Ask A Recruiter — “I want to leave the law. What should I do?”
Contributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine
I am lawyer who is sick of practicing law. I have practiced corporate law for 5 years at a big firm, want to leave the law for a job in business with greater autonomy and better quality of life. How do I market myself? Where should I start my job search?
The above question also tells me some things but not everything. I know this is a career change: law to business. I know this is a lifestyle change: more autonomy and balance. What I don’t know is what sector in business you are interested in pursuing or what company within that sector you have in mind. Any successful job search, whether a career change, lifestyle change, or just a company change within the same field, is a combination of what the target is and how you get there. Most of my clients are fixated on the how: how do I market myself? How do I start?
The how is the easy part. If you have a well-defined industry and functional target (hint: “business” is too broad on both counts), you can craft the right marketing materials, research who and what you should know, prepare your interview and talking points, follow-up with the right network, and understand the terms of your new field well enough to negotiate and close a good offer for yourself. These are the foundation elements of any good job search. However, if you don’t know what your target is, you may execute the right elements but find out you purchased tickets to the wrong destination, metaphorically speaking.
I am an extreme career changer and have been (in chronological order): a classical pianist, management consultant, executive recruiter, actor, life coach, university professor, corporate HR manager, real estate investor, and now all of the above. In every case, I used where I came from, so our lawyer in question will have advantages and challenges different from a schoolteacher making an identical transition. But my career change plan was dictated by the career I was going to not coming from, so our questioner needs more clarity on that. Only then can she know where to start.
All information is copyright © SixFigureStart 2008. Caroline has worked in retained search and corporate HR and has recruited for Booz Allen & Hamilton, Accenture, Oliver Wyman, Citigroup, Time Inc, Disney ABC and others. Pose a question for a future Ask-A-Recruiter column at caroline@sixfigurestart.com. Learn more about navigating the search process in a down market and other job search secrets from SixFigureStarts Proactive Job Search Basics teleclass series. Next series starts April 26. More info at www.sixfigurestart.com.
