this may be my most honest video and transparent video about being a trainee solicitor
i do think that there has almost been a romanticization of what it's like to be
a trainee solicitor it's it's kind of seen as this golden ticket where everything is magical and full
of rainbows and flowers and all things happy and bright there are certain times where unfortunately
as is life where you you're not having a good day or things go wrong or you start thinking is
this the right thing for me to do and i think it's important for me to display that there are really
nice things about the job and you'll see the aesthetic side through my vlogs that i've created
but there are also moments though where you are struggling and you are facing some issues that
you want to address and i think we live in a world now especially on social media where everything
is in extremes so there's productivity but then there's toxic productivity positivity and toxic
positivity and on my channel what i really really aim to do is to remain as balanced honest and
transparent as i can let's actually start off with a bit of background about me if this is the first
video that you're watching of mine i am a trainee solicitor for a uk top 20 law firm i'm currently
on my third seat which is a comment that i am doing in a global technology company so on that
note let's talk about some of the most difficult things i faced as a training solicitor and if you
are a training solicitor at the moment it would be great to hear whether you agree with any of these
thoughts or whether you have any of your own that you'd like to discuss one thing that i found quite
difficult as a trainee at the moment and it's something that i'm still experiencing as a junior
is understanding my boundaries and when to say yes or no to something in all honesty i think
you are taught as a trainee as a junior to just i guess suck it up and just do it and i think that's
sometimes such a difficult thing to do because sometimes you do get really loaded with these
tasks that are just draining so there was a moment for example where there was folder a and folder b
that i had and each folder contained around 100 documents and i had to go in
and create compares between document 1 and folder 8 document 1 in folder b and compare
that document 2 and folder a to document 2 and folder b and just imagine just having to do that
for 100 documents it was just one of those tasks where it was just quite like um like i wish i was
doing something a bit more interesting i would also say i found working from home is tough
but also something that i found is lesser talked about is hybrid working is also tough as well and
as a junior sometimes i feel like i was used to working from home and then you get used to working
in the office and sometimes it can be difficult for teams to coordinate when everyone goes in
and sometimes it's just you feel like you have to go in because everyone else is in but it may not
be on a day that works for you don't get me wrong i really do like the hybrid working framework but
one thing that i found difficult when working from home is sometimes just not having as much
contact with your colleagues as you usually would have and in all honesty if i reflect
back on my training i do sometimes think would i have been a better trainee would i have learned
more skills if i was training in the office and if i'd started my training contract working in
the office now another thing that can be quite difficult for trainees and this is one thing that
i found quite difficult is seat rotations and the reason why seat rotations can be quite difficult
for me is because you feel like you're making decisions that will affect the rest of your career
and also i think it's quite difficult because you feel like if you make the wrong choice you
have to do six months in this seat that you may not like i think there's a lot of strategy that
you have to play if i really like the seat and i think i'll do good in the seat should i do it for
my second seat or should i wait until i'm a fourth seater and i've got more experience or if i wait
until i'm in my fourth seat do i risk the chance of not getting that seat there's a lot of things
at play when it comes to seat rotations and it's one thing that when i started my training contract
i didn't expect to have such an issue with dealing with it again even like for example the decision
that i made in terms of going for a second that was a difficult decision to make too because
albeit is such a great experience to have and it's helped me massively in becoming a better trainee
the fact that i've been away from the firm and i've not had as much exposure as i usually would
have there's a few socials at the firm that i usually train at that i've missed because of some
tasks that i've come up with as a comment that i just can't miss so there are those things that
i've experienced where onto comments sometimes you do tend to feel a little bit unfortunately i felt
a little bit isolated sometimes or a bit away from the firm as much as i would have liked to been
and that's been quite difficult to manage at times and it's not it's not anyone's fault
at all i wouldn't even say it's my fault it's just the way it is and it's quite natural because i've
not been working in the usual office where i work at and because i've been working at
the office where i'm seconded to i've just not had as much exposure as i usually would have
so that's one thing that does play on your mind as a trainer you don't want people to forget who you
are in the office it's my aim when i go back into the firm for my fourth seat to build up again to
build my exposure again start maintaining those relationships that i had back when i was in my
second seat balancing your workload with other social things that you've got going on in the
firm can be quite difficult as well and i think it's really important as a trainee to understand
that doing the CSR and social stuff is good but if everything works well in the team hopefully
it doesn't overpower the work that you actually have to do and you don't want to be in a situation
where you're only doing work for the whole day on something that's about CSR or something that's
organizing a social for example and i think you do want to make sure that you are still doing things
that are for the business as well and maintaining that balance but there have been times where
i felt like i've taken on too much outside of the business as well and i think it's important to
just maintain an awareness of your priorities and your to-do list i thought i'd end the video with
the biggest kind of struggle or difficult experience i'm facing at the moment and it's
my confidence especially since i've started my secondment i've had a bit of a confidence
knock because you're in a situation with a comment where it's great for your learning but sometimes
the work that you do has very little supervision so i've been providing legal advice to people in
the business and just really feeling out of my depth at times which has had an impact on
my confidence as well and then coupled with the fact that i've been away from the firm not been
talking to the other trainees as much and not had as much exposure it has i guess had an effect on
my confidence so the last few months have been a little bit difficult for me in that respect
and it's probably the biggest challenge i've faced so far in my training contract
and the thing is i don't want to get to the point where that not confidence knock has really
really impacted the quality of the work that i produce one thing that's really great about
the firm that i'm training at is i have regular calls with people every couple of weeks or so
and that's been really good because i've added my concerns to them i've talked to them about
how i've been feeling and they've been really supportive and offered a helping hand as well so
i think it's really important in those situations to talk about if there is anything that is causing
you concern and also just i think in the situation that i'm having with my confidence knock is trying
to just tell yourself positive thoughts i know it's easier said than done but i've realized the
way i was talking to myself was quite negative like you might ask him you're so dumb like why
are you saying that and stuff like that and i think once i recognize that i'm actually not
talking to myself in a positive manner that's when i started realizing okay let me try to fix
the situation what is it that's the issue why have i got this confidence knock what can i improve in
my work that allows me to be a better trainee so that's essentially what i did and i'm starting to
build my confidence back up now but this has been the most challenging thing at the moment for me
i think another big thing i'm thinking about now that i'm going to my fourth seat is qualification
and what do i want to do what do i want to specialize in so that's also something that
i'll have to consider and it'll probably be a difficult thing that nearly every trainee
experiences when it comes to nearing the end of the training contract i hope this video has been
useful in providing i guess a transparent insight into some of the things that i've struggled
with during my training contract but hopefully it hasn't put a massive downer on this potential
career path thank you so much for watching this video and i will see you in the next one