Author Archives: legaljobtips

Home address on your cv?

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Recently I wrote a post with some cv tips (https://legaljobtips.com/2012/11/15/my-top-10-cv-tips/); tip no. 9 included a view that you should leave your home address off a cv.  When I wrote that all I knew was:

1. most people included it, and

2. I had a hunch that it didn’t seem right,

but other than that I hadn’t given it that much thought.

Not really a major point, but since then I have been asked quite a few times why I said that – and have luckily just found a really good answer that I now use.  It’s to be found on pages 84 and 85 of the updated 2012 edition of my favourite careers book “What colour is your parachute?” by Richard N. Bolles (http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/). 

I remember enjoying an old edition of that book about 10 years ago, but it didn’t include this new section about the on-line world.   Basically what Bolles now says is that you lose control of your cv when you send it out, especially if you choose to post it on line.  There is effectively no way for you to take it down and he mentions “digital spiders” that can copy anything posted on-line. 

I don’t really know what a digital spider is, and it’s probably not that big an issue; but Companies House no longer requires company directors to publish their home addresses in the public domain for security reasons.  So the same thing might apply to everyone else.  What I do know is that (i) you can trust large potential employers on their application forms if they ask for your home address and (ii) for everyone else, they can get in touch via e-mail.

One-way video on application forms – a prediction

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As a recruiter (and probably without knowing it, as a candidate), I look back at some interviews that very quickly and obviously became a waste of time.  I know that good interviewers do try to challenge their own assumptions, which are made based on their first impressions, but that can be hard.  And the problem is that interviewers feel obliged to fill up the allotted hour out of respect for the candidate – frustrating for both parties.  It’s not necessarily about bad candidates – there needs to be a mutual click at a human level that sometimes just isn’t there.

The point of this post is not actually to do with hiring experienced candidates.  In fact, this normally works well, as it is very common to use a specialist recruitment agency to filter down to only quality candidates.

It is more about the application process for first jobs – I’m thinking of training contracts at large law firms, and graduate schemes at banks and large multi-nationals, which all receive thousands of applicants.  The brutal reality is that very very few of the applicants are invited to the 2-way interview stage, whether face-to-face, by telephone or by video, because the internal recruitment teams have limited time / resources.  The risk is that they are missing some of the best candidates, based on a quick-skim of an application form, knowing that there are a limited number of interviewing hours in the calendar. 

For all of the jobs that I mention above, communication skills are crucial: both written and oral, but today’s application forms are performing the first filter based on only written skills – so I think that this is an inefficient and incomplete process.  That’s why I think the future application form for these types of jobs will include a video clip of applicants’ answers to a few questions: for example the “Tell us about a time…” type questions – this is already starting to catch on in the US. 

Students are very comfortable filming short clips and sharing them, and they don’t need a special room or to invest in any new technology.  And for the recruiter, it doesn’t take that long – they can watch these short clips in their own time, to get a more interesting first impression.  Most importantly they get better coverage, i.e. a good insight into many more candidates than they could dream of inviting to a first interview. 

So I predict that the one-way video will become a standard aspect of any graduate job application form, to quickly improve the quality of the candidates that are invited to the 2-way phase of the interview process.   In turn, this improves the quality of the cohort of new starters – thus giving the company / firm a competitive advantage.  What remains to be seen is when this happens, and whether they use a 3rd party outsourced provider, take a white label service integrated into their application process or simply ask applicants to paste links to a video of their answers.

[ 5th Feb 2013 postscript – this article was published at: https://www.lawcareers.net/Information/LCNSays/One-way-application-videos-a-prediction ]

cv advice

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I am doing a cv tips session next week at Reading University, and am thinking of splitting the session in 2: i.e. half the time will be me making some general remarks and the other half will look at some example cvs sent to me in advance by the students in the room. I’ll then stay around afterwards to finish off one-on-one with specific questions, and to cover the cvs that I might not have had time to review in the plenary.
So over the past few evenings, I have been reviewing about 20 cvs from the perspective of a future employer, and am now thinking about my general comments – and they are just my personal opinion. Here are my top 10:

1. Tell stories.
Most graduate jobs don’t actually need a cv + cover letter any more – they use on-line application forms, so the cv is a template from which you will pick out, paste and adapt the relevant details. Notice that most application forms ask questions, inviting you to tell a story to e.g. show how you reacted, dealt with a difficult situation or explain what you learned; so present some of your experiences as mini-stories about your role in a situation.

