Supporting Surrey: Careers

FEATURE

Supporting Surrey: Careers

In November, Surrey Law Society was delighted to join forces with Surrey Junior Lawyers Division to bring members of both organisations the first ‘Supporting Surrey’ programme, which focussed on Careers.

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in drastic changes to employment around the globe. In the UK, we have seen the unemployment rate rise to 4.8% in the 3-three-month period to September 2020 and redundancies hitting a record high. Sadly the legal profession has not been exempt, and it was with this in mind that the Supporting Surrey programme was developed to provide a suite of free careers support for both the Surrey Law Society members and Surrey Junior Lawyers Division subscribers. The support took the form of individual careers clinics and three excellent webinars, and we are delighted to share the content from the first two of these here.

Our first webinar looked at ‘The Impact of COVID-19 on Legal Recruitment’ and was presented by Penny Heighway, Consultant at Chadwick Nott, who summarises her session here.

WEBINAR 1 – THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON LEGAL RECRUITMENT

I was at my desk throughout the first lockdown and every day spoke to lawyers at all stages of their careers – from high street firms to large international practices across the South East. It was a very worrying time for so many, especially during those early weeks.

I qualified as a Solicitor in 1998, after a delayed training contract due to recession and then experienced a further economic down turn whilst on maternity leave in 2008, during which my team went through a redundancy process. Being physically away from the office whilst that process was taking place was very unsettling. I therefore had enormous empathy (and still do) for those lawyers to whom I spoke, especially the junior lawyers, newly embarking on their careers.

After March the volume of vacancies fell almost over-night. Understandably many law firms focused on the logistics of moving staff to working from home, and, with many hiring partners and HR teams on furlough, there was no one to progress the recruitment process. I felt most keenly for those who had handed in their notice but then were not taken on by their future firm, trainees on furlough who were not sure what impact that would have on their qualification, but perhaps most of all for those trainees whose firms were not going to survive and were looking to complete their training contracts elsewhere.

The good news is that since July the number of new roles has steadily increased as many workflows have remained constant, and, for us at Chadwick Nott August and September were very busy. Compared to the 2008/9 financial crisis, this feels different. In many practice areas the work is there, the main reservation firms have in making hires is uncertainty as to what the future holds, or hiring freezes imposed across the board by central management.

Although the overall number of vacancies fell dramatically, perhaps surprisingly a number of smaller regional and high street firms recruited their way through the summer and are still recruiting. Going into December legal recruitment tends to slow down but this is not a normal year and we are still seeing a number of new roles every day. We are particularly buoyant in private client, family, DR, insolvency/restructuring, residential conveyancing, court of protection and employment.

This has definitely been a challenging year for many trainees and NQs and this continues to be the case. Working from home has made it difficult to get direct supervision and there have been fewer external vacancies. However it is not all bad news. Internal retention was good this year and once lockdown eased a number of firms looked to build their teams. I also anticipate further vacancies in the Spring as the new financial year begins.

For those whose who have had their qualification date delayed due to furlough use this time to your advantage. Be strategic in gaining useful experience and internal networking. If you are keen to qualify into a particular practice area, speak to your supervisor early to assess the likelihood of being retained. If it looks as though you will have to consider external options, then start speaking to recruiters early, six months ahead is about right.

Keep your options wide. For example if you want IP, look at commercial with an IP element. Don’t just consider private practice, look in-house, third sector, public sector.

Be as flexible as you can on location. Although traditionally employers like to see a real connection with a geographical area, we are now seeing more roles offering genuine remote working.

If you are a graduate or at the early stages of your training contract, it would be helpful to think strategically at what might be growth areas in 2021. As a direct result of COVID-19 insolvency/restructuring, insurance litigation, commercial litigation, family and private client must continue to be in demand. Planning, development and the environment is likely to be part of the economic recovery and therefore we are likely to see growth, whilst the baby boomers retiring will see a surge in demand for legal services focusing on retirement planning, securing assets for the next generation and the legalities of living arrangements for old age.

Use this time to get your CV right and make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and a professional reflection of you and your experience. A recruitment consultant can help you with this as well as preparing you properly for remote or in-person interviews.

