Career moves are important but not permanent steps.
One of the Participants in the CareerSupport365 program is a lawyer, two years since graduating from University, who wanted to get advice whether she ought to accept a job offer.
Her concern was that the opportunity was not with a law firm, but with an HR professional services advisory firm that could utilise her legal workplace relation knowledge.
After I probed what was important to her, she concluded that it would be a good next move for her. However if she wanted to return to legal practice, this would move her away from gaining further Post Qualifying Experience (PQE). But opportunities to join a legal practice in her area of specialisation right now were limited, given her stage of PQE.
My advice to her was:
- accept the role, (with the caveat of it taking her away from her PQE.)
- become excellent in the role she now has been offered. This might open up new vistas and opportunities she had yet to consider. (Many young lawyers only imagine themselves working for a (top) law firm.)
- test out her fit with the company culture across the next 3 – 6 months. She’ll have a clear idea about how good a fit there is within a week or so of joining.
- learn and contribute as much as she could to her new employer.
- spend at least 98% of the time focussed on doing an excellent job for her new employer.
- spend 2% of her time (at lunch or after hours) connecting with recruiters, networking and interviewing, in the event a suitable law role arose.
- re-ignite her dormant LinkedIn account, populating it with more details about her experience; add in important keywords; seek recommendations from each role she previously held; increase the number of her LinkedIn connections; gain endorsements; connect with Groups. All these would raise her profile in LinkedIn and also stream new opportunities from hiring managers and job seekers.
- Network online and face to face with recruiters and lawyers in her desired legal area.
- re-do her CV – just in case she needs to market herself.
There is often a gap between the opportunity available and the expectation a job seeker might have.
As long as it’s not too removed from the main career objective, I suggest people take the new job opportunity and commit. There is a whole world out there once people get out of their familiar zones – which might end up being better than they had ever experienced.
CareerSuppport365‘s Personal Branding Bundle has proven success in helping people discover who they are.
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