2. Put the most relevant section first.
For a graduate job your university academic details are more important than your work experience, except if you have a lot of full time work under your belt (maybe a year or more) – see my previous post about experienced candidates.

3. Local currency for degrees and exam results.
If you are applying for a job with an employer in a country other than where you have studied, then include the “local equivalent” of that result – much easier for the recruiter.

4. Your choices give me some clues about your motivation.
I want to see some evidence of the decisions that you have made: which electives? What is the title of your dissertation? And are these consistent with the type of job that you are applying for?

5. Academic details pls for an academic job.
If you have completed any university exams yet, then a legal employer is going to want to see those to see that you are on track for a good degree result – include the details, especially if in any exams you have attained a very high mark. In the UK a first would really stand out, even in a first year exam.

6. Positive words in your work experience section.
Whatever your work experience happens to be, then include positive words about your role: avoid “observed”, “attended”, or worse “was encouraged”.

7. Skills.
Organise your description of work experience and activities around skills that are relevant to the job – this shows the employer that you know what skills a lawyer needs – not always obvious to all candidates.

8. Show me that you finish things off.
Another useful thought to have in mind with respect to work experience and interests is to demonstrate output and completion – i.e. that you can organise and deliver something, even against the resistance of others.

9. Leave it off.
In my opinion, there is no place on a cv for: typos, bad grammar, date of birth, politics, full clean driving licence, photo, referees or home address – not everyone agrees with me on these, particularly that last one.

10. Non-obvious relevant IT skills.
I assume that all law students can use Microsoft Office and legal research packages, but I’m more interested in for example document management skills (see above about demonstrating that you understand the skills that a lawyer needs). I’d even include relevant use of social media, if for example you think that it helped you organise an event or a group.

(Footnote: this post has been republished in Legal Week: http://www.legalweek.com/legal-week/blog-post/2227317/top-10-cv-tips-for-budding-lawyers)

When to decide where to qualify?

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When I was a trainee I remember really enjoying getting involved with recruitment. One time I went back to my old university (Edinburgh) for the milk-round evening at the Balmoral Hotel (nice sandwiches) – and I gave a short presentation about life as a trainee.
This is going back a bit, but I do remember making a serious point about not deciding too early about which department to qualify into.
The story that I told was this: “When I was at Law School I spoke to a friend who was going to start a training contract at Ince & Co. She had a view that Shipping was THE area of law in which to specialise – so I decided on-the-spot that that would be a good department for me to qualify into at my firm: but what I hadn’t fully understood was that her future firm was a specialist in this area, so it was quite a likely route for her to take. Luckily my motivation only lasted a few weeks when I realised that of the 100+ newly qualifieds every year at my firm, there was a maximum of 1 job offered in the small and soon to be axed Shipping Department.”
The general point that I’m making is that unless you have a real reason (such as previous experience or a Masters, which I certainly didn’t) to want qualify into a specific department, then I think that it’s better to have a reasonably open mind at interview and if you are lucky enough to be offered a training contract, then do seats in your firm’s big departments. Like that, you spend the 2 years finding out about different types of legal work – it’s interesting how trainees’ thinking evolves during that time.
And during conversations with decision-makers in each of your 4 seats, it’s important to be flexible about qualification – you may qualify in a downturn, it turns out that there are more jobs available in Litigation than Corporate and it does look good to have been “taken on” by your firm after you qualify. So be open to what’s available, unless you have very strong motivation to specialise in something that your firm can’t offer.

CVs – make it easy – your degree in local currency pls

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I did a cv session during the last academic year with a group of mainly Masters law students, and am doing a similar session again on 20th November – so have been thinking about that session last year, and about the other cvs that I have reviewed since. 

I encourage students to share their cvs in advance, so that we can review them together in the group – by the way, it’s a good idea to share early drafts widely with friends and family, so these students were already doing the right thing.  And just to clarify, when I mention cvs, these days I’m nearly always talking about application forms.  

