3 Mistakes I made as a Junior Lawyer

My journey to a legal career was relatively predetermined; I knew I wanted to be a lawyer since I was about six years old. However, my career in recruitment was not something I knew I wanted at all, in fact, I thought it would be a step down and would essentially be a ‘cop out’. But I’ve learnt so much since then.

It started when I left Clifford Chance. I didn’t get an Associate position in Litigation, which is what I wanted. Unfortunately for me, it was extremely competitive. I also suffer from a mental health issue which meant I had to have reduced hours at work. I knew I had to work in a place that would accept me and my mental health requirements, so I chose to interview at places which had, on the face of it, good policies.

This is where I started to make mistakes.

Don’t be like me

Having just been told I wouldn’t be offered a position on qualification in the department I wanted, I was pretty desperate. As such, I put my CV into everywhere I could. I applied to firms directly, I signed up to an online platform which links you up with all the City law firms where you can submit your CV to them through the portal and I enlisted about 5 different recruiters (mistake number 1). By some miracle, one of my recruiters managed to get me an interview at a firm I’d never heard of. They said it would be a good place for someone with my hours requirements as there would be a good work/life balance and they had policies around mental health.

I interviewed there, and got the job. I then didn’t interview anywhere else despite being offered (mistake number 2). I also didn’t tell the law firm about my mental health requirements before I started. The reason was that I didn’t know how my mental health was going to affect my ability to work the hours required, as I was actually able to work 9-6pm (just not much outside of that).

I had to leave about 9 months later during the pandemic. I had a few offers on the table at the time before I left, but these fell through because of the pandemic; they were all for litigation associate positions. I then went through a period of having six months without employment, and a friend thought I should try interviewing at a friend’s recruitment agency. I went to the interview thinking I wouldn’t like it and that it wasn’t for me, but I thought I’d give it a try.

What can we learn from my story?

Mistake number 1: I let my desperation get the better of me.

Your CV is precious and should be respected. Don’t do things like submitting it to firms that aren’t looking to hire at your level or putting it in for a role that you don’t want. I should have enlisted one or two good recruiters who have strong relationships with clients and let them decide where my CV should go, but of course making sure I kept track of which firms it was going to.

A good recruiter will know who is hiring and when. An even better recruiter will be able to get you 3-4 interviews so you can decide for yourself once you’ve met the teams which firm you’d like to go to.

I wasn’t thinking logically and I thought that maybe the HR team hadn’t seen my CV at a relevant firm or maybe if I apply through someone else I’ll have a better chance. It doesn’t work like that!

Mistake number 2: Attend all of your interviews and keep an open mind.

I interviewed at one place and took that job. I immediately really liked them so I couldn’t be bothered to (a) prepare for other interviews and (b) to hear firms out about their cultures. My closed mind meant I didn’t get the right role and I didn’t end up in a place that made me happy. If I had continued to interview I could have made a better informed decision and ended up somewhere really great.

Mistake number 3: I didn’t have a strategy for finding a role, which meant I ended up speaking to every recruiter that would call me.

Since becoming a recruiter, I’ve learnt the detriment that this caused my search.

• If you have more than one recruiter, it means they can’t be confident their conversations with their clients about you aren’t being duplicated. 60-70% of roles are created through having the right candidate put forward at the right time; but it takes having a strong relationship with the client and sometimes a lot of persuasion. By having more than one recruiter, you’re missing out on these roles!
• Applying directly to a law firm is very ill-advised. I strongly believe that having someone represent you makes all the difference to your success;
• Firstly, as a recruiter it’s our job to convince the client to take you for an interview. This involves things like providing a summary of you in advance of sending you over;
• It’s pretty hard to chase the outcome of your application without annoying the HR representative in charge – and at the end of the day, if you annoy them too much you might not get the role!
• It’s also really difficult and awkward to negotiate your own salary, start date and any signing bonuses. This doesn’t really apply at the NQ level, but it’s still something to consider;
• Lastly, when a decision is being made they might ask the recruiter to confirm certain things like whether you have a particular type of experience, but it’s very unlikely they’ll ask you directly;
• You should aim to send your CV to at least 10 firms. This gives you a 50% chance of getting an interview – of course that depends on the strength of your CV (it could be higher or lower). Attending interviews at three different firms then gives you a 60% chance of getting a job at the end of it. Basically, the more firms you apply to, the more likely you are to get a job. The problem is, you have to be clear on which firms you’d actually take if they offered you a job, so do your research!

If you have any comments or questions coming from this article, please get in touch with Larissa at RedLaw.