Selen Alkan shares her unusual and exciting career journey working for Post Office UK.
Selen Alkan (International Business Law, 2022) who works for the Post Office as a Contract Analyst recently caught up with the Alumni Office to share her less traditional career progression: “I graduated from CCLS with a degree in International Business Law LLM with Distinction in 2022 as a Jean Monnet Scholar. I received a Distinction for my dissertation entitled “Dual-Class Listing under UK and EU laws: Is It Compatible with Corporate Governance Principles?”. During my time at CCLS, I acted as a student legal adviser at qLegal where I had a chance to provide pro-bono legal advice to two sets of clients along with fellow student legal advisers from different LLM. specialisms. I also participated in the Regulation and Compliance mentoring programme as a mentee.
While pursuing my LLM, I worked for Divido, a FinTech company operating in the BNPL (buy-now-pay-later) industry. My most notable experience at Divido was when myself and my teammates launched an access to law programme called Divido & Conquer in collaboration with Queen Mary University London. The programme allowed undergraduate law students to build up the confidence to enter the legal world and experience the fast-paced in-house environment.
Upon graduation, I started to work for the Post Office as a Contract Analyst, which I believe has been a great career move from a fast-paced scale-up to an established high-street brand. The Post Office offers a range of retail services, such as mail, banking and government services through a network of 11.500 branches. Apart from its strong retail network, the Post Office is driven by a social purpose, serving as a community hub of many towns and villages across the UK, which keeps me motivated about my role.
My day-to-day role is to advise on high-value and complex commercial and IT agreements, such as licensing, hardware, software, technology service and escrow agreements and other relevant documentation, which are subject to public regulations. I liaise with internal stakeholders and suppliers to address contractual queries and ensure that contractual risks are identified and managed.
My time at CCLS has been instrumental in both my career and personal journey since I had a chance to get involved in thought-provoking academic discussions with excellent academics and students. If I could give a piece of advice to current students, it would be to make the most of the opportunities the CCLS offers."
To connect with Selen, please see her LinkedIn profile Selen Alkan | LinkedIn