Episode 12: How to ‘Transform’ your career as a BLOG

Okay, we're back for one of the episodes of Jump Start. The Early Quiz, we can broadcast it north and north, right? I'm Markingham, the Early Quiz Tournament Manager, and joined by Clementine, who's a current blog, and Charlie from Hazel. Charlie, do you just want to explain what Hazel is? Under a cent, thank you so much for having me on. The idea of Hazel is to create a nicer job search experience for students, for graduates, anyone that's looking for that first role in their career, and so what we essentially do is we not only provide 20,000 plus entry-level jobs that students can get access to and actually get precise recommendations too, but we also work with over 1,000 student societies from across the UK, Europe and the US, allowing students to also engage those societies, go to events, network over people, and yet overall goal of Hazel is just to make the job search experience a lot nicer for students, make it easier for them to get that entry-level role. Fantastic, so I think you've got some questions for us. Yeah, definitely, we're going to dig deep into the whole world of blogs and also life at NRF, but I guess perfect place to start would be with you Clementine. Would you like to give the audience a bit of an introduction into what you currently do, your role, all of that good stuff? Yeah, so I'm currently a blog, it's how we call it blog, but that means Business Legal Operations Graduate at NRF, so it's basically a two-year graduate scheme where you do four rotations of six months, so I've studied a year ago in September, and I'm on my third rotation and currently on secondment to one of our clients, so to HSBC, and the objective would be then to qualify sort of into a permanent role at the end in September 2025, into one of the teams that I've been having a seat in. Yeah, amazing, and in terms of that graduate scheme, could you maybe share some of the key highlights along the way that allowed you to find yourself in this position, because it's a bit of an unconventional graduate scheme in the sense that it's Business Tech Operations within a law firm, right? Yeah, so I guess from kind of like going back to how I even found this scheme in the first place, I come from a legal background, so I did a double degree in French law and English law, and I was convinced I wanted to be a lawyer, and then, over the years, I was like, "Actually, I do not want to be a lawyer at all," and so I've kind of diverted from that path and went into a master in management, because I was like, "I can't completely done with a law, don't want to be a lawyer," because I also kind of thought that there was the only thing I could do, or being a judge maybe, but that was, anyways, this just wasn't for me, so I went into and did my master's in management, and then I was looking for a job, like many of us graduates do. I also desperately needed a visa, because I didn't get set all status, and I was looking through LinkedIn, and I saw this advertisement for the blog scheme, and it was basically saying, "Work in a law firm, but apply some sort of management principles," so it really called up to me because, called out to me, called out, yeah, because that's basically my background, and also it was described as a way that, like, you were doing these four rotations, and you had so many different teams within those two years that you could do, that had so many different things, that you could really do, like, commercial management, so that's a bit more comms, or marketing, or raising awareness about legal operations, you can do LPM, so it's like legal project management, so it's very much like that data analytics, working with lawyers on what the legal matters, you can do so many internal facing, client facing, so I just thought in general I was just a very good formation for me, coming out of my two degrees. So yeah, it makes sense. I guess the versatility, how much different areas you'd be able to go into was that part of the reason that it also attracted to you, because you didn't necessarily have a clear idea of exactly what you wanted to go down, so you was able to explore. Yeah, exactly. I think that's the, that's the thing, I, at 25, not everybody knows exactly what the career plan is, and I had no clue what I wanted to do, I also even said that on my interview, which one of the interviewer was like, you're right, like, who knows at 25? And so yeah, and knowing that there are so many different, you can look at tech, you can look at data, it was really interesting, and also for me specifically because I was coming from a legal background, it was nice to know that I would still be doing something with my legal background, and not just kind of giving up on it, and moving to a more completely business focused industry. No, I love it. I feel like it, it seems like such a great fit. Mark, from your side, from what Clementine has just shared about, I guess what she sees blogs as, and what she initially saw blogs as, is that what you're trying to portray? As is that the idea behind this game? Yeah, I think Clementine hit the nail on the head, with the way that she was describing it. It's definitely a career in its own right, we're not looking for people who want to be lawyers and kind of see this as a route into the firm, very much looking for people who are interested in innovation and management and legal tech and AI and all that good stuff. So yeah, it's a fantastic opportunity to work alongside kind of real experts in those areas, but support a legal business which is at the top of its game as well. Yeah, no, I love that. I think it's an exciting space, especially for considering a lot of people in tech, there's sometimes limited opportunities in London in terms of you're just, I think most tech graduates will narrow themselves down software or the big kind of fan companies, but actually there's so many opportunities at amazing companies like yours. In terms of NRF then, want to go a bit deeper into that, how would you describe the culture at the company, Clementine? I think in terms of blog. So also the legal up scheme is part of a consortium of other law firms that also have a legal operations graduate scheme. So we're in touch with all of them and so we're kind of comparing a lot our experiences. And lately, I've talked to them and I've realized how NRF is very, they've really invested in us. Like, the point is not to just get us some sort of training and development and then get us out in the wild. The point is that they're really investing in us and they will make a very big effort to get us integrated and to get us a job at the end within NRF. And also, in general, I think we're quite supported and it's very open-minded. Even the fact that in the legal up scheme at the moment, I come from a conventional background for that scheme, but I have a friend that comes from, she did modern languages and I have another one that did chemistry. So they are really basing it on more like not personality, but your drive and your common sense, I guess, and kind of what you bring to the table and they're not, yeah, they don't stop themselves at kind of what's on your CV and the conventional things, which I think is a very good thing and you get so much diversity in the people that you're surrounded with. And just in general, I remember doing my assessment center and I came out of it and I was like, this was great. Like, I had a blast because my interviewers, I just had a great time with them, like, it was a real conversation. You could tell it wasn't like, I didn't have to recite what I had learnt. It was just like a conversation and just that, I was like, this is definitely like a company where I would fit in. I'm sure there's a lot of students listening right now who have been for assessment centers. They were very jealous that you've had the majority of them definitely aren't that fun. On your side then, Mark, is there anything you'd add to the culture that you try to promote for graduates, especially within blogs at NRF? Sure. I think it's important to recognise that it's often a graduate's first job in an office, so having a support of culture is really important because you want people to feel like they can ask questions and be curious because that's ultimately how people learn. I think the other point to mention is that the opportunities are there in the business, so I think the culture is there to support people, but to give people the belief that they can go out and make the most of the opportunities, so it's building your own network in the firm. I think that's super important and taking that responsibility over your own career. I guess the second point is that it's a law firm, so the expectations are really high on the lawyers and that extends over into business services as well, so in terms of the quality of work, I guess the hours sometimes that are expected, I think we're looking for people who are willing to put that hard work in, and I think with the supportive environment that is there, if you do that, there's some fantastic opportunities to really grow your career. On that note, I actually came and I mentioned that the people that come through blogs are very diverse, a lot of different backgrounds, it's one area that can be interesting to touch on is also what type of students you look for because it seems like you don't qualify people based on the degree or maybe necessarily the university studied that, but what characteristics do you look for in applicants and what students would you say should definitely think about applying? So I think that would be a lot of block buzzwords, curious, interested, hardworking, resilient, But if you take those boxes, it doesn't matter what. Mae'n i'n gweithio i'ch i'n gweithio am gyda i'n gweithio am gyda i'n gweithio am gyda i'n gweithio. I'n gweithio am gyda i'n gweithio am gyda i'n gweithio am gyda i'n gweithio. Mae'r gweithio am gyda i'n gweithio am gyda i'n gweithio am gyda i'n gweithio. 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