The Gazette 1979

GAZETTE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1979

SOCIETY OF YOUNG SOLICITORS SECTION

WORKING CONDITIONS OF NEWLY QUALIFIED SOLICITORS

would be working very soon; