Taking A Risk
August 25, 2009 by Damian
The other day I met up with a senior lawyer who I placed last year into a top tier firm here in Wellington.
This candidate is a born, bred and committed Aucklander who, at the time, had just bought a property near the Harbour, having just returned from the UK, and was initially only looking for roles in Auckland.
For a variety of reasons, none of the approaches to Auckland firms were successful so he took a risk and turned his attention to Wellington (where he knew only a handful of people) and was quickly snapped up by a firm who obviously saw some real long term potential in him. Unbeknownst to them, his thought at the time was to use his time in Wellington as a stepping stone to getting back to Auckland to live in his beautiful house near his family and friends.
However, as time has gone on, he has done exceptionally well in Wellington, he has a growing client base, a burgeoning reputation and a flat near Wellington harbour. He told me at the weekend that although nothing is certain, partnership is a real possibility now and as such, he has decided to sell his place in Auckland and settle in Wellington to pursue his personal and professional life down here.
Now the point here is not that Wellington is better than Auckland or vice versa but that this person took a risk in a difficult market and it has paid off in spades for him. He could have stayed in his comfort zone in Auckland and possibly picked something up in time but instead, he took the more difficult route of relocating and starting afresh and as it looks like he could be sitting at the partnership table soon, he deserves everything that is coming to him.
I realise that for a variety of reasons, some people cannot relocate to get a position. For others though, moving out of their comfort zone and striking out on one’s own in a new location, although admittedly daunting, could be the making of them, both from a personal and professional perspective.
As the famous ice hockey player Wayne Gretsky said: ‘You will miss 100% of the shots you don’t take’. In other words, if you are in the position to do so, take the chance to try something new. It could be the best decision you will ever make.
Top 3 Interviewing Tips
August 19, 2009 by Damian
I came across this article on the ‘top 3 interviewing tips’ today and thought that it would be useful to disseminate a little further -
http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/BlogDetail.aspx?BlogID=837.
It is written by an American so is quite long winded (sorry to any Americans reading – although that is probably quite unlikely really) but it does make some very good points.
In the current market, getting an interview is an achievement in itself and it really is criminal to blow your chance when you get there by a lack of preparation or understanding of how the interview process works.
As well as the three mentioned in this article, there are a few more that are worth noting so if you are preparing for an interview and want some pre-interview hints and tips, give me a call I would be more than happy to offer some assistance.
The Half Year of Two Halves
August 6, 2009 by Damian
Now that we are safely into the second half of this year, I thought that it would be a good idea to give my impression of the legal recruitment market during the first half of 2009.
Overall I think that it has been a half year of two halves. During the first quarter of the year, there was a marked increase in people coming through the door to register and be kept informed of openings in the marketplace.
Some of this was unfortunately driven by actual redundancies, from here as well as overseas, but I suspect that a lot of it was motivated by the fear of redundancy. In other words, people wanted to have some sort of head start in the job search process in case they were next in the firing line.
Unfortunately, this coincided with a decrease in the amount of available positions as firms/companies went to ground and put a freeze on everything except absolutely crucial appointments.
So the first quarter of 2009 can be summarised as ‘lots of candidates, very few jobs’.
The second quarter of this year has, in my view, seen a change in this outlook. Although no-one would be bold enough to say that we are out of the woods and that the market is anywhere near back to some sort of normality, I believe that there has been an increase in available opportunities, including for the first time in 2009, some firms looking for corporate and financial services lawyers. (There was probably not one job in corporate or finance in the whole of NZ in the first quarter of this year). There are also plenty of opportunities for RM lawyers, family lawyers, insurance lawyers and commercial litigators around. One look at Seek or Trade Me will evidence that there are currently some very good roles ‘out there’.
However, I have seen a decrease in the amount of applications/registrations over the last few months, especially from overseas. I have been wondering why this has been the case and I suspect that now, people are pretty confident that they will not be made redundant and have decided to just stay where they are for the time being.
Compounding this is that a lot of younger lawyers especially are just waiting around until the overseas markets pick up before moving so rather than looking for a new position in NZ, now that they know that their current position is probably pretty secure, they are biding their time until the London/Asian/Australian markets start to move again. When that happens, there will be a mass exodus of people leaving here which will mean that the law firms/companies who historically have struggled to recruit but are bursting at the seams now, will be back to square one again.
So the second quarter can be summarised as ‘more jobs, fewer candidates’.
It will be very interesting to see what the second half of 2009 will bring! I will keep you posted.