at the time of recording this it's been 121 days since i started my training contract and recently
actually i was taking over another instagram page and i was asked the question during the q a what's
the difference between when you started your training contract and now and i thought that was a
really interesting question so i thought i'd make a video out of it and here we are so for those of
you who don't know i'm in my first seat currently i am moving into my next seat in september so
still got a little way to go yet and so far compared to day one sim and day 121 sim i've
learned a lot and i can't wait to share that with you in this video but before i start i would just
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checkout right now that we've had this little ad break let's get into the video itself the first
thing that changed from day one sim to day 121 sim in her training contract is my confidence
i've settled into the team i've understand now the team dynamics i'm able to crack a bit of banter
for example i know certain people in my team have certain hobbies or interests and i'm able
to talk to them about those things and it just helps with building professional relationships
and also i feel like the way i speak has also i've gained so much confidence in that the main reason
being the advocacy professional skills course that i've done recently i really learned about
how to advocate and speak and to make sure that what you're saying is impactful using
things like change in tone changing speech using silence as your friend as pauses so that's another
thing as well in terms of becoming more outwardly confident in how i present myself and how i speak
that advocacy course really helped with that i've also become a lot more confident in picking up the
phone to clients for those of you who paralegal have training contracts or are quite junior in
your career maybe senior people fall this way too but i really struggled with picking up the phone i
used to just write a script before about what i should say and sometimes if they had particular
questions i would freeze on the spot and be like oh god how do i answer that but my confidence
has grown with that i guess it's the whole thing in terms of there's quality in quantity
the more i did something the better i became at it i also think i've become more confident in
terms of drafting correspondence so when i'm asked now to draft a letter to draft emails i understand
what the what the correct phrases are to say what are not the correct phrases to say and i think
the quality of my letter writing has definitely improved obviously still got a long way to go
i don't get intimidated by tasks i understand that i have the ability to do it i've just got
to try hard the next thing that has really changed between day one of my training contract to now is
my expectations in my team to be responsible and challenge myself so for example compared to day
one of my training contract where i was doing more contentious matters so a lot more litigation work
i'm now doing a mix of non-contentious and contentious work and i really do enjoy balancing
between the two another thing in terms of this responsibility and challenge element is that i
am now expected to look after cases as if they are my own and it's not simply the case of i'm
managing cases by myself i'm expected to message i don't know the partner or the managing associate
or the associate in my team and say so and so has not gotten back to us yet and that's something i'm
supposed to do on my own initiative so really trying to keep an eye out not only focusing on
the single tasks that you've done for a matter but really trying to make sure that the matter
keeps ticking over you'll keep progressing the matter and you're always keeping an eye out for
extra things that can be done another thing i guess in terms of responsibility is a few of
my colleagues were away on annual leave and i was expected to progress the matters in their absence
day one sim could have never handled that but day 121 just about managed it okay so that's good
i would also say in terms of managing your own matters i'm also expected to diarise everything
by diarise i mean put things in your calendar so if we are given a specific deadline i am expected
to write that down myself not ask for someone else to tell me to have to do it so it's just
about taking initiative i'm also expected to act on previous feedback that i've been given i don't
want to be the person who makes the same mistake over and over and over again so what i've done is
i've got a notepad where i've written down every single piece of feedback that i've ever received
and before i'm sending off work i just sometimes flick through that notepad make sure that there's
nothing in there that is a mistake that i've done before and then i send it off now the final thing
that's a bit different compared to day one sim and day 121 sim is my next seat there is a little
bit more expectation and a little bit more i guess conversation about next steps what seat am i going
into next and from this what i've done is i've been reaching out to a lot of people in different
departments asking about their experiences that's something i did on my own accord because i wanted
to find out more but also in a home working environment sometimes you struggle with getting
to meet people outside of your team so i took that initiative to make sure that i was still building
connections outside of my team as well and one way in which you can also get involved with
people outside of your team is getting involved in the csr the D&I the social and sports stuff
within your firm as well so that's another thing that i've been doing now that's very different to
when i was in day one of my training contract i've been getting involved in those outer
team activities too so that's three things that i've developed in the 121 days of my training
contract so far i'm sure this will continue to develop and i might make another video
like i mentioned where i don't know it might be day 200 or 250 of my training contract and
i'll talk about if things have changed what i've learned what's developed along the way
all part of my i guess objective of providing an honest authentic insight into what it's like
being a trainee solicitor in the uk thank you so much for watching i hope you enjoyed
this video if you did please do like comment subscribe and yes see you all in the next one