Career Clinic: The best of 2010

A look back at some of the best Career Clinic dilemmas from 2010 - a year which saw heated debate over point-scoring, secret family plans, scruffy office attire and lazy partners.

Get involved in 2010 by emailing your questions in confidence to community@legalweek.com.

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JANUARY

Is the City out of touch? - "During my time at a magic circle firm, I had the misfortune to hear a quite outrageous range of comments from the "I'm not a racist, but..." Daily Mail style comment to muted anti-semitism. Delightful. So far, so Bernard Manning..."

Why can't I get an interview for a vacation scheme? - "My experience is that there is a dislike of non-law experience of any substance. Commercial awareness is talked up but commercial experience is a distraction..."

New year, new career? - "You would be stark raving mad to walk away from a guaranteed (and relatively well-paid job) into the worst graduate recruitment market in years..."

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FEBRUARY

Am I being too honest in my job applications? - "Don't fib about the TC - and that means by omission too. I was recently recruiting for a paralegal and googled all the candidates down for interview, to find that one of them had a TC for September. When she came for interview we raised it and she was all at sea - "oh, you googled me". Well yes, that's what nosey recruiters do..."

I'm struggling to make a good impression - "Being criticised extensively is not nice but is a pretty good sign; it means the firm thinks you are redeemable. The worst sign is that nobody ever asks you to do anything twice without explanation and you are left idle. This is generally because you are seen as worse than useless..."

I want to make my secondment permanent - "Ask your in-house manager for a coffee and advice about when the right time is go to in-house, what experience GCs look for in associates, what long term in-house life is like etc. That way, he/she can sound you out for a job if they like you, but if they don't or don't have a job to give, they can just give you some generic advice, then no embarassment on either side..."

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MARCH

An Englishman in New York - "Just as the candidates were told they could start the exam, someone immediately puked onto their laptop - and others fell like dominoes, with several other people starting to puke on their laptops..."

Do I have the personality for a career in law? - "Having a good personality will hold you back in law. Being a backstabbing pedantic miserable bore will see you go far. Being a decent, team-oriented human being will see you fail..."

Is the Bar open to older candidates? - "It seems to me that once my age is discovered the firms that showed initial enthusiasm fall away. I tested my theory by not completing equality monitoring forms and was received extremely warmly until it was requested that I return it and was rejected within 72 hours of returning it. This has happened on a number of occasions..."

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APRIL

My workload is making it hard for me to switch off - "You'll be fine once you make your first enormous, expensive ****-up. You'll never worry about a small mistake again!"

I'm being held hostage by a lazy partner - "See if you can give the clients the impression that this lazy waste of space is a lazy waste of space. If you want to do it masterly, try and do it without giving him any indication at all that you are doing it. As his world collapses around him, make him think you are his best friend. Confuse and mislead, and watch him implode..."

Could I hurt my career by going in-house too soon? - "I have never heard of an NQ being offered an in-house role overseas in a big market like Hong Kong at a large international company, ever. So if you are for real, take it. You must be brilliant..."

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MAY

Should I quit the magic circle after my TC? - "I left my MC firm on qualification, rocked out for a few years in Africa and the far east, pitched up at a hedge fund, did my thing and now I'm sitting on a beach in Malibu sipping cocktails..."

Remote chance of remote working at my firm - "This is a service industry. Partners (and senior associates) are there to serve their clients. They can, up to a point, choose to work flexibly because that is consistent with delivering the service - they are on the end of a phone or email. As a junior you are there to serve the partners. That means being there when they want to dump a file on you..."

Do firms only want foreign recruits for their business contacts? - "The smaller the firm, the sooner you need to pay your way by bringing in work. As others have suggested your interviewers are, at best, being lazy in where they assume your target market might lie. If it's not ethnic then you need to be able to say what it is or might potentially be..."

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JUNE

How do City firms get away with paying £30k less than US rivals? - "The partners in the London offices at US firms are a rag-tag bunch - some superstars poached from magic circle firms, and some ex-stars looking for a final pay day: think Beckham to LA Galaxy or Gary Lineker to Japan..."

Are the skills learnt in law transferable to business roles? - "Many lawyers do not know how to talk to clients or how to break down legal concepts so that they are understandable to 'normal' people. When you are in-house you either learn how to do that or you will have problems..."..."

Language skills: career boost or waste of time? - "I am astounded at these narrow-minded and isolated British islander views - we all need a portfolio of skills if we want flexibility in our careers..."

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JULY

My boss keeps criticising my appearance - "How you look makes a huge difference, especially for a woman. I've been in a number of courts where a finely dressed woman was taken far more seriously than her slovenly oppo. The 'sexy librarian' look isn't a bad one to follow..."

My interfering boss is making it impossible for me to find a new job - "Home emergencies are good - you should have an idea how sympathetic your boss would be to these things. I wouldn't try 'ill pet' on my current boss because he would just want the animal to die, but others would go for it..."

My small firm employer won't take my BD efforts seriously - "You'll have to get out there and start networking - it is an illusion that high street practice is easier than national firms... it isn't, it is far more cut-throat. The reason your partners aren't doing it for you is because they are running to catch up for themselves..."

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AUGUST

Do big personalities exist at law firms? - "One partner used to cover reception at lunchtime and my job as the trainee was to run over the road and bring him a pint of Rev James back so he had something to pass the time with..."

Magic circle versus silver circle training contract - "Magic all the way. You might hate it, but there are no end of job ads that have MC training as a pre-requisite. Think of it as analogous to getting a 2:1 or better..."

My boss doesn't trust me to manage while she's away - "People get addicted to BlackBerrying as they get endorphins from the messages. Also, some people do BlackBerrying as a way of avoiding boring situations or spending time with family/partner/friends..."

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SEPTEMBER

Should I tell my new employer about my family plans? - "Despite the legal rights and wrongs, surely it's pretty bad form to join a new firm and instantly go off on maternity leave...? If a firm is recruiting because they need more staff and then the person who gets the job goes off on mat leave straight away, surely that undermines the whole recruitment process?"

Will my experience as a law librarian give me an edge in the job market? - "Coming from a law librarian background in a top 50 firm, my experience is that it does give you an edge in the job market when you switch to becoming a solicitor. The fact that I had worked in a law firm and spent a lot of time assisting solicitors with legal research meant that I could draw on my experience at interview..."

How much of what I've studied will I need for my training contract? - "There is nothing more terrifying to a supervisor than a trainee who is so confident of their own ability that they do their own thing and don't ask a lot of questions. Trainees are supposed to have a grasp of the basic legal principles but should not be expected to work unsupervised..."

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OCTOBER

Is the dream of launching my own City boutique a realistic ambition? - "If you have clients, then yes. But they must be clients who you know will stick with you otherwise you will be left high and dry..."

Should my firm involve me in recruiting my new colleague? - "You should go somewhere else now. Do not train the new member of staff. Do not let them build relationships with clients you have worked so hard to cultivate.This is a low trick. It's one I've seen before. Partners like to 'draw the ladder up behind themselves' and one way to do this is to stifle others..."

Corporate law's a turn-off - but would qualifying elsewhere hurt my CV? - "Ah, the joys of having a career sold to you on the basis you can leave it. Come, join the M&A sausage factory, because hey gimp, you can leave and go elsewhere. Seriously. Favouring the exit route over the daily diet is like going to a restaurant because you like its toilets..."

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NOVEMBER

Should I turn down a promotion to stay in London? - "Being given additional pay and responsibilities and (possibly) a new title because you've done well and your boss wants to open the door to the next level is known as a promotion. Being sent to Birmingham with a new name badge because they're short-staffed is known as "polishing a t**d..."

My team's new associates aren't pulling their weight - "That's the way the world works Sonny Jim. I bet when you were a mere associate you did exactly the same thing - while the cat's away, the junior associates play..."

Should I be honest with management about a colleague's failings? - "If you tell the person approaching you that you would feel uncomfortable giving a reference for the guy, they are going to read between the lines and know you have nothing good to say..."

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DECEMBER

Struggling with a colleague's point-scoring - "Law is full to the brim with the worst excuses for human beings I have ever come across - only banking has a larger number of terrible people. And law is incredibly forgiving as a career of unprofessional and/or malevolent behaviour..."

Is parenthood compatible with corporate law at a top firm? - "You can't have it all - it's as simple as that. Sure, the Nicola Horlicks and Helena Morriseys of the world have large families and high-profile careers, but they also have round-the-clock childcare and/or a house husband..."

Should I give up my City job for an in-house TC? - "Wake up! There are reducing numbers of TCs and more and more poor sods being churned out by law schools. If you are content to be a career paralegal, that's different, but the longer you sit on your laurels, the less likely you are to get another chance..."

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Thanks to all this year's contributors and commenters. Career Clinic is only as good as the questions we receive, so email your career conundrums in confidence to community@legalweek.com.