From the Founder
The Mindset That Gets You Through
How to stay effective when the process gives you very little certainty.
Getting a training contract is difficult, and the process gives you surprisingly little control over individual outcomes. You can prepare thoroughly and still be rejected, or leave an interview convinced it went badly and receive an offer regardless. Even an application you're proud of can fail to progress for reasons you're never given.
Getting through this process means learning to separate the quality of your work from the outcome of any single application, not manufacturing relentless positivity.
Control the process
Judge yourself by the quality of the process. Learn from the outcome.
You should care about the result: pretending otherwise isn't realistic. But it can't be the only measure of whether you did something well.
After an application, interview or assessment, ask:
- Did I prepare properly?
- Did I give myself enough time?
- Did I communicate what I wanted to?
- What would I change next time?
Those questions are more useful than trying to reverse-engineer a decision you may never fully understand.
An opportunity, not a verdict
A rejection from one firm tells you about one firm's decision, not about your ability to become a solicitor.
Take every application seriously, but don't let any single one carry disproportionate weight. Firms look for different things, interviewers respond to the same answer differently, and exercises reward different strengths, so a result at one firm says surprisingly little about how you'd do at the next.
The same applies to a 'dream firm.' It's fine to want an opportunity badly. Walking in believing it has to work rarely helps you perform. It only adds pressure to a process that already carries enough.
Learn, then stop replaying it
Reflect once. Then close the file.
Not every rejection contains a clear lesson. Sometimes the application was strong and the competition simply stronger, and you'll get no feedback either way. Don't invent a lesson just because you were rejected.
Instead, do a short, honest review. What went well? What felt weaker? Was anything rushed? Is the same weakness recurring across more than one attempt? One rejection usually means very little. A difficulty that recurs across several attempts, whether in online tests, video interviews or commercial questions, is worth addressing.
There's a real difference between reflection and rumination. Review the experience while it's fresh, record anything worth learning, and then stop replaying it.
Ritual, before and after
The hour before an interview should let the candidate you've already prepared show up, rather than attempt to build a better one at the last minute.
Before
If there's a firm video, conversation or piece of research that made you excited about the opportunity, revisit it shortly beforehand. It puts you back into the mindset of wanting the opportunity rather than fearing the interview, which is often more useful than another page of notes.
Review a small number of prepared examples, not all of them. Decide in advance when you'll stop preparing, and stop.
After
Write down what you noticed while it's fresh.
Then do something else. The process becomes harder if the only moment you let yourself feel good is the day an offer arrives.
Not a scoreboard
Another candidate's offer tells you very little about the quality of your own cycle.
Application cycles are hard to compare. Candidates target different firms, move at different speeds, and bring their own strengths to each one. A friend's interview invite or a stranger's offer post on LinkedIn says almost nothing about where you stand.
Other candidates and online communities can be useful sources of information. But if checking a group chat or forum before results day leaves you more anxious than informed, it's reasonable to step back from it during the weeks that matter most.
Why this matters over a whole cycle
An application cycle can run for months.
If every application, test or interview becomes a referendum on how you feel about yourself, the process becomes exhausting long before it's over.
You are not trying to feel motivated every day.
You are trying to build a way of working that still functions on the days when you don't.
The framework
Prepare. Then stop preparing.
Focus on what is in front of you.
Reflect. Record. Move on.
Measure your process, not someone else's outcomes.
The objective is not to make yourself indifferent to the outcome. You are applying because you want it.
The objective is to stop any single outcome from determining the quality of what you do next. Prepare properly, take the opportunity seriously, and learn whatever there is to learn. Then move forward.