The opportunity

The Early Careers team comprises four people: Senior Manager, two Officers (one in Attraction & Recruitment and one in HR & Development), and an Assistant. The team are responsible for recruiting up to 18 trainee solicitors and four solicitor apprentices per annum for a start date in September, as well as approximately 40 attendees for 2 two-week vacation schemes (one in spring and one in summer), alongside other programmes and offerings. The role requires a confident individual who will need to represent the firm and team both externally and internally. The role demands a proactive approach and project management skills are essential. The individual will have a range of previous experience in event organisation, employer branding, marketing, and recruitment.

The firm

Bird & Bird opens up a world of possible for lawyers and professionals everywhere. Here you can advise major enterprises and high-growth businesses on matters that are often transformative in nature, and alongside people who are truly collegiate in the way they work with everyone at Bird & Bird. We are one international firm, where over 70% of our work involves teams from across our firm. And that is only going to increase. It is this common purpose and shared approach that makes for a more productive, and collaborative place to work.

The team

Bird & Bird's Human Resource (HR) team's mission is to empower and support all employees to achieve their potential at the firm. We do this by encouraging and building strong relationships across all departments to cultivate a friendly, collaborative environment.

In London, the team comprises HR professionals across all areas from graduate and lateral recruitment, learning & development to teams specialising in generalist HR, our HR system, partner HR and diversity and inclusion and corporate social responsibility: all working alongside our international colleagues in supporting our 32 offices. From your first to your last day at the firm, we will act as your supportive advisors to ensure that you can perform to the best of your ability in your role. Collaborative and committed to creating a valuable service to the firm, we are focused on providing the best service to all Bird & Bird employees and partners.

Strict confidentiality and discretion are key to this role. A proven track record for accuracy, attention to detail and the ability to work efficiently to tight deadlines is key.

What you'll do

Attraction & Marketing

• Identify opportunities to promote Bird & Bird's employment proposition, key competitor activity, and potential candidate populations for targeting purposes.
• Design and execute an attraction strategy of multi-channel marketing and events to attract top talent to the firm's early careers opportunities and programmes, including digital marketing, careers fairs, open days, and in-person and virtual presentations, networking, and events.
• Attend marketing events including careers fairs, pop-up stands, virtual events, open days and arranging for representatives to attend. This will also involve presenting at these events.
• Manage existing and cultivate new relationships with key contacts, such as advertisers, partnerships, publications, networks, and charities, including proactively reaching out to external stakeholders such as potential organisations.
• Provide all content for firm biographies, key statistics, and across a number of external publications and advertisers.
• Create, manage and deliver digital content for the Early Careers UK social media accounts and website, to attract top talent and build the firm's reputation online.
• Collaborate with the Marketing and Business Development team on early careers content for shared media channels, such as LinkedIn.
• Design marketing materials to showcase the early career opportunities and programmes at the firm, including digital and printed brochures.
• Manage early careers' digital footprint, ensuring consistency with the firm-wide employer brand.

Recruitment & Selection

• Lead the end-to-end process of recruiting aspiring trainee solicitors and solicitor apprentices to the opportunities and programmes at the firm, escalating any issues to the Senior Early Careers Manager.
• Manage the candidate management process and ensure an effective management of applicant tracking systems (ATS) and databases.
• Review and assess application forms, critical reasoning tests, written assessments, and video interviews, as well as organise and facilitate virtual and in-person assessment centres for all opportunities and programmes.
• Advise internal applicants on the firm's recruitment process and provide feedback throughout the process to these internal applicants.
• Act as the first point of escalation for any candidate queries that come into the Early Careers Assistant
• Implement reasonable adjustments for candidates, escalating any issues/concerns to the Senior Early Careers Manager where appropriate.
• Manage the attraction, recruitment and selection of the firm's Early Bird Scholarship, Flying Start Programme, Open Days, and Virtual Experience Programme, as well as ad-hoc opportunities such as 10,000 Black Interns.
• Conduct feedback calls with candidates following assessment centres and final-stage interviews.
• Assist the Senior Early Careers Manager with facilitating wash-up sessions and moderation following assessments and managing the offer process.
• Manage onboarding for Vacation Schemes and in-person work experience opportunities at the firm.
• Oversea the organisation and delivery of the Vacation Schemes and in-person work experience opportunities, including preparation sessions, allocation of supervisors and buddies, liaising with departments for feedback on candidates, and participating in social events and networking.
• Develop and grow a pipeline of future trainee solicitors through the Early Bird Scholarship programme, with workshops, skills sessions, networking opportunities, and mentoring.

