I graduated from a top NLU In 2022 and have been grinding away in a Tier 2 law firm for over a year now, focusing only on arbitration in the Infrastructure and Energy sectors. Lately, I've been actively trying to make a switch to a Tier 1 firm, but it's proving to be quite a challenge. The job postings I see from headhunters either want more experience than I have or a holistic disputes background. I'm starting to wonder if there just aren't many openings out there, or if I'm missing something. Any tips on how to make a lateral move without relying solely on headhunters? Additionally, I've got a few opportunities in Project Finance too. Since I'm not really sure about diving into disputes (other than arbitration), do you think it's worth considering these opportunities?
Ask freshers who are finding difficult to start their career. Job opportunities are extremely low and the opportunities put out most often say want more than 1 year, 2 year PQE. Ab kare toh kya kare? Internships!?
For practice areas like M&A, B&F and Capital Markets - lateral hiring is way more smoother given the attrition at the T1 firms. Personally know of HRs and Counsels reaching out to T2 A1s and A2s post deal announcements of such firms if they find them worth the buck with 1-2 years of PQE in the aforementioned practice areas. Keep trying and reach out to partners, if required. Best of luck!
You guys toh have job i am toh not even getting a job as i am recent 2023 graduate :'( .life is tough for freshers it even more tough. After many interview i am getting rejected everytime either there is no vacancy or im shit enough. To not clear interviews even after getting second round of interview and having decent internet few moot amd few publication with some good certificate course. What am i doing wrong. Seems like i should leave this profession
If the headhunters have not even been able to get an interview for you then just drop this strategy altogether.
If you have friends working in T1s, then you will easily get to know which teams have openings and then you can send a cold email to (i) the partners or (ii) if the firm offers incentive to its members for bringing in new hires, to the SAs or PAs.
Headhunters proved to be useless for me and a lot of my friends. Not even a single interview landed for 6 months. These other tricks worked for all of us.
If the headhunters did get you few interviews then it might be a YOU problem and maybe you need to brush up on your way of presenting the knowledge. After graduating and getting bombarded with work, we tend to ignore the basic details on the assumption that the partners or PA interviewing us must already know it, which they surely do, and there is no need to go into that much detail. However, they still want you to be as articulate as possible and not miss even a single detail.
All partners and PA's definitely do not know everything. I have seen partners make basic grammatical mistakes in the final drafts of agreements / DD Reports. That seems to be absolutely fine. However, a candidate not answering a few questions during an interview seems to be an unforgivable crime. This is not practical, especially given that at least in the initial stages, the work most associates do, in Corporate and M & A teams, is more of due diligence and agreement drafting work, where there is very little to do with the law (in the initial stages). Rejecting someone in an interview just because they cannot answer a few subject based questions does not make sense at all. The candidate may eventually prove to be excellent at his/her work.
I’m on the same boat but my situation is the opposite. I have been doing lots of general corporate advisory work and a bit of disputes as well, and no one is willing to give me a job because I haven’t specifically focused on a single practice area.
Yeh switching sab ke liye easy hota hai na, Laxman?
If the headhunters have not even been able to get an interview for you then just drop this strategy altogether.
If you have friends working in T1s, then you will easily get to know which teams have openings and then you can send a cold email to (i) the partners or (ii) if the firm offers incentive to its members for bringing in new hires, to the SAs or PAs.
Headhunters proved to be useless for me and a lot of my friends. Not even a single interview landed for 6 months. These other tricks worked for all of us.
If the headhunters did get you few interviews then it might be a YOU problem and maybe you need to brush up on your way of presenting the knowledge. After graduating and getting bombarded with work, we tend to ignore the basic details on the assumption that the partners or PA interviewing us must already know it, which they surely do, and there is no need to go into that much detail. However, they still want you to be as articulate as possible and not miss even a single detail.