Are You Using Lawcareers.net To The Max?

Whilst the majority of law career hopefuls will have heard of the website lawcareers.net, in my experience, there are many who aren’t getting as much out of it as they could do.

What Is LCN?

Lawcareers.net (LCN) is one of the largest law careers websites and has a broad range of quality information and advice relating to careers in the different areas of the legal profession.

In particular, it has a host of great information, advice and tools for anyone seeking a training contract, vacation scheme or paralegal role.

It is owned and produced by the same company that publishes the Training Contract & Pupillage Handbook each year and it continues to go from strength to strength. For example, it recently added a section to deal with the new legal apprenticeships that are being introduced.

I caught up with LCN chief, Matthew Broadbent, who had this to say:

“LawCareers.Net has grown organically for over 15 years, but I think our objective has remained the same. We want candidates at any level to be equipped with all the tools and information that they need to ask the right questions of themselves and employers that will lead to a career in the legal profession. Our directory of employers remains comfortably the largest available, ensuring our readers really have the full range of options and know they can base their campaign around the vast array of information, advice and insight that LawCareers.Net offers.”

Recommended Areas of LCN

The key areas of the site that I would recommend as a must-read (and use) for anyone who is serious about their training contract search are set out below.

Law Firm Search Engine

Currently, this allows you to over 900 law firms by a variety of search criteria such as the location of firm, work areas undertaken and starting salary.

This is an invaluable tool to have when you are seeking to do the initial filtering of firms to get down to a manageable shortlist to research in further detail. The ability to use multiple search criteria at once is the key to getting the most out of this handy tool.

MyLCN

This is a whole section of the LCN site in itself and has some powerful tools to help the application process run smoothly and to ensure you are well prepared.

It allows you to save your own shortlist of firms with notes and track which stage in the application process you are at with each firm. This also creates your own personalised calendar of application deadline dates plus you can add other key event dates to your calendar.

There is a self-analysis tool called MySelf which I recommend to everyone. This allows you to analyse your various experiences and the skills and competencies you used and developed through each of them.

I have seen this sort of self-analysis work be the difference between success and failure in the application process so I highly recommend it.

Meet The Recruiter

One of the keys to securing a training contract is finding out what firms are looking for in their trainees and then showing them that you have it.

The Meet the Recruiter section is an excellent source of information straight from the horse’s mouth (so to speak).

Graduate recruiters from a range of firms give some golden tips on what they are looking for and some of the mistakes to avoid in applications and interviews. These are a must-read!

Career Spotlights

Another key to succeeding in the training contract application process is to demonstrate your own career understanding and motivations. As part of your research, it is therefore vital that you research and learn about the profession and the different options that are open to you.

The Career Spotlights section on LCN should be an essential part of your research and the development of your career understanding. Whilst many of the people featured in the spotlights are from larger commercial firms there is plenty to be learned by all applicants about reasons for pursuing a career in law or becoming a solicitor.

These are common questions that most firms will be interested in your answers to and so researching others’ reasons is an advisable way to develop your own.

The Oracle

This gives you the opportunity to write into LCN with a problem or question that you have and they will seek to answer it for you. This can be a great way to get over any obstacles you find you come up against during the recruitment process.

Blogs

Given what a long and hard journey it can be to succeed in securing a training contract its a good idea to have others by your side. The LCN blogs are a great way to follow fellow applicants and students as they take the same journey as you.

If you enjoy writing and want a forum to chart your experiences then you could always apply to become one of the LCN bloggers yourself.

And Lots More….

As well as these specific tools and features above, there is lots of other information and advice on the LCN website.

This includes deadlines for applications, expert feature articles to improve your application and interview knowledge, and some great pieces written by law firms about the commercial issues solicitors face in their careers today.

In my opinion, LCN must form part of your application process if you want to give yourself the best chance of success.

For more just visit www.lawcareers.net