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Mai Yujun pressed: The workplace has its own truth, what is accepted, what is not understood, what has gold content, what is difficult, listen to the truth of the people who have come before, so that you can better make your own choices.
Author=吖milkSource=Douban Group | People in Law The original question of students in the legal circle = several truths in the legal workplace
Truth 1
The impact of the graduate major on the job is not so great.
Sometimes even school rankings don't have that much of an impact
A senior sister told me that when I was going to graduate school, I liked the A major of a famous school, but this major was more theoretical, and I was worried that it would not be easy to get a job, so I hesitated to consider another popular major in this school that is also a five-college and four-department school but is less difficult. She asked if a graduate degree would have a big impact on employment.
I told her that the answer to this question depends largely on what she wants to do in the future. Judging from my superficial legal work experience, as far as law graduates are concerned, they are usually employed in the mainstream directions of civil servants, lawyers, legal affairs, and university teaching. Let's talk about teaching in colleges and universities first, I think you must choose your favorite major when you take this path, after all, academic research is indeed relatively boring, and you need love to support it, otherwise it will be very painful.
If you are a civil servant, some popular positions will pick a major, and my graduate school is also a very, very partial major, which is so partial that there were only two colleges and universities in the country at that time that offered this major (yes, it is comparative law, have you not even heard of it in front of the screen). When I graduated, I checked the recruitment notice for the civil service examination, and found that I could only take the law position without a specific major, so I was somewhat restricted. If you are worried that the major you are interested in will affect the civil service examination in the future, I recommend that you first study the civil service recruitment announcements in the area you intend to make in recent years before making a decision.
If you are a lawyer or in-house counsel in the future, the professional restrictions will be relatively smaller. Employers pay more attention to the reputation of the school and the potential of the fresh graduates themselves than graduate programs. No matter what major you majored in, you have to start from scratch when you join the workforce. If the graduates have good plasticity, even if they graduate from unpopular majors, employers are willing to put effort and energy into training.
Another junior sister consulted me, she was applying for LLM in Hong Kong universities, and school A was ranked higher than school B. Although her current IELTS score has met the criteria for applying to these two schools, there is no doubt that she will face fierce competition and not have much advantage when applying to school A. She was a little struggling with whether to re-brush her IELTS score to increase her chances of success in applying to school A. She asked, if you want to enter the red circle in the future, will the ranking of the school you apply for have a big impact?
I said that only in terms of the career plan of wanting to enter the red circle law firm in the future, there is not much difference in the recognition of school A and school B in the red circle law firm. In the red circle, most HR and partners do not have the same clear understanding as students. For many, it's nothing more than world-class schools (such as the Ivy League schools, as well as schools such as Oxford and Cambridge) and other schools. I know a partner who has always thought that a T20 school in the United States is a first-class school comparable to the world's top schools, and the students who graduated from this school look at it differently. Because in his early years, he had brought a very talented and excellent lawyer, and it was from this school that he graduated. Therefore, in his cognition, this school is a famous school, and those who graduate from this school are talents.
My sister and I said that this perception may be different from the actual situation, but it is human nature. Therefore, when you are a student, you value school rankings, and after you work, you may find that the bonuses brought by the school are also limited. Of course, school A may have better alumni, and entering school A means having the opportunity to meet more great people, but if you only think about it from the perspective of employment, even if you don't apply to school A, you don't have to be too sorry.
Truth 2
However, the legal circle still pays more attention to educational background.
Especially for fresh graduates
When you see this, you may say, doesn't this contradict what I said earlier? Don't worry, listen to my analysis slowly.
I remember in "Heartwarming Offer", several students who interned at a law firm met for the first time, and they didn't have anything to say, so they asked each other where they graduated. In the face of students from Peking University, Renmin University and other universities, interns from non-"five colleges and four departments" are somewhat embarrassed. There are also people in the barrage who comment that this is "academic discrimination", but this phenomenon seems to be relatively common in the workplace, especially in the legal circle. It is rumored that the "Target School List" is recruited in the red circle, which is not groundless. To what extent is the recruitment volume of the Red Circle Institute, not only graduate students should be on this list, but even undergraduates should be on this list, and even in everyone's secret cognition, undergraduate colleges and universities represent a person's real educational background. I didn't think so much about it when I filled in the college entrance examination, just because someone I knew had studied law in a school with five colleges and four departments, I filled in the undergraduate school as my first choice in a daze, but fortunately, this school was still on the list, so I had the opportunity to knock on the door of the red circle.
When we were looking for a job in the third year of graduate school, I persuaded a best friend and classmate who was above me in terms of academic performance and work ability to also submit her resume to the red circle institute to try, and she directly said that I knew that the university I graduated from was not the target school of the red circle institute, and I didn't want to try it. At that time, I felt sorry for her, but after interning in the law firm for a long time, I found that my peers were indeed basically graduates of the target undergraduate school, so I realized that my girlfriend's worries were not unreasonable.
