Life To The Max

Jake Schogger packed more experiences into his first decade after leaving QE than many achieve in a lifetime.

Jake (OE 1999–2006) 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. He has now set out on a new career path in Law.

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 (OE 1999–2006) and guitarist Michael Lane (OE 1999–2004) – 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 (three on Commercial Law, Investment Banking and 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 and plays for a five-a-side team at Warwick. 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. He has given his time to a number of charities and has worked towards making various festivals carbon-free.

Jake has now embarked on a new career as a lawyer, working for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer after completing the Legal Practice Course at BPP University. Freshfields, at which Jake took part in a summer vacation scheme during his degree, is believed to be the world’s oldest international law firm.