...and how it worked for me!

Written by Sarah Wilkinson – Principal Conveyancing Recruitment Consultant, Ambitious Group

I left college at 18, after completing my A Levels, not quite sure what I wanted to do with my life and career.

I decided to take some time off and complete some work experience at a local firm of solicitors, having done A Level Law and found it interesting. This gave me an opportunity to speak with lawyers who had entered the industry through, at the time, what was seen to be more of an unconventional route, by completing courses such as ILEX and CLC.

After some thought, I decided that I would train as a Licensed Conveyancer, completing my CLC studies alongside working as a Conveyancing Paralegal at a well known local firm.

After a while, I qualified as a Conveyancing Lawyer, without the huge debts which usually come with completing a law degree and LPC. Win win!

During my 15 years in Conveyancing, I worked my way up from Paralegal to Manager – but yet something was still missing. I wanted to still earn a great salary, but how would I do that if I was to go back to basics and retrain in a completely different industry?

I started to think about the transferrable skills I had gained in my career so far and where I would be able to use them to my advantage.

Perhaps I could use my industry knowledge within the recruitment sector to help other conveyancing professionals find their dream roles?

After doing some research I made contact with a large legal recruitment agency, who were renowned for taking ex-lawyers and retraining them in recruitment.

I worked there for just over a year and learned so much! Unfortunately, my time there crossed over with the pandemic and I was affected by redundancy.

In April 2021 I started my career at Ambitious Group and I can honestly say I’ve never looked back since. I have received two promotions since starting here and am now Principal Consultant in the Conveyancing Team.

I am able to use my conveyancing knowledge every day to help paralegals through to lawyers and managers secure their dream roles – the job satisfaction is amazing and I find that really knowing the industry, having been there myself (at all levels!) at some point or other, really helps me to relate to the people I speak to.

If anyone is looking to make such a change as I did, I would really recommend speaking to as many people as you can who have been through the same experience. Getting the good (and bad!) about any industry you are looking to transfer into, will enable you to make a really clear and informed decision.

What have you got to lose??!

If you are Ambitious in your career, we want to talk to you. Whether you have recruitment experience or from a property background we could have the role for you! Find out more about joining Team Ambitious here.