Work hard, play hard

Jake Schogger has packed more into the nine years since he left QE than many achieve in a lifetime.

Having already sampled life as a professional rock musician, a drum teacher, a marathon-runner, a football manager, a Bollywood film extra, a writer and an entrepreneur, Jake (OE 1999–2006) is now on track to start a new career as a lawyer at multinational firm Freshfields next year.

On leaving School, he embarked on a gap year, safe in the knowledge that he had a place to study Animation at Bournemouth University. During that gap year, however, a band in which he played as the drummer along with two other QE leavers – bassist Justin Pither and guitarist Michael Lane –was offered a small record deal.

“The band was (quite embarrassingly) called Minus IQ,” says Jake. “We spent the next four years recording and touring around the UK, and eventually released an album. Our singer quit at this stage so we all applied for university!”

He went to Warwick, where he studied Law & Business. “At Warwick I got very involved in a number of societies and helped to establish the Commercial Law Society.” He regularly assisted younger students with their CVs, job applications and interview preparation.  “This gave me the idea to write a short guide to help these students to enhance their commercial awareness. This guide was initially distributed free throughout Warwick University, but demand was so high that I decided to develop it into something more substantial and release it nationally the following year. There is now a series of four books aimed at different City careers (Commercial Law, Investment Banking, Consultancy and an Application, Interview & Internship Handbook). These are complemented by a website (www.citycareerseries.com) and approximately 7,000 have been sold during the past 12 months in more than 15 countries.”

While studying for his degree, Jake was elected president of Warwick Finance Societies, which, with its sub-societies, is regarded as the university’s largest society. He also won places on vacation study programmes in H R College of Commerce in Mumbai, India, and at Shandong University China. Over the years, he has completed the London and New York marathons, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and reached Mount Everest Base Camp. A keen footballer, he founded and now manages a team. Jake also has a 12-year record of teaching drums, helping a number of students through grades 1-8, while also regularly playing drums in the University Big Band. Jake has given his time to a number of charities and has worked towards making various festivals carbon-free.

He is currently following the Legal Practice Course at BPP University, which he completes in February 2016.  In August next year, he starts his training contract with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which is believed to the oldest international law firm, where he took part in a summer vacation scheme during his degree.

“I plan to spend the six months I have off prior to that developing additional books and travelling,” he says. “I am about to release a handbook on Consultancy, then next plan to work on a Business Writing Handbook. Who knows where things will progress from there!”

Jake has recently been in touch with the School to discuss helping current pupils with their career plans.