Articles From the Team

NQ Solicitor jobs

First of all if you are due to qualify this autumn, many congrats! All the hard work has paid off and you are joining a fantastic profession. So what is next? For many of you, you will have already secured a job on qualification with your training firm in your first choice area of law and be looking forward to a nice holiday before you get cracking in September. If that is the case! Fantastic! Job done!

For those of you who are not in that position just yet - please do not panic! There are still a lot of great NQ jobs out there, with a whole range of firms. Indeed some of the larger firms have only just completed there internal processes and are only now going to market with external vacancies. In Birmingham we are currently seeing a very buoyant market with a range of roles across the specialisms. Our colleagues up and down the country are also very busy – so wherever you are looking, there are jobs we can discuss with you.

Back in February when we hosted our NQ careers seminar, we talked to candidates in detail about having a plan A and plan B in terms of areas of specialism and flexibility on locations. If you are still looking for a role, now is the time to think about this again. Could you look at a wider range of locations in order to get your preferred area of law? Are you unsure where to look for the right role? Fear not! Look no further – BCL are here to help. As preferred suppliers to the leading law firms in all major cities, we can talk to you about your options, help you get your CV in great shape, make applications on your behalf, help you prep for interview and deal with feedback and offers. We have already placed a substantial numbers of NQs into new roles for 2017 and we can do the same for you.

Some of you may have been offered a role at your training firm but it is not your preferred area of law. Should you take it out of a sense of loyalty? Or should you try to get that dream job? Our advice remains as it did in February. This is one of few points in your career where you really can go out there and explore the market – meet with different firms and find out about different teams/roles in order to get the right job and firm for you. Whilst we can completely understand that you want to be loyal to the firm that trained you, it is your career too and you need to make sure you are making the right decision for you.

Year after year we have candidates come to us after six months or so post qualification because they realise they made a mistake. They took a job in an area they did not really want to work in, because the felt they should stay put. On the one hand this is completely understandable, they might have felt under pressure or it seemed like the right thing to do. For the most part we can help move them into a new role and area of law, but just think of the stress and wasted energy that could have been avoided if they had been able to secure that role on qualification and made a natural transition to a new firm as an NQ solicitor.

So whatever your situation, if you are a 2017 qualifier and looking for some advice please do get in touch!