Legal Career
Slaughter and May and Clifford Chance, Corporate/Commercial, London
New Career(s)
Career Change Story
Now a Law lecturer at the College of Law, London, I had taught English to French school children as part of my degree so I thought about the pros and cons of those experiences. I read an article in the Times
about City lawyers who had pursued other careers and wrote to one of the people featured to find out how they had made the transition to teaching in a secondary school. He did offer to let me come and watch him in action, but sadly work got in the way! I also spoke to a friend of a friend at another law school who was extremely helpful and patiently answered all my questions about the nitty-gritty of the job and how it compared with private practice. In the end, I consulted the College of Law website where I saw that there they were recruiting. The advertisement was also in The Times.
Career Change Reflections
Despite being shorter hours, teaching is often more physically tiring than life in private practice. Students can be demanding and challenging - although this is as much of an upside as it is a downside! When it comes to moving jobs, speaking to other people is invaluable, as is considering all of your skills and motivations. However, there does come a point when you have to move beyond the research and start going to interviews in order to determine whether the role, environment and future colleagues will suit you. My interview for the College of Law involved teaching my three interviewers for twenty minutes which was a useful way of working out whether this was really for me!
