The Freshfields trainee selling insider training contract interview tips for £150 a pop

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By Alex Aldridge on

Exclusive: NailThatTrainingContract.co.uk appeared online a few days ago. It offers “inside tips from a current Magic Circle Trainee” taken from “real interviews and HR documents”, alongside a commercial awareness “cheat-sheet”. Packages are sold through the site for between £35-£150.

My first impression – which was partly formed by NailThatTrainingContract.co.uk’s author’s boastful claim to have turned down Linklaters in favour of a rival firm (see below) – was that the site is a scam.

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The author’s refusal to reveal their identity does nothing to shake the scepticism. Of course, as is acknowledged in the “About Me” section of the site, if you were an actual magic circle trainee running something like this you wouldn’t want to make your name public.

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What the author doesn’t seem to be aware of, though, is how easy it is to find out who websites ending in “.co.uk” are registered to…

 

As you can see below, the name of the registrant of NailThatTrainingContract.co.uk is publicly availableredacted

Google the name in question and this LinkedIn profile is the first entry to appear.

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Information that is being sold through NailThatTrainingContract.co.uk includes:

“Interview questions (compiled over the years from real interviews and HR documents).”

“Appraisal criteria (HR document) showing you what the interviewers are looking for.”

“A ‘commercial awareness’ cheat-sheet (one-page summary of multiple current issues that you can discuss to display commercial awareness).”

 

The author’s “winning answers…from my winning applications.”

Here are further screenshots from the site, including some more super-cocky blurb.

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Plus there’s a run-down of the packages on offer – and what they cost.

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NailThatTrainingContract.co.uk also offers “my winning personal statement” to anyone who likes its Facebook page. The statement begins:

“A colleague once walked up to me and said ‘You’re atrociously clever, but it’s okay because you’re not a (profanity) about it and fun to work with.’

“His statement humbled me, as I realized that I am fortunate to have earned my peers’ respect and admiration. Simultaneously, I found his insight an apt encapsulation of who I am: a driven and hardworking individual who strives for excellence in everything I do, but a strong team player who believes in fostering relationships of mutual respect and trust with my colleagues.”

A spokesperson for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer told Legal Cheek: “We are taking the matter very seriously and have started an investigation.”

Update: NailThatTrainingContract.co.uk has been removed. A cached version is available here.