Now that the end of summer is within sight it is an important time for all those trainee solicitors who will soon be finishing their second year of their training contract. There will be many who have decided to continue their career in law and who will be hoping to secure one of the newly qualified solicitor jobs on offer. Given the recent economic crisis however the outlook for many might not be so great.
During the recession many law firms have been recruiting less and their retention rates of their trainee solicitors has gone down. This has meant that even where firms may have ordinarily offered a trainee a newly qualified solicitor job they have now not been able to due to financial constraints.
The knock on effect of this is that there will be a flood of newly qualified solicitors entering the solicitor job market to find another firm who might help them take the next step in their legal careers. The sobering fact however is that if many firms are unable to take on all of their own trainee solicitors upon qualification then they will almost certainly not be taking on newly qualified solicitors from outside the firm.
The reality for many therefore may be harsh in that they are unable to stay at their current firms and they may also be unsuccessful in succeeding in the hunt for another newly qualified role in a highly competitive job market.
If you find yourself in this position you have a few options. The first one is to try and form solid relationships with the key recruitment consultants for the area you are searching in and for the type of law you want to practise. This way they will think of you and contact you when they get a new newly qualified solicitor vacancy.
Secondly, you need to ensure that you are checking the legal press and all the law jobs websites on a daily basis for the new vacancies when they are announced. You can also be spending some time working on your application documents so that they are as good as they can be and are ready to put into action as soon as a vacancy comes up. It is advisable to search the internet for information, resources and tips relating to CV's, covering letters and application forms. What is not advisable is just using the same documents you used when applying for training contracts as this will be apparent to any recruitment consultant or law firm and could count against you.
If after an initial search for a newly qualified job you do not have success you may be advised to consider seeking another legal position, such as paralegal, so that you are still gaining legal work experience. This is often seen as a positive by potential employers and will also help with your continued professional development.
If for any reason you do not want to work in another legal position then you can always consider the option of taking a sabbatical or gap year and then return to the legal jobs market at a later date in the hope that it has improved and your chances of success are greater. You should be warned however that you will need to be able to justify this to a potential future employer and some may not view it in a positive light. Many will be ok with it though.
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