Career Clinic: Will going travelling give my firm an excuse to get rid of me?

You need to discuss this with the firm - it may be an advantage to take a few months breathing space as recruitment in the legal market looks unlikely to improve before September. Talk to the partners of areas in which you are interested. Even if a job is unlikely with your firm and you can afford a break, I suggest you take it. Even if it only serves to give you longer to look for a job. From my experience, retaining trainees on qualification is a mixed bag - my firm wasn't bothered about it and actively recruited external candidates, but most others are (at least as a more cost-effective way of recruiting into vacancies).

nearly qualified -23 Feb 2009 | 13:52

Stay put and accept an NQ position (if you can). Personally, in this market, I would accept the job, do it and not mention the travelling plans until I was entirely sure a firm wanted to keep me. If you put travelling plans ahead of a job in this market, your firm will question your committment.

City Woman -23 Feb 2009 | 16:14

Wanting to go off travelling for a couple of months even before you've done any time as a qualified lawyer seems to me inconsistent with your wish to become and work as a qualified lawyer at your firm. If you raised the issue, your firm might be irked with your attitude. It's different if your firm was looking for volunteers to defer their start date as an NQ by a year or so because of economic reasons. You'd then be helping the firm, though you should still be thinking about what you are doing to your CV during your late gap year. I think you need to go off and do something that's useful and related to a legal career. If you're reliving the gap year experience with an extended holiday just travelling around the world, I'd worry about how it was perceived. Doesn't it make more sense to work hard, keep your head down, and hope to qualify in your chosen area? Why draw attention to yourself like this?

May -23 Feb 2009 | 16:22

Chat with the partners and gauge their response. However, the idea that you must do something legally related to avoid denting your CV is laughable. Remember you could be practising for many years to come and will be grateful for the time you spent travelling when you're stuck in the office at 1am!

Anonymous -24 Feb 2009 | 00:32

You definitely need to get a job on qualification. Not doing so looks like you were someone the firm didn't want. Equally, the firm will want to keep you; the higher their retention rate, the more attractive they are to future talent. You should ask whether it would suit them to offer you a position with a period of unpaid leave at the start, which could be a win-win solution, or whether they would rather you do some work from the outset. They may be glad to go for the former - to be able to keep you on at no cost whilst they wait for conditions to improve.

Dullard -24 Feb 2009 | 15:09

I'm in a similar position to yourself, but after a brief discussion with some friendly partners they suggested it may be possible to defer a potential start date (for the right candidate) by anywhere from six months upwards. Depending on your firm this may prove a useful way of retaining talent they have invested heavily in during your training contract with a small window of breathing space for the bean counters. Think carefully about what you want to do with your time out and put a good well reasoned case forward, and who knows, you might get to go travelling after all. What's the worst that could happen.. you end up with no job anyway and get to go travelling.

Anonymous -24 Feb 2009 | 16:15

It depends entirely on your future department. I qualified in September and went off travelling before I started work. The partner I work for is great and saw it as an ideal opportunity to do it whilst I could. Others may take a different line. However, if they're looking to keep staff off the payroll until work picks up they may like this regardless of their views on the personal value of such a trip.

Anon -24 Feb 2009 | 16:18

"Wanting to go off travelling for a couple of months even before you've done any time as a qualified lawyer seems to me inconsistent with your wish to become and work as a qualified lawyer at your firm" - what rubbish. Qualification is one of the last times most people get to take an extended holiday and see some of the world without the headache of your BlackBerry going off every two minutes and safe in the knowledge that you do not have a pile of work which someone else needs to cover. It causes less disruiption to the firm than taking a two-week break once you're working, so any suggestion that you're not committed is frankly asinine. That's not to say that the rest of that comment didn't have a valid point. You should secure a job before raising the issue of a break.

Al -24 Feb 2009 | 17:30

Some of these responses are so predictable, no doubt from the grim and petrified jobsworths who make up the bulk of solicitors. If you don't take time off, you'll regret it. Law is tedious, tiresome and pointless. I hate my job and regret every one of my career choices (as do many, many others at the junior end) except the time I took off travelling, so make sure you live your life before you get completely trapped in the mire. And when you do finally start (with a tan and great memories), make sure you spend a good portion of each day looking for your potential exit.

lawhater -24 Feb 2009 | 17:54

I qualified last September and did exactly what you are proposing. It was time well spent and I highly recommend it. Like the poster above different partners will take different views, but my experience was that everyone was very positive, if a little jealous! It broke up the change between trainee and qualification really well. I must add that I had arranged a job at another firm many months before I qualified and so I used all the holiday I had at my old place so that took some of the time down I would have to ask off. I would say in this market you need to get a job sorted, then go, you won't get this time ever again, but there is no point going worrying about a job when you get back. Life is for living, but you also need to pay the bills, so get the job, explain your situation then get on the plane and have fun.

City NQ -24 Feb 2009 | 21:44

Stay put for now and get your career on the right track. Travelling is ok but if you can get a job now you really ought to take it and could consider taking a sabatical later on when the economy is back on an even keel.

Starshine -26 Feb 2009 | 16:18

Al, by any chance did you study the GDL?

John Grisham's The Photocopier -27 Feb 2009 | 11:31

I did it in the recession of the early 90's. It was very hard to find a job when I got back and I ended up (temporarily) with a smaller firm. Do I regret it - no, not in the slightest. The people that I know who regret it are the ones who wanted to take the break but didn't.

trunnie -02 Mar 2009 | 12:42

The answer is "yes".

Smell the coffee -02 Mar 2009 | 17:53