Career Clinic: The best of 2008

A look back at the most-read dilemmas from Career Clinic in 2008 - a year which saw heated debate on whether fishnets are suitable office attire, which firms are ahead of the pack on diversity, and how safe training contracts are in the current climate. Get involved in 2009 by emailing your conundrums to community@legalweek.com.

JANUARY

1. Career Clinic: My big-money move was a big mistake!

"Never go back. It is a sign of a weak man. Going back will be seen as a sign by your old team that you are a fool and they will never have the respect they once had for you. To them you will now be the guy who will step on them to get a little higher and earn a little more"

2. Career Clinic: Can I convert at 30?

"It may sound cool to say you have just worked on the deal where X [insert brand name company] bought Y [insert brand name company], but that may just involve you proofing an enormous document and finding a typo on p188"

3. Career Clinic: I can't keep carrying the partner I work with!

"You better find someone to double-check the work you are doing, because your law firm is under the captaincy of you and your partner is a Titanic waiting to happen"

FEBRUARY

1. Career Clinic: Is a 2:2 the end of the road?

"Steve Edge, Slaughter and May's leading tax lawyer, got a 2.2 from Exeter. However, this was back in the days when much fewer people went to university and the only requirement to get into a law firm was to be middle class"

2. Career Clinic: Do lawyers have the social status they used to?

"When I was six I wanted to be a lawyer as I thought it was a sure way to buy a Ferrari. Several years post-qualification and I drive an Audi"

3. Career Clinic: US or magic circle?

"The problem with working at either is that you will be surrounded by children and dumpy girls. If you want to get paid, go to a bank"

MARCH

1. Career Clinic: I lied about my degree to get a TC!

"I was in a firm where one of the trainees changed their grade on an appraisal (only by one mark), was caught and then kicked out. Do not, under any circumstances, lie to your firm. They will find you out eventually..."

2. Career Clinic: How long will I be kept on if there's no work?

"Enjoy it while it lasts - just keep putting the (presumably hefty) salary away and keep your head down. The odds are stacked against you being a lawyer for any more than a handful of years, so why not take advantage whilst you can. Trust me, three hours' work a day sure beats 15"

3. Career Clinic: My firm made me sick!

"In my firm one of the partners takes pride in showing other members of staff his bladder stones. Not pleasant"

APRIL

1. Career Clinic: Management says my fishnets are a distraction!

"I've always found a brief flash of fishnets under a skirt suit a very effective method of tribunal advocacy, I must say (mainly in Croydon, though)"

2. Career Clinic: Which firms are most serious about diversity?

"If you're not from a privileged background, it's a problem unless you have academic virtuosity of such startling brilliance that you can overcome the educational apartheid that exists in this country"

3. Career Clinic: My supervising partner stinks!

"I once shared an office with a partner who had bad breath, but what was worse was that he would frequently raise his arms displaying large brown stains on his shirt under his armpits. But he was extremely successful in his career, and in the end I came round to thinking that in fact he had the right approach. After all, who would want to push a negotiating point against him if doing so would mean spending more time in his company"

MAY

1. Career Clinic: My secretary is a hindrance not a help!

"Your secretarial support consists of no help but lots of attitude, you raise it and this is somehow your fault. My secretary sits on the internet for forty-five grand a year. She isn't mining coal or off-shore fishing"

2. Career Clinic: Help! My TC has ended in disaster

"Apply direct to firms. Recruitment agencies are an utter waste of time, unless they have special contacts and you develop an outstanding rapport with your 'consultant'"

3. Career Clinic: Can I quit before my contract starts?

"Believe it or not, your current firm will manage to fill your shoes and struggle on somehow. Even in a tiny firm you'll be forgotten a few weeks after you leave. If it's any bigger, they've forgotten you already"

JUNE

1. Career Clinic: Please offer me redundancy!

"Have you really thought what effect redundancy actually will have on you ? I've seen people who got made redundant, some several times. Even if they expected it or wanted it, they still felt devalued when it actually came. Some have even become ill because of it."