Many of the overseas students had a first degree from a university outside the UK.  And of those, there were a lot who were pitching their cv to English law firms.  What I say to this category of applicants is: make it really easy for the recruiter reading the cv to understand: 1. your situation, including when you will be ready to start a training contract and 2. the class that you obtained in your first degree + the class of all of your exam results throughout.

For number 2, it is easy to assume that the recruiter understands your first degree class or grade, but I doubt that they’d know what a 3.7 GPA or a 17/20 score equates to.  Most recruiters and applicants at UK firms will be graduates or undergraduates of a UK university, so the recruiter quickly understands what a 2(i) means – so my tip for those with an overseas degree: make sure that you list your actual degree grade and its equivalent in the local “currency”. 

It can be frustrating to read the academic part of the cv at the beginning and not really understand the quality of the degree grade.  And you might be underselling yourself, for example I am told that a “mention très bien” in France really is exceptional, so make sure that the employer knows that.  The Department for Education has some materials that can help with this exercise:

https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/SchoolsSO/Page7/ITT-OQ-GRADES

In fact, I suppose the same thing applies to UK students applying for jobs in other countries.

So, if you believe the literature (e.g. my favourite careers book, What colour is my parachute? By Richard N. Bolles – http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/) the recruiter will only glance through your cv for a few seconds before making a quick decision.  If there is any confusion or unfamiliarity about degree grade, that could be annoying enough for your cv to be heading straight to the reject pile.

What is “Commercial awareness”?

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All firms are looking for it, but what does “Commercial awareness” mean?
And how to prepare for an interview for a training contract to demonstrate your “Commercial Awareness”?
“READ THE ECONOMIST AND THE FT.”
That’s what I was told and it’s probably very good advice, but it’s important to think about why. I made the mistake of thinking that it’s all about being able recount the chronological chapters in each news story. But it’s not.
The best interview question that I ever had (Magic Circle law firm) was “What should you think about if you were advising someone wanting to open a restaurant?” – oh dear, my avid reading of the FT and Economist hadn’t really prepared me for that.
Yes, these “case-study” type questions are all about commercial awareness – but it’s not about general knowledge – it’s more about having an opinion that you can defend, spotting the big issues, knowing what more information you need, dealing with ambiguity, problem solving, and structured thinking – all with a business-like approach. And I think that this can be practised.
I think that lawyers and candidates for legal jobs have a lot to learn from Management Consultants and their interview processes – this is from Bain – http://www.bain.com/bainweb/pdfs/acethecase.pdf.

Trap interview question no. 2 – Do you have any questions?

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Writing a previous post about avoiding the obvious traps in an interview, which focused on “What are your weaknesses?”, made me think about another potential trap, which is right at the end of an interview: “do you have any questions?”

I interviewed a candidate once, and it was going really well until this part of the interview – i.e. good first impressions, good evidence of the right sort of skills, good experience and a nice manner.   But then I turned the interview over to the candidate – (by way of background I always allow as much time as the candidate wants for this, usually around 20 minutes of an hour, as even if they run out of questions, there is always more to follow up from the Q&A).  Anyway, this candidate wasted the opportunity of these crucial 20 minutes to ask mainly for my advice on how the drive to work would be: traffic conditions, best route, time of day to drive etc.  Really disappointing as the very good impression was unravelled – not by a difficult interview question, but by this avoidable mistake. 

Remember, an interview is a series of questions, all of which are answered from a high wire.  Any bad answer is an opportunity for the interviewer to mentally conclude “rejection”.

“Do you have any questions?” should be your opportunity to find out what you really want to know about any employer, but be careful.  You might at some stage want to know about how your drive to work would be, pay, pensions contributions, number of days’ holiday, working hours, flexible working opportunities, quality of meals, dress codes, but don’t ask questions about any of these.  None of these really matter in an interview as you could find out through other means, and they reveal a lack of understanding for the process and the interviewer. 

And more importantly it reveals that you are not giving enough respect to this opportunity to ask your questions of a senior lawyer at a potential future employer. 

This type of exchange is very different to a conversation with lawyers at a careers’ fair, which I wrote about last week, so in an interview it’s too late to show any uncertainty about your choice of a legal career. 

