Over the years I’ve had thousands of career conversations with solicitors, legal executives and partners. One thing I’ve learned is that people rarely wake up one morning and decide to leave their job.
Usually, the signs have been there for months, sometimes even years.
The challenge is that when you’re immersed in billable hours, client deadlines and the day-to-day demands of legal practice, those signs are easy to ignore. We convince ourselves things will improve after the next appraisal, the next promotion round or the next busy period. Sometimes they do. Often they don’t.
This month: Take a moment to think about these signs
Over the summer I’m sharing a short video series called ‘7 Signs It Might Be Time to Move On.’ Each video is around a minute long and explores one of the most common themes that comes up in my conversations with legal professionals.
The first three signs are:
1. You’ve stopped learning.
Early in your career, every week brings something new. As you become more experienced, that naturally slows down, but if you’ve reached the point where you’re no longer developing new skills, taking on fresh challenges or being stretched, it’s worth asking whether your career is still moving forward or whether you’ve simply become comfortable.
2. You’ve been promised progression… but nothing changes.
Most lawyers are prepared to be patient. Promotion doesn’t happen overnight.However, if you’ve had several conversations about “next year”, “the right time” or “we just need to see a little more”, yet there is no clear plan, measurable objectives or genuine opportunity, or the goalposts keep shifting, it may be time to ask whether the destination just keeps moving further away.
3. You’re being left behind financially.
One of the biggest trends I’ve seen recently is salary compression.
As firms compete for Newly Qualified solicitors, NQ salaries continue to rise. That’s great news for new qualifiers, but it also means lawyers at three, four or five years’ PQE can find themselves earning surprisingly close to those joining the profession.If your salary hasn’t kept pace with your growing experience, responsibility and commercial value, it’s worth understanding what the wider market looks like. Sometimes the biggest increase comes simply from knowing where you stand.
I’ll be sharing the remaining four signs across LinkedIn and our social media over the coming weeks, so if we’re not already connected, keep an eye on our social channels.
I was also delighted recently to be ranked the Top 6 legal recruiter on LinkedIn out of more than 2,000 active legal recruiters on the platform – amazing! Thank you to everyone who reads, comments, shares and gets involved in those conversations. Hopefully it shows there is real value in talking openly about legal careers.
