Our owner & MD, Chris Clarke, explains his motivations behind the ‘Break In’ scheme CLARC have launched.
‘Back in June 2005 I well and truly fell into Compliance, having left my job at Wetherspoons to go and earn my fortune in the City….well get a job doing anything to start with!
That’s how I landed as a temp at Standard Bank (now ICBC Standard Bank). The riveting task in hand was scanning & labelling numerous KYC files which was a fairly repetitive task although I did stick with this and within a few months I was lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to join the Compliance team on a permanent basis. From that day forward I’ve seen the rise not only of Compliance but Governance functions as a whole.
Now Legal, Audit, Risk & Compliance (LARC as we’ll call it) are all areas of extreme interest to job seekers as they look for that ideal role. The biggest challenge for these individuals is getting that foot in the door as very few opportunities, such as I had, exist nowadays.
This is why I’ve launched this free service to clients which has dual benefits;
Candidates – the individuals truly committed to wanting to develop a career within LARC have limited options open to them and I do not want a fee to get in the way of an individual getting that opportunity to finally get that foot in the door to move their career forward.
After all, you could be future a Head of Legal, Audit, Risk or Compliance down the line and hopefully you’ll remember CLARC helping on that journey.
Clients – the junior end of the LARC market is extremely competitive, and has been for a number of years now with salaries increasing rapidly as firms fight it out for the best candidates on the market.
With this in mind, why not consider taking a ‘Break In’ candidate who may be studying for a relevant qualification or have the aptitude to study on the job. This way you could end up with a great team member who you can help mould at the early stages of their career as you can help mould this individual at this important, early stage of their career.
Sadly there’s no guaranteed route to ‘Breaking In’ however one option I always recommend to anyone truly committed to this career path is to explore the route of taking a certificate or diploma relevant to the sector they wish to break into. For example if you’re looking to break into compliance explore the International Compliance Association (ICA) or Securities Institute (CISI) qualifications.
Studying for these will not guarantee that break however it should show a hiring manager a commitment to this sector that could make your CV stand out from the crowd.
If you’re lucky enough to get that foot in the door I only have one piece of advice……work your socks off & make it count. You never know where it could take you!’
