13.03.07 Application Forms - Solicitors detest them!
It has become the industry standard that once you are past the training level of the profession, the way to apply for the vast majority of posts, apart from local authority ones, is via a CV. In fact, most firms who have tried to use application forms for posts have met hostility from candidates, whether they realise it or not, because so many have filled out those long waffly forms you see for training contracts that have taken hours of work for no effect at all! Why should I, as a fully qualified solicitor, bother filling out a form? My work is obvious and my worth to the firm clear. A lot of the HR people at the larger firms do not realise the professional status solicitors place on their work, and why they are prepared to do the job. Solicitors study and train for over 6 years to get to where they are, and if on the high street they can be earning less than a supermarket shelf stacker. They have to have some self-worth there, and this is with the status of solicitor. I know - I am one, and when I qualified, I didnt care that I was earning less than a lorry driver - I was a solicitor, and no-one can ever take this away from me (unless I rob a bank etc..!). Solicitors like to command respect, and this is one of the ways they do it. I have had a candidate walk out prior to an interview because a firm wanted to get her to fill in an application form before seeing them, and she felt that she did not want to work as an office cleaner!
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
It has become the industry standard that once you are past the training level of the profession, the way to apply for the vast majority of posts, apart from local authority ones, is via a CV. In fact, most firms who have tried to use application forms for posts have met hostility from candidates, whether they realise it or not, because so many have filled out those long waffly forms you see for training contracts that have taken hours of work for no effect at all! Why should I, as a fully qualified solicitor, bother filling out a form? My work is obvious and my worth to the firm clear. A lot of the HR people at the larger firms do not realise the professional status solicitors place on their work, and why they are prepared to do the job. Solicitors study and train for over 6 years to get to where they are, and if on the high street they can be earning less than a supermarket shelf stacker. They have to have some self-worth there, and this is with the status of solicitor. I know - I am one, and when I qualified, I didnt care that I was earning less than a lorry driver - I was a solicitor, and no-one can ever take this away from me (unless I rob a bank etc..!). Solicitors like to command respect, and this is one of the ways they do it. I have had a candidate walk out prior to an interview because a firm wanted to get her to fill in an application form before seeing them, and she felt that she did not want to work as an office cleaner!
Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
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