I believe we are through the worst and it has been hard for many, but especially for our junior lawyers. However, much like the previous two financial crises, I am sure, in a relatively short time, junior lawyers in many practice areas will again be very highly sought after.

Penny Heighway

The second webinar in the series examined ‘Securing your Future Role – Acing the Online Interview. It was presented by Sue Lenkowski who summarises the content here.

WEBINAR 2 – SECURE YOUR FUTURE ROLE: ACING THE ONLINE INTERVIEW

Since the beginning of the pandemic, most recruitment activity has moved online. When restrictions were relaxed in July, many firms continued with this approach, certainly for initial screening, as it has proved a very cost-effective way of doing things.

I don’t imagine even when we are on the other side of the pandemic that online interviewing will disappear so it’s good to have a few tips on how to ace these interviews.

Basic Tips

■ Log in no earlier than 5 minutes before your appointment

■ Dress smartly

■ Practice using the technology in advance (there are many different platforms being used – Teams, Skype and Zoom are the most common and all have idiosyncrasies depending on the device you use)

■ If you can use a laptop or large screen tablet this is preferable to a phone

■ Make sure you have a stand or if not you set up your equipment to be rigidly fixed

■ Think about what’s behind you (the book case obsession!), maybe use a background available on the software

■ Be upfront if you may have a potential interruption (childcare for example)

■ Eye contact is still really important – if it’s a panel focus eye contact on the person who asked the question, particularly if they are all in separate locations

■ Always ask at the beginning what you should do if the connection fails or quality drops

■ Get the best signal strength you can before you join, maybe ask others in your household to disconnect their devices during your interview (especially if you live with gamers!)

■ Put your phone onto silent/do not disturb and take the landline off the hook

■ Make sure everyone in your house/flat knows that you must not be disturbed

■ Try and get a headset or use earbuds, it really improves the experience and helps you project confidence

General Tips

■ Research and plan for different types of interview – the most popular are competency-based and strength-based. If the interview is competency-based research the S.T.A.R method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to help you structure your answers

■ Quite often, an initial online interview may feel like a conversation; remember it’s not a conversation and you are being assessed, so maintain a professional business-like approach whilst showing your personality appropriately

■ Always give yourself time to think before you answer – thinking time seems to last much longer in the virtual world but it’s important to assemble your thoughts, maybe take a sip of water/explain you are gathering your thoughts

■ Look for non-verbal cues from the interviewers that they have heard enough, if you are not sure, ask if they want you to continue

■ Don’t worry if you don’t appear to be getting many positive non-verbal cues back, quite often these seem to disappear in the virtual world, particularly when people are taking notes

Tips for presentations as part of online interviews

■ Practice using the technology particularly around screen sharing if you are using PowerPoint

■ If you feel more comfortable standing, it’s really important to practice and remember you must limit moving around

■ In general it is easier to present virtually from a seated position and simply explain why you are doing so in the virtual environment

■ If you struggle to use PowerPoint and if it’s optional, don’t use it; even the professionals struggle

Final Thoughts

If the technology fails, don’t panic. After eight months of doing this, there has never been a problem that couldn’t be solved. Whether on the prospective employer’s side or the candidate’s, we understand Wi-Fi works in mysterious ways, so don’t panic if things need to be restarted just prepare for this in advance with a positive mindset.

I have known some companies offer candidates the option of face to face or virtual and I’m often asked what should I do? There’s no right or wrong answer but if it’s first stage and travel is tricky I would opt for virtual. If it’s down to the final decisions and it’s safe to do so, I would always say try and meet face Sue Lenkowski to face. But with the current restrictions in place at the time I am writing this, I think it may be a while before people are comfortable doing this and the guidance allows.

Sue Lenkowski

Our final webinar, presented by Robert Hanna, looked at Raising Your Online Profile: Networking and Business Development in a Virtual World’ and the excellent content from this will be featured in the Spring issue of the Surrey Lawyer.

The Careers programme was the first in a series of ‘Supporting Surrey’ initiatives, which will continue into 2021. If you have any areas that you believe we could support you with, please do get in touch. ■