BASIC TENETS

We have studied the job market, career change, and job search over the years, and observed certain fundamentals about the process — “truisms” for developing and mounting a successful job search. We’ve formalized these observations into eleven Basic Tenets. Some of these points are simple, some are obvious, some need to be reflected upon … but if applied, each will help you achieve job search and career success.

Over the next week we are going to be adding additional tenets.

BASIC TENETS

1. Knowledge Is Power — The more you know about the search process, about self-marketing, and about prospective employers, the more efficient and productive the campaign you can mount. The information you need in order to win is out there … all you have to do is go after it and use it.

2. You Have Control — You don’t need to feel powerless over your career or job search. You can take control of the process and guide your own destiny…if you choose to.

3. Look For Unfulfilled Wants And Needs — You can create a job where none exists if you understand a targeted employer’s wants and needs … even if the employer isn’t aware of them!

4. All Change Creates Opportunity — Change is constant, and affects every organization everyday. Whenever a circumstance changes — the competitive environment, a political or regulatory change, a technological development, a market shift — that change must be addressed. Watch for changes in a company or industry, identify the opportunities those changes may create, and use them to your advantage.

5. Pitch The Benefits — Focus on what you can do for your next employer, and on how you can help them   achieve their goals and objectives. People don’t buy facts, they buy benefits. Keep this in mind always.

6. Picture Your Desired Outcome — A positive attitude and envisioning success helps bring about success. If you think like a loser, you’ll be a loser. You must picture yourself being successful in something as you begin that process, then go for it!

7. Don’t React. Act! — Never wait for a company to call you. Call them! You can’t just send out a resume and expect a call. And you can’t simply react to opportunities that are presented to you … you must be pro-active and make opportunities happen.

8. Persevere — It takes time, patience and continued effort to be successful in a job search, or in any endeavor. Quitters don’t win … and winners don’t quit. Develop a plan, work the plan, and stay with it.

9. It Takes Just As Much Effort to Get a Job You Don’t Like As It Does to Get One You Do Like — You will spend most of your waking hours at work, and you have one life to live. Don’t waste it! Go for what you really want.

10. The Best Man Doesn’t Always Win — You’re competing against people who are every bit as qualified for the job as you, maybe even more so. The key to beating the competition is truly understanding the employer’s needs, effectively communicating your relevant strengths, and demonstrating how you, more than anyone else, can fulfill the mission of that job. The best man doesn’t always win; the man who is best prepared wins.

7 Questions to Ask about Your Job Search

If  you are an attorney looking for an in-house position, the competition is ferocious. It always has been. The quality of the people who are competing for in-house jobs is also extremely high.

In order to prevail over the competition, you need to be doing several things. Here is a quick check list of questions to ask yourself about your job search campaign.

1) Have you identified your Unique Selling Proposition? What makes you a better candidate than someone with like kind and quality of experience? If you do not have a clear “brand strategy,” your search will take much longer. You will miss out on interviews for jobs you could have won.

2) Do you have a well-defined Marketing Plan? Have you identified your target market, the people who can hire you, the companies where you best fit, and the information sources you need to stay current about changes affecting your potential employers? Have you established a specific methodology for your campaign? If you have not, you are trusting to luck.

3) Are you being creative in your approach to the job market? If you are merely posting your resume on job boards, responding to advertised positions on the internet, talking with recruiters and doing some networking, you are taking necessary steps. But, you are also doing what everyone else is doing! Even worse, you are missing out on literally 80% of the available positions, since that is the percentage of jobs filled each year that are not posted on the internet or listed with recruiters.

4) Do you have a strategy for reaching the Hidden Job Market? Since most of the available positions are not advertised or listed with recruiters, you will need more than old-fashioned networking to reach into this “hidden” market. There are many job search tools available if you look for them and know how to use them. (Part 1 of our “Innovative vs. Traditional Job Search webinar” lists 8-10 lead sources. How many can you name?) Knowledge is power. How knowledgeable are you about job search?

5) Does your resume show your accomplishments, or simply your practice areas? Your competitors have had essentially the same duties and experiences that you have had. What makes you more attractive than they are? If your resume isn’t showing results you have produced, you are under-representing yourself.

6) Do you have a compelling telephone introduction when calling the people who can hire you? If your plan for calling the hiring executives is simply to ask if they have seen your resume and would they like to meet you, your chances of arranging an interview are minimal.

7) Do you have a plan for reaching companies that are passively seeking candidates? Many organizations are thinking about adding to staff or replacing an out-of-favor attorney, but haven’t pulled the trigger yet on that process. Reaching organizations when new jobs are in the formative stage is a great way to pre-empt your competitors.

If you have (honestly) answered “yes” to these seven questions, then we applaud you and you probably don’t need us. But if you have answered “no” to even one or two of these questions, then you are likely to be spending a lot longer on your job search than you need to or want to.

We have guided about 2,000 senior lawyers through successful job search campaigns. Perhaps we can do the same for you.

The Top 10 Reasons Why Lawyers Seek Alternative Careers – Part 1 of 2

10. Lack of appreciation — if you win, you were supposed to, so you don’t get thanked. If you lose, it was because you did something wrong. If you are looking for a profession where you can receive positive reinforcement and gratitude for your hard work, law is not the one..

9. Loneliness/Isolation — whether working for a large firm or as a solo, most of the work is done alone, behind closed doors. Moreover, a lawyer is always an outsider and never really a member of a team working together and sharing ideas to solve a problem.

8. Lack of control over work process and outcome — a client once told us that the legal profession is
the only one where you can do everything right and still lose. Unreasonable deadlines and unreasonable
clients, not to mention unreasonable partners and judges, are also problems.

READ MORE

Harvard JD joins Career Strategies Team

We are pleased to announce that attorney Holly Gilmore Moetell has joined our consulting team. She comes to us after having had a career in law firms and as an in-house counsel. Holly began her career as an Associate in the Washington, D.C. law offices of Shaw Pittman, where she represented real estate developers and lenders. After five years, she left to join
Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, where she handled real estate issues and Resolution Trust Corporation matters.  Later in her career, she was an Assistant General Counsel at Clark Enterprises, Inc., a large real estate development company.  As an GC, she supervised outside counsel with respect to partnerships, loans, leases and other commercial transactions.  Holly has relocated from Washington, D.C. to New York with her husband, a tax partner at a national law firm.  In addition to her work here, she is the co-founder and Vice President of a non-profit organization, the Women in Real Estate Foundation.  Holly has a B.A. in Economics, with Distinction, from the University of Virginia, where she was a Jefferson Scholar. She is also a graduate ofHarvard Law School.  Holly’s primary role will be will be as a spearhead for our Recruiting and Outplacement functions. She will also be developing our relationships in the Philadelphia / metro Washington, D.C. markets, and will providing career counseling to our clients nationwide.