Articles From the Team
Chin up, better luck next time
At the beginning of May, we the people turned out in the millions to cast our votes and elect the politicians who will represent us in Parliament and lead us as a nation for the next five years. I’ve noticed (mostly on social media) that there seems to be a significant level of upset regarding the outcome of the win for David Cameron and his Conservative Party. This might be because my social media feeds are filled mostly with friends and it appears that the vast majority of my comrades are staunchly left wing. It might also be because the system of voting is flawed and not a fair representation of what we as an electorate actually want. Honestly, in my humble opinion, I don’t think it’s the latter. Throughout the media in the last few weeks I have seen countless statistics about the number of voters in favour of parties other than the Conservatives and various percentages relating to this which would show that the nation (generally) don’t actually want a Conservative government. I find this hard to believe, given that David Cameron and his Conservative party clearly won a fair majority to establish government. To those who didn’t vote Tory this is clearly upsetting but the rest of the country has spoken, so chin up and better luck next time.
That’s actually quite an arrogant and insensitive statement – chin up and better luck next time. I don’t mean to be arrogant, or insensitive, but I think it sums things up pretty well. Sometimes you can do all the right things in all the right ways but whatever you’re hoping for just doesn’t coalesce. It’s unfortunate and it’s frustrating and it often hurts. I think about this a lot when candidates give us interview feedback. More often than not the feedback is positive and a lot of this comes down to personality. In an interview it’s really important that you connect with the people you’re talking to, and vice versa. Candidates feel they struck a good rapport with the partners, truly understand the firm, the culture and the work they would be undertaking. Sometimes though, the interviewer doesn’t feel the same way. There are a number of reasons why and I could sit here typing about them all day long.
As legal recruiters there are many different aspects to our job. The ultimate goal is to match the right people with the right roles but this doesn’t happen by simply sending CVs to a client with our fingers crossed and hoping for the best, a lot of work goes into it. First we’re instructed by the client on the vacancy and then we explore our extensive database for registered candidates who match the client’s criteria in terms of academics, experience, location etc. This then gives us a list of people to speak to, all in an attempt to bring the candidate information on a role that could very well be suited to your needs and it’s important to note that your needs are every bit as important as the client’s. If everything considered is aligned then, with consent from the candidate, we send the CV and (hopefully) arrange an interview. We then spend time preparing you for interview which includes tapping into our knowledge of the client and the partner(s) on what they’re looking for and their interview methods. We manage the process from start to finish to alleviate the pressure and stress on you. If it doesn’t go the way want we will not simply say chin up and better luck next time. We will do our best to use feedback constructively so we can ensure you the best fighting chance at the next interview. It is important to keep your chin up, we will always wish you luck, but more to the point we will use our expertise to help you in the best way possible.
If you are an NQ, an associate, senior associate, paralegal or a partner looking to make a move, to explore the market or gather some useful information then please get in touch with Gishan Abeyratne or visit our website BCL Legal.