My journey to becoming a solicitor apprentice at Minster Law
Holly Martin, solicitor apprentice at Minster Law, shares her journey to applying and becoming an apprentice at Minster Law.
I knew from the moment I began studying law at sixth form that this was the path I wanted to take. Law was what I was passionate about. I enjoyed the classes and learning something new each day and being able to ask questions to develop my knowledge. Having an ex-barrister for a teacher was amazing as you got an insight into the world of practicing law and not just studying it. This is what made me start thinking. If I was so good at learning about the law, why not practice it and make it my career?
I began to investigate the many ways you can qualify as a solicitor, but they all had one thing in common – to become a qualified solicitor, you need a law degree, so I applied to university. But there was something inside me which wanted to start gaining some experience straight after college and reap the benefits of getting experience on the job. After getting into the University of Liverpool to study law, I learnt about degree apprenticeships which mean you can study part-time and still gain a full degree whilst working full- time in a relevant job. I did some further research and realised that these opportunities are available for law, and you can do a level 7-degree apprenticeship to qualify as a solicitor. For me this was the perfect scenario, and it was exactly what I wanted to do.
As I was so passionate about the degree apprenticeship route, I was willing to move away from home but ideally I wanted to stay at home with my parents and family around me so they could support me every step of the way. After searching for what felt like forever, I finally came across a firm close to home – Minster Law.
It all began with an online form which I filled in and sent off. The form asked for some general information about myself, my contact details, and some longer worded questions. These were regarding the skills I had, experiences and situations I had dealt with and my overall personality.
A few weeks after, I was invited to create a 5-minute online presentation featuring “the best moment of your life” and present it to some employees. I was nervous but also excited to know that I had progressed onto the next stage. Following this, which was well received, I was invited to attend an assessment day.
There were three key elements to the assessment day. Another presentation using a “picture which shows your personality”, a debate surrounding working from home vs working in the office and some competency-based questions.
On arrival at Minster Law, I immediately knew that it was somewhere I would love to work. Everyone was very friendly and chatty and made me feel welcome, which took away any nerves I was feeling. After meeting the other candidates, we were each called to go through our presentation. It was nerve racking knowing all eyes were on you for 5 minutes, but I went in and tried to be as confident as I possibly could.
After the presentation it was debate time and this was the part I was most excited about. We were split into two groups and had some time to go through our points and share ideas. I was arguing on the side of working from the office which was quite hard because I prefer working from home. The debate went extremely well, and this didn’t even feel like part of the interview process as I had so much fun.
Finally, it was the competency-based questions. We went around the room to several tables which were set up with different staff members on each of them. We had roughly 5 minutes per question to discuss our experiences and development relating to the skill or situation asked. I did find some of these questions challenging and wasn’t sure on how well I had managed to answer them, but I just had to hope that I had communicated my key skills well enough and expressed how much getting the solicitor apprenticeship would mean to me.
After a week, which felt like forever, I had an online call and was told that I had scored highly in all areas of the assessment day and would be having a meeting with the CEO of the company, Shirley. I knew this was my time to really show how committed I would be to the apprenticeship programme and Minster Law.
Shortly after this meeting I had a Teams call with Head of Legal Service Operations, Jo Peacock, who I had been in contact with throughout the interview process. She confirmed I had secured an offer doing the job I dreamed of. The only thing left to do was celebrate and what better way to do that than a holiday to Lanzarote where I could relax knowing that I began my dream career on the 12th of September.
Check out our solicitor apprenticeship scheme and how you can become a solicitor, regardless of your legal and educational background.
