1. Give your employer the information HE wants to know.
2. Use your specialized skills for an outside short term consulting project
3. Consider an entrepreneurial venture in a service business (avoid capital investment)
4. Take classes to grow skills and abilities if you can afford to invest the time.
5. Take up a new hobby that draws colleagues and customers
6. Get involved in community affairs or a not for profit—that needs your expertise
7. Ask less of others and give more of yourself; this makes you indispensable!
8. Be realistic! Develop doable action plans, and determine to meet them, timely.
9. Utilize a perceptive personal friend as a life coach .
10. Consider hiring a professional adviser to improve your people reading skills

As a recent graduate from law school, the job search process can be overwhelming, tiring and lonely.  As a graduate the job search process is probably a far cry from law school days when you worked with study groups and partners to tackle the arduous task for mastering legal coursework.  But who says that the job search has to be done alone.  There's another option--a job search buddy.  A job search buddy is someone you can work with you to reach goals, measure progress, celebrate success and overcome challenges.  Working together you and your job search buddy help each other stay on task and stay motivated.  Here are a few guidelines to make a job search buddy arrangement work for the both of you:
1.    Meet with your job search buddy at least one a week by phone or in person.  Make sure that you both receive equal time to discuss your issues/progress and have a solid end and start time for each meeting.
2.    Every week you and your job search buddy should have action steps and goals to accomplish for the following week.  At your meetings you should report on which actions steps were taken and which goals were accomplished. Make sure that you celebrate progress and hold you buddy accountable for failure to complete tasks.  You may even want to create a penalty/reward system.  For example, you may want to require a payment of $1 for each task not completed and at the end of the month the person who was most consistent in their progress gets the money collected from penalties.
3.    Work with your buddy to solve challenges.  Each week you should spend time together brainstorming solutions to problems and challenges you're facing in your job search.
4.    Keep the relationship reciprocal. Make sure that you and your job search buddy are benefiting equally from the relationship. You may want to use a timer during the weekly meetings to assure that one buddy does not spend most of the meeting time talking about him or herself.

If you're a law student looking to enter this challenging  job market you need to do your homework and we're not talking about those "law books" we're talking about researching the firms you want to work with.  Here are a few tips on researching a law firm:

1.    Go to the law firm's website and actually read it.  Read the newsletters, press releases, and learn about promotions, new clients etc.

2.    Research articles on the law firm using search engines, the library or the tools at Leopard Solutions.

3.    Use Leopard Solutions to identify key personnel at the law firm.

4.    Conduct an informational interview with employees at the law firm.

5.    Talk to former employees of the law firm to find out the negative aspects of working for that particular firm.

What you want to find out is the philosophy, culture and reputation of the firm you want to work with. You also want to find out the vision of the law firm and what their plans are for the future.  Do you really want to work for a firm that may be considering a move to another state in five years?  Or, do you want to work with a firm that has a business model that isn't viable or sustainable in the long-term? Remember, you can never know too much information about a law firm that you're considering investing your time with.  And it is an "investment."  

It’s easy to get, and anyone can acquire it, but most people will never have it because they don’t want it bad enough. They won’t even try to get it, even though it’s economical,easy to obtain, and open to anyone who desires it. And it’s the only thing that  will save you during a recession.

What is it?

It’s your sales effectiveness. That’s the combination of how you persuade other people converging with a disciplined, resilient and values-centered approach to influencing others. Right now, more than ever, this single concept will help you to capture business away from your competitors, because that’s the only place it’s going to come from right now. To make it work, you have to count on your competitors slacking off and not staying on the cutting edge of their sales skills. You don’t have to worry, though. Most companies usually move training and development to the back burner in times of crisis. Don’t do that. You don’t even need a big budget, or any budget for that. Don’t even wait for your manager to help you get better. Take that on yourself, and it doesn’t even have to cost anything. For example, they have these things out now called libraries. They’re free. And they have sales books in them. Or even better, take a $100 dollar bill and go to a book store and make an investment in yourself by purchasing a bunch of sales books. It’s sad to say, but only two out of a hundred who are reading this will actually take this advice and self-initiate the development and honing of their sales skills. So few people are willing to invest in themselves because so few people want to win bad enough. If you want it bad enough, you’ll find a way.

In a competitive situation, like a sporting event, a debate tournament, or combat, the one who wants it more than the other usually wins. Remember who won the race, it was the tortoise.


The Only Recession Solution You Need Continued.....

