Job Search for the Currently Employed

If you’ve not really thought about it before, it’s worth a reminder: the best time to look for a legal job is when you already have one.
Why is this so? It’s human nature: when an employer sees you don’t have a job, they reflexively ask themselves, if only sub-consciously, “what’s wrong with this person that he/she doesn’t have a job?” There is an implicit assumption that you’re not working because you’re flawed in some way. This is patently unfair – you may be highly qualified and unemployed because there are so few jobs available – but just because it’s unfair doesn’t mean it’s not real. The reality is that employers much prefer to hire people who are already working – for a whole complex of reasons.
So, if you’re currently working and are unhappy with your situation, it’s far better to line something up before you leave your current job. If you resign and join the ranks of the unemployed, you’ll find it that much harder to land your next position.
The problem is, if you’re working and dedicating yourself to your current employer as you should from a fiduciary perspective, it’s very hard to simultaneously look for another position. You don’t want to be taking job search phone calls and going out on interviews during working hours, but if you don’t – how will you ever advance your career?
Solution A

One way is to get a recruiter (agent) to help you find your next position. This is definitely a good way to go if you can get a recruiter to represent you, but that will happen only if your credential and experience are such that your next employer will pay a $50,000+ recruiter’s fee for the privilege of meeting you. How do you know if your experience and credential are such that would interest a recruiter? Chances are if you’re already receiving unsolicited calls from “headhunters”, you have the kind of background a recruiter would find of interest. Also, if you have more than, let’s say, $750,000 worth of “portables” (client relationships), you would garner the interest of a recruiter, who would earn a percentage of your portables as part of his/her fee. If neither of the previous conditions applies, you may still find recruiters are interested in working with you if you have especially strong academic credentials, or some substantive prior experience at a large corporate law firm.
If you’re interested in pursuing the recruiter path, you’ll find Lawmatch’s National Directory of Legal Recruiters (lower-left link on the Lawmatch homepage) to be a terrific resource. This free, searchable database contains entries for all US-based search and staffing firms that specialize in the legal marketplace (not just those that pay for a listing). You’ll be hard pressed to find a more comprehensive resource anywhere else on the Web.
Solution B

Another way to pursue a new job while your currently employed is to use passive, Web-based job search tools such as the Lawmatch National Resume Bank. A legitimate conce
with this approach is that if you put your profile into a public database, your current employer may end up seeing it and learning that you are looking for another job. The counter-argument is that there are ways to abstract your resume so that even the shrewdest recruiter utilizing the most advanced data search techniques won’t be able to identify you. If you are currently employed Lawmatch will be happy to work with you to develop a truly anonymous abstract for your profile that will absolutely not identify you, but still provide enough substantive information to attract the interest of employers. For more information please read about our Concierge Service for currently employed attorneys.
Neal Rechtman is the CEO of Lawmatch.com and has over 35 years experience in the legal recruitment marketplace.