Reading Time: < 1 minuteWriting a Good Statement for Job Application Forms If you complete job application forms for local authorities or the judiciary, they often come with a supporting statement, statement of qualities, information to support your application, etc.. etc.. These are all the same thing, and there is a simple technique for ensuring successful completion. 1. Take…
Reading Time: 2 minutesShould I include my date of birth or marital status on a CV? This is a question that comes up time and again. Why would anyone advise to include a date of birth or marital status on a CV? Well, I always recommend considering it, and I know that careers advisers across the country will…
Reading Time: 3 minutesI have to say that when I was in practise and completed the Police Station Accreditation Course I did wonder whether someone at some point would come up with the idea of charging people a fee for them to complete the Police Station Accreditation Course in full and become Police Station Accredited as part of…
Reading Time: 2 minutesWe have been preparing professional CVs for lawyers since April 2000 and the process is fairly simple. Firstly we ask our clients to send us over a completed form on the internet with lots of detail in. Alternatively our clients can send over their existing CV and we will work from that. Very often clients…
Reading Time: 2 minutesHow long is a piece of string? I get asked this question almost on a daily basis and hear a lot of different answers once I have given my response. CV – never longer than 2 pages? The usual or fairly common response is someone who has been told by a careers adviser when they…
Reading Time: 3 minutesThis article is divided into three sections. The first is for law students, the second is for graduates and the third is for qualified lawyers, solicitors and legal staff. How do I Dramatically Improve my Legal Career Prospects? We often get asked this question and people are often expecting an easy answer. It depends on…
Reading Time: 3 minutesWe have recently taken an order from a US client looking for a CV to use with UK law firms and to present a CV in a way the UK law firms would understand it. Ten Percent Legal Recruitment & Careers Services have been assisting US, Australian, Chinese, New Zealand lawyers for many years with…
Reading Time: 2 minutesOne of our senior candidates has been in touch this morning to point out a slight issue that keeps coming up in adverts both on our site and job boards. “I have been looking at family vacancies on the web and noticed that some vacancies refer to Family Panel Members or Resolution Accredited Specialists. I…
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe first thing to say about a personal profile section is that if you have nothing to say, the best personal profile section for you would be an empty one and the space used more effectively for something else. You only need a personal profile section to explain about six points. These are 1. Your…
Reading Time: 2 minutesLegal Careers Question : I have a 3rd Class Degree from the University of Ife in Nigeria. I have no legal work experience in the UK and I am not qualified. What are my prospects of finding work? Answer: I think that your chances of finding work are just above 0 %. A 3rd Class…
Reading Time: 3 minutes“Recently my firm have offered me a role as a salaried partner and informed me that I am being promoted. My salary will remain the same because they cannot afford a paying fee but I will be invited to partnership meetings and asked to assist with the management of the firm. What should I do?…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteGood question. This really depends on your career plans. Our advice is always to get the Legal Practice Course over and done with as quickly as possible if you can afford to. Completing the Legal Practice Course LPC part-time or by distance learning is only really relevant if you have to work whilst you are…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteEvery year we get asked this question by lots of different students wondering whether they should go to the College of Law or complete their LPC (Legal Practice Course) with another provider. We think that unless you have an outstanding academic background and it is looking as if you will be heading for a large…
Reading Time: 2 minutesIf you are making an application for a legal job or speculatively approaching a law firm for any type of position including solicitor work or paralegal/work experience, you need to make a decision on how you send your details over. Do you need to handwrite a covering letter, send a covering email or print out…
Reading Time: 2 minutesThis is a very common email and telephone call to our offices. Firstly, if you are sending emails to legal recruitment agencies asking for advice and assistance you may be surprised to find out that most of them will not respond to you. Legal recruitment agencies have much better things to do than reply to…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQ Why do you offer career coaching to lawyers and law students? Good question! Together with 3 other lawyers I set up Ten Percent Legal Recruitment back in April 2000. Within a few months we were being bombarded with CVs from law students and graduates desperate for training contracts and work experience. We obviously could…
Reading Time: 2 minutesNo. We can’t help and you may be surprised to know that we will be quite annoyed if you telephone us. We have warnings all over our website detailing who we can help and how we can help and sometimes the sheer volume of students and law graduates without any work experience calling us overwhelms…
Reading Time: 2 minutesI was asked yesterday about the likely interview style and questions to be thrown at someone from a city law firm during a pre-selection day interview. This was to be with the HR Manager of the firm and would last for about 30 minutes. Does it matter who takes a legal job interview and is…
Reading Time: 3 minutesI am sure in Australia lawyers often see adverts from recruitment agents telling them of shortages in the legal profession in the UK and particularly law fields. This has been the case in years gone past in the Law Society Gazette in England and Wales. Adverts are still around now for law firms looking for…
Reading Time: 4 minutesPeople often get in touch to say that they are looking for a training contract and will do anything to get one. Really? I can almost guarantee that in the majority of these cases if we were to push them further on this they would not have walked up and down high streets banging on…
Reading Time: 4 minutesWe regularly get calls from graduates and paralegals wanting us to find them work or work experience and we give the same answer pretty much every time. You cannot phone recruitment agencies and expect them to find you meaningful employment if you do not have any experience and nothing to offer a potential employer. All…
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe decision to give references is sometimes quite complicated. Firms have requested references before second interviews, including requests to speak to current employers (!) and colleagues. Alternatively some firms ask for references prior to first interview. Others have waited until a solicitor has commenced work and two weeks later asked for a reference. Two incidents…
Reading Time: 3 minutesA recent dilemna arose for a solicitor looking to take a fairly senior post in the North of England. He had two offers, as well as an additional firm interested. One firm were very friendly, a reasonable size, good working conditions, excellent career prospects from the outset including possible partnership. Their location was not the…
Reading Time: 2 minutesWork/Life Balance seems to become a particularly important issue once solicitors get to about 3 years PQE, and realise that there is life beyond work, and other issues such as rearing a family, paying a mortgage and buying a house come into play. The legal profession as a whole suffers from a poor attitude towards the…
Reading Time: 2 minutesIt is apparently the case that mothers returning to work after starting a family suffer the highest employment penalty of any group (Equalities Review). Mothers with children under 11 are 37% less likely to be offered a job than equivalent males. Single mums suffer even worse figures – rising to above 40%. Firms should not…
Reading Time: 2 minutesFirms who regularly complain that there is a lack of quality out there and no candidates applying for their jobs, are often the same firms who offer rates of pay so low a solicitor cannot get a mortgage above £60k! I regularly read about the shortage in good quality staff, and also get called by…
Reading Time: 2 minutesWe notice whenever there is World Cup, a serious incident in world politics, Christmas Parties, Christmas shopping, New Years resolution season, NQ qualification season and so forth that the legal job market in a good year will suddenly get very busy or very quiet. The answer therefore is yes! The year always starts fairly slowly…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteBusiness Acumen – what’s it all about? This term comes up quite often in legal job interviews, whether for training contracts or qualified solicitor roles. But what exactly does it mean? In reality, not a lot! The usual question is along the lines of “can you give an example of when you have had to…
Reading Time: 2 minutes“I’ve heard a lot of talk about career paths – what should I be doing about this, and is it a good idea to plan 5 years in advance when working in a law firm?” It is very hard to know what a legal career is all about when you start out in law. Firstly…
Reading Time: 2 minutesNegotiation with some firms is like a gunfight at OK Corral! It can be great fun dealing with firms and candidates when it comes to job offers being made by firms. Some firms make good, competitive offers, which any sensible candidate would accept, and other firms make low, slave wage level offers, which only someone…