Could you please tell us what you’ve been up to since you graduated from your LLB Law with Criminology course? This might include full/part-time work, travel, participating in Hallam’s graduate programmes, or applying for part-time jobs.
As soon as I submitted my last assignment, my housemates and I got a one-way flight to Thailand! I spent 3 months travelling Southeast Asia with them, then I spent 2 months solo in Australia.
I went back to Asia to volunteer as an English teacher in a little Cambodian school. This was one of my highlights because I learnt so much from the family I stayed with, and it taught me how to be adaptable and resourceful. I had the best experiences and I’m so glad I went before starting a graduate role.
I came home to attend graduation and worked at Tesco until I started my current role. I took part in Sarah’s Graduate Bootcamp whilst applying for jobs, which helped me prepare and feel confident.
Did you undertake any part-time work or work experience during your studies? What skills from these experiences have you carried forward in your career?
I undertook various jobs, e.g. bar staff and stewarding at Yorkshire football grounds, to earn money. But I did develop transferrable skills that I use now, such as working under pressure and communicating effectively. Becoming a Course Ambassador was a useful experience. I spoke in full lecture halls to prospective students, which massively boosted my confidence and public speaking skills, and I’m still building on these skills in my apprenticeship now.
I completed a placement year at Enterprise, which ruled out customer facing roles for me! But it taught me what I want in my career and exposed me to corporate skills and etiquette. It gave me a lot of discipline going back into final year, which contributed a lot to me achieving my goal grade. It wasn’t common for Law students to do, but I’d 100% recommend looking into doing a placement.
I won a 1-week legal internship in my final year. At the time, I still wanted to pursue a training contract after university. Although I had a really great experience at the firm, I started to question whether it was actually my passion or just the natural next step after a law degree. This is when I started looking into other career pathways, which ended up mainly being compliance after speaking to Sheryl, one of the Hallam employability advisers.
Please talk us through a typical day in your role as Enforcement Trainee for the Office for Product Safety and Standards.
I’m currently in my first out of three rotations, which is in the ‘Online Enforcement’ team. The overall purpose of this team is to ensure that the products being sold online to the UK market are safe and compliant.
My day revolves around case management of products under investigation. I usually work on communicating with online marketplaces to obtain compliance documents, drafting correspondence to businesses, assisting with market surveillance, and deciding which high-risk products to test purchase. After products are tested, I follow the case through with corrective action. I’m only 3 months in, so I still have a lot to learn.
I’m completing a Regulatory Compliance Apprenticeship as part of the role, so I have 1 day a week dedicated to completing my assignments and workshop preparation. This aspect is very similar to what I done during my degree.
What tips would you give Hallam students or graduates interested in working for the Office for Product Safety and Standards, or a similar government department?
I found ’ YouTube videos really handy when I was preparing for interviews. Civil Service interviews are assessed around ‘Success Profiles’, it is so important to adapt your answers to align with the ‘behaviours’ they are looking for.
I would say don’t stress too much about whether it’s the perfect role or what you want to do forever - it’s easy to transfer across to different departments into vastly different roles if you want a new challenge. The culture of each department varies a lot too. OPSS is a directorate within the Department for Business and Trade, it is always highly praised for the positive culture by everyone I speak to, especially those who has been around different departments. So far, I have been enjoying the work, the flexibility, and the people!