My tip:  demonstrate through your questions that you know about the job / firm and / or ask for a senior person’s insight into a real issue facing the employer. 

Training contracts for experienced candidates

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I have met with two experienced candidates recently both looking for a training contract.  The question comes up: “how do I compare to the other candidates coming straight from school / university / LPC?”.  

Good question this, as I think that experienced candidates need to tackle this very directly in their application form / cover letter.  One of the candidates that I met had a technical background with a few years’ experience as an engineer, and had a credible story about that leading to a role specialising in intellectual property.  The other had a few different jobs, including paralegal roles and years before mortgage broking.  The problem with this second candidate was that he had not put together a credible story about where this was leading. 

In itself, having some other previous professional experience can be positive or negative – it all depends on whether the story makes sense.  The potential employer needs to see a specific path to a department or expertise that is not expected for an inexperienced candidate – in fact it would be a mistake for an inexperienced candidate to be too focused on a specific department in an interview or from day 1 of a training contract. 

I think that an experienced applicant is one of the rare situations where a motivational statement on a cv is justified (for those rare cv + cover letter application requirements).    

By the way, after our meeting, the second candidate did improve his cv to show a clearer direction into a training contract or compliance role in financial services.

Legal job fairs at university

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All students are at a slightly different stage of their journey of transition from being a student to the world of work – even those in the same academic year.  So when I was involved with graduate recruitment at my old law firm (mainly as a trainee), I found it really interesting to be on the receiving end of students’ questions, and never quite knew what to expect.  (By way of background, I used to attend careers fairs and present at milk round presentations / drinks, and particularly enjoyed going back to my old university, Edinburgh.)

What impressed me most were those students that used the air time with lawyers and trainees to take another step in their journey, by being honest and inquisitive, and most importantly listening very carefully to the answers.  By contrast, for me, the worst question is one that is artificially trying to show off some knowledge without actually being interested in the answer; something so obscure perhaps that the lawyer might not even know the answer – e.g. how many new offices the firm plans to open in South America over the next few years. 

I also don’t think that this is the place to try to e.g. reveal any major differences between the magic circle firms – although do let me know if you find any from a trainee’s perspective.  And be careful not to ask the type of binary question that you should or could already know e.g. how many trainees do a seat abroad or how many seats is your training contract. 

As an undergraduate, it’s OK to not be sure that you want to be a lawyer – and if that’s the case, here is my personal favourite: “What type of person do you think makes a good solicitor?” – very useful to try help you find a fit between your skills / likes and a job – and it’s amazing how many different answers you get to this type of basic question.   What’s also good about this one is that the trainee or lawyer will answer this by telling you all of the positive attributes about themselves – which makes them feel good, and they’ll have a positive impression of you for asking!  If so, just don’t forget to make sure that they remember your name.

Trap interview question no. 1 – What are your weaknesses?

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When I am recruiting for someone in my team, it’s probably no different to any other interview process – I receive details of lots of candidates, and try to narrow them down to one.
This narrowing down exercise could be by various means: by reading cvs, interviewing, reference checking, internal 2nd opinions and / or on-line tests. Recruiters use all of these techniques with one objective – which is to find a reason NOT to hire each candidate. It’s a “last one standing” approach, and I reckon that many hiring processes are the same.
So bear this in mind in an interview: be yourself and answer honestly, but don’t say anything to rule yourself out, and avoid the obvious traps. The first trap question is: What are your weaknesses?
I find it a bit annoying to be on the receiving end of that “weaknesses” question as it’s not the most imaginative, but we all need to be prepared for it. The worst answer to is to admit to a weakness that is fatal for the role – remember that the interviewer is looking for reasons to reject you.
But then again, I’m not sure that I agree with the standard advice that you should present a strength as a weakness, such as “I’m a perfectionist”, or “I find it frustrating when people with whom I work don’t pull their weight”. I don’t find that sort of answer credible.
So what’s the best answer? I’m still trying to work this out, but I think that it has to be genuine and credible – maybe to present a real weakness, but a solvable one. Or a weakness that is not relevant to the role of being a solicitor. Interested in anyone else’s view on this one.