It’s actually hard to believe that I’ve only been working for eNL for four months now, it feels like a home! Pausing for reflection on my time here so far, it certainly has been a jam packed few months but I couldn’t have asked for a better induction to legal recruitment!
Starting out I wasn’t a complete recruitment novice, having worked in financial recruitment for eight month before coming to eNL. I made the move as the legal sector has always been of interest to me. I liked the idea of working for a firm that was part of such a successful group of companies (for those of you that don’t know eNL is the legal division of Pertemps Network Group, the largest independent recruitment business in the country).
The training I've received has been brilliant. For my first two weeks I had a scheduled training programme where I worked with colleagues across the company, learning all the basics from the different career pathways in law to how to write an effective job advert. Being a part of the Pertemps Network Group means that staff are given the opportunity to attend training courses run by the brilliant LLoyd Moore, a leading management consultant for the recruitment sector. So far I've been on two residential training courses in Meriden Hall, home of the group's head office, one of which involved a networking lunch with many of the executive directors, including the Lifetime President Tim Watts. Inside eNL we also have regular companywide training sessions, where the experienced consultants share their wisdom with us on anything from effective client visits to recognising recruiters' unconscious biases towards candidates.
My role here is a resourcer which means I am responsible for sourcing candidates for the lovely Claire and Mel as well as handling a few of my own more junior paralegal roles. The three of us cover private practice recruitment for the North of England. Being the delicate Southern flower that I am, I was pleased to discover that people really are a lot friendlier in the North which definitely made those first few candidate calls a lot less nerve wracking!
Of course the main change from my last job is that I’m now recruiting for solicitors rather than accountants. Getting my head around the different areas of law has been a bit of a challenge but it’s definitely the variety you get with legal recruitment that makes it so enjoyable. One minute I’ll be working a role that involves visiting women’s refugees, giving legal support to victims of domestic violence, and the next it’ll be one that involves coordinating the corporate restructures of some of the world’s largest businesses.
Not only is the commission scheme here incredibly generous, eNL also offer a range of other performance bases incentives. These range from anything to a free lunch for hitting a weekly CV send target to our current company wide incentive of a trip on the Orient Express if we hit our annual revenue target. On top of this we are entitled to Fridays off if we are on target at that point in the year!
Without doubt the best thing about working at eNL has been the amazing, friendly, funny and talented people I get to work with every day! Much as this may sound a bit like a recruiter cliché there genuinely is such a family feel here, we even have our own office dog, Poppy!
Overall my start to legal recruitment has certainly been a steep learning curve but I can honestly say that I've never worked in a company that's put so much into helping me succeed and I'm so excited to see what the next few months have in store from me!