Sorting your seats

As a trainee, seat planning is very important. It's the chance for you to get a better idea of which areas of law and departments you're interested in. It also allows you to consider practice areas you may never have thought about before. All of this can affect your future career.

While each law firm provides their future trainees with help and guidance, it can be hard to make sense of the issues. Further, given how important seat planning is, there is surprisingly little advice online and very little emphasis on how crucial it is for those applying for training contracts.

Each law firm is different in its approach and this depends largely on the size of the firm and the range of opportunities available. Some will have presentations given by partners, associates and trainees to give an idea of the type of work each department undertakes. Some firms provide literature outlining each department and the seat-planning process. Every firm should have current trainees who can be contacted to provide advice.

It is because each firm takes a slightly different approach - one way for a firm to set itself apart from its competitors - that this is an important issue to training contract applicants. Applicants should show that they are thinking in advance about how they'll make the most of the opportunities available. Seat planning could be something to ask about in the 'Do you have any further questions' part of an interview.

Although each trainee has different priorities, which can change over time, one of the main determinants for those going through the seat-planning process is gut reaction. When reading the literature or listening to a presentation about a particular practice area, do you feel enthusiastic about it? Can you see yourself as a trainee in that department dealing with that type of law, those clients and issues?

Other factors include the breadth and depth of experience each department can give. The number of trainees in each department may be important as this can affect the support network you have available to you. Some consider the order in which you do your seats to be important, as you will have different skills and confidence levels at different stages of your training contract.

While some consider qualification rates an important issue when seat planning, it may be impossible to determine what the qualification prospects are for each department so far in advance. Risks of non-qualification can be mitigated by choosing seats wisely so that you enjoy them, perform well and receive excellent training.

All of these issues can be discussed with partners, trainees and friends, but should you feel the need to do more research, careers services can be useful. Their advisers may not have direct experience of seat planning, but many of the issues they are knowledgeable about are related. Also, just the process of speaking to a careers adviser can help clarify certain issues in your mind. You may also like to talk to recruitment consultants, who have expertise in particular markets and industry trends, and know what recruiters are looking for. For example, they can help identify important skills for trainees to develop (eg, technical or case management skills) that relate to particular departments. Practice area overviews on websites such as LawCareers.Net are also useful for getting a broad idea of each area and whether you would enjoy it.

Ultimately, any advice should come with a word of warning; it is possible to over think things, which can result in concerns being blown out of proportion. Focus on keeping an open mind and working hard - that's the best advice I ever had from a trainee. It may not be revolutionary, but it can be easy to lose sight of common sense. Seat planning is very important, but it will always just be part of the bigger picture.

Tom Whittaker studied the Accelerated LPC at The College of Law, Moorgate and started a training contract at Allen & Overy in September 2012.