The word “recession” drives fear into the hearts of employers and job candidates alike. Candidates know that firms dial back on hiring when the economy starts to sour and find themselves wondering how to get a job in a recession. Similarly, employers understand that the negative impact of recession on recruitment can permanently impact their competitive advance, cutting their access to essential talent.
What options do both have when it comes to recruitment in a recession? Rather than relying solely on their own resources, job-seeking attorneys and legal firms alike should seek out the aid of legal recruiters. In this article, we will highlight seven benefits that legal recruiters can provide for both candidates and companies during a recession.
Deeper Working Relationship
For job seekers wondering, “Can I get a job in a recession?”, know that economic malaise can actually work to your benefit. How? If you employ the services of a legal recruiter, not only can you avoid the worst jobs during recession conditions, you can also receive a lot of valuable counsel. Legal recruiters have fewer commitments during such periods, and you will likely receive far more counsel and personalized attention. Not only can this help you land a better job, but you may also establish an important relationship. After all, in today’s environment, even attorneys find themselves periodically changing firms.
Expert Advice
Those pondering what jobs get hit during recessions usually know that most positions in the legal profession tend to suffer when the economy slows down. That’s why both job hunters and legal firms can benefit from consulting with a reputable legal recruiter. During a recession, having expert advice from an experienced recruiter is very valuable for several reasons. Firms and partnerships can gain insights into the state of the market, while candidates can receive counsel on their resumes and bolster their interviewing acumen.
Become the Go-To Candidate
Potential threats can become benefits if applicants position themselves correctly. Legal recruiters don’t get compensated unless they successfully place hires, and when firms fail to hire at as fast of a clip as they did in the past, they focus on quality candidates they are proud to represent. If you can compete, joining forces with an established recruiter may help you get the legal position you’ve always wanted. The sad truth, though, is that simply getting noticed is as essential as possessing the requisite skills. It’s much easier to become go-to-candidates if potential hires work with established professionals than if they try to go it on their own.
Unpublished Opportunities
The truth of the matter is that many open positions never get widely advertised. Instead, news gets spread by word of mouth or through personal connections, and job opportunities swiftly disappear — sometimes even during economically troubled times. Both lawyers looking for these positions and employers seeking to fill them can benefit by contacting a legal recruiter. Though the impact of recession on recruitment often means lighter hiring loads, employers would rather have the recruiter sort through the candidates before they start interviewing.
For the candidates, they’ll soon discover that it’s incredibly difficult to gain access to these kinds of jobs on their own. Unless they have a personal connection with a partner, a resume on file with the firm, or have somehow made an excellent impression in the past, they simply won’t know about them. Recruiters, though, will be among the first individuals to be aware of unpublished opportunities, and already vetted candidates can quickly find themselves in a new job.
Saves You Time
Legal firms and partnerships never find themselves with a surplus of time. From drafting documents and meeting clients, appearing in court and consulting with other attorneys, handling billing and taking steps to ensure compliance, firms remain busy even when billable hours taper off. And when it comes to hiring, their obligations only become more complex. Marketing a position. Reading and sorting resumes. Fielding inquiries. Filling an open position can become a job in and of itself.
That’s why many legal groups immediately seek out recruiters. They understand that their sphere of expertise centers around legal practice, not hiring. They also know that they can rely on the recruiter to send only the candidates that are relevant to their particular area of practice.
Increased Visibility
Sometimes employers find themselves struggling not with too many hiring options and not enough time to process them, but rather with a definite dearth of options. Neither option will help a firm conduct its core legal business, and if one should choose to conduct the search itself, it would need to invest a significant amount of monetary and manpower resources into marketing, advertising, and vetting.
During a recession, though, when they use a recruiter, their visibility to that hiring manager increases. They not only save time that they can better employ by attending to legal matters, they find themselves the recipient of a greater volume of applicants and potential hires of a higher quality. It’s worth remembering that legal recruiters don’t get paid until after a successful placement, and recruiters who are connected with an engaged firm have every incentive to present great candidates to their clients.
Help You Navigate a Change
When we conceptualize the idea of professional change, we tend to think of things from the perspective of a job hunter or of new legal talent seeking to enter the field, and that’s natural. Candidates are the people asking questions such as, “Can you still get a job in a recession?”, and changing positions usually entails major shifts in life circumstances. New responsibilities, new routines, new coworkers, and sometimes entirely new cities — attorneys often face all of these things when they make a professional change. Fortunately, an experienced legal recruiter can alert them to and help them manage all the concomitant details.
The same, though, holds equally true for firms and partnerships. The constant need to meet client demands and maintain a company culture both rest upon the talent they have working for them. The departure of a team member may represent a sea change and prompt a challenge they need to overcome. And legal recruiters can aid them as well.
Whether you represent a firm or are a lawyer looking to make a change, know that the Legal Recruiter Directory is a vital resource in finding or filling open legal positions.
