How To Get A Job In A Small Market

A guy who was a couple of years behind me at law school, who is now a bankruptcy clerk, stopped in to see me earlier today. He wants to work here in town, and here's what I told him. I'm basically making it up out of thin air, the sole qualification being that I got a job in a small market by doing something like this. I'd take it with a pile of rock salt.

First, make friends with lawyers who are a couple of years ahead of you in the market you want to be in. They're your unwitting spies about the real world. (They'll also be your professional colleagues and adversaries once you succeed, and it's nicer to have a friendly relationship than a competitive or hostile one.)

Second, start talking to people who are doing what you think you want to do, or some facet of it. The books call this "informational interviewing." It's just due diligence. Talk to the people you're pretty sure you DON'T want to work for first, who practice with and against the people you do want to work with. Offer to buy them lunch and tell them you're six to eight months (a year, two years, whatever) away from being ready to work in the market and want to get a feel for the people and the practice. This is not a ploy -- you actually DO want to do this. Assure them you will hold what they say in confidence, and do it. Don't say anything negative about anyone. There are many different styles of effective lawyering. Sometimes styles don't mesh all that well. That's about as negative as I'd get, and I wouldn't even do that unless you're demurring when someone you're talking to invites you to trash someone. (And if the person you're talking to does so, I'd take everything else they say with a huge grain of salt.) Remember to ask the question, "What should I be asking you about that I haven't thought to ask?"

Follow the threads of your informational interviews, coffees, and lunches -- call up the folks that people suggest you talk to. Be ready to talk about yourself, but don't assume that's going to be on the agenda, and keep it to a sentence or two. What you're really doing is learning about the personalities and styles of different folks in the small market to figure out where you might fit. Be open to things that you don't already know, people you hadn't already thought about -- that's the whole point. When I went around meeting folks in order to find out more about the three firms I was considering, a pretty cool lawyer at a firm I wasn't considering had me in and talked a lot about the practice and the different styles of the folks at each of the firms. After we'd talked for half an hour or so I guess he'd sized me up enough to reveal that his firm, too, was looking for someone and launched into a pitch for his own firm. It was really late in the game for me -- I was basically deciding between offers, and the truth is I'd about run out of money and needed a paycheck in short order -- and his firm wasn't hiring on the schedule that I was looking to start, so it didn't work, but if I had started the friendly investigations earlier I might have been quite serious about that place.

Be patient. You're best to start a long time before you need a paycheck. Your aim is to identify the people you want to work with and plant a seed that you're smart, personable, and will be available sometime in the future. My experience is that people in small markets don't hire on the BIGLAW schedule, and that it takes a lot longer for folks to make a decision than you'd think it would. Just get on the radar screen, and stay there. Build yourself a web of friendly folks who want to help you out. I have found that people have a strong pull to pass along advice, to share their experience, and like to tell their own stories. (Look at the blog world.) There's a lot to be learned from these stories, and it seems to me that people have warm feelings towards the folks who ask to hear those stories, are interested and thoughtful listeners.

I think people in small markets hire based on reputation and networks. Before something is advertised or farmed out to a headhunter lawyers are talking to each other, letting one another know that they're looking. This is why getting friendly and asking around about the market is useful -- not only do you learn about the cast of characters you'll be getting involved with, but there are many opportunities for folks to pass your name along to others.

Be forthright. Everyone talks to everyone else in a small market. Don't tell one firm one thing and your hairdresser another because your hairdresser may turn out to be best friends with your dream boss or your dream boss's assistant or something like that. If you're not sure, but you have a pull toward x and z practice areas, it's fair to say so. You're not expected to know what you want to do, but you're expected to have thought about what you MIGHT want to do and why, and if you say one thing and do another it's likely to be remembered. If your thinking evolves from one thing to another it's good to have an elevator pitch that explains how and why. If you're still sorting things out, say that too -- it's useful to remind people that at this stage in your career it's unrealistic to expect perfect consistency as you gather data and piece together the jigsaw puzzle of your ideal career.

In my experience people are pretty friendly and receptive to being called up or emailed out of the blue, if you're legitimately asking them to take 15 or 20 minutes to tell you why they like their field or to give you advice on breaking in to a particular practice area, and not obviously trying to trick them into hiring you or hearing all about how great you are. My experience also tells me that people would rather talk on the phone or in person -- they'll be way more candid if you're talking, and they can use tone of voice and intonation and can size you up a little than they would if they had to put something into writing to a faceless stranger. So an email that asks if you can make a time to call or take someone out for a cup of coffee in the upcoming weeks strikes me as a good approach. Be prepared to talk about yourself VERY briefly -- an elevator pitch -- and to return the topic to them and the practice area, the market, etc. "I'm just out of law school, clerking for a bankruptcy judge for a year, and I really want to move back here next September. I'm attracted to the idea of doing X when I move back, but of course I don't know much about what that's really like, which is why I'd like to hear your perspective." I did this almost exclusively with partners, but if I were to do it over again I'd tap into the associates' point of view. I would think they'd be a little more candid and specific about the day-to-day life.

Down the road apiece you can go back to the same people when you're ready to actually get hired, with a friendly request for help finding you a home. Especially if you can show you learned something from them before, that you took some of their words to heart, I think people will be rooting for you, and will want to get you situated somewhere.

Reading this over I guess I sound really Pollyanna and naiive, and I guess my perspective is skewed as I'm living in my hometown and know everyone, but I've found it pretty easy to make friends and professional connections. People here will take your call, and if you say, "I've heard about you and you sound really cool to me because I've heard this about your professional path and that's interesting to me for this reason and would you be willing to have a cup of coffee and tell me your experiences," they'll not only do it but they'll buy your cup of coffee and thank you for reaching out to them. I've been doing it since I was in law school and kept it up after I got my job just because I'm so curious about folks and as a result I feel like there are all these benevolent wise people in different careers around town who treat me like I'm an adopted little sister.

Comments

[Hoosac]

Thats really good advice. Thank you. I think I'll likely give it a try. I would worry that I might sound a bit...clueless. But then, I am a bit clueless.

[John P.]

Excellent advice. Law students don't realize how happy most practicing lawyers would be to talk to them and try to give helpful advice. I've received several calls and emails out of the blue, from law student and even college students who found me through the Internet, and invariably I've enjoyed speaking with them.

[Amanda]

Excellent advice, and broadly applicable, I think--I just forwarded the post on to my brother, a first year business school student new to and uneasy with networking...

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