David Eatough (Law, 1981)

Barrister; solicitor

Looking at things with hindsight often gets a bad press – usually because we are second-guessing what might have been. If only I had made that investment, taken that job, worked harder! It is good advice, on the whole, to keep your eyes forward. However, sometimes a bit of critical thinking about how you ended up where you are, by looking backwards, can be very illuminating.

In the context of the celebration of the Hertford Scheme I have done this look-back-in-time and I have been surprised how clear the lessons are: first that the behaviour of elite institutions really matters to our society – striving for inclusiveness, reinventing how things are done, not accepting the status quo. These are critical behaviours for our leading universities. Secondly our age has tended towards a check-the-box approach to recruitment. The competitive pressure is simply enormous and some filters must be used. Yet, we are missing something if this is allowed to go unchallenged. Perhaps technology can be harnessed to get closer to judging individual merit, to harnessing the talent of those who are not the obvious choices. I was invested in by my school and by Hertford, who colluded to overcome my 18-year-old arrogance and ignorance, got me to interview twice in college and even to take the entrance exam on the spot – ‘or go home!’ I have tried, in my turn, to invest in people in the same way, to look again at the candidate that doesn’t fit the mould, whose approach isn’t polished, whose background is far from the norm of the elite institutions I have worked for. I have been richly rewarded in doing so.