Month: July 2023

The Legal Risk & Compliance sector is a rapidly growing space with a host of different roles within it. As a candidate or professional it’s important that you understand the different areas of law that you can practise within the sector when applying for new positions. Even if you’re currently employed and not thinking about your next step yet, gaining exposure to different areas can greatly improve your career. 

On Episode 6 of The Uncover Pod I sat down with Sakina Chenot, the Partner and Global Head of Risk, Compliance and Conflicts at HFW, to talk about how you can gain more exposure throughout your professional life. Sakina’s own broad range of work has given her access to a number of experiences within the sector, giving her a wealth of knowledge on the topic. 

Here are her insights and tips:

Setting Yourself Up For Success

If you want to put yourself forward for new opportunities, demonstrating key transferable skills will put you in a good stead. Sakina said that “intellectual curiosity is very important” when it comes to making lateral moves within a company. She also mentioned that the other key skills she looks for in her team are “the willingness to collaborate, good organisation and time management skills”, as these allow you to make transitions smoothly. 

When asking for exposure in a different area of your company, demonstrating these traits will bolster your chances of being approved. 

Requesting a Change

If you feel that you’ve hit a plateau in your role and aren’t learning anything new from your position, Sakina recommended “just being honest with your line manager”. The best way to present your case is to explain how you’re feeling and have an open conversation about your development. Asking if there are any available avenues for growth in a different team will demonstrate your commitment to the company and a dedication to your work – both of which are big positives. 

You may be surprised how willing managers are to make changes like this, as happy, motivated employees do better work than frustrated or stagnant ones. Having these conversations will not only improve your chances of getting more exposure within your role, but will also help your manager understand your personal goals and aspirations, making them better able to support you in them. 

Extracurricular Exposure

If you’re not able to make a formal transition into a different role, making yourself available to key players in those teams will help you to gain exposure in a more informal way. You can also pick up on what’s happening in each sector and learn outside of your working hours through a variety of courses and accreditations that will improve your credentials, should you decide that moving out of your firm entirely is the best way to gain new experiences. 

If you’re not sure which area you would like to move into, Sakina also suggested “researching the areas that genuinely interest you”. Building relationships with people in those teams will also help you to transition into them, as well as give you some insights into the daily work you could be taking on. Learning more about each area will also help you to identify which skills you could bring to your new team, as well as what you could potentially learn from them. 

In Summary

Ultimately, the key to gaining additional exposure within the Legal Risk & Compliance industry is to seek it out, whether that’s within your current firm or in a new role. If you would like to speak to a member of the UNCOVER team about your next move, get in touch here. 

When you’re searching for a new role it’s easy to focus on the potential salary that you could take home. However, when considering a career move, the paycheck is only one of a number of factors that make a role suitable for you. In fact, prioritising your new salary over things like professional development and culture fit could actually be detrimental to your career. Read on to find out what you should be considering when you interview for a new position.

Job Satisfaction & Engagement

Being bored is just as frustrating as being stressed. It’s important to find a healthy middle ground because being mentally engaged at work actually plays into your success. You should be driven by a genuine desire to succeed rather than the salary attached to the role. People who are naturally engaged with their work tend to have higher job satisfaction than unmotivated colleagues, leading them to perform better, receive more promotions and attract pay-rises as a result. Prioritising a salary over your job satisfaction will ultimately damage your career by keeping you in lower-level jobs for longer.

Professional Growth & Development

Particularly at the junior end of the market, you have a lot of options when it comes to choosing a new role. However, if you’re relatively early on in your career, a key thing to focus on is whether your role will allow you to grow and develop your technical skills. It’s all very well moving into a role that’s paying you £5-10k more, but if you’re not getting the experience that goes along with that, the uplift is usually very short lived.

Specialist roles tend to pay more money in the short term, but for junior candidates this can limit your career potential by not giving you experience in a range of disciplines and skills at an early stage. Particularly when you’re first entering the market, it’s best to choose a role that’s as broad as possible. Don’t pigeonhole yourself immediately by going for a role that limits your potential but has a slightly higher salary.

Company Culture & Values

You’ll need to consider culture when you’re in the job market. A lot of firms will offer roles that are fairly similar in terms of structure, but their environments will be incredibly varied. You should prioritise finding a culture that encourages engagement, upskilling and progression. Equally, you’ll do best in a company where you’re aligned with their values. If you feel comfortable, appreciated and respected, you will naturally give your best self at work. That translates into exposure, responsibility and progression.

Contact & Exposure

As firms begin to offer more remote roles, junior candidates in particular are seeing a negative impact on their careers. Because you are not working in close quarters with your senior colleagues, you often miss the opportunity to learn from them and build your profile within the company. That’s often fine if you’re a senior person yourself, but if you’re a junior professional you should carefully consider the impact of a remote working environment on your career. While remote roles tend to pay comparatively well, they can also limit your opportunities by isolating you from the wider company.

Employer Reputation & Employee Retention

When firms have a high turnover rate or they’re struggling to hire people, their salaries will often be a bit above the market average. While salary is an important consideration, you should think about whether you will be joining a stable environment and whether the higher salary will be worth the additional stress of an understaffed or overworked team.

Consequences of Salary Prioritisation

If you frequently move jobs to gain a higher salary, you run the risk of not allowing your skill set to develop properly. For example, if you’ve been an analyst for three years, you should have three years’ worth of experience. However, if you have moved three times during that period that won’t be the case. Each time you move it takes three or four months to embed yourself in the firm and begin to work at the same capacity that you did in the previous firm. Over the course of three years, if you’ve made three moves, you’re actually nine months short of your three years worth of experience. Sometimes moving for a salary will be right, but doing it consistently will do a disservice to your career.

 

To speak to a specialist recruiter in the Legal Risk & Compliance industry, speak to a member of our team today. 

You can get in touch here.