Later, I thought carefully about the reason why this phenomenon exists, or because the law profession is too common. Academic qualifications are a screening mechanism, and employers use the information of the college entrance examination and postgraduate entrance examination to reduce the cost of screening. To put it bluntly, the law major is too much, and it is not a "discrimination" deliberately created. Even if, as I said earlier, "sometimes the ranking of schools doesn't have that much of an impact", this is only true if the undergraduate degree meets the requirements. I asked my friends who are working in the IT industry, and they generally believe that there is no legal industry in the IT industry, and at least technical experience and work history play a greater role in job search than academic qualifications.
Therefore, the impact of academic qualifications is relatively large or small. For schools in the same band, the impact is not so big, but for schools across bands, the impact becomes great.
When I was working at a law firm, I witnessed an intern who "beautified" his resume and was discovered by HR, and as a result, he lost an offer that had almost already been received, and the two sides broke up. From HR's point of view, dishonesty is certainly an unacceptable integrity issue. However, the interns keep complaining about "academic discrimination" and believe that their abilities have been recognized, so why should the law firm hold on to the details and lead this debate to another key question: does "academic discrimination" really exist? I think it's not the concept of people that plays a role behind this, but the principles of economics. We can't change it, we can only adapt to this rule.
Truth three
Income is directly proportional to the degree of exertion,
Especially in the years leading up to graduation
One of the questions that students like to ask me is: How hard is working in the Red Circle? I always ask, 996 do you find it hard? A junior sister thought about it and replied to me, "It's bitter, when I study at school, I can relax at night and go out to play on weekends." I said that the work of the Red Circle Office may be more difficult than 996. I remember when the word 996 first came out, I laughed with a colleague from a law firm and said that 996 is not bad, at least after 9 p.m. and on weekends.
It is also an indisputable fact that the income of the red circle is higher than that of other legal work, and in the past few years, the major circles have competed to enter the "30,000 yuan club". Even if Entry Level does not reach a monthly salary of 30,000 yuan, at least it starts at 25,000 yuan, otherwise how can it compete with other law firms for talent. In addition, the bonus of the team in the red circle is generally from 2 months, some can be given for 6 months, and some teams can even be given for 12 months. This kind of treatment can be said to be not inferior to that of large Internet companies (Guangzhou has a red circle, and the salary is 6-7 discounted compared to the north).
But as opposed to high salaries, it is also high-intensity work. Today's graduates always put cost performance in the first place when making career planning, and civil servants obviously come out on top in the cost-effective selection. My undergraduate counselor also told me that there were very few job openings at the law firm. When I'm asked if there are any "jobs that pay well but aren't that tiring", I can only be honest and say that it's not none, but it's always competitive. How do you know that you are the "chosen one"?
A very cruel truth is that young people often don't have many choices, at least I think that in addition to talking about cost performance, we should think more about our own growth space. In addition to the high income that the red circle can bring during the working period, in my opinion, its more long-term impact is also the status that continues to be recognized. Even if you look for a job after leaving the red circle, the experience of working in "so-and-so" will give people in this circle more recognition of you when you haven't met.
With this recognition, even leaving the Red Circle can help transition candidates to be more competitive when it comes to work-life balance. Many of my former colleagues have joined well-known companies to work as legal counsel, and the workload is less than when they were in the red circle, but their salaries are still at a good level. To be able to obtain this job, it is also indispensable to have the bonus of the identity of the red circle.
For those who are ready to graduate or have just graduated from the workplace, they can save a little more optional capital at the age when they can work hard, so that they will have more confidence in the future transformation. Here's what you need to know about the workplace.
[Explanation of desire to survive: I didn't mean to say that the public examination is bad, but I just said that in addition to the public examination, there can be other and good employment options. 】
Truth four
What kind of life track can you start,
Sometimes there is no choice
When I was an undergraduate, I always had a strong interest in companies and business, so I have always studied civil and commercial law better than other law subjects. However, my first job after graduation was in labor law, which is not related to company law and civil and commercial law, and I did not have in-depth contact with company law for a long time. The main reason was that I joined the labor team (later changed to the corporate compliance department) during my internship, and I started my career as a labor law professional.
So when someone asks me what to do if he wants to become an intern in a certain direction of business, I can only say that you can find a partner engaged in that direction on the official website or the recruitment email published on the website, and directly submit your resume, but as for whether you can become a member of this partner team, it depends on whether there is a vacancy in the partner's team.
Finding a job is sometimes the same as falling in love, it takes fate. We often say that graduates are like a blank sheet of paper, but in fact, to put it bluntly, they are learning from scratch wherever they are placed, so where there are pitfalls. If graduates have to stumble in a certain direction, and there is no shortage of people in that direction, the employer can only consider other fresh graduates.
