A White & Case London Training Contract, after ABB A-levels, four years of rejection cycles and no Assessment Centre invitations before the candidate engaged ECS. The training contract followed a White & Case vacation scheme, and the same cycle brought vacation scheme offers from Baker McKenzie and Macfarlanes and a partner-stage interview at Willkie Farr. Seven firm-side emails document the chain.
§ 01
Starting point
- ABB at A-level
- Four consecutive years of applications, each ending in rejection
- No Assessment Centre invitations before engaging ECS
- Academically capable, but not getting past the first stages
§ 02
Relationship to ECS
- Paid Private Careers Advisory engagement, roughly 24 months
- Support covered application strategy, written applications, assessment and interview preparation, and post-offer decisions
§ 03
What the ECS diagnostic found
- ECS's reading was that the applications were failing at the first screening stage, so the later stages were never reached
- Competency answers relied on effort narratives rather than commercial judgement
- The same generic "why law" answer ran across every application, with no firm-specific reasoning
- No structured preparation for assessment centre case, group and written exercises
§ 04
What the engagement focused on
- VTMR™ CV rebuild, restating each line around commercial contribution rather than academic credentials
- BDC™ Data Point Theory for the written applications
- PEAL-3® and PEAL-X® for motivation answers: reasons for law, and a White & Case answer grounded in the firm's deal history and practice groups rather than its marketing
- STAR-3® competency portfolio covering leadership, resilience, commercial judgement and client sensitivity
- Assessment simulation covering case study, group exercise, written exercise and partner interview formats
§ 05
The sequence the documents show
At White & Case, as at many City firms, the training contract followed a vacation scheme, and the vacation scheme followed a video interview and a final round. The firm-side emails at the foot of this page show this candidate clearing each of those stages in one cycle, alongside results at three other firms. ABB A-levels and four years of rejection did not prevent it.
§ 06
Causation boundary
Every stage shown is documented in firm-side correspondence. The selection decisions were White & Case's and the other firms', made on the candidate's performance; ECS's role was the preparation described above, and the record does not isolate its contribution from the candidate's own work.