Daphne Wong
Daphne Wong is a Vario Flexible Services consultant based in Hong Kong, specialising in the banking sector. Although she started her legal career as a barrister the highly acrimonious environment of the courtroom didn't appeal to her. It was the pull of working alongside rather than against other lawyers that saw Daphne make the move in-house to work at an investment bank.
After a few roles working freelance, Daphne applied to Vario Flexible Services seeking roles within the financial services industry. She had found Vario at a career bottleneck where she was contemplating relocation. Despite this, she knew she wanted to continue to leverage her Hong Kong legal qualifications as well as her legal experience in order to find the next job assignment in another jurisdiction. Fortunately, our Flexible Services team provided her with the best solution to her problem.
Since joining the Vario Flexible Services’ legal bench, Daphne has been placed on short-term assignment with a multi-national bank to support a Hong Kong regulatory project. The work she is doing engages a large number of stakeholders in the bank across different business areas and many jurisdictions. This has given Daphne the opportunity to understand the operational flow, division of responsibilities and risk areas of the bank on a high level within a short period of time.
I am confident that the experience has added value to my marketability in the future. It has been the perfect job that not only utilises my legal skills, but also cultivates my project management skills.
As a seasoned legal freelancer, Daphne is no stranger to the flexible lifestyle. She has realised that she has picked up some personal lessons along the way when she reflects on her journey so far. She's far more conscious of setting a boundary between her work life and personal life and feels far more relaxed as a result of this. Daphne is keen to highlight that this has in turn actually made her more committed to and more diligent with the job assignment she is placed on.
Other than the day-today administrative support, the Account Manager and staff also provide extremely friendly follow-ups to consultants. The regular touch-base truly gave me the sense that I am well-supported."
Following her career transition, Daphne sees contracting is a way to rethink whether the conventional employment model works for lawyers. Although she acknowledges that there is less security in a freelance role, she would happily trade this for the project learning opportunity that her assignment gave her in return.
Daphne's attitude has been to take a step your future self will thank you for rather than focus on what your present self might be sacrificing. If a career as a freelance flexible consultant appeals to you, you can find out more here.
If you enjoyed hearing about Daphne's Vario story, you can check out somebody else's experience here.