First of all, happy New Year, Blog! Hope you had a lovely time of nothingness, like I did. I've not been on here lately, but I won't lie and say I've been busy- I really haven't- I've just not really felt like it, like so many other things. It'd probably be unbelievable to you if I said I haven't really been up for much sport of late, but it is true! There have been a whole LOT of football matches of late all in a short space of time, and in the past, that would have been like heaven to me, but I've either been forgetting (or not even being aware!) or I've just not felt like it. There have been so many times my dad has called me up of late to discuss a match currently on, and I'm like "umm, what? Whoops, didn't realise it was on!". Unbelievable. And it's not just football. There's cricket on right now down under, late night cricket. In the past I've been staying up late to watch, but now I never even remember to check the updates in the morning, not to talk of staying up all night. And then there's tennis. I was at the O2 at the beginning of the World Tour Finals in November, I think it was, and I haven't watched any matches since the tournament began. I've just realised that the Australian Open in starting in about 2 weeks, and I'm not even excited about it!
Very weird. So don't feel bad, Blogger, it's not just you that I've been neglecting of late. I'm not sure yet whether this is all a good thing or a bad thing, but I hope I get back on top of things soon! Oh, I've just thought of what could be the cause of it! I recently stopped drinking Coke, round about October/November last year. I used to have it all the time, and I suddenly decided to stop, because too much of Coke can't be good enough for you, and I didn't want to be addicted to it, but hmm, that has sort of coincided with my declining interest in things I used to love doing. Withdrawal symptoms? Maybe I should get back on it? I have been falling ill a lot lately too, and my energy levels feel very low. Maybe it's just the Coke detoxing process! I'll give it a month or so, and if I still feel low and not entirely interested in sport, I shall be getting back on the Coke-wagon! Not as much as before, but just a little to keep me going! That said, it could all just be Joel's fault, taking up all my time and stuff! :p
Anyways, last time I checked in, it was in relation to my work dilemma. The deadline for applying for Johanna's job was in December, just after we closed for the holidays, and I didn't make up my mind what to do until the last possible moment. Funny enough, after I'd decided to talk to Filippo about it first, he came up to me and was like we needed to talk! I was worried initially that the whole thing had blown up on my face, or that he had bad news for me, but it turned out to be a good conversation in the end. It was about career options, and even though I didn't mention Johanna's job directly, it helped me in making my decision. I explained to him that I was considering going into the academic side of things, and he pretty much said that there's no hurry, and it's best to keep my options open. It's never too late to join academia, or early I guess, but he felt that at this stage, and with my qualifications, experiences, etc, that it would be a good time to consider applying for training contracts and going to law school. There's this process going on at the University right now, called REF, whereby academics are getting their works graded, and need to be up to a particular standard. Academics prefer to do research on whatever area they want, whenever they want, but right now, they are being dictated to as to what they can or can't do, and when they ought to do it by. You also have to publish a certain number of work in a certain number of time, and they have to be up to particular standard, and he explained that it is really hard to get into academia, in maritime law, right now and that there really is no funding available at the moment. It might be much better in a few years, but in essence, now is not the best time for it, especially if you have better options available.
The reason why he wanted to speak to me initially was because he'd been going through some training contract applications for a particular law firm that he is a Consultant at, and he felt that based on the CVs he saw, there's no reason why I should not be able to get at least one, and he felt strongly about it, which was why he wanted to talk to me about it, so that I start considering applying. He also said that he had mentioned me to one of the Bosses at another maritime law firm where he's a Consultant, who was willing to have a look at my CV. It all brought home the point that my mum is always making to me, when trying to convince me to go to Law School, that once you're qualified, you are qualified, and if you have the opportunity to do it, why not take it? And as Filippo said, it's easy to get into academia, or a P&I club, if you are a lawyer, than the other way round. But the bit that really got me was when Filippo was explaining to me how law firms work behind the scenes. One of the reasons why I felt I didn't want to be a lawyer, is that I felt there wasn't much room to get involved in research, unlike as an academic, as research is my strong point. But Filippo was telling me about a conversation he had with one of the lawyers, who explained that a huge percentage of staff they hire are primarily for research purposes. You see some lawyers at the front of the house and imagine that that's how all the others are, but at the back of the house, there's a huge team of researchers. Not just legally trained researchers, but qualified lawyers. I've only ever thought of the "front of the house" lawyers and felt that really wasn't my cup of tea, but there's certainly no reason why I can't excel as a "back of the house" lawyer, where I can put my research skills to use. And also, most fronthouse lawyers- the ones who deal with the clients face to face most of the time- always start from "back", and as they gain more experience, then start to feel more comfortable with being fronthouse, but the point really is that I can choose to be qualify as a lawyer, without having to give up research. Not bad!
I did apply for training contracts straight after Uni, with no luck, but with my experience so far, I'm beginning to see Filippo's point that it shouldn't be as hard to get one this time round, God-willing. I worked on my CV a few weeks after that meeting with Filippo and have sent it to him now, and hopefully when he's back at work next week, he can have a look at it and forward it to the contact. I definitely will be on his case! So yes, I have decided to apply for training contracts this year. I need to have a look at specific deadlines, but majority of them will be in summer, with the odd ones in January. Most training contracts, however, are 2014/15 starts, and with you having to go to law school for a year prior, if I do get one, I'll most likely have a year or so to play with. More on that when the time comes...
But that's the future anyways. So how did I resolve Johanna's job dilemma? If you haven't figured it out already, I decided not to apply in the end. As much as it's a fabulous job, it doesn't do a lot for my career prospects really (even if I was hell-bent on an academic one), and as they say, "don't fix it if it isn't broke!" I still didn't shut out the possibility of applying until the last day I work, when I sent Johanna an email, saying I wouldn't be applying. This was Thursday, with the deadline being Saturday. And Saturday came and went, and I didn't feel as if I'd missed a trick not applying, so seems it was the right decision in the end. Another time, maybe, and I'd have jumped on it, but there were just too many factors making it a too risky one, especially with renewing my work permit and all.
So the 5-month saga is over, and I'm very glad it is! Hopefully they'll find a suitable replacement, and as I said to her, I wouldn't mind helping out in anyway I can, but I think I'm better off staying put. Oh yeah, I tried to get two of my friends to apply. Funmi decided to, but Faye chose not to in the end. Fingers crossed she'll get called up to interview!
I guess I'll let you know if there are any developments on that, as well as my training contract applications and stuff.
Thanks for reading! :-)
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