One of the great pleasures in this job is hearing from readers. Some want to express an opinion on a pressing issue in our compliance world; others want to suggest articles we should write. The other day I received this note from a man named Jaco Jansen, apparently a budding lawyer in South Africa:
I'm a 25-year-old South African citizen, with a bachelor's degree and a South African law degree. In two weeks I'll finish my practical period and be admitted as an attorney under South African law.
I'm very much interested in moving into compliance, and would appreciate any guidance you can give me. For example, are there any companies that would be willing to hire someone who knows nothing about compliance, but would like to learn? Would that company further be willing to train that person in compliance?
Being a South African citizen will obviously be a problem for an American company; I assume these companies would rather hire people from the United States. But I hope you can provide me advice.
Jaco said nothing about himself beyond those basic facts. I don't know whether he is married and caring for family, or graduated from a top law school, or lives in Johannesburg or a rural area. In that sense, then, he's a perfect blank slate: a young, enterprising person who wants advice on how to make a career in corporate compliance. Let's answer him here.
Jaco,
Congratulations on finishing your education and entering the workforce. If corporate compliance is where you want to make your career, you're in a superb position to attract the attention of global corporations. Those businesses are desperate for skilled labor to bolster their ethics and compliance departments. With some thoughtful career moves now, you can have a bright future for a long while.
First, stop worrying about your nationality; it will, in fact, work in your favor. Many global corporations are still based in the United States, but their most promising engines of growth (for years to come, most likely) are overseas. More business overseas means more chance for misconduct overseas, and that's going to drive demand for compliance officers who know how to navigate those foreign cultures. Even better for you, South African law is rooted in the same legal framework as Britain and the United States, so our cultures won't be that foreign to you either. Anyone who can act as a bridge between corporate headquarters in America and local employees around the world will have an edge.
Second, based on my point above: don't rush to work in the United States in the compliance department of some global business based here. Seek out smaller employers or smaller business units in Africa, that put you as close to the “shop floor” of the organization as possible. A large corporate legal department will saddle you with drudgery: proofreading contracts, reviewing documents in discovery, answering complaints (mostly frivolous) from employees, and the like. Those tasks are important, yes, but they only teach you how a legal department works—which is not the same as how a business works, and that is what you need to learn above all else.
After all, compliance is about getting employees to obey policies and procedures. That's not easy. People value the freedom to manage their jobs as they see fit, and when you present them with a new policy, they will automatically assume you are trying to curtail that freedom. Worse, most times they'll be right; you will be trying to curtail their freedom, and they'll resent you for it. The best way to overcome that distrust is to know how employees actually work: what they like and dislike about their jobs, how they get paid, what they wish they could do, what they consider a waste of time.
You don't learn those things by sitting in a corporate legal department studying regulations and drafting policies. You learn them by working next to employees, watching them and talking to them. You study what their interests are, what the company's interests are, and where those interests overlap. You pinpoint what doesn't overlap, what you might need to force onto employees, and what the consequences might be. Then you draft the policy. But it all starts with you learning how the business works.
Lastly, don't worry about precisely what all the rules and regulations for your business are. That's why we have outside counsel, who will always be happy to brief you on the latest rules in exchange for a few billable hours. They are the theoreticians, studying rules in the abstract. You must be the tactician, applying those rules in a real company with real people. Your ability to analyze interests, assess risks, and resolve infractions and disputes will always be more important than your factual command of any particular regulation.
That's my advice, but of course I only sit on my perch here at Compliance Week; I've never been a compliance officer myself, nor will I ever become one. Can anyone else on the front lines give our young applicant more practical advice?