Right now it's is the 21st of April and I am babysitting some students while they take a test as part of these assessment day for people interested in signing a training contract with the firm (this will make more sense later). It is a little ackward to just sit here and stare at them/the wall for 45 minutes to I decided to diligently sit here and compose a blog. While it has been over two weeks since I started work...I have been slightly behind in terms of blogging (which you may or may not have noticed, lol) so let's take it back to the beginning, my first day. ::smoke fills the imaginary room of your mind::
Tuesday 4th April (Note the use of British lingo...) was the first day of my first real job. (Lets ignore the fact that I am on a fixed contract, am still considered an intern, and am not technically making a salary) I am working full time in the HR department at Lovells- Which is a large international law firm that is based heavily in The City of London. For those of you not familiar with London..."the city" as its referred to as about a square mile of London that is the business heart of the UK...it contains all the major banks, law firms, and big business practices. It's comparable to Wall Street in New York.
There are multiple HR departments at Lovells but the one that I am working in deals with graduate recruitment and people development. At little background information- There is this amazing system in the UK where law firms recruit their lawyers right out of undergrad. Students apply to the different firms and then if a firm accepts them the student signs a training contract and then the firm pays for their law school and training and usually retains about 80% of their trainee's after they become qualified lawyers. To be a lawyer in the UK you have to go to 1-2 years of law school (If you majored in law in undergrad then 1, if you didn't then 2) and then you do a 2 year training with a law firm where you sit in 4 different departments for 6 months at a time. This gives you exposure to different areas of law you work very closely with qualified attorneys. Many trainee solicitors get to work and carry out small deals on their own. I think this system sounds awesome and I feel like on qualification lawyer in the UK have a much greater grasp on what they will actually be doing at work!
So, the department that I work in markets the firm to potential recruits (graduate marketing), guides interested students through the applications process and runs assessment days (graduate recruitment), keeps track of them and their paper work through the 3-4 years that they are in school/training (trainee development), and then another team that deals with getting newly qualified associates the training then need for their future careers (people development). My title is career development which basically equates to working with all the teams. However, right now my desk sits with trainee development so I have been doing the most work for them. However, in the last couple days I have helped out graduate recruitment with some of their projects. I find the assessment days and working with students very interesting. However, ever thing that our office does is very cyclical...you repeat the same thing approximately every six months. So I am sure you 30's assessment day would not be as interesting as your first, lol.
I have got to work on some very interesting projects since I started. I am very amazed at how many steps there are to a seemingly small task. Just sending out an email involving a meeting could involved using a spreadsheet to look up recipients, drafting and editing the email, creating a spreadsheet to track responses, updating calendar entries, booking rooms, etc. We use several different IT programs and very technical stuff like a document management system which is pretty snazzy. I love outlook express...and how people can send you calendar appointments and then it updates you about your schedule...its pretty awesome.
I have had a decent amount to do thus far but right now we are in a calm before the storm period because of the merger coming up there is certain things that we can't do until after the merger because of branding issues. However, I have been doing stuff like scheduling meetings and interviews, archiving files, making name tags, reviewing information and writing reports, attending meetings, and then just doing some small tasks as per request. It has all been very interesting and I am definitely learning a lot.
I really love the company of Lovells and I really like the general idea of working for a large company, dressing up every day, and the perks that a large company offers like sports and social events, holiday parties, and name recognition. I have already attended two drinks receptions and have at least one every month. I love networking with the different students and people in the firm. Lovells has a really good reputation in the law world for having a very friendly and fun atmosphere, being very international, and having a large range of practice areas- all of which I find very interesting.
Well, the smoke has totally cleared and there is no much background information to give that I am pretty sure you have completely forgotten that fact that I was supposed to be explaining my first day...lol, well there really isn't that much to it.
On my first day I put on my new suit and walked to work to experience my first day. Everyone was extremely friendly and I had been scheduled to have meetings with people from all different areas of this department. The first day was a whirlwind of information that I really haven't started to truly grasp until now. I spend the second half the of the day filing which made me feel like I was actually accomplishing something...haha, but was pretty dry. Overall, from the first day I have been impressed with the company and what they represent.
I look forward to being able to write you more interesting blogs with stories and such...but these first couple are very important to actually have a base of understanding of what my job entails...so I hope you still found in interesting!
Cheers!
Sarah
