Articles From the Team

The NQ season is ready to go….

We’re rapidly approaching that time of year when second year trainee solicitors turn their attentions in earnest to their post-qualified careers, thinking about which practice area/s they want to qualify into, whether they want to stay in the same city or move, what kind of firm they want to qualify into, waiting to hear about internal role whilst thinking about whether they want to also explore the external market.

It can be a stressful time for NQs and sometimes as recruiters we have to double up as therapists and a general shoulder to cry on as the tension rises. It really helps to be as prepared as you can be before you launch into your job search.

Last September the jobs marketplace in Leeds was slightly quieter than we were expecting. Whilst there were plenty of roles out there across most disciplines and the vast majority of qualifiers did find the right role for them, there was a slight shortage of roles across litigation disciplines and not quite as many commercial roles as we were expecting. Between September and Christmas, we had more NQs than usual contacting us because they’d found themselves in a role which didn’t end up being the right one for them and who wanted to move on.

Luckily, junior roles were then more plentiful than usual and this has continued on to the March NQ season, where there are definitely more NQ roles out there than usual.

We’re hoping that this is a good sign for the NQ season this year. Candidate shortages in the market at the 1-3PQE level should also help with this, so indications are good for a strong market.

We’re running our annual NQ talk in Leeds on Thursday 22 March in conjunction with the Leeds JLD. Join us for a welcome drink from 6pm onwards at Revolution Call Lane. From 6.30pm we’ll be delivering short talks about the market, how to position yourself to find the right role, how to create the perfect CV and the process up to qualification. We’ve got guest speakers from top tier firms and in-house to give you more of an insight into what they look for in an NQ, and there will be plenty of opportunity for asking questions and chatting one-to-one with the speakers over some food & a drink afterwards.

For more information please contact Juliet Lawson at BCL Legal.