1. When your phone rings, it’s not always for you.
On my first day in the office, my phone rang and it was an existing client that the previous trainee had been dealing with. At that point, I had no chance of being able to answer their questions. In situations like that, just take down a note of what the client is asking, and make sure you get back to them once you’ve had a chance to talk to someone about it.
You will often be taking over a seat from a previous trainee, and you need to remember that there will probably be work that is still ongoing. Make sure you have a handover meeting with the previous trainee and use the handover notes they give to you.
2. Your supervisor will be busy, but you can still ask for help.
It’s easy to feel like you are being annoying by asking loads of questions. It is important that you do though; your supervisor will expect it, and welcome it! I’ve found that even if they’re not able to talk to you right at that moment, they will come back to you when they have time.
My supervisor also schedules weekly catch-up meetings which are great for touching base and raising any issues I have.
3. Knowing how to bake and having some fancy dress outfits helps!
It’s not all about work, and there is a constant stream of snacks in the office kitchen here, so baking a cake will always be welcomed! It also helps for when we hold things like the Macmillian Coffee Morning. We also dressed up as elves for the Alzheimer’s Society Elf Day in December, so make sure you keep your fancy dress outfits from university!
Getting involved with the office will make your work days more enjoyable, and it’s important to get to know as many people in the office as you can.
4. Keeping an up-to-date list of your tasks is vital
I have a word document that I use to keep a rolling list of my ongoing tasks. Once you have completed a task it is easy to forget about it, but you need to be thinking about any next steps. For example, you might have sent out that email or document, but when should you be expecting to receive it back, and do you need to be chasing anyone? You should keep track of things you are expecting to happen, and diarise for when they should.
Keeping a list like this will also be helpful for filling out your training contract record, which is required by the SRA. This requires you to set out any new tasks you have completed during your training contract, and what you have learnt from these tasks, so having a list of what you have been doing recently will be helpful as it is easy to forget once you move on to something else.
5. You are not alone!
Here in the Cambridge office, there are two second-year trainees as well as me. It has been incredibly helpful to have them here to ask questions. All future trainees at Howes Percival also get the opportunity to meet current trainees at our annual trainee party and get a trainee buddy in the year leading up to starting, so you can ask all the questions you like.
Once you start, there’s also all the other staff in Howes Percival, who are more than willing to help you.
The learning curve when you start your training contract is huge, and you there will be so many things you don’t know. The important thing to remember is that is fine and expected! No one expects you to have all the answers, just to be willing to learn.
The time will fly by, especially when you are busy. Six months in a seat is not long at all, so just try and soak up as much information as you can in that time.
If you have any questions at all regarding training contracts, please get in touch with one of our graduate recruitment team or find more information here.
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