I joined Jacksons Law Firm in February 2020, right before the Coronavirus Pandemic hit. Being fairly new to networking at that time, I did not have much experience and during the pandemic, I lost out on the opportunity to learn how to develop in this way.
In October 2020, I helped to begin a networking Committee with my colleagues Michael, Keir, and Emily to create a young professionals networking group, now known as The NEtwork. The group aims to run events for young professionals to attend which help not only in our careers but also in our everyday life. These events are a great way to build on existing content and new great professionals you might not otherwise have encountered me across. We hope that this will help with referrals now and in the future.
Throughout the Pandemic, we held virtual events over Zoom on the last Thursday of every month and we met some valuable contacts. In April 2022, we decided that people were probably tired of attending Zoom events and we were ready to move on to in-person events. We have hosted 3 events, the last being on 27 October, last Thursday. We have met some great contacts who I love catching up with. The NEtwork is proving to be a great success and it is great to see so many professionals who are starting their careers.
I often find that networking can be quite daunting, especially when you are first starting. I have now attended many internal and external networking events and am beginning to feel more confident in doing so. I believe a big factor in this is Jacksons allowing The NEtwork Committee to create the events and promote them. This has assisted in reaching out to contacts after an event to solidify that connection.
I believe that after the Pandemic there has been an increase in informal events and I am looking forward to attending many networking events based on the World cup, shortly. Although I am defiantly out of my comfort zone, I am slowly starting to build up my confidence to meet new people which is assisting in my confidence overall at work.
I think it is great to see many young professionals out and about, building up their network which can only assist in the future. I am always happy to meet new contacts and create new friendships in the hopes of one day working together in the future. Please feel free to reach out to me for lunch and a catch-up.
Charlotte Barugh, Trainee Legal Executive, Dispute Resolution
