Advice for Law Graduate with love of IT.

Hi,

I am in my mid-30s and wish more than anything that I had done a degree in Computing (which has always been a hobby of mine).

Instead, I went down the legal route and did Law Degree, followed by a Masters Degree and then completed the Solicitor exams (LPC).

I decided, however, that I did not want to be a lawyer after all and have been working in insurance for the past 8 years, as a Claims Handler.

I am desperately looking to do something else. I would love to have a job in IT but know that it is going to be impossible without any formal qualifications. I cannot really go back to doing a second undergraduate degree as I have a family now.

I spend most of my time messing around with computers in my free time and everyone always asks me for help rather than our official IT guys at work.

Furthermore, I am currently learning Python and getting on with it really well.

I did try to steer my legal career towards IT wherever I could so I specialised in Intellectual property adn did my Masters dissertation on the legal protection of Software.

My question - is there any way I might be able to work with IT, in any capacity, using my law academics and insurance experience?

If so, what sort of job roles should I look for?

OR, am I wasting my time and shall have to accept that IT shall always be a hobby only for me?

Thanks for any advice.

Reply 1

Dowie

I don't see why not, perhaps easier if you were fresh out of university but still there are probably options available.

you could consider a conversion course - an MSc aimed at non-computer science grads, basically a condensed undergrad with bits missing.

Without any serious technical background you're probably best off targeting Business Analyst positions.

I used to work in financial software and on one project I worked on there was a Business Analyst who was a law graduate, looking at linked in she is still working for the same IT consultancy firm and is in some sort of compliance related role. There is certainly call for people who can both work with developers and understand how new regulations apply (also, at least in my old firm, that sort of thing was considered a bit boring compared to say working on some new front office related project etc..) I'd assume that some who actually wants to get involved with all the compliance/legal stuff and read all the associated paperwork could actually be a plus to a few fintech related firms. In fact communication within banks is often a bit crap so being the go to person at a vendor can also put your name out there with clients too if you end up writing say the documentation relating to new upgrades and how new regulations will impact the system etc..etc..

I mean that is just my perspective from financial technology at least - are there in house development teams in your current workplace or specific insurance related software vendors you could approach? Alternatively what about legal software/data vendors - Both Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters/Westlaw provide services to the legal profession for example, maybe try them for BA type roles. Or maybe they've got support/client services roles even that require legal experience. I mean there are functional support roles in fintech that recruit masters grads in finance so I wouldn't be surprised if someone providing legals services would want people with a decent level of legal knowledge on their support teams. Technical account management would be another area to explore - it doesn't deal with the sales side so much but is more of a hybrid between dedicated support and some consulting + simply being the point of contact for certain clients to get things escalated etc..