QEB Hollis Whiteman, star of this post from a month ago, have once again sent out a "we'll be in touch soon" email. Once again, spying the email titile: "Pupillage Interviews QEBHW", my heart began to beat at a prodigiously rapid rate.
Now over the shock, I have nothing but praise for their efforts at keeping candidates informed. No other Set that I have applied to has made such efforts to try to put applicants at ease, and no other Set has been so willing to offer such detailed information on their timetable - speaking to friends applying to non-criminal Sets, their experience is largely the same: Sets just don't communicate about pupillage. Many Sets don't even bother to tell you if you've been rejected (despite being able to do so with just a couple of clicks on the Pupillage Portal).
So, what this means is that people in my position get used to Sets being beyond useless, and we expect nothing. Thus, when Chambers like QEB actually go out of their way to contact us, it comes as such a shock that we become a couple of years closer to our graves.
Irrespective of the news Sets send me, I only hope that they might all, one day, emulate QEB in the way they communicate that news.
I wholeheartedly agree. MOST chambers seemingly have no regard for the time and energy that applicants put into writing the forms for the pupillage portal. We spend hundreds of words writing about why they are the ideal set for us, only to be rewarded with a rude silence. Whilst I appreciate that selecting candidates for interview is not easy work in light of the large numbers of applicants, being a student desperate for a pupillage after spending thousands on fees and hours on applications is hardly easy work either. Thanks for highlighting this issue on your blog!
ReplyDeleteMust put in a word for 2 Hare Court who have also given very detailed information about their timetable.
ReplyDeleteAlso 5 Essex Court, who provided an initial update email, email rejection (okay, I'm not so happy about that part) and then some detailed 'generic' feedback on the applications they had received.
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