It is precisely because I know that fresh graduates do not have much choice when they graduate, so I often advise current students to do whatever major or research topic they want to study in school. If you are considering a major for the sake of employment, it is likely that you may not end up with your wish, so it is better to find out what you are interested in when you have the right to choose.
Truth Five
There is a window period for career transformation,
Don't hesitate to miss out on the best periods
Recently, a former colleague who has worked for 7 years told me that he was tired of the non-litigation profession and wanted to change to a litigation lawyer, so he asked me to help me check if there are suitable positions in the market. I said that if the team that wants to do litigation in the red circle at present recruits experienced lawyers, and also considers lawyers with litigation experience, it should not consider non-litigation lawyers, not to mention that you have reached the senior level. Regardless of whether it is a red circle firm or not, partners may have concerns about recruiting a senior lawyer into the team.
I also know a lawyer who has been working in a law firm for more than ten years and has reached the consultant level, and has transitioned into a foreign-funded company. She and I joined the company around the same time, and both of them transitioned from lawyers. In addition to personal factors, I can clearly feel that when we all encounter problems with poor communication, department leaders and other colleagues are more tolerant of me. Just a few months later, the colleague chose to leave the firm and return to the firm.
Of course, in the process of communicating with peers over the years, there are many lawyers or in-house counsel who have successfully switched tracks, but the older they get, the greater the cost and resistance of transformation, because transformation will inevitably face a change in the way of thinking. For example, in-house counsel pay more attention to communication and coordination skills, and need to translate professional knowledge into executable solutions for the company. Lawyers, on the other hand, need to spare no effort to export their professional knowledge, and do not tolerate any professional errors and omissions. After working in the same or similar position for a long time, if you want to change after the accumulated thinking is solidified, there will inevitably be a certain adaptation period. No matter what kind of transformation, even if a foreign-funded company converts a domestic company, it will have to face this kind of period.
Therefore, being young is not for nothing, at least there is an opportunity to learn and be shaped, which is not easy to come by. The simple truth is that everyone understands that young people are still inexperienced, so they are willing to give more opportunities and be more patient. As work experience accumulates, so do expectations of work results. It is inevitably difficult for senior professionals to accept low-level mistakes. Therefore, even if people are willing to start all over again, they may not necessarily be given more opportunities from the outside world.
If you don't like the job in front of you and are looking for a transformation, then my advice is that no matter what you do, the sooner you transform, the better your chances of success.
Truth Six
Invisible thresholds in the workplace
I once listened to a live broadcast before, and the anchor was a headhunter in the legal recruitment market. There was a question from an audience member in the live broadcast, which probably meant that he was unsuccessful in trying for a certain opportunity, and the opinion given by the company was that the aura was not suitable. The anchor may know this viewer and directly say that she knows that the direct leader of this position requires a law bachelor's degree, and the candidate is a non-law bachelor's degree, but because the past work experience is relatively good, the company gave the interview opportunity. However, at present, the reason for the rejection of "incompatible aura" is most likely to be that after interviewing this candidate, he will see other candidates who are more suitable for law graduates.
I know of a general counsel who has a similar hard condition for recruitment, which is not to look at candidates who do not have a law bachelor's degree. Over time, the company's HR has also learned about the legal director's requirements, and the resumes of non-law candidates will not even appear in her mailbox.
When you first enter the workplace, most of the invisible thresholds are in educational backgrounds such as academic qualifications. In a relatively high-level legal career, the invisible threshold will become work experience in a related industry or field. Many years ago, when internet companies were in high demand, I also interviewed the in-house counsel of a well-known local social software company. The interview process did not go smoothly because I had no relevant industry experience, and there was nothing to talk about between me and the interviewer. I didn't have to wait until the interview was over, I already knew I was going to be out of the way during the interview.
There are many invisible thresholds in the workplace, and this invisible threshold is not written in the job posting, but it will secretly play its role in screening every time the opportunity comes. The requirement of the invisible threshold is also irrelevant to the candidate's current personal ability. Candidates don't have to get discouraged because of a frustration in one or two interviews.
How do you avoid these invisible thresholds? We can't change the academic and professional experiences that have already occurred. For the career journey that is still to be written in the future, it is necessary to understand the market changes in advance and make a good career plan. For example, if you can know in advance that the Red Circle Institute has certain requirements for English proficiency, then you should pay attention to improving your English ability when you are in school, take the initiative to participate in English debate competitions, exchange programs with overseas universities, etc., and consider studying abroad for graduate studies if possible. For example, employers still pay more attention to the consistency of each career experience, and employees should try to avoid impulsive resignation, resulting in each experience on the resume being too short and leaving a bad first impression on the employer.
In fact, having a stable and coherent career experience just shows that the candidate has a clear and rational positioning for his or her career development and an accurate understanding of career needs. This is the embodiment of the mature professionalism of a person in the workplace, and it is also a trait that makes the employer excited.
The article only represents the author's personal views and positions: "Pushing the Door to Law: A Guide to Law Academic Planning and Employment"
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