Transcript Planning your next career move

Planning your next
career move
Presented by the Lawyers
Assistance Program
Facilitated by Robert
Bircher
1
When is it time to move
on?
• We prefer the security of a known
misery, to the misery of an
unfamiliar insecurity
• Step 1-Precisely what is the
problem?-You need to asses the
nature and causes of your
discontent
• Vague complaints like “I hate this
job” or “I hate being a lawyer” are
self perpetuating and useless
• Is the problem part of the law firm
culture you are in?
2
Culture problems
• This is one of the most common
problem areas
• This includes issues about hours
worked, billing pressure,
personality conflicts, the firms
story about itself (a good lawyer
only works full time and starts at
7am,doesn’t take lunch etc.)
• Another problem area is the type
of law practiced-some lawyers
actually hate conflict yet practice
in litigation or other high conflict
areas
3
Area of Law
• Some Lawyers crave excitement
and drama but are doing solicitors
work
• Some lawyers are doing legal
work that is against a core value.
For example a lawyer that wants
to help the average person ends up
working for a firm that defends an
insurance company that wants to
make minimal payments to
injured people
4
Career Planning
• Many lawyers are in the wrong
place simply because they did
little or no actual career planningthey went to law school, articled
in a firm and did whatever the
type of law the firm did
• A majority of lawyers don’t
actually seriously look at their
careers for many years after they
graduated, and even then only
after they find themselves
unhappy in their work
5
“Getting out of the Fog”
• “I could do any thing if I only
knew what it was!!” is a common
experience
• Many lawyers seriously limit
what they think they can do-the
“myopic vision” effect
• Some need a change of culture
within the law, some may need to
get into a quasi-legal career, some
may need to leave law totallyWhat can you do with a Law
Degree? is a great book if you
want to broaden your outlook
6
The Business of Law
• For quite a few lawyers the
problem is the business part of
law-billings, collecting money,
time keeping etc.
• This requires a shift to non billing
culture-government-corporate
culture-quasi legal jobs etc.
• The bottom line is that your job
must be congruent with who you
are-your values, skills,
personality, desires etc. This is
called “assessment” and can be
achieved through testing of
various kinds
7
The Break in the Fog
• No amount of testing will give
you much more than a general
idea of what you want or where to
go-you will end up with some
ideas that you must go to the next
level on
• An idea must be followed up by
action-the best action is
networking or informational
interviews (sample enclosed)
• You must test your idea and find
out how much of your “story”
about your new career is matched
by reality
8
Networking and
Informational Interviews
• You cannot think your way out of the fogthis an error many lawyers make
• It is easier to act you way into a new way
of thinking than to think your way into a
new way of acting
• The best action is networking with others
or informational interviews-you will then
either be drawn toward or drawn away
from your idea-both are progress
• You may have noticed that we have not
yet mentioned looking at job ads or
applying for jobs yet
9
How to get a Job
• After your assessment and
research you have an idea as well
as some basis in reality of what
you are looking for
• Needless to say knowing what
you are looking for is very helpful
in finding it
• Where to spend your energy:
10% on published ads,85% on
personal contact,5% on
headhunters
10
Job Parameters
• What self imposed limitations do
you have-how do you box
yourself in?
• The main parameters-Money(upper and lower limit)
Geography- (law jobs tend to be
geographically unequally
distributed-markets vary wildly)
• Prestige Power and RecognitionHow much do you need? Many
lawyers are not honest with
themselves about this
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Job Parameters
• “An Irrational Commitment to a Poor
Choice” This is a phenomenon where
lawyers refuse to make a change in spite
of obvious dissatisfaction-”I am a criminal
lawyer and always will be even though I
never really enjoyed it”
• You will always have parameters but if
you are too picky it will be more difficult
“I would rather be miserable and broke
but live in Vancouver than move to Ft Mc
Murray and make $200 thousand a year
and pay less tax”
12
Effective Job Hunting
Tips and Traps
• Warm contact rule: the greater the
personal contact the greater the
chance of success
• Waiting for “something more
interesting/better/ideal to come
up-unless you are proactive you
will wait forever
• Putting excessive energy into
thinking/worrying/obsessing and
very little energy into actually
looking for work
• Not having your resume/cover
letters ready to go
13
Tips and Traps
• Canceling yourself out by not
applying at all-excessive modestynot taking risks
• Waiting too long in an unhappy
situation hoping it will change or
hoping to get used to an unhappy
situation
• The only useful approach is to
take steps to change, accept or
leave any situation-most people
spend far too much time obsessing
or trying to think their way out of
their present situation
14
Transitions and Fears
• Life is endless transition-nothing
ever stays the same for very longresisting transitions creates
unnecessary suffering
• There will be an ending, a neutral
zone and new beginning to any
transition (Bridges)
• It is normal to have fears and
doubts throughout the process
• Fear of change is normal but is
often made worse by cognitive
distortions( I will never get a new
job because of X)
15
Transitions and Fears
• You have made it so far and lawyers are
all talented, intelligent, highly skilled
people and have many more options than
they think
• We live in a boom time with high demand
for legal talent
• Your fears about not getting a good job
are almost always unfounded
• Lawyers who have made transitions are
almost always happy about it after the
change has been made
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