Participating in Legal Events and Networking Can Improve Your Career Prospects
Experienced Los Angeles Legal Recruiters
If you are looking to make a job transition in the legal market, then — as with other professional job markets — you’ll want to find ways to enhance your candidacy. There are a number of strategies for doing so, of course, though we recommend participating in legal events and investing the time and effort in networking.
Ready to begin the recruitment process, or do you just have a few questions about the job market and legal recruitment in general? Contact Garb Jaffe & Associates today to schedule a meeting with one of our experienced Los Angeles legal recruiters. We will evaluate your candidacy, help you to identify ideal job prospects, and work with you to determine what steps must be taken to secure such a position give your resume.
Enhancing Your Overall Legal Footprint
Employers generally keep their ears to the ground with regard to the legal market. They may have attorneys regularly participating in local legal events, such as practice area conferences or continuing education events held by the Bar Association. In an effort to strengthen your candidacy — not simply for this upcoming job transition, but for the rest of your career — it is therefore worth enhancing your legal industry footprint by participating in such events.
Participation need not be limited to mere attendance. In fact, if you have subject matter expertise in a particular area, or if you have a specific experience that you feel can act as a teaching moment for other attorneys, then you may be able to give a lecture related to the matter at-hand, thus enhancing your overall legal footprint, and giving you an impressive bullet point on your resume. Further, your experience giving lectures to your legal peers may serve to buffer your confidence and make you a more attractive candidate in other, subtler ways.
Network, Network, Network
Legal recruiters do much of the heavy lifting in terms of getting your resume seen by the right people. It is fundamental to our business, in fact. We are paid by firms and in-house legal departments to bring them qualified attorney-candidates who are particularly well-suited for the position. As such, by putting your application in front of a given employer, we are (in a sense) vouching for your candidacy on your behalf.
Though this legal recruitment dynamic certainly works in your favor, networking can still be beneficial. Networking is oft-maligned, but it may connect you with attorneys who can provide mentorship, advice, and in difficult recruitment situations, an internal recommendation that can help you vis-a-vis other candidates.
Networking Benefits Attorneys Most in Edge-Case Scenarios
Networking can help in many scenarios, but perhaps most importantly, networking can differentiate you in edge-case scenarios where there are one or more similarly-qualified candidates against whom you are directly competing for a given position.
If you are being vouched for by an attorney within the organization (in conjunction with the legitimacy advantage of going through a trusted recruiter), then your candidacy may be strengthened rather significantly. This vouching mechanism can also benefit you in cases where you are slightly less-qualified than competing candidates (i.e., a scenario where you are attempting to make a practice area transition).
Given the enormous potential advantages, we highly encourage networking early (and often) when an attorney-candidate is looking to make a challenging, perhaps non-standard transition in the job market. It is not uncommon for the difference between a job offer and a rejection to ultimately be decided by the recommendation of an attorney within the organization.
Contact Garb Jaffe & Associates for Guidance
If you’re dissatisfied with your current position, and are looking to make the jump to a different firm or in-house legal department, we can help.
At Garb Jaffe & Associates, our experienced legal recruiters have spent decades assisting attorneys throughout the process of securing a new position — we invest significant time, attention, and resources into guiding attorneys at every stage of the process, whether their needs require assistance with identifying ideal target organizations, preparing the application itself, practicing for the interview, or any other similar matter.
We are committed to helping our clients secure positions suitable to their career goals and overall preferences. It is in our best interest for clients to be satisfied with their placement in the long-term, as we are paid for our placements (by employers) only after six-months have elapsed without issue.
Curious about your career prospects, and what positions may be available as you begin to move forward with the recruitment process? We encourage you to call Garb Jaffe at 310-207-0727 or send us a message online to connect with a skilled Los Angeles legal recruiter today.