Mind the gap
updated on 31 May 2011
There's always a gap between accepting an offer of a training contract and actually starting it, and in that time there's plenty of potential to get involved with some interesting and 'improving' activities. For some future trainees, the time may be only a matter of weeks; for others, including myself, the wait may be a bit longer. After a two-year law conversion, voluntarily deferring my start date and then the Allen & Overy accelerated-LPC (due to start in January 2012), it will have been four years, seven months and a couple of days between the date of my training contract offer and the date I start work. So there's certainly time to do a lot and I've tried to look into as many opportunities as possible.
I have, however, noticed two things. Firstly, that more attention is, quite understandably, focused on what those who are seeking training contracts can do; secondly, that most of those ideas are quite costly. Rest assured, if I had a spare few thousand pounds I wouldn't need any help spending it. Unfortunately though, I don't, and I will be saving what I can for my move to London. Taking those issues into account, I wish to share with you my experiences so far and perhaps give you some ideas about what aspiring solicitors can do if they have time (but not necessarily money) on their hands.
To start with, I checked out volunteering opportunities. There are a range of great websites that can connect you with volunteering work - examples are Do-it.org and Orangerockcorps.co.uk. The latter is particularly good - it's a programme which rewards volunteers with vouchers to music concerts and what's great about it is that it's just for one-off events and often involves local charities.
The volunteering work that I've most enjoyed and felt most involved with was with two charities that I have an affinity with. The first is called Debatemate, which is a programme that takes students who have debated at university and places them in disadvantaged schools to mentor pupils in debating. I am currently working at a school near Wolverhampton - where I've been for over a year now - and have had the pleasure of witnessing the pupils progress and go on to compete against other schools in the area and across the nation. Having been involved with debating at university, it's great to stay involved with something that I am interested in and also to see how such a useful set of skills can help the kids.
The second volunteering opportunity I am involved with is with Oxfam's School Speaker programme. Quite a few charities run speaker programmes, or something similar, where individuals go into schools and youth clubs to deliver lectures or classes on a topic related to the charity. I've been able to select schools that are convenient for me to get to so that I'm able to fit them around my other activities; so far I have given presentations on fair trade and climate change. Working in a variety of schools, with pupils of all educational requirements, has enhanced my communication skills and at times really tested my ability to think on my feet! But finding these opportunities isn't always easy - the best approach is to look at the website of a charity you have an affinity with and find out whether they have volunteering opportunities you could get involved with.
Another idea is to enter law and non-law related competitions - of which there are plenty. Some can involve writing legal essays (the Bar Essay Competition for example); others focus on the skills related to a career in law (such as The Times Advocacy Competition). Granted, if you already have a training contract you won't be thinking about improving your CV as much as you used to, but, from my experience, as soon as you get a training contract your focus changes to how you can meet, and hopefully exceed, the expectations now upon you. These competitions provide great examples of how productively you spent your gap year and can be excellent ways to develop the skills you need when training - of course, they should be fun too. Finding these competitions normally requires a bit of ingenuity. Google will only bring up the main competitions, so I'd suggest that you regularly read legal publications to find out about those that are less publicised.
As a gap year can seem like a very long time, it's useful to have some long-term goals. I have dusted off my recipe books and am hopeful that by the end of the year I will be able to put together amazing dishes from whatever I find in my cupboards (and remove the takeaway numbers from my phone in the process). More of a challenge will be competing in a half marathon in a few months' time. I did consider doing a marathon but wanted to take it steady and spread a few events out over the year. I've bought all the gear, read all the advice and am currently in training. I appreciate how intellectually demanding being a trainee can be, but also acknowledge that long hours, for example, will be physically and mentally demanding too. Caffeine can only go so far and at some point the focus and determination developed by endurance events will hopefully be a real asset. I'm raising money for charity too and, despite bright pink not being my colour, knowing that I will be helping a good cause has propelled me on.
One thing I've really taken to recently is Sudoku. Granted, it's not everybody's cup of tea, but I've found that the more I've tried it, the more I've learnt from it. I have developed a very methodical approach to starting, am able to focus on a small area while keeping in mind the bigger picture and have discovered for myself a few different ways to reason why a particular number goes into a particular cell. Despite Sudoku, from first glance, being totally unconnected to law, I hope that these skills - such as adopting methodical approaches to challenges - can be transferred to the challenges that I will face in the future.
So where else will my gap year take me? I thought about becoming a special police constable because I've always admired what the police do and thought that it would really develop my ability to handle pressured and difficult situations. However, after witnessing one incident in Birmingham city centre, where a very small police officer somehow managed to stand up to a very large and determined 'gentleman', my admiration for what the police do increased, but my enthusiasm for joining took a significant dent! Travel remains a possibility, but with much less emphasis on the travel and more emphasis on seeing new places. Despite living in Birmingham for five years, there is still plenty of the city for me to explore and training for the half marathon by running is certainly going to help me do that.
While making sure I enjoy this time out as much as possible, I also plan to focus on developing some of the skills which will hopefully help me as a trainee. At the moment, my reading speed is relatively slow so I want to read a 'teach yourself speed reading' book that I bought way back when I started my first degree and which I didn't finish first time around because, well, it took too long to read. Being fast and accurate at touch typing will also be useful and my goal is to improve from a fairly accurate 70 words per minute to a very accurate 100 words per minute.
I make sure I'm keeping up to date with political and business news - sometimes by watching television but mainly by reading newspapers. My favourite at the moment is the 'i' newspaper, which provides just the right amount of information and is so incredibly cheap that you can regularly buy it and save the rest of your money for essentials. Podcasts, such as those by The Economist, provide an excellent and different way to keep up to date with current affairs and cover a range of topics that may be of interest.
What I have discovered so far is that the great thing about so many opportunities is their flexibility. You can read or write or run or volunteer almost whenever you want, so you can fit all these activities around your other responsibilities. For those who have time off, for whatever reason, there is always plenty you can do to hone your skills for when you start training to become a solicitor. This time off will fly by, so doing plenty of research and being well organised will certainly help to make the most of your time. Ultimately, the key is to do the things that you enjoy - I throw myself into those things and get more out as a result. This way I hope I'll be able to look back at my gap year with a sense of accomplishment, having experienced things that will put me in a position ready to take on the challenges the future holds.
Tom Whittaker will commence the Accelerated LPC at The College of Law, Moorgate in January 2012. He will begin a training contract at Allen & Overy in September 2012.
