Over-estimating their own market value is a common mistake among lawyers re-entering the profession, and the longer lawyers are away from practice, the more likely they will have misconceived ideas of their market value.
Robert Walters’ legal division consultant, Jasmine Sim, said lawyers returning to practice need to ensure they have a more realistic grasp on the value of their skills and their place in the current volatile job market, warning that many are detached from the market and may therefore over-rate their skill sets. “They tend to have very high expectations of their market value and such unrealistic expectations might lead them to misjudge their worth in the market,” she said. “They need to be realistic about their expectations and patient in waiting for the right opportunity to re-enter the market.”
One tax lawyer admitted that she overestimated her initial market value when she returned to practice. She said that with years of experience, she thought having limited knowledge of the current market would not affect her chances of securing a job.
“I was competing with tax lawyers who didn’t go on sabbatical and did have up-to-date technical knowledge,” she explained. To side-step what the lawyer perceived was a weakness in her resume, she subscribed to online technical materials, magazines and journals to update her technical tax knowledge. While legal courses or seminars are also good options, formal education programs are stamped with a time factor. “Some training programs can take several weeks, up to a few months. It really depends on how much time you have,” she said.
Attending training courses can be beneficial for returning lawyers, but Sim says it’s not always necessary. For lawyers looking to re-enter the profession after a sabbatical, there is no right approach, but casting a wide job net is a key element. “Being more open-minded about options and being prepared to start at a slightly lower level will make the level of job success definitely higher for returning lawyers,” she said.
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