Changing careers can be both exciting and a challenge.  The biggest challenge career changers face is overcoming the fears of potential employers who doubt your qualifications because of your lack of experience.  The key to overcoming resistance facing most career changers is to stop simply looking for your dream job and begin actually doing it.  Below are a few tips to help career changers get on the road to their new dream job.

1.    Just Do It. Waiting for an employer to give you that big break won't do much for helping you change careers.  If you want to get the attention of potential employers begin doing what you say you want to do even if it doesn't pay.  For example, if you want to work in litigation instead of contracts, consider volunteering your time pro bono to low-income litigants. The extra effort will shine on your resume.
2.    Go Back To School. Well, you don't literally need to go back to school (although you can) but you should read books, attend workshops, join associations and learn everything you can about the new career you're pursuing. Be sure to subscribe to industry newsletters and publications so that you can be up-to-date on recent news and happenings in the industry.
3.    Become A Member. Surround yourself with people who are working in or in some way connected to the career you want. Take the time and effort to build a network of people that can help you get one step closer to your new career.  As always you need to keep your network alive by being useful to those who you have connected to.  Send useful articles, connections, invitations to events etc. to those in your network.

Increasing productivity seems to be the most sought after goal amongst legal recruiters.  Many legal recruiters spend countless amounts of time and money learning the newest productivity strategies, software and philosophies.  But there may be a simpler solution to the productivity puzzle. As the best and most effective legal recruiters know, understanding your client's needs is probably the easiest, surest and least expensive path to increasing a legal recruiter's productivity. There are basically three major keys to understanding a client's needs:
1.    Understanding the client's industry.  Find out about your client's specific practice area.  What are the challenges, latest developments and specific skill requirements of your client's practice area?
2.    Understand the legal job you are recruiting for.  The most critical knowledge you need about the legal job is, what drives on the job success?  What are the skills and characteristics a legal job candidate needs to find success in this particular legal position?
3.    Understand the profile of the ideal legal job candidate?  For each legal job there is an ideal candidate profile.  You need to know what it is, so that you can target the right candidates in your recruiting efforts. Understand what the ideal legal job candidate desires in a position and make sure you highlight those job qualities that will be most attractive to the ideal legal job candidate.

I remember my first thought when I saw Circuit City going out of business – no wonder.   I had visited the store several months ago shopping for a flat screen television and I couldn’t find anyone to help me with a selection. No one acknowledged me except for the gentleman who opened the door.  Not a single sales person approached me, and they actually avoided my eye when I was looking for help.  As I left, the doorman asked if I had found what I needed and I just had to laugh.

We’ve all endured this type of experience.  Who hasn’t gone into a drug store, grocery store or clothing store and NOT experienced bad customer service?  Sales clerks talking on the phone, cashiers even eating behind the counter and sadly, entire transactions are completed in silence. These have become the norm in our society.   It’s so commonplace that now we are only surprised when we receive good customer service. We are rarely surprised when we don’t.

During the Christmas shopping season, there was one shining moment, one glimmer of hope as a sales clerk dared to be different. I was looking for a particular gift for a relative and not having much luck.  I entered a small store and told the first sales person that approached what I was looking for.  She looked around the store and waved me in the direction of some white shirts and left me to my own devices.  I looked for a moment and began to leave. Another saleswoman, a little older and much more determined, quickly approached and took me in hand.  She pulled out 4 items from the floor and then went into the back and pulled out another selection that couldn’t be found on the sales floor.  How could I say no?  I made my purchase and she wrapped my gift beautifully – even including an item that I purchased elsewhere.  Amazing.  She went over and beyond the call of duty and made the sale.  

There is a lesson here that we all could learn.

During the boom time in our industry, many companies were able to make placements almost in spite of themselves.  Recruiting was happening fast and furiously, and many of the old work standards were bypassed and the level of service delivered to law firms slipped. Why bother to form a relationship with a law firm coordinator?   Why bother to know the prevailing culture of a law firm?  Send in 100 resumes and you’ll get a good percentage placed! Not so anymore. 

Legal recruiting is a service industry.  Recruiters provide a service to law firms and many times the service provided has been quite lacking.  Law firm recruiting coordinators can tell you horror stories of working with certain legal consultants.  (Have you heard the one about the recruiter who submitted a resume for an attorney, to the firm where they still currently worked?)  How about email submissions without a subject line, without a cover letter, just with an attached resume?  You all have heard of recruiters who have blasted a candidate’s resume to hundreds of firms, virtually taking them off the market for 6 months to a year.  Take a moment and remember all the gossip and stories YOU’VE heard about fellow recruiters. 

The Importance of Customer Service continued....