Sara Jones

Year of Graduation: 2022

  • Course BA Criminal Justice
  • School University of Wolverhampton Law School
  • Nationality British
  • Career industry Law
  • Current job title Court Usher/Administration
  • Current Company HMCTS (agency)

‘The strongest actions for a woman is to be herself, love herself and shine amongst those that never believed she could’.

Receiving a 92% for a PowerPoint presentation having never created one in my life ha!! Visiting Shrewsbury Prison with the font of all criminal history knowledge (Dr David Cox!!) - one of the best trips ever! The encouragement from the lovely group of students that made it through the pandemic with me and remained focused on completing our studies. Without the support from each other we’d have quit ten times over!
Hugely - I was snapped up by an agency to work at a local crown court as an usher. This has allowed me to further my career by forging networks and professional relationships within other sectors and get a feel for where I’d like to finally base my career. I did advocate volunteering alongside my studies and this is where I gained the skills that my new employer was really interested in. I volunteered for Witness Service at local courts for 2 years - who snapped me up because of my studies and how critically it links in with the role and public sector working.
Managing the day to day running of a court room, administrative tasks, signing in counsel, signing in visitors and defendants for the court hearings each day, bringing judges in, taking care of our jury, covering at a local magistrates so I am multi skilled in both court roles, liaising with stakeholders such as CPS and Probation within the building to assist with the smooth running of hearings/trials. We do a day in the office each each week assisting the listings department with answering calls and court enquiries.
Gaining not only a first class degree as a single parent of 10 children, having left a violent relationship early into my studies, juggling that, volunteering AND 3 part time jobs before securing and managing full time employment in a job I absolutely love, but gaining a place on postgraduate study for a Law conversion course and sitting on some high profile trials already.
Read. Read and read ha! You cannot read too much - only too little! Volunteer where you can - it’s highly valued in the employment field and will set you apart from your fellow graduates. Think about your dissertation across the summer before you begin the module, begin reading around the subject for base knowledge.