Whether you just finished your first recruiting season or are interested in entering the field, this article can provide you with some tips that new recruiters have recently learned or that they had wished someone had told them before that would be helpful for new recruiters entering the field. Here is some advice from new recruiters on surviving their first legal recruiting season.
The Hours…
Working as a legal recruiter is definitely not a 9am-5pm. As the seasons change, so do your hours. At most New York City law firms, the hours during the down season are 9:30am to 6:00pm. But, during the summer and the fall, a recruiter can work many overtime hours planning and attending events and working on scheduling interviews. It is not uncommon for many recruiting events to be held in the evenings after normal business hours. Common events that you will be responsible for planning and attending include: dinners, cocktail parties, boat cruises, baseball games, wine tastings, scavenger hunts, and many more. Remember, while you will be attending these events, it is important to remember that you are “working” and responsible for organizing all aspects and you need to be prepared if anything goes wrong. Although it is fine to have a good time while introducing your summer associates to attorneys at the firm, you always want to use your judgment and to not act inappropriately.
Working With Attorneys…
When working with attorneys, many first-season recruiters commented that you also need to be able to tolerate many different types of personalities. Some attorneys are faithful, energetic, understanding and some view interviewing as a burden, or they cancel on you at the last minute and don’t appreciate all the details and time that goes into creating a callback schedule. Some attorneys are reluctant to participate in the interview process and you need to know when to be persistent and when to take “no” for an answer. You should understand that much of your work involves “judgment calls” and understanding your specific firm culture, both of which take time to learn and you cannot take this personally or get too easily frustrated. As a new recruiter, you need to learn how to be flexible when schedules go awry. With flexibility comes patience. A recruiter needs to be easy-going and not let different personalities or difficult situations bring him/her down. You also need to have confidence to push sometimes when you can’t get your attorneys to participate or attend an event or interview on-campus. You have to learn how to strike a balance between respecting attorneys and their work load, yet also persuading them to help you get your job done. You will be working with many different types of personalities, so it is important to try to adapt your working style to that of the person you are working with.
Key Skills…
A recruiter is in a unique role in a law firm because you are not an attorney, but you are also not support staff, such as a secretary or a receptionist. You need to be able to define your role and be comfortable with it. Being very organized is also extremely important as a new recruiter because you have to always be on top of many different projects. For example, let’s say it is the beginning of August and you are finishing up the Summer Program. You need to finish planning and attending the last events, make sure all of the attorneys turn in their evaluation forms and have decided on who they want to make permanent offers to, while at the same time, you may be working on lateral hiring and you need to communicate with agencies or headhunters and help schedule interviews for lateral hires, and you also need to coordinate all on-campus presentations with the law schools, send out all necessary materials and schedule all interviews with the attorneys. Keeping track of all of these different responsibilities requires someone to be HIGHLY organized.
The Hostess with the Mostess…
Having a hospitable nature is also key. For example, when on-campus, don’t underestimate the need to be a graceful host/hostess in a hospitality suite at on-campus interviews or at a summer event. Your role is to help make people comfortable, to introduce the summer associates to attorneys or partners. Even if you feel uncomfortable, nervous or shy, you need to help bring people together. As a Recruiter, you have a role. Remember this and it will be easier to walk up to the Hiring Partner and introduce a summer associate.
In Conclusion…
Recruiting is a rewarding and challenging career. After you survive your first recruiting season, you will be prepared to take on new responsibilities and challenges and to share your experiences with other new recruiters entering the field.
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