What inspired you to create Careers Week?
Soon after joining DLA Piper, I realised that we provided some amazing resources for our employees and Partners, but often people were unaware of everything that was available to them. Given the effort and importance senior leaders have put on careers at the Firm, I felt it would be useful to bring everything together in one place, and give people an engaging, easy to access experience. With a bit of hard work from some amazing colleagues, Career Week was born!
How has your own career journey influenced your approach to learning and development?
My career journey is a little unconventional, coming from my original training as a Biochemist, into general management, and from there into Learning and Development. What it's taught me is the power of curiosity, maintaining a growth mindset, and of life-long learning. Everything I've learned has added value to the next stage of my career in one way of another, and I've taken this into my professional approach to L&D, where my team and I encourage professional and personal curiosity, breadth in addition to depth of expertise, and the importance of building networks and learning from others
How did you ensure that careers week would be impactful and inclusive for all employees?
We've focused on a few key things to help Career Week be as useful as possible. Firstly, we've engaged and listened to our lawyers and business service professionals so that we concentrate on the things they care most about. Secondly, we've prioritised creating short, practically orientated sessions, so people feel they have actionable takeaways. Lastly, we worked with an inspiring group of internal and external speakers and experts to create really high-quality experiences.
If you were to highlight 3-5 sessions which would there be and why?
We had some fantastic speakers covering a diverse set of topics, all around the area of 'future-focused careers'. Some of the most popular sessions included topics on embracing change, how to effectively network, and some helpful and honest insights for some of the clients we work with, where they shared what makes for a great client experience in lawyers they work with.
Can you share any success stories or early feedback from participants?
We've had some great reactions from our participants this year, specifically calling out that the sessions have challenged their thinking on certain topics, improved their confidence on others, and energised them in terms of planning their next developments steps. Our most popular topic area this year was AI, which has prompted some really engaging internal discussions which we are now following up in our teams.
Why do you think this was important or resonated with people in the organisation – how is this a reflection of how the business is evolving?
Over a few different AI sessions, we explored the latest capabilities the technology could bring us, had open discussions about the changes we're seeing across industries, as well as providing practical tips on how to get the best out of the AI tools we have at DLA Piper. It's a rapidly evolving space, and these sessions showed how DLA Piper is already at the forefront of this new revolution, but also how much of an exciting journey we still have ahead of us!
