Articles From the Team

What you assume to be easier, ends up being harder – why is that?

I have recently returned from annual leave. A vision of endless hours on the beach, reading a good book, recharging the batteries, quality time with my wife all springs to mind - ready to hit the legal recruitment market with renewed gusto and vigour. I have 2 kids under 7 so relaxation was far from my mind! Nonetheless, a break is a break and it’s good to be back at work feeling mildly refreshed.

What I did find particularly enjoyable (apart from being in the pool everyday with my daughters, obviously…) were the runs I did with a friend. I am a keen runner and can’t go long without a fix. We totted up a decent 40 or so miles over our 10 day stay which is pretty good going considering we were on holiday (or very sad – we both have daughters so is it surprising!?). Where we were staying was very hilly/mildly mountainous with 900m climbs, you would think that going up hill would be harder than coming down but surprise surprise running down hill hurts you in places I had forgotten about! It was a lot harder than I assumed and required a different technique.

This revelation got me thinking about how hard the legal recruitment market is right now. It’s easier in that it has got a lot busier with demand outstripping supply in many areas of law when you compare to what things were like during and post recession. That was a hard recruitment market with little opportunity for job seekers! So you would assume, with countless vacancies to work on, it would be like shelling peas for legal recruitment consultants much like you would assume running down hill would be far easier than running up. In fact, it’s just as hard but it requires a different skill set. On the one hand lawyers looking for a new job had very little to think about and consider during the recession, on the other they have too many options to consider in what is now a buoyant economy with lots of opportunity. At BCL Legal we work very hard to try and understand what a candidate’s priorities are when they are looking for a new role; if you don’t understand what a job seeker wants the recruitment process can quickly spiral out of control – much like my legs when running down hill!!!

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