Trainee HR & Development

• Assist the Early Careers Officer (HR & Development) with future trainee communications, onboarding, seat rotations, appraisals, qualification, and general HR duties.
• Assist the Early Careers Officer (HR & Development) with trainee and solicitor apprentice induction and learning and development throughout their training/apprenticeship.

Diversity & Inclusion

• Implement the early careers strategy for attraction and recruitment, with diversity and inclusion and best practice in mind.
• Collate and analyse diversity data from the attraction and recruitment process to measure ROI and ensure a diverse cohort of candidates, and report this to the Senior Early Careers Manager.
• Assist with D&I projects or assignments where required (e.g., Social Mobility Employer Index)

Ad-Hoc Responsibilities

• Assist the Senior Early Careers Manager in the review and maintenance of budgets for early careers initiatives.
• Assist the Senior Early Careers Manager with any ad-hoc projects or tasks.
• Delegate to and oversee the responsibilities of the Early Careers Assistant (in attraction/recruitment).

About you

The successful candidate will have:

• previous experience, preferably within a legal/professional services environment)
• an understanding of the UK education system is essential
• an understanding of the SQE and hiring apprenticeships
• excellent communication skills with the ability to deal with people at all levels
• excellent computer literacy including Word, Excel and PowerPoint

In addition, we expect candidates to demonstrate:

Team working: the ability and willingness to work as part of a close-knit team.

Proactivity: able to prioritise and manage initiatives independently, completing next steps.

Knowledge: an understanding of the SRA requirements and regulations in relation to periods of recognised training, and an interest in the recent changes relating to qualification as a solicitor.

Motivation: this role requires the job holder to be self-motivated and able to use their initiative. A 'can do' approach is essential.

Communication skills: able to deal with external contacts and suppliers; able to represent the firm to external contacts confidently.

Technical qualifications: the role requires a competent level of computer literacy; previous knowledge of a graduate recruitment database is essential.

IT skills: knowledge of Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint; knowledge of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Misc: proven organisational and event management skills; able to present confidently to internal and external audiences; ability to multi-task; able to remain calm in demanding situations; previous HR or Graduate Recruitment experience; confidential.

The main responsibilities of this role are outlined above; however, this description is not exhaustive, and the job holder may be required to undertake additional duties from time to time to ensure the smooth running of the department. The role may require some working outside our normal working hours of 9:30am- 5:30pm.

For further information about this role, please click on the link below to view the Job Description or contact talentacquisitionlondon@twobirds.com. To apply, click on the apply now button to submit your details.

Bird & Bird opens up a world of possible for lawyers and professionals everywhere. Working for a leading international law firm like Bird & Bird means working alongside people who are truly collegiate in the way they work with everyone. We work as one global team, with over 70% of work involving people from across the firm. And that's only increasing! It's this common purpose and shared approach that makes for a more productive and collaborative place to work. Your firm. Your future.

If you want to find out more, visit www.twobirds.com

As a disability and neurodiversity inclusive employer we want to ensure that you have a barrier-free recruitment experience at Bird & Bird. If you require any adjustments during the recruitment process, please provide details to your recruitment contact who will be in touch to discuss any details provided and understand more about your individual adjustment needs.