As a recruitment consultant and non-lawyer, I am always amazed when people tell me they became a lawyer by mistake. Or, more accurately, because they couldn’t think of anything else to do and it seemed like a good idea at the time. You would be shocked how often I hear that.
Knowing that, you will be less surprised by how many newly qualified solicitors I speak to who have career doubts once they qualify. Many do, and if you are one of them you are not alone.
In fact, you are in good company. Ex-lawyers who left the profession for pastures new include no lesser figures than Fidel Castro, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. Political leanings aside, they didn’t do too badly – if changing the world to a greater or lesser extent is your thing.
Apparently, Gandhi’s epiphany that he was not cut out for law came when he returned to Bombay to practice after qualifying in England and realised he was too shy to speak loudly in court.
Whenever I talk to a wavering NQ, the first question I ask is what they like about the job.
Some get a kick out of the status of being a lawyer, others enjoy the intellectual challenge and for a few, money is the motivating factor. People also mention the team environment, the desire to help people and the variety of daily challenges the job throws up, plus having acquired the special skills needed to deal with them.
The next question is obvious: what don’t they like about it?
Gripes could fill a volume of law reports but typical ones are the stress, the long hours and the impact on other areas of their life.
One lawyer turned teacher Emily Wilson says that law didn’t give her the contact with people she was expecting: “When I started working at the law firm, it wasn’t what I had expected at all, it was sitting at a desk all day and any interaction with clients would mostly be through email. That wasn’t really what I was looking for in a career.”
This gets to the nub of the issue. Are you questioning your career in law because the job doesn’t suit your personality or is it just a blip? In other words, are you in the right job but in the wrong field or the wrong firm? Would you be better suited to working in house, than in private practice?
Some NQs feel uncertain on qualification because training has dented their confidence. They want to run away because it feels they will never acquire the professional adeptness shown by the partners in their firm. This flight syndrome is understandable and may indicate that the firm is not right for them because it hasn’t nurtured them properly. In these cases, a move rather than a career change may be the answer.
The best advice I’ve heard on the topic of career change is from a partner in a large City law firm – someone who climbed to the top of the slippery partnership pole. She told me that doubts were natural at any stage of your career and a good sign you are taking yourself and your career seriously.
“The important thing is to know yourself,” she told me. “Work out what you really want from your life and your career.” This means understanding your values and talents, and thinking about the environment you want to work in and the types of people you want to spend your daily life with.
Added to this are lifestyle decisions. It’s true leaving law may give you more time to get fit or go on holiday but can you afford to change careers financially? It may seem shallow to worry about this but practical considerations should play a part.
The advice I give to uncertain candidates is to take their time. NQs often feel an urgency to make a decision soon after qualification but this isn’t necessary. It may be the most important decision of their life so they need to think about it carefully. Find out if the grass really is greener. The only way they can know with any certainty is to carry out detailed research and network with people in the industry they want to move into. In short, do all the research they should have done before they stuck their finger in the air as a teenager and said, “I suppose it’s law then”.