12. Ending the Placement
Ending a work-informed learning placement can be an emotional experience for students. Students might be leaving clients they grew attached to. They might leave an important trial or submission mid-stream. There might be a significant shift from a work “routine” into a more chaotic class schedule. Close relationships with co-workers, supervisors, or other students might be hard to leave.
At the same time, students might be interested in how to transition their work experiences onto a resume or in a job interview.
This section sets out some tips from former students on transitioning out of a work-informed learning experience and into the next stage of their careers.
Tips from a former law student
Turning an externship experience into a job application
During the externship, you will expand already developed competencies, and learn, create, and develop new competencies that will further assist you in your professional careers. The big questions are what competencies should you develop, and how do you know you have developed a proper experience? If you are not currently looking for an articling position it is helpful to read the requirements for different positions as you experience your externship. Understanding the possible competencies in posted positions can help you set and achieve goals for yourself through the externship that will create a better transition to a professional role. For example, articling positions often seek individuals skilled at legal research, drafting, case analysis, and client interaction. By mapping the experiences gained during the externship to these specific requirements, students can appropriately showcase their readiness for an articling position. Experiences in drafting legal documents, collaborating with legal professionals, and handling diverse client needs can be explicitly linked to the expected responsibilities of an articling role. Many of these tasks will feel day to day, especially nearing the end of your externship. However, reflecting on your experience is key for your future. The tasks that you accomplished will be essential to your articling interview, but even more important are the challenges that you faced and the lessons that you were able to learn from these challenges. Did you write a memorandum and after submitting it the supervisor told you that it was not correct, or you did not understand the legal question? Take that, and learn from it. What was the legal question, and how in the future can you deduce the real question that is being asked? Aligning these experiences underscores competence, willingness to learn from mistakes, and also portrays a readiness to better transition into the role of an articling student.
You have been given this incredible opportunity to be involved in a real legal setting during law school. You are accomplishing something that not many students get to participate in! Take the experiences and continue to learn from them. Embrace what is to come for you and always see the experiences as assisting in your future interviews, and career, not just as a grade. Embracing this approach transforms the level between externship and articling roles into a launchpad for a thriving and fulfilling career.