2. Career Clinic: I'm sick of being the poor relation!

"You may not be too happy about a stint in say, Almaty, just to get back into private practice. But I know someone who did just that and was there for two years. He was single and enjoyed the outpost, meeting many girls who were only too keen to become friends and practice their English on him"

3. Career Clinic: Desperately seeking a role model

"Ice queens in my view actually make it more difficult for other women to succeed because they either put the good women off or taint them with their awfulness. The ones I have come across are usually just bullies"

JULY

1. Career Clinic: Dressed down for dressing down

"Short skirt, blonde, female & intelligent... come and work with me at the US firm I am at!"

2. Career Clinic: Is Saudi right for me?

"My partner's assistant was sent out there on secondment for two three-month stints and he went a bit bonkers. It took ages for him to get back to being even remotely normal when he got back"

3. Career Clinic: I'm socially awkward

"Become a tax lawyer - they don't seem to need even the most basic social skills."

AUGUST

1. Career Clinic: Leaving London for love

"Have you been on a night out in Cardiff? Most of the women wear figure-hugging lycra tops with plunging necklines and tiny skirts despite being grossly overweight"

2. Career Clinic: From lawyer to banker

"I love pretending to my wife that I still work at Goldmorgan Sachsley whilst training to be a barrister"

3. Career Clinic: Should I develop a work persona?

"if you are on a corporate shooting day you can probably assume that 99% of those present are not going to object if you start telling the tale of how you had a good pop at Charlie the other week out lamping. Life is a game and you need to play to your audience"

SEPTEMBER

1. Career Clinic: The magic secrets

"Training at a magic circle firm is rather like having Oxbridge on your CV. Among the older partners at Slaughters, there is a view that Clifford Chance is more like one of the former polytechnics"

2. Career Clinic: Making the best of a bad decision

"Accept you're going to be a solicitor. Accept it's not going to be the most exciting job in the world"

3. Career Clinic: What now for real estate lawyers?

"I am in exactly the same position as you - I have had many final stage interviews only for the firms to freeze recruitment at the last minute. I even had an offer in Dubai and they too decided to freeze all recruitment. I am basically applying for anything now just so I can pay the bills"

OCTOBER

1. Career Clinic: I'm really worried about the recession

"I am training at a regional firm (that did not pay my LPC fees) and I do not have a rich family. I have a lot of debt and I don't get paid huge London wages. But I am independent and I love my job and wouldn't be doing anything else"

2. Career Clinic: I'm having a crisis of confidence

"Expect three doses of 'crisis of confidence' of in your career - first when you start as a trainee, secondly when you qualify and you think everyone thinks you should know what you are doing, and thirdly when you reach partnership level or thereabouts and suddenly you are supposed to be a rainmaker"

3. Career Clinic: Would Hong Kong be a wise move?

"Don't be fooled into thinking that Asia is necessarily better off than London right now. Capital markets outlook is not great, even in Hong Kong, and China's market is stagnating after recent huge growth"

NOVEMBER

1. Career Clinic: How can I look busy when there's nothing to do?

"Spread lots of paper of the desk, leave your jacket on the chair and enjoy the cruisy six months. Lets face it, as a trainee in a large corporate department the only other thing you would be doing is photocopying"

2. Career Clinic: I've been laid off from my in-house banking job - what now?

"I have undertaken temp work for the last four years. I regularly earn more than friends in private practice, particularly when you take into account that I get paid by the hour and therefore if I have to work additional hours, I get paid for it. Nearly every temp assignment I have undertaken has resulted in me being offered permanent work. I just choose not to take it"

3. Career Clinic: Have I gone too far with my expense claims?

"I've charged many non-work related to company expenses, it's simply a matter of ensuring you don't get caught. I charged all my dinners with my girlfriend at Claridges and Nobu to corporate expenses"

DECEMBER

1. Career Clinic: How can I get out of going to the Xmas party?

"Why don't you suck it up and go this year - get it on with a couple of interns. They won't let you go next year"

2. Career Clinic: Doubts about law in the downturn

"There are so many great things you can do as a solicitor outside private practice. Of my law school mates, one has formed his own lobbying company in Brussels (although admittedly he's become an utter tw*t)"

3. Career Clinic: How safe is my training contract?

"Most firms learnt the hard way from the last recession that cutting off future growth by stopping homegrown talent from coming up the firm is a seriously bad move. It's much more sensible to lay off expensive mid-rankers when times are tough"