Articles From the Team

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give” - Winston Churchill.

I read this quote recently and it resonated with me. I actually read it wrong the first time around – I thought it read: “we make a living by what we give…” and I nodded to myself.

I’ve been working in recruitment for a long time. Of course, I’ve come across certain people in this job who’d sell their grandmother to make a placement, but on the whole, I’d suggest that the recruiters who make recruitment their long term career are ‘givers’.

At BCL Legal, we’re in an enviable position: as a long established recruitment business, we have clients and lawyer candidates who want to work with us. (Thank goodness we don’t need every role, or lawyer, that we’re assisting to accept the job we’re working – of course, we’d love them to… but that never happens.) This allows us to focus on what’s right for the lawyer or client; not on what purely benefits ‘us’. For myself, having the experience I do of seeing how certain moves have benefited other lawyers in their career, it’s all about giving my best advice and keeping the long term prosperity of both clients and candidate lawyers at the forefront of my mind.

So, how are recruiters ‘givers’?

Many lawyers call us when they’re uncertain in more than one way: for some it might be a discussion about moving in-house for the first time; others might be keen to know if their current package is ‘market rate’; and, there are multiple times when I’m called by someone who’s moved but is unhappy or struggling in some way.

My time is always available to help you – no matter whether I was the recruiter involved in your move or not.

In recent months, I’ve been contacted by three lawyers who all made a move directly or via another recruiter – and all where concerned they’d made a mistake. My immediate reaction is to never say: “let’s find a new role”; I try and help to convey situations where others have turned things around. If my advice helps you stay in situ then that’s a good result as far as I am concerned.

Being a recruiter in a market you’ve focused on for many years means you’re often an ear to those who are unhappy at work and therefore unhappy at home (in my experience both aspects of life seep into the other). Often knowing that your thoughts and situation are experienced by others, is beneficial in itself. As the saying goes: “a problem shared is a problem halved.”

At BCL Legal, we strongly believe in giving the right advice all of the time. Only by ‘giving’ to others can you build the trust required to help people through what’s an incredibly important and impactful life event.