That’s right, 3 or 4 more weeks and you’ll have to wave goodbye to that trainee of yours. Chin up, son. No tears, there’s a good lad.
Of course if you are a prospective NQ then you may well be experiencing what Sir Alex Ferguson famously referred to as ‘squeaky bum time’. Your firm has 10 trainees but only 6 spaces which means there is a 40% chance that you will be looking for alternative employment. The good news is that the market is nowhere near as bad as it was this time last year, and is massively better than where we were at in 2009, but unfortunately we’re still not in a position where many firms’ requirements will stretch beyond their own trainees.
Frankly Dad, we’d rather not fly the nest right now if it’s all the same to you? I’m still not sure that I got the hang of those commercial contracts during my first seat; any chance I could do it again?
So the market isn’t bleak, but it’s not great either; what are you going to do?
Stage One: get a bloody good CV together. You are now at the point which will make or break your entire career. Get yourself a great NQ job and you’re well on the way to building up that vital PQE which will be your badge for the entirety of your professional life.
Stage Two: get another bloody good CV together. As mentioned in our last blog (http://vgcharles.blogspot.com/2011/07/selling-out.html) it’s important that your CV does the best possible job of ‘selling you’ as it can. If you would consider a post-qualification role in either employment or litigation don’t rely on one CV doing the job for you; have one for each and make sure that the right CV goes to the right vacancy.
Stage Three: get yourself a good legal recruitment consultant. Unless you’re thinking of plastering the market yourself in the hope that something sticks (not recommended) then you need to be talking to someone who knows the market in-depth. Once done you can be confident that as soon as something becomes available that you are getting a call about it; a good recruiter will also be willing to work proactively on your behalf and will have the contacts to make sure they are talking to decision makers, not that your CV will land on a pile with a hundred others. Speak to other people about the recruiters they used; if they can testify recruiter x went out into the market proactively and effectively then this is a good sign, even if that recruiter didn’t ultimately get them the job. If however recruiter y seemed to sit on their hands and wait for a job to land on their desk then it may be worth avoiding them.
Stage Four: identify what makes you good and tell the world. We wade through numerous NQ CVs which state about how well a candidate performed in a university mooting competition, or how close they came to a 2:1, or the fact that they ran a 5k race for charity. Frankly, all of that’s piddle.
What you need to be saying is what makes you different to every other NQ out there. A couple of NQs that we have worked with recently have, for example, trained with niche practices where they have actually gained a level of experience beyond that which you would expect from an NQ. Instead of doing 4 six-month seats these candidates have done a mixture of contentious and non-contentious work in a specific area such as employment or IP and have ran their own files, meaning that they actually have the experience and acumen of someone of circa 1yr PQE. If this applies to you, make sure you tell someone!
Stage Five: don’t limit yourself if you can avoid it. Of course if you are married or cohabiting then you may find that relocation is a definite ‘no’ but if for example you have trained with a Magic Circle firm you may find that, whilst opportunities within the Square Mile are limited, there is actually quite a few openings in other cities like Birmingham or Manchester which can offer work of a comparable quality and which are always keen on candidates who have had the kind of training that you have had. If you can relocate then don’t limit yourself too much; you can always return ‘home’ at some point in the future.
Stage Six: don’t give up. Many firms will appear to have closed their doors to NQ recruitment, although in some cases it may be they don’t feel their own trainees are strong enough. You may find that once their trainees have left the practice the opportunities for NQs suddenly come back onto the market. Also, in the wake of the recession firms are likely to under-recruit rather than overstaff, although after a couple of months those same practices realise that they could do with another NQ after all – so keep looking!
The signs of an improving NQ market are there for all to see, with some firms retention in the 90+% range (http://www.rollonfriday.com/TheNews/EuropeNews/tabid/58/Id/1453/fromTab/58/Default.aspx) although admittedly a few are still some way off this. You can take solace from the fact that this year is likely to be one of the best years for qualification out of the last three or four, so take on board some of the above and hopefully that ‘leaving the nest’ feeling will turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Are you a newly-qualified or soon-to-qualify solicitor still seeking that new role. Or is your firm in the market for a high quality NQ but finding that you are struggling to attract candidates of the calibre you require? To discuss NQ recruitment from either side call one of our specialist consultants at VG Charles & Co on 0121 233 5000 / 020 7649 9094 or visit our website www.vgcharles.com
