I'm Vicky. I joined Gowling five months ago.
I did my training contract in Birmingham at Clarke Willmott LLP and then I did five years in local authority at Staffordshire County Council and I am currently on my probation period and enjoying Gowling at the moment so, yeah.
I was attracted to Gowling because it's a well-established international law firm with a really impressive client base and, from my own personal perspective I really wanted to receive the best quality training and learn the most and harness my career and actually take hold of my career and being honest, be the best lawyer I can be and I think at a firm such as Gowling, I can achieve that. So that was my main driver really.
I found the interview process at Gowling really refreshing. From the off HR were heavily involved with phoning me, emailing me, checking what my needs were and ensuring that I had things like car parking, cause as I said, you know, I find logistics of an interview process the most daunting and when you are going to a good firm, you want to perform at your best, very best.
So yeah, HR were really supportive from the off and then on top of that, when I met with the interviewers they were all really friendly, they didn't seem at all phased with the fact that, you know, do I shake her hand or not? So that was good.
And when I sat in my interview as well from the off there was some Gowling Mars Bar cake sat on the table and I was offered some and I thought well, I would like some but how do I kind of get past it.
Straightaway the interviewer just popped it in my mouth for me and straightaway I thought yeah, these are the kind of people I could really see myself working with on a daily basis.
So since joining Gowling, I started off with all the equipment ordered and in place apart from my keyboard which ended up in the London office on someone else's desk but, as soon as my keyboard made its way to Birmingham things have been brilliant.
I've got my own parking bay reserved which is just brilliant in the morning to think I can just drive in, leave the car and know what I'm doing.
Everyone's been really supportive. My colleagues are really helpful and yeah, just having all the equipment in place as my previous employers had provided, was really good as well. So I've got my headset so I can answer the phone, my keyboard and everything just so, you know, I can get into work every day, hit the ground running and perform the very best that I can be which is great.