My transition from trainee to newly qualified solicitor

Lauren Findlay is currently undertaking her traineeship with Glasgow City Council. She has completed seats within the Council's Licensing, Corporate, Litigation and Property departments and has now qualified into the Council’s Corporate Department where she will focus on FOI, data protection and procurement.

I plan to write a series of blog posts and hope that they will provide an insight into working in-house and in particular the public sector. However, given that I am only very newly qualified (3 weeks!) I thought that a good place to start would be to share my experience of the transition from Trainee to NQ so far.

As I have been fortunate enough to secure an NQ position with the Council, the transition period will obviously be different from those starting out in a new firm or organisation – at least when it comes down to the practical side of things. Luckily I did not have to worry about all of the little things like remembering names or getting lost! Having been a trainee, I was able to start my first day without the first day nerves (well mostly!).

One of the nicest things about staying on with the Council is that throughout the traineeship I have already established good working relationships with my colleagues, which makes the transition from trainee to NQ that much easier. You are also not expected to know everything right away - colleagues are aware that you are new to the job and are realistic about your experience and abilities at this stage.

I might have dropped the 'trainee' part of my email signature but the move from trainee to NQ is definitely another major learning curve. During the traineeship I spent 7 months working in the Corporate Department and I gained experience of a lot of different matters. Whilst I am looking forward to getting to grips with these new areas, at the moment it is all a bit alien.

The first few weeks have been very similar to starting a new seat during the traineeship. There is a lot to learn and it can be a bit daunting at first. However, throughout the traineeship you learn to adapt to new working environments pretty quickly.

Since I am at the very early stages of the transition from Trainee to an NQ post I hope to be able to update you further once I am more settled into the role!