Articles From the Team
The major problem with staying too long in your job…
Back in the old days, job security was everything and everybody's main criteria in looking for that ‘job for life’. People wanted a job in a huge corporation that'd keep them employed until retirement, or the final salary pension made it pointless to keep on working!
Those days have obviously gone and no one can guarantee you lifelong employment with a guaranteed nest egg at the end. The only person that controls your job security is YOU!
You build your knowledge, experience and marketability. If your job disappears and you have these three attributes you should be fine – you're at the top of your game and you're able to convey what you can bring to the next organisation… But what if you've languished in a role that hasn’t seen you develop for say 24 months or more... then you could face problems when you come to interview.
One question
If I ever get asked the question from a lawyer who isn’t sure about the timings of looking for a new role, I ask one question: how will your role change over the next 12 months? If it's not set to change in any major way, then you need to question the benefits of remaining in post – and the effects of staying when it comes to interviewing.
Just to be clear – I certainly don't advocate job hopping and I think that junior lawyers can sometimes move too quickly these days – I'll write another blog on that shortly!
What I'm talking about here, is lawyers (particularly in-house lawyers) who decide to look for a move after say 10 years in one organisation. Unless the company they work for has allowed them to change roles/develop every couple of years, it can be hard to help them. Unfortunately, instead of looking like committed employees, clients are concerned they've hidden in a role to collect their salary. As opposed to those who keep on striving for change and new successes.
The rationale from recruiting clients being: what change/value will they add to our business?”
For more information please contact Mark Levine at BCL Legal.