Is Australia the New London?
September 27, 2010 by Damian
After eighteen months or so of pretty stagnant international recruitment and of candidates sitting tight and not investigating overseas opportunities, it seems as if, at last, people are now starting to move offshore.
As everyone knows, the usual route is to do some travelling through south-east Asia on the way to sleeping on some old mate’s floor in Earl’s Court or Clapham, drinking in The Church or The Outback, constantly checking out Easyjet and Ryanair for cheap European weekend getaways and hopefully getting some work with a reputable UK firm between weekends away and following the ABs on their annual end of year tour.
Although there are still a large number of people heading to the UK, I have detected a larger than usual number of people not wanting to go quite so far away and as opposed to drinking in some faux Australian bar in Covent Garden, they are looking to drink in a real Australian bar in Darling Harbour or St Kilda with weekends spent back home in NZ rather than in Estonia or Croatia.
The question that this has raised in my mind is – ‘why are more people now thinking about Australia rather than London’?
I think that there are a variety of answers to this. One of the main ones is simply a perception (and reality) that there are more opportunities for NZ lawyers in Australia than there are in London at the moment. The Australian economy has weathered the financial storm better than most and as such, after some headcount trimming in 08 and 09, most employers appear to be in expansion mode, albeit cautious expansion mode.
Secondly, the Trans Tasman Mutual Recognition Act which means that NZ lawyers can practice in Australia without taking any further exams (and vice versa), makes the transition a lot easier for both candidates and clients. Consequently, employers are much happier to take a NZ qualified on than perhaps any other classification of overseas lawyer and some candidates are delighted that they can effectively just get on a flight and start practising straight away. This development is not a new one but in these days of cautious hiring strategies, taking someone on who does not have any visa or requalification issues is a real advantage to an employer and as the UK tightens up on its visa quota system, it is becoming harder and harder for candidates to get a role over there without a EU passport or ancestry visa.
Another recent development that has, in my view, made Australia a more attractive destination is the arrival of some of the big UK brands into the Australian market. Both Allen & Overy and Norton Rose have entered the playing field (along with constant rumours of other international firms establishing a presence) so it is no longer necessary to go to the other side of the world to secure a role in an international law firm. The threshold to get into these firms is very high, meaning that only very highly skilled and experienced NZ lawyers will make it into one of these firms but their arrival is a signal, if one were needed, that the Australian legal market is one of the most sophisticated markets in the world, staffed by top quality lawyers where you can really grow and develop your career.
As well as the above reasons, I have detected a feeling that the recent economic turmoil has made some people reconsider what is important to them and some have decided that in difficult times, perhaps it is better to be a little closer to home than on the other side of the world. Perhaps, as a result of the GFC, London has lost some of its lustre for people and the ability to move out of NZ but be only a three or four hour flight away is more of a draw card than warm beer, dodgy pies and grey skies.
A stint in a law firm in London is always going to be on a lot of young lawyer’s ‘to do’ list but at the moment, there are more and more people thinking that a stint in a leading Australian law firm is as attractive, if not more so, than a move to London. Whether this trend will continue is anyone’s guess but my view is that as the Australian market becomes more internationally focussed, it is now a genuine alternative to the UK OE and one very worthwhile investigating.
If you do want to have a chat about opportunities in Australia, please get in touch. I would be delighted to talk to you about it.
Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder
September 3, 2010 by Damian
Sorry – it has been a long time since my last blog but just in case anyone is interested, the reason is that there has been a very recent and delightful addition to the Hanna family which has taken up quite a lot of my and more of my wife’s time!
Anyway back to recruitment. Recently, I have been working with two candidates whose individual experiences, I think, highlight the unpredictability of the job seeking process and how regardless of how good your experience is, the intangible ‘team fit’ can be the most important criteria of all.
Without going into too much detail, these two candidates – Candidate A and Candidate B – have very similar backgrounds. They have roughly the same amount of pqe, come from comparable firms, have experience in broadly similar areas and have the same reason for wanting to move roles.
Luckily for them, I had two good roles for them to consider and both decided to apply for both roles. Based on their CVs, both managed to secure first interviews with both firms and here is where things started to get interesting.
With Firm X, both candidates interviewed with the same people but came out with completely different feedback. Candidate A found the partners to be really warm and friendly, Candidate B thought that they were a little standoffish and distant. Candidate A really liked the sound of the work and Candidate B wasn’t sold at all. Candidate A wanted to progress and Candidate B did not really care whether they made it through or not.
The feedback from the firm mirrored the candidates’ feedback. They really liked Candidate A. They commented on his pleasant and engaging personality and thought that he would be a great addition to the team and moved him through to 2nd interview. The feedback on Candidate B was positive but in the end, it was felt that the candidate just wasn’t a ‘good fit’ for the team and they decided to end their interest there.
On to Firm Y and the situation was almost completely the reverse. Candidate B was much happier with the interview than Candidate A and Candidate B made it through to 2nd interview and Candidate A was not taken any futher, again for reasons of ‘team fit’.
So in the end, the result for both candidates was a positive one in that both managed to secure the job that they wanted over one that they were not so keen on. The question is, given that both candidates were so similar and both interviewed with the same people, why the divergence of opinion from both candidate and client on whether to hire them or not?
The answer to this question is easy to state but very difficult to elaborate on. The answer is that certain people warm to particular people more than others. There is a ‘connection’, a ‘click’, an instant rapport that is struck up with some people and not with others. If this connection or click happens in an interview, you invariably know it and you come out feeling confident and keen to progress. It is equally as noticeable if it is absent which leads one to think more negatively about the role and the employer – a feeling which is almost always felt by the interviewers as well.
What this ‘click’ or ‘connection’ is, I do not know but I do know that it cannot be manufactured or faked. All the interview preparation in the world is not going to matter if that connection is not established. Similarly, some candidates whose experience may not be that strong ‘get over the line’ because the interviewers really liked them and thought that they would be a ‘good fit’. If asked to quantify what a ‘good fit’ actually was, most employers would not be able to give more of an answer than – ‘it’s just a gut feeling that I have’.
The upshot of all this is that no matter how good your experience is, how well you prepare for an interview, the reality is that you will not get every job that you apply for. This is not because of something that you have any control over. It is just because some people get on better with particular people than others do. However, what this also means is that if you miss out on one opportunity because of a lack of a ‘good team fit’, you will almost certainly get the next one for exactly the same reason!
As the situation with the two candidates above highlights, beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder as what one interviewer likes, another may not. The key is to keep searching until you come across the organisation that is going to see and appreciate your inner beauty over someone elses!