Some Pointers On Finding Newly Qualified Solicitor Jobs
The majority of second year trainee solicitors will be qualifying as solicitors at
the end of the summer and hoping to continue their careers as a newly qualified solicitor. However, the reality for many will not be so good.
Law firms have been tightening their belts due to the economic crisis and therefore retention rates have been dropping. This will mean that many law firms will not be able to keep certain individuals in a job after their training contracts even if they wanted to.
There will be a flood of jobless newly qualifieds into the job market because of this. Given that many firms do not take on all of their trainee solicitors it is unlikely that they will therefore want to take on newly qualified solicitors from other firms.
For some, the situation will be bleak. Unable to secure a job at the firms that trained them and then unable to beat the competition for the limited number of newly qualified solicitor jobs that are being advertised.
If this happens to you there are a few options open to you. For you to be considered as a candidate when the next newly qualified solicitors jobs come up, you need to build relationships with the recruitment agencies in your area.
You should also keep an eye on the legal jobs websites and legal press for new vacancies that come up. It is also worth spending time working on getting your application documents looking as best they can. You can look for some guidelines on the internet on how to make good CV's and covering letters and also make sure that you do not recycle the applications you used for your training contract.
To continue to get legal work experience if it happens that you do not succeed in getting a job at first, you could consider getting a job as a paralegal. Prospective employers may see this as a positive thing in you.
You can take a break if you do not feel you want to work as a paralegal, or you can take a gap year and comeback in the market after a few months or a year when it may have picked up a bit.