Career Center

Career Center: A New Year’s Resolution for 2012 – Tips for a Better Legal Career

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Eat healthy, workout, stop procrastinating, learn Spanish — it’s 2012 and time to make your New Year’s resolutions. One big resolution you should add to your list is to improve your legal career. Lucky for you, the recruiting professionals at Lateral Link have written articles that will help you with your career resolutions.

If you are clueless about your career goals and lack direction at work, you are not alone. For most, life at a Biglaw firm is not panning out as expected. There are ridiculous deadlines, inconsiderate co-workers, useless politicking, and no clear path towards professional nirvana. With the start of the new year, now is the time to define your career plan and outline your professional goals….

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Career Center: Looking for Greener Pastures – Tips for Partners Wanting to Switch Firms

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Despite the lukewarm job market, the lateral market for partners is going strong. Still, not all partner candidates are created equal. Whether you are trying to lateral to a big firm or a small firm, there are several considerations firms must analyze during the partner vetting process. Unlike the promotion of an internal candidate, a prospective firm does not have ready access to your employment file, does not know how you interact with co-workers, and has not seen you in real action.

On the flip-side, you do not know the internal politics of the firm, what the firm’s long-term strategic plan is, or if there are any potential conflicts with your clients. With all the unknowns, it will be the responsibility of the firm and the partner candidate to make sure all proper disclosures have been made to make sure both sides are compatible. If you are thinking about making a lateral move, check out the tips below, courtesy of the recruiters at Lateral Link….

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Career Center Survey Results: All I Want for Christmas Is to Get Out of Debt

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Christmas 2011 turned out to be a banner year for retailers, and most consumers felt pretty confident about the economy — but don’t tell that to the lawyers. The results are in and the vast majority of survey respondents aren’t purchasing anything fun with their bonuses.

Unlike Elie, 52% of Above the Law readers are using their year-end bonuses to pay their loan-shark student loan provider. 21% of survey respondents plan on using their “generous” bonuses to purchase something to help advance their career (lips are especially chapped in the winter months). The third largest group, at 9%, feels a little better about the housing market, and is planning on purchasing their little piece of heaven (or if they are in NYC, their very, very, very, very, very little piece heaven).

Close behind, 8% of folks who responded to our survey are calling it quits, and plan on using their bonus checks to buy a nice pair of dancing shoes and leave the practice altogether. Survey respondents were not as excited about the new Apple iPhone 4, as only 5% of people were going to use their bonuses to go wait in line at the Apple store or pepper spray their way into the neighborhood Walmart.

The three ghosts of Christmas only stopped by the homes of a small number of associates this year, as only 4% of responders to our survey planned on donating their bonuses to charity. Finally, less than 2% of survey respondents felt the need to play the lottery by investing in the stock market.

Career Center: The Night Before Bonus Season – A Survey

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‘Twas the night before bonuses, and all through New York Empire, not a creature was stirring, not even a Wall Street Occupier.

Direct deposit accounts were set up with care, in the hopes that fat bonuses soon would be there.

The associates were nestled all snug in their cubicles, while nightmares loomed of bonuses paid out in rubles.

And secretaries in underwear, and partners in slacks, had finished some last minute work on their backs.

When out on the blogosphere there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my Lawyerly Lair to see what was the matter.

Away to the BlackBerry I fingered like mad, to see if the news would make me sad, neutral, or glad.

With a few short clicks I made it on Above the Law, to see if I should hit should Lat square in the jaw….

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Career Center: Job Hunting Tips for the Holiday Season

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Most of us correlate this time of year with holiday cheer, happiness, and general festivity. However, if you find yourself looking for a job in December, it can be a little disheartening. Employers, if they are not taking time off, focus their efforts on end of the year wrap-up. Although hiring may seem slow during the holiday season, don’t consider it a total loss.

Check out these holiday job-hunting tips from Lateral Link that will be sure to help you keep your chin up, and your hope of landing a new job alive….

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Career Center: Acing Your Law Firm Interview

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Lateral interview season is about to kick off. You’ll likely see several law firm vacancies pop up early in the new year as firms struggle to find replacements for attorneys who jump ship after receiving their year end bonus.

In preparation for the upcoming interview season, the recruiters at Lateral Link have compiled a list of the top five tips to help you ace your next law firm interview.

1. Be prepared: Preparation is key. Do not try and “swing it” and go to an interview unprepared. Understand what is at stake when you go into an interview — getting hired. Back in the good ole days, your résumé alone was sufficient to get you a job. The interview process was merely a formality and a way for firms to screen out people who were completely socially inept. Today, the résumé is only one component of your candidacy….

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Career Center: O Come All Ye Rainmakers – Tips for Networking During the Holidays

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With the holiday season in full swing, ‘tis the season for parties. In today’s Career Center post, the recruiters at Lateral Link provide you with tips on how to work a room and expand your network while mingling with co-workers, family, and friends.

1. First, research the guest list. Come up with a list of people attending the party you want to meet and talking points for each of them.

2. Develop and memorize a short personal introduction (your elevator pitch) containing information on who you are, what you do, and why you are here.

Keep reading for more valuable tips to use this holiday season….

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Career Center: Three Ways the Holidays Can Boost Your Résumé

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For most of us, the holidays are synonymous with family, fun, and fruitcake. Work, at least for a few days, drops off our radar. However, the down time received during the holidays is the perfect time to break out the old résumé and, in fact, improve it. Whether or not you are looking for a new job, keeping your résumé current will help you avoid headaches in the coming months should you decide to make a move.

Here are three ways the holidays can help update your résumé, provided by the recruiters at Lateral Link….

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Career Center: Tips for Selecting a Legal Recruiter

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The lateral hiring market has improved substantially over the past year. With that improvement, associates are receiving a greater number of cold-calls from recruiters. For many junior associates, these calls are a new phenomenon. Your choice of a recruiter — and the way you manage the process — will have a profound impact on your short-term and long-term opportunities.

There are many good recruiters and many benefits to using a good one. However, not all recruiters are created equal. Jordan Abshire, legal recruiter and Managing Director at Lateral Link, offers some great pointers on handling the cold-calls and selecting a good recruiter, as well as some background information on the recruiting process….

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Career Center: 2011 In-House Salaries Are On The Upswing

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While practically every attorney is familiar with the market rate for Biglaw salaries, not as much is known about salaries for in-house lawyers. Unlike Biglaw’s lockstep salaries, in-house salaries vary widely depending on a broad range of factors such as industry, size of legal department, years of experience, etc. Additionally, since in-house salaries are often negotiable, in-house attorneys tend to avoid discussing their individualized pay with one another.

ALM Legal Intelligence has helped to demystify in-house salaries through its 2011 Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey. This comprehensive survey analyzed compensation data from 4,951 lawyers employed at 225 corporate law departments. The 2011 median salaries for various management and non-management law department positions are reported in the tables after the jump, along with their changes from 2010….

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