Skip to main content

Application Forms for Legal Jobs - waste of time?

As well as recruiting solicitors, we also coach solicitors on the careers side. I have recently been working with a number of entrants to the legal profession on their training contract applications to the larger city law firms. It is quite fascinating to see the application forms and the sheer length and complexity of them.
As a recruiter, I am starting to question why the process cannot be shortened somewhat for everyone concerned. I know it will put a few administration assistants out of a job, and ruin a few dinner party conversations amongst senior partners at some of the larger London law firms as to who has the longest form, but what about adopting the following strategy for recruitment at training contract and vacation placement level? Surely this will save time and costs?
1. Get each applicant to go online and fill out a form consisting of:
a. Their name, address, postcode, telephone number and email address.
b. Their A Level grades or equivalent.
c. Their degree class or anticipated class.
d. Nothing else.
2. At the closing date, use automated software to cull anyone who has not got a minimum of a 2.1 and AAA or ABB at A level. We think this happens anyway at most firms.
3. Send (by email) each remaining applicant a list of questions you want them to answer.
4. Give each applicant a ring and interview them for 5 minutes on the basis of these answers.
5. Select from the list of applicants remaining and call these candidates in for interview.
I would hazard a guess that no-one reads the longwinded answers on these forms that students can spend literally days filling out. Why bother? Furthermore, why do the firms need to know most of the information they ask for when the vast majority of applicants will get rejected on academic performance?
It seems a total waste of time and quite demoralising for the armies of applicants currently out there looking to break into the city and spend 2 years working flat out!
Legal recruitment can be speeded up so easily now with the advent of the internet. Its been around a while now, but I think it gets underused in situations like this....
Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. You can comment on this article at www.legalrecruitment.blogspot.com

(Shameless plug - we do advise and assist with application form completion - please visit our Legal Careers shop for details)
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database.
Labels:

Comments

Kevin Franklin said…
I think that application forms for legal jobs is not a waste of time. I think that it would be one way to find a job on a legal way. I know that many people tries a different way and I think that we should respect their decision.
30 March 2012 at 07:41
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Overpaid Charity CEOs - top 40 of high paid employees - updated 2022

In 2014, we wrote an article about high pay in the charity sector after the Charity Commission started to require all charities to disclose pay of senior executives earning more than £60,000.    We have updated the list for 2022, with a comparison chart so you can see the difference between 2014 and 2022. We have included the source of the most recent salary levels and the year refers to the accounts year we extracted the salary information from.   2022 Top 40 Chart of High Paying Charities Charity Highest salary Year Consumers’ Association £390k-£400k 2020 MSI Reproductive Choices £240k-£250k 2020 Save the Children International £285k-£300k 2020 Cancer Research UK £240k-£250k 2020 The British Red Cross Society £170k-£180k 2020 Age UK £180k-£190k 202...
25 comments
Read more

Is it possible to work as a Paralegal when you are a Qualified Solicitor

  This question comes up all the time and is quite a common query that we imagine the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) are getting better at answering due to the sheer number of people asking the question. Many years ago the advice seemed a bit varied at times, but we have recently had a candidate who wanted to work in a locum role in the short term and waiting to go back on the Roll and get a practising certificate after some time spent outside the profession. She has been given fairly concise advice on whether she could work as a paralegal whilst waiting to be readmitted which we are repeating here. This article is written as a discussion point and is not intended to be advice in any shape or form. For full advice on your particular set of circumstances please speak to the SRA (or whoever else you like, but please do not depend on the information in this article!). The SRA have a simple online test to determine if you need a practising certificate and th...
Post a Comment
Read more

What questions are asked in an Investors in People Assessment?

Recently Ten Percent Legal Recruitment was assessed for the investor in people accreditation. We worked very hard on this and spent some time as a company ensuring that all our procedures and policies were in place and that our staff were aware of the various requirements of the Investor in People process. We wondered how the assessment would go and also what the questions were likely to be during the interviews. The assessor was very friendly and explained from the outset what she was wanting to do and we were already aware that we would have thirty minute interviews with the directors and managers and twenty minute interviews with the staff. We also had the Investors in People programme so we were able to look and see what the actual questions would be based on, but there was nowhere to indicate what questions would be asked in the investor in people assessments. So if this helps anyone else, here are the questions we were asked in our investors in people accreditation: The assessor ...
Read more