Some lawyers are best-served beavering away in the firm where they have worked since law school. For most legal careers, though, there come inflection points where a change of job can open a whole new world of opportunity.
Recognizing whether your career has reached such an inflection point, and then knowing whom to trust to help you in finding that career-expanding opportunity are big tasks. If you find the right legal recruiter though, one with the experience and network to find you the position you need and a personality compatible with yours, it can make a world of difference.
It’s our job to know the ins and outs of the industry. The candidates we work with are busy, so they rely on a us for discretion and advice. From our combined years of experience and hundreds of placements made around the world, we’ve come up with a few reasons as to why getting to know a good legal recruiter and regularly checking in for his or her advice is usually the best thing you can do for yourself.
Expertise
As mentioned above, a recruiter is going to have more inside information to the culture of a firm, hiring trends, salaries and bonuses, than just about anyone. In some markets, we have literally been asked by firms to help them develop the incentive packages that they offer to associates. We often have a personal relationship with the hiring manager or even the partner doing the hiring. Sometimes we actually placed the partner in his or her job, or convinced him that staying in his job is the right call. This brings us distinct advantages in the job-search process, including knowledge of the interviewing styles the lawyers use and specific techniques a firm is looking for.
Beyond that, we have the relationships to get great candidates in front of the decision makers. Many times, when a candidate applies to an employer directly, their resume can fall into a “black hole” and may not ever be seen by true decision makers. To that point, we have the ability to follow-up with clients after a submission. That is our job. A candidate who submits a resume on their own, who is constantly contacting a client about a resume they sent, is not going to curry much favor.
Making a career move is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make. You owe it to yourself to thoroughly research who will represent you in this process. If a recruiter can’t provide detailed answers to any and all questions you have about a marketplace, then you should keep searching. We believe the old adage applies: “He who represents himself has a fool for a client.”
Time
There is a huge difference in the amount of time a recruiter can save a candidate in their job search. When a candidate pursues opportunities on their own, there is often no one on the inside of a firm or company championing their resume and making sure all the right people see it. Think of us as law firm ambassadors. It’s our job to make sure that candidates are taking their job search to the right firms and that, once their resume has been submitted, it’s not sitting in some old, dusty email archive. We have close contacts at the firms with which we work, and these hiring contacts are extremely busy all of the time. Over time we become familiar with the way each hiring partner works, so we are going to be most effective at getting a candidate the attention they deserve.
However, it’s important to point out that, in many cases, we begin conversations with an attorney or potential candidate long before they actually become a candidate. Most people are surprised to realize the numerous steps required to actually make a career move. The best in any given industry will continually assess their relative position in the marketplace, and maintaining a dialogue with knowledgeable recruiters is a great (and perhaps, the only) comprehensive way to do that. Since most attorneys will change jobs only a handful of times in their lifetime, and the process is continually changing, we can assist a candidate in navigating the entire process, from full briefing of a market to polishing a resume to arriving at a new office for the first day of work.
Guidance & Support
For the overwhelming majority of legal opportunities, you owe it to yourself and your career to be properly represented. Sending a resume is one of the easiest parts of our job (anyone can do it) and in no way are interviews even remotely close to the end of the process. You want to be fully briefed about a law firm or company, the opportunity at hand, where this opportunity will take your career, a potential employer’s cultural and historical record, the potential negatives sure to be masked in an interview, your lateral prospects from this position, market compensation and benefits. Unless you trade in this information all day, every day like we do, you will have a very limited perspective going it alone.
This gets back to the point about relationships. We have built relationships with clients, so much so that they oftentimes rely on our personal observations and recommendations of candidates — candidates who may never get a second look should their resume come directly. This includes clients at boutique firms, who would also never advertise a position or put it on their website.
Service After the Sale
If you find the right recruiter, someone with excellent judgment, a great network, and a lot of drive, you will have gotten yourself a career coach for life. Our candidates are our friends. Once we have placed you, we have spent hours with you getting to know your personality, what work you like to do, how you see your career progressing, and helping you create a plan and a backup plan. We care about our clients’ success. By the end of the process, if we have done our jobs correctly, we have earned your trust as well as enhanced the trust of your new employer in us by placing a great candidate with them – you. Since we do our jobs extremely well, we have a lot of this sort of relationship with clients at Kinney Recruiting. In fact, most of our business, including almost 100% of our in house placement business, comes from referrals. Getting to know us early, before you even think you want to make a move, is the best way to get started working toward this sort of relationship and all it can bring.
Overall, we work hard to use solid judgment, leverage our relationships and knowledge of firms and practices, and to align our interests long-term with the interests of the candidates we represent. And of course, we do our research to assure a candidate is a good fit for the work. Our ultimate goal is to make sure you’re happy with your choice and will be satisfied with the new job. Reach out to Robert Kinney or any of us in the markets where you have an interest in order to start developing a relationship soon.
