Lived Experience Interview: How City firms can attract young, diverse talent
(Part one of a continuing monthly series)
“Senior recognition of difference can enhance the City’s future generations of talent,” George Grammer-Taylor, Trainee Solicitor at Clyde & Co
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Why the concept of professionalism can be problematic
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Guidance for young grads on the best way to deal with rejection
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Why being “woke” should be embraced
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Three ways City firms can signal they’re serious about appealing to young, diverse talent
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The importance of small acts of kindness – and how overlooking them can make your office an undesirable place to work for young, creative, diverse people
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Why quiet quitting is a sign of a poor work culture
“My father was a tyre shop owner,” says George Grammer-Taylor. “Think Phil Mitchell from Eastenders.”
George is an openly proud gay junior legal professional, currently finishing his training contract at City law firm Clyde & Co. He comes off as more of a male Elle Woods than a Mitchell brother.
“My nan used to work with the Metropolitan Police as a supervisor for the telephone call centres. She was working when the 7/7 bombings occurred. She and my dad were the kindest souls imaginable. They taught me that kindness and having a people-first attitude was where you found passion and happiness within yourself.”
We’re discussing how City firms can make themselves more appealing to young, diverse talent in a working world riddled with inter-generational conflict. While Gen Z feels undervalued, managers and senior leaders complain how hard it is to attract good junior talent.
The “professionalism” straitjacket (or should that be “straight” jacket?)
Just a few minutes into our conversation, George hits upon a major potential issue that may be fuelling inter-generational miscommunication: the curse of “professionalism”. George reels off a list of accomplishments that would make Tony Stark feel like an underachiever:
- Pro bono work for Amicus ALJ, an organisation that provide assistance on capital cases in the US, remotely through pro bono volunteers from affiliate international law firms and clinics
- Ran three full marathons and three half marathons for a range of charities including Terrence Higgins Trust, Teenage Cancer Trust and Asthma + Lung UK
- Fundraising and raising awareness for a local East London charity Positive East
- Served as one of the UK leads for Clyde & Co’s global LGBTQIA+ network, “Pryde & Co”
- Named one of 2024’s O-listers – an annual list of UK legal professionals who “make the legal profession better for those who are in it, those who use it and those who are entering it”
- Named “Mentor of the Year” at the 2023 GROW Mentoring Awards
“I was awarded and recognised on the O List because my nominees felt I go above and beyond in my day job to put people first, whereas I have previously been advised that this should not be my primary aim”, George explains.
“I’ve had people question my commitment to being a lawyer, and recommend I work in the DEI space, due to my proactive engagement with Pride, Pro Bono and Social Impact,” he adds.
So is the concept of professionalism itself a potential problem?
“I think so,” he replies. “Because it’s subjective in regards to your social background, where you went to school, your academic choices and grades, your university, and I guess the inter-generational perspectives on “what is work”. There will naturally be a difference in attitudes, appearance and general approach to work as society progresses, and I believe there is power in allowing all voices to be heard. After all, we are now working in a post-pandemic hybrid setting and all have different needs and wants from a professional to personal work-life balance.”
“I strive best when people are considerate and appreciative”
Of course, there’s also the spectre of gendered clothing expectations in the City. “I remember being told once to dress more “appropriately”, as men should be wearing a collared shirt as a minimum, and I remember finding contention with that,” George recalls.
“I understand the need for client-facing formal wear, but in normal office attire, I believe that we are now in a position of flexibility and fluidity. As a male-presenting person, my fashion choices should have the same flexibility in colour, design and variation as my female-presenting colleagues are awarded. I want to wear more than just a three-quarter zip/shirt combo.”
For George, professionalism is primarily about how you conduct yourself and “ensuring that the work you are doing is the best that you can do and making sure that the person you’re doing it for feels appreciated and acknowledged.”
He adds: “I work best when people are kind, considerate and appreciative without asking me to compromise or change my own personality and style.”
Gen Z talent want to work hard and be incredibly productive, it seems. But they don’t see why this necessitates being in the office 24/7 or dressing in a suit and tie all the time.
Dealing with rejection
George has faced rejection multiple times in his legal career. At first, he found this difficult: “When I started my training contract journey, I was quite emotional about everything.”
After a while, his reaction to criticism changed, in part due to being diagnosed with ADHD during his training contract. “Although I never really go out of my way to declare my neurodivergent status at work, it has helped me understand myself a lot more. Before, I didn’t have access to tools to help me with my neurodivergence, whereas now I’ve had access to employee support resources to help me in the best way possible.”
Other junior employees in the City can learn from George’s refusal to take negative feedback personally. But firms themselves would benefit from making sure their managers and supervisors know how to give feedback effectively.
“My supervisor Charlotte is so good at providing feedback in a constructive way to help me develop, because she’s taken the time to get to know who I am and how I work,” George says. “If she wants me to change how I do something, she gives advice and examples of what good looks like to emulate. The feedback is delivered to empower, not shatter, my future.”
George thinks this approach is the best way to “get the best out of people, to know who they are and how they work, so you can then directly work with them and give them feedback that they’ll be receptive to, not make them feel demoralised.”
Why we *still* need to promote more diversity in City recruitment
George says, “I hear far too often at networking events that trainee intakes feature a substantial amount of Russell Group university students who have a private school background and complain (surprisingly quite openly at networking events) that earning under £100,000 a year at a City firm is awful. I did not know how to react, as I did not know anyone earning six figures when I started this journey and only know my friend Jake now who’s smashing it as an NQ in a big US firm.”
And it’s not that all the recruits are straight, white males, either. As George says, that’s a lazy stereotype. Rather, “I think it goes more down to the lens of a ‘traditional City recruit’ having the same background, points of view, and general aesthetic. In applying this lens, everyone would seem to be the same person and where’s the fun in that?”
That has begun to change in the years since Covid, George believes, as now he does see more young people coming through who break that mould – “whether it be different gender, different identity, different ethnicities within senior leadership or more openness about sexuality. But when I first started, even the simple existence of having worked as cabin crew and having done A Levels in Dance and Media Studies were barriers.”
George thinks paper applications are still a real barrier to people like him who don’t fit the usual mould. As soon as he had the chance to record videos of himself in applications – or to speak with recruiters and employers face to face – he was able to impress:
“Every time I did a video interview assessment, or spoke with someone, people saw who I was. And that’s the thing, isn’t it? Once you give up that perception of what a professional’s background should be on paper, and what an ‘ideal candidate’ typically is, you can actually find great people who bring something different to the workplace.”
George cites the existence of recruitment schemes specifically aimed at attracting more diverse talent as a key driver of increasing diversity over the last few years. As far as he’s concerned, such schemes are needed and they work well. “For me, without schemes focused on social mobility or pride, I would never have got into the City at all,” George says.
Overcoming inter-generational miscommunication
Returning to one of our big themes – how the generations seem to talk past each other without ever really connecting – George references the quiet quitting phenomenon:
“It is often shared that many senior colleagues will outwardly express about how bad their pay is, how bad conditions are, but they are unlikely to leave. Whereas you’ll find that a junior, a young grad, won’t say anything. They’ll disengage slightly, and suddenly one day they’ll be like, here’s my notice. And that’s the difference. Juniors often don’t make noise. However, what we all expect is general humanity and decorum.”
Put another way, for many gen Z professionals, quiet quitting is a perfectly rational response to a workplace that won’t give them what they want.
“There’s a real issue with not embracing ‘modern expectations’, when I think actually what we’re asking for as a society now is quite healthy, to be honest,” George reflects. He pauses for a moment before adding:
“The terms ‘Gen Z’ and ‘woke’ are both viewed so negatively. But I think woke is great because it’s calling out things that are socially, morally, or generally not great. If you listen to what they’re saying, a lot of it actually makes sense. It’s quite healthy. It’s quite boundary setting. And I think it’s a great thing.”
And while George can’t speak for everyone in his generation, he is crystal clear what he wants – a job which allows him to do good in society while enjoying a decent work-life balance:
“I love a job with a genuine work-life balance, where a salary reasonably reflects my working hours. I would not expect to be earning over £100,000 on a targeted billing of 6-7 hours a day. I think it is important to recognise that – after all, this inter-city salary war where NQ’s are nearing the £200,000 rate, what are the expectations to have that salary with such junior experience?”
It’s not just about salary, either: “I also love when there are gender-neutral policies in place, such as Clyde & Co’s gender-neutral parental leave policy. I may be in the minority, and I do appreciate that some juniors may want to sacrifice personal time in the short term for long-term income, but for me, I think most salaries in the City are rather generous. I just seek to work somewhere where I can be my authentic self, engage with technically challenging legal work and develop to being a fantastic lawyer, whilst recognising that to be my very best at work, I need to have that time away from work for personal life and rest.”
George further adds that his current firm, Clyde & Co, have bridged the generation gap by coming up with values that really resonate with all colleagues.
“The two core Clyde & Co values that I love are ‘celebrate difference’ and ‘act boldly’,” George says. “Our firm encourages us to celebrate what’s different about every one of us, and also act boldly in what we do. There are a lot of places that don’t and will likely never have that in this lifetime, and I think that could be a factor in not attracting the greatest diverse pool of upcoming talent.”
Top three tips for City firms looking to attract young, diverse talent
In summary, George is a talented and driven person who has made a real impact at his firm even as a trainee. Yet he may never have reached this point without the help of pro-diversity initiatives. What are his top three tips for companies who are serious about diversity and inclusion?
- Junior talent gravitates to where they can see themselves reflected in senior leadership. “I get asked a lot at networking events, ‘I can’t see anyone like me, am I going to be ok as a junior?’ Let’s celebrate and be proud of diversity in senior leadership where it exists, and give diverse up-and-coming leaders a prominent platform on the firm’s social media.”
- Small visible actions can have a bigger impact than grand gestures. “For example, Oslo Pride released a short commercial recently about wearing something with a rainbow. Whether that’s a rainbow lanyard or a rainbow pin, it’s a subtle nod to acknowledge that if you’re queer, you can talk to me and you’re safe.”
- Recruiters and hiring managers, “please do not directly hire yourself. If we could get to a place in recruitment where a member of DEI could sit and contribute to the outcomes of every interview, this would enhance the diversity in junior talent greatly.”
As George says, “what you’re looking for when you recruit is someone who’ll be useful to your team, but that doesn’t have to be a carbon copy of yourself. We need to really celebrate difference and really look for candidates who can bring something different, a different thought, different perspective, a different experience. Ultimately, if you haven’t got that, there may not be as much room to grow.”
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