Wednesday 9 April 2008

Law students, competitive? Surely not!

My first post arose from my awful interview (thanks for the kind comments saying it probably wasn't that bad).

Before I was going in, I was thinking about why I was nervous. Was it because the Bar is an incredibly competitive profession, particularly at the lower end and especially getting into it?

Not really. I've never been too bothered about what anyone else is doing. That probably sounds quite arrogant, but why should I care- if everyone else gets a first in an essay and I barely pass, my only concern is what did I miss? I've never been one for the blood-thirsty fight....can't we all get along?!

In theory, competition should make us better. Like companies, it streamlines processes and makes them more efficient. For me, wanting to get into a profession where everyone has a double first, has scholarships and prizes coming out their ears, and has written the constitution for a small country whilst singlehandedly saving a class of orphans and sailing down the Amazon...(well it feels like that).

So, my philosophy is not to be intimidated by other people's CVs and achievements. Look up to them, yes, learn from them, yes. Let that make me feel bad because I didn't quite realise early on how I had to maximise every contact and opportunity? Life's too short.

Anyway, there's always room at the top!

Now there's fighting talk. I may just have recovered from that interview. Even if it involved talking about sexual offences and unprotected sex to 3 middle aged men for 15 minutes (bearing in mind this is an issue I studied 3 years ago).

And I may have forgotten the meaning of some words in the interview and used them anyway *cringe*.

Right, back to the fighting talk! Bar, here I come!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

... Did other candidates wave their cv under your nose and tell you to " Get load of THIS??" What nonsense! I never understand what they are trying to achieve - make you feel awful or themselves better because they are soooo insecure?! You are quite right not to find these strange creatures intimidating, though I do have to say that you may well come across one or two of a same or similar nature on the BVC, though should they cross your path, I'm sure you can handle them!
Keep up with the fighting talk!

Mel said...

No, they didn't - I don't think anybody would be that rude right outside the interview room.

It's more from looking at CV on Chamber's websites!

Def agreed that there are some awful souls (or lack of souls) who take pleasure in belittling others, that's not on. And I hope I can say, I don't think that really bothers me. I've developed quite a good b-s detector.

That's a good barrister skill, that's going on the CV!