Joe is on a tear today. Well, yeah, every day, but particularly today. Is everybody on CRACK or what? Sometimes, Joe thinks, if it weren't for the fame, the fortune, the kissing of much butt (his, thankfully), the breathing of the rarefied air in the fancy places to which he takes himself (McDougals's, Burger Prince, Mindy's; you get the idea), being a highly sought after and almost never hit directly in the face Legal Recruiter would NOT be worth it. Let Joe explain.
Twice this week. . .in other words, WAY more than once, Joe has been asked the craziest of questions, and heard the craziest of things. All to do with recruiting. And contracts. Recruiting and contracts. As if they weren't, you know, tied at the hip, metaphorically speaking.
Let Joe spell it out for you: We do NOT recruit for Law Firms without a signed, sealed, and spit-upon contract, ever, ever, ever. And we don't disclose the name of the Firm we're searching for an attorney for, never, never, never, until we receive a copy of your resume, writing sample, and transcript. That's it. That's all.
Joe has explained this on more than one occasion, but apparently someone (or some MANY) missed that day in class, so Joe will go over it again.
1. Law Firms: Joe loves Law Firms. Law Firms love Joe. Joe loves to find good attorneys for Law Firms so they can continue to be Law Firms, and gain in power and glory. Law Firms, believe it or don't, are simply FILLED with Lawyers. And Lawyers should know better than to ask a recruiter to initiate a search without a contract. And yet, time after time, Joe hears this line: "Oh, we don't sign contracts with Headhunters, but if you become aware of (Exact specifications on the type of lawyer(s) the firm is looking for), you're welcome to send their information."
Sure, because Joe has nothing better to do than initiate a search, find the perfect group of candidates, spend umpteen hours sifting and sorting, and collating, and so on, only to have a law firm say "Oh, I'm sorry, we only pay on candidates for which we have a contract with the external recruiter." It has happened before, and, as Riki Tiki Tavi said of the Cobras in his house "Once bitten, Twice Shy."
Joe can only imagine that there's some strange virus going around SOME law firms that makes Hiring Partners, Internal Recruiters, and HR Managers think that uttering those words, or words like them, could make sense to anyone but the addled.
First of all, it's not a contract for gallons of anyone's blood, or even a small child. It's not even an agreement to pay the External Recruiter for his/her work. All it says is, if JoeRecruiter FINDS you a candidate, and you then HIRE that candidate, Joe gets paid for FINDING the candidate for you. No hire, no pay. It's really kind of a no-lose proposition for the law firm, because it frees up their in-house staff to do the things they really NEED to do (hire first-years, summer associates, and para-professionals; administer HR; plan and staff and calculate, and figure, and make sure the PEOPLE side of the firm is running correctly).
The reason External Recruiters even exist is because there's a need for us, and it's not really a good use of internal staff's time to dig through HUNDREDS of resumes, mining for the few diamonds in the pile. Better to call a recruiter with knowledge of the market, the attorneys, and the available jobs, who entire purpose is to skim the cream and present it to the firm for its consideration.
Even Joe's good friend Crack Alley Sally gets THAT.
However, Law Firms are a JOY when compared to Lawyers, so let's rake the lawyers for a while.
2.Lawyers: Honestly, Lawyers sometimes make Joe wonder what is UP with the legal profession. Here's the thing: Your Legal Recruiter has relationships, usually good ones, sometimes GREAT ones, with Law Firms. If s/he's done a good job for them in the past, they're MUCH more likely to trust his/her judgment on a candidate than YOURS, because you're, well, YOU. Not to be harsh, but you're sort of biased toward your own candidacy.
Yeah, Joe is biased too, but he's looking at profiles of dozen and dozens, sometimes HUNDREDS of Lawyers, and he's GOING to find the 3 or 4 candidates that best fit what he thinks the Firm is looking for. It's in HIS best interest to do so. The more "perfect" candidates Joe places with Law Firm, Inc., the more they'll come to him, the more money he makes, and the happier he is.
There are other benefits to working with an External Recruiter. No, not just for Joe, but for Lawyers as well. External Recruiters have no obligation to anyone but the candidate. Yeah, we're looking for the benefit of the Law Firm, but we EXIST for the benefit of the Lawyer. A good legal recruiter knows the firms, from the inside out (just look at all the people s/he's placed there). S/he knows the good stuff AND the bad stuff, and everything in-between. S/he knows what firms are likely to be a good fit, and which ones are NOT, and s/he'll tell you the truth.
No, it's not because we're particularly ethical or moral, although those would be good reasons too. It's because a successful placement is only successful if you STAY with the law firm. If you don't, Joe doesn't get to keep the money, you won't trust Joe to find you the NEXT job that you now have to find because you HATE this one, and pretty soon, neither Law Firms NOR attorneys will use Joe to fill jobs, which will make Joe poor, and that would be bad. Joe doesn't do poor well.
For an attorney, job hunting without a Legal Recruiter is like going to trial without preparing. Yeah, you COULD do it, and it MIGHT turn out okay, but is it worth the risk? What if you find out you hate the job, or WORSE, they hate YOU? Assuming you don't get fired, you're going to have a short tenure at that firm, which will be almost as difficult to explain to the NEXT Law Firm, which might cost you the job, which means things'll get even worse at your present firm, until they actually MIGHT fire you, which will be even HARDER to explain to the next law firm, and so on. A good recruiter can help you avoid ALL that nonsense, cut through the clutter, and find the right job at the right firm, without a lot of headaches in between.
Joe knows what you're thinking. You're thinking "Yeah, maybe, Joe, maybe not, but I'm a Lawyer! A good one. A smart one. I'm cute and funny, and even potty-trained, and at the top of the employment food chain." All true. But so are many of the 700 OTHER attorneys who just submitted their resumes to that job board, and how will YOU cut through all the clutter to deliver YOUR message? Joe's just saying.
The bottom line is that Legal Recruiting, and Legal Recruiters, are here for a reason. We help Law Firms get better attorneys, and we help attorneys get better jobs. And, at the end of the day, that's a good enough reason to BE here.
Meanwhile, Joe worries about Crack Alley Sally. She wants to become a Lawyer.
Love your Recruiter!
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1 comment:
And you're located where exactly?
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