Fantastic news. If this is the perfect role for you and it satisfies your long term career aspirations, accept the job. Try to return to this department for your final seat. Keep in touch with BCL Legal for up to date salary comparisons and general career management information.

Even if there is an opportunity to stay at your current firm qualifying into a discipline that was your second choice, you should consider any offer very carefully. Read 2 below as you may want to consider other options at the same time.

This can be a period of great frustration and is well known as `the waiting game'. It is essential that you are aware of all the opportunities available at this time in your career. If you rely on your firm to retain you when you qualify you could end up missing the boat as many firms won't decide until as late as July.

Ensure you are choosing the disciplines based on the work you have done and the skills you have. If you had a lot of fun with the people in the department this can often taint your view. It is unlikely you will be working with these people in five years time. It is very difficult to change discipline years after qualification because of the necessary re-training involved and associated salary cut so it is important that you qualify into a discipline that you enjoy working in.

Ideally you will have more than one choice of discipline so can take advantage of more opportunities. It is now that you need to consider what type of work you want to do within your chosen field, the location and how far you would commute for the perfect job and whether the firm has a good reputation for the field of specialisation you are seeking to work in. You should always use the same recruiter to search for jobs in both disciplines so that he or she can manage the process carefully for you.

Form a good relationship with a legal recruitment consultant. The consultants at BCL Legal have been finding jobs for newly qualified solicitors for over ten years and have considerable experience of dealing with law firms at this crucial time. We know it's time critical, it's scary and everything is `up in the air'. We are here to try to take the panic and `not knowing' out of the process. We will advise you of the jobs as soon as they arise.

As many firms will want to offer jobs to their current trainees first, jobs often don't come to the surface until late Summer and sometimes past September, into October and up until Christmas. If you want as much certainty as possible, have two or even three choices of disciplines, be clear in what you want to achieve and register with BCL Legal early.

We recommend registration 6 - 7 months before qualification. You may also want to consider transferring your training contract. This is easy to do and it means that when you do qualify you are already part of the furniture.

Moving in-house offers a very different career to private practice. You will become a manager of legal services, you will usually report to the board of directors and have other non-legal duties. You will learn all about the business and the sector it is in and become an expert on avoiding and managing risk on a daily basis. Most in-house lawyers have a more general practice than a private practice solicitor. You will often be involved in an array of commercial disciplines from advising on contracts to organising projects, to providing employment law advice or preparing for litigation. Most jobs are for lawyers with at least one year PQE within commercial disciplines including PFI, commercial property, employment, construction and competition.

If you are looking to take your work abroad it is likely that you will have worked in a non contentious discipline. If your firm offers secondments or has offices abroad you should register your interest, if not, there are increasing numbers of opportunities in Dubai, Hong Kong, Australia, America, Europe and the Cayman Islands. Opportunities are again likely to be for those with at least one year PQE and will be limited to those who have worked in a reputable, probably a top 50, law firm in banking, corporate, competition, commercial or projects.

Many lawyers are seeing the benefits of working as a locum and law firms and in-house departments are much more locum friendly than they have ever been. There may be the opportunity of working in a temporary position if on qualification you do not find the right opportunity for you. This however is not something to rely on. Locum opportunities are unpredictable by their very nature.

Organisations use locums to cover for maternity or long term sick leave or when they are going through busy periods. Temporary contracts can offer flexible working, the opportunity to gain exposure to different areas of law and the potential of a permanent position.

The legal profession is not all Rumpole of the Bailey and Ally McBeal. It's seven chargeable hours a day, clients who complain if the job isn't done today, lots of filing cabinets in a sometimes archaic, hierarchical structure. There are always other options. Remaining in the law but without the fee earning pressure, there are opportunities for professional support lawyers in all commercial disciplines. You will normally need at least three years' PQE before you can make the switch. Outside of legal practice many lawyers have opted to teach, either in primary schools or for legal education providers including Universities, the College of Law and the BPP law schools.

We hope this isn't you. But, unfortunately the law isn't for everyone. If you find yourself in this position we will do our best to help.