It’s good to have a range, but quality experience over quantity is best. 

 Every piece of experience you add dilutes the focus on the most impressive ones, so try to look at your work experience objectively and use your judgement to work out what to leave out. Consider whether each actually adds value to your overall application form.

For example, if you have five different part-time jobs in a specific role (e.g. as a bar tender), including all five as separate entries might not be the best approach. Perhaps instead focus on the most recent, or the role you held for the longest.”