Boris Ignachkov Meet Simranjeet Mann! She is a trainee solicitor at Womble Bond Dickinson and a rising content creator. Simranjeet’s social media accounts became popular for her ability to motivate and inspire aspiring lawyers, and most importantly for providing useful careers advice.
However, her content is not one of the usual “lawfluencer”. She does not glamourize the life of a trainee solicitor, instead, Simranjeet shows the real life of a junior legal professional. Ups and downs, successes and failures, humour and creativity – you can find all of that in her content!
Her YouTube videos inspire and educate the next generation of lawyers. Simranjeet educates her audience on the training contract application process and gives them tips on how to excel in their early careers. Make sure to subscribe to her YouTube channel if you are an aspiring legal professional!
That is just one thing that she does! On her floral-themed Instagram, you may find her giving some more personal day-to-day insights into a life of a trainee solicitor. While on her blog, she treats her followers to regular legal and life-related posts and provides a range of useful resources.
We also asked Simranjeet a few questions:
Do you think personal branding could be used to enhance job applications?
Absolutely – there is a lot involved in creating and maintaining a personal brand. This could include public speaking, creativity, tech savviness and approachability. These are all skills that employers typically look for, and you can use your brand to prove you possess these transferable skills. Furthermore, in the same way we automatically trust trainers from brands like Nike (unless you prefer stripes over checks!), we are more likely to trust someone who has built a strong personal brand. In a career like law, people always say it’s about ‘who you know.’ When you have built a strong personal brand, future opportunities do automatically flock to you, and you end up building a strong circle of connections too.
Do you consider yourself a “lawfluencer” and what does that term mean to you?
Albeit the term ‘influencer’ makes me cringe, I do consider myself a ‘lawfluencer’ but I do not want to be limited to law-based content. The reason why I do consider myself a ‘lawfluencer’ is because the majority of my content is about the Training Contract process, and I aim to provide an honest and authentic insight into the legal career from my lens. That’s what the term means to me I guess – it’s an individual who creates content that aims to not romanticise the legal career, but instead tries to provide an honest perspective, combined with the objective to ‘give back’ to the community by sharing advice and tips. As mentioned above, I do not want to limit myself to law-based content, so I aim to be more of a ’positive influencer’ (one who motivates, helps others and is authentic), rather than being just a ‘lawfluencer.’
What is your favourite social media platform and why?
This is a tough one as there are two platforms that take the top spot for me. I think the social media platform I’ve found most fulfilling and less toxic is YouTube. I’ve learnt a lot from other YouTubers and it is also the platform I put the most effort in. I think it’s my favourite because of these reasons, but it also allows me to be my most creative in a video editing (a skill I’m always interested in improving). A close second is TikTok – the potential of this platform is immense. You could create and edit a video in 10 seconds and it could go viral, just like that. This makes the platform very exciting to me.
What is your greatest achievement so far and why?
Creating and maintaining my YouTube channel has been my greatest achievement; the fact that something that started as a spontaneous thought, which I’ve maintained for nearly 2 years now is crazy to me. I think it’s my greatest achievement because I’m proud that my videos have helped at least one person out. There is a great sense of fulfilment when you help people out and share your experiences. My YouTube channel has increased my organisation, commitment, determination and confidence, together with opening opportunities for me that I could not imagine. Of course, my YouTube channel still has a long way to go, but I’m proud of the progress so far!
If you were to quit law now, what would be your next career?
I’d start my own business – I’m not sure what the business would specialise in though! I’ve always been quite entrepreneurial, and building my YouTube channel and personal brand has accelerated this business mindset further.