I was not kept on by my firm - there was only one job I wanted and it was not in my current seat, I applied but my colleague in that seat got it. I have just qualified and am unemployed. Really just wondering if anyone is in the same situation as me, as apart from the fact it is a pretty lonely and worrying feeling, I would appreciate any advice!
Although I had two second interviews in August the market in London is virtually non-existent at the moment for NQ personal injury and clinical negligence jobs, which seem like the most likely route for me. I had wanted to cover public law and human rights in my training contract but the firm was not accommodating.
I know I am being picky - I do not want to move out of London as my partner is firmly based here professionally, and my entire life is here. Also I know the kind of work I definitely do NOT want to do, and I am not applying for it.
I have applied for a paralegal job in a civil liberties department - although I know some would say this is a stupid idea. I am also applying for non law jobs but at interview (I have had one so far) they were concerned to know whey I was abandoning law - it's a recession and I have transferrable skills, I wanted to shout!!!
If anyone has any thoughts or advice I would be very grateful to hear it. I know I will be able to look back at this period at some stage but right now I have whopping loans to pay off and don't know what to do.
Ninja - it's probably not much consolation but you are certainly not alone. The NQ market is dead as a dodo everywhere. We have qualified into the worst legal job market that anyone can remember.
In my region, for the very few NQ vacancies available, salaries have reduced significantly to the point where you can earn better doing almost anything else. I was offered a position by the firm that trained me, on a salary which was about equivalent to what a good secretary makes. No thanks - if I'm going to earn a secretary's wage, I'd rather do it as a secretary without the stress and pressure. Fact is, many firms are exploiting the recession for all its worth - they know that every NQ job will be massively over-subscribed and are adjusting salaries way, way down. For those who are young, maybe still living with parents, without their own families to support or a mortgage to pay, they'll grab even the crappiest salary and working conditions for a chance to do the job they trained so hard for. Others (like me) just can't afford to do that.
So, we can sit and cry together over six years of wasted training ... or we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, have a drink ... and re-evaluate.
Like you, I am applying for non-legal as well as legal jobs. Following good advice from recruitment specialists, I have re-jigged my cv significantly for the non-legal jobs. No matter how big an achievement it is to have finally qualified as a solicitor, there is little point headlining your cv with the fact that you are a NQ solicitor if you are applying for a job as something else. You have to frame yourself as whatever they are looking for and stress whatever other qualifications and experience you have that qualify you for that particular role - otherwise the first queston you get asked at interview is, "So, why aren't you working as a solicitor?" I'm fortunate to have 20+ years of other work experience and qualifications to draw on, but if all you've done is law, you may need to think laterally about the kinds of transferrable skills you've accumulated and match them to the job description.
I still have a "legal" cv for any relevant positions that come up, but for non-legal jobs, you really need to scrutinise the job description and person specification and think about how you can sell yourself as the perfect fit for that particular role.
I wish you luck - try not to get too down. Times are hard, and we need to use all that lawyerly ingenuity to find our way through - even if that means earning our living at something else at the moment!
Thanks so much for your reply! I just haven't met anyone else in my position. It is very reassuring to hear a sympathetic voice through the void! Your advice is realistic and constructive, which is more than I have had so far. I would be really grateful if you let me know the names of the recruiters you have used, as you say they have given you helpful advice, and I haven't had that experience with the ones I have used / am using.
I agree with all you say. Including the bit about exploitation. Unsurprising I suppose. I recently applied for a paralegal job, to be offered, the same day, a 3 month job as a 'new client coordinator' for £14k, travelling to India every week to train people in a call centre. As you said, this salary is not enough for someone to live on unless they are at home with their parents, especially not in London! I politely declined and said I wanted to be considered for the paralegal role, and also made the mistake of saying I couldn't afford to take on that salary - to which I received the smug reply that this was the same salary their paralegals get!
So, it's transferrable skills all the way! I am just trying to resist the temptation to think I should fork out £100s to get my cv professionally drafted - I never considered this until I fell into the trap of signing up for a free phone consultation the other day, and the woman basically said it was totally meaningless and wouldn't get me any interviews anyway, and that I should pay her company £300 to do it again for me. Aaaargh!
Good luck to you too. And thanks again for letting me hear your perspectives.
Ninja, my experience is that the majority of mainstream recruitment consultants are a total waste of space. Remember - they get paid by the employer, not you, so their focus is on finding what their client says they want, not on advising you how to sell yourself. Mostly, they act as "gatekeepers", blocking the path to jobs, not helping people like us find them. Those I have met have no skill in thinking creatively about how your skills would match any given position. They work strictly to the employers spec and won't deviate - in a downturn, where there are more candidates than jobs, they don't have to. Their margins are tight and they won't take chances. I've been told that they won't even send me for most jobs because I'm "over-qualified".
As you are unemployed, consider signing on for Job Seekers Allowance if you are entitled. It's not about the money (£64 a week won't even pay your grocery bill) - it's about all the free assistance that suddenly becomes available to you! They probably won't be able to find you a job (they admitted as much to me - they can help you if you're a factory worker or a forklift truck driver, but they struggle to place professional people) ... BUT (and this is the important bit) most Job Centres arrange special services for unemployed professionals - workshops, seminars, "Back to Business" networking events, etc. Some of it is a bit noddy, but you suddenly realise that there are lots of excellent, highly-qualified and competent people out there in the same position as you. Stockbrokers, bankers, IT professionals, accountants, architects... we are all struggling in this job market. When you are all on your own out there, you sometimes feel like there must be something wrong with you - you're useless, unemployable. Don't go there! It's not you, it's the recession and you are not alone.
Through the Job Centre I went on a one-day CV-writing workshop for business professionals, all for free. I wasn't expecting it to be very good but was pleasantly surprised. The woman who ran it usually charges £350 per hour privately. There was tons of great advice, particularly about how to sidestep the recruiters and tap in to the 80 - 90% of job vacancies that are unadvertised, and also how to restructure my CV so that I wasn't stressing that I was a solicitor if the job was for something else. It was an excellent day and would have cost a fortune if I'd had to pay for it.
So, my best advice is to see if you can tap into some of these free services from the Job Centre before you shell out any money to professional CV-writers. For some reason, people often feel shamed by the whole business of being unemployed. It can make you question your self-worth and lead to a downward spiral in your self esteem. Don't let that happen. The best antidote is to get out there and meet others in the same position, have a laugh about how utterly crap it all is... and remind yourself that all things change and it won't be for ever! You will find something eventually. Job-hunting is a game - you need to play it with some enthusiasm and energy, so focus on taking positive actions. We've nothing to lose!
Last edited by Fengirl; 9th November 2009 at 12:32..
well if you makes you guys feel any better, I'm not being taken on either but I work in legal aid and that has its own problems, recession or no recession! Good luck guys, chin up
Thanks, Del - I wish you the best, too. I really do hope that things improve in due course so that at least those who are doing their LPCs and TCs at the moment have better employment prospects in the profession. For those of us who have just qualified - well, we couldn't really have timed things worse if we'd tried! Perhaps in 18 months to 2 years things will have picked up and there will be more NQ vacancies with reasonable salaries again. However, I fear that those 2 years will be too late for the likes of me. I will have to take something non-legal in the meantime to survive and pay the bills... and I seriously doubt that any law firm is going to take me on in the future when I've been out of the profession that long. I am trying not to view the last six years as a waste of time... but I am steering clear of the threads where graduates are asking for advice on getting into the profession! I wouldn't want to rain on anyone's parade!!
Del, I decided to qualify in order to work in legal aid and then did not get offers from the legal aid firms I applied to, I agonised over this and in the end accepted the offer at the place I trained. How were any of us to know the crunch was two years down the line and we'd be worrying about not working at all.
I was somehow naieve enough to think that working hard, investing in your education and generally knucking down would insulate you against wider market and political forces. Although as Fengirl said, it is just important to not see any time or experience as having been wasted even though things are, how shall I put it, not strictly following the script at the moment. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while your busy making other plans".
Well, again, it is great to meet you guys. I have to say I would have thought that the JLD or one of the local groups that exist for young lawyers in my area would be doing something to acknowledge this situation for NQs. All I have seen in the way of a practical or constructive response is a private client conversion course for £300!
Best of luck to both of you - and to anyone else who reads this thread.
It's good to have the opportunity to vent a little about the situation. One frustrating thing is that this won't be the first time I have had to change career paths, and recruiters/interviewers pick up on that and question it, often in a negative way. The fact is, sh*t happens, life events intervene, economic downturns affect certain industries... and you can't just sit in a hovel until you starve to death and get eaten by your cats! You have to respond flexibly to the circumstances in which you find yourself and sometimes that means going back to the drawing board. So, I find it particularly galling when interviewers try to use this as a negative thing, to imply that you somehow have no staying power. I felt like saying to one particularly obnoxious 20-something HR interviewer: "Look, lady - I've been out there earning my living longer than you've even been alive. Give me some credit for having had the guts and gumption to re-educate myself and seek out new opportunities instead of stagnating in a rut for 20 years." But, I'm finding that the world of job-hunting is not easy for people who have made interesting and varied choices! It's all about fitting into whatever closely-defined box the employer wants. My least favourite phrase from recruiters is "Wow, you have a really fascinating CV!" As soon as I hear that, I know I'm on a hiding to nothing!
It was bad enough being harassed in one interview for a NQ position about why I was not staying on at my firm, but I feel like asking people at non-legal interviews, what more do you want? You invited me where for an interview, so either you agree I am a potential candidate for this or your just wanted to satisfy some sort of morbid curiosity about why I am not doing what you think I should be doing. ARGH!
do they get really funny about it when you haven't been taken on at your current firm? Because the reason for me is that 'billing is low' and 'we cannot afford another solicitor next year'. That's not my fault they can't penalise me for that?!
Unemployed NQ
... or we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, have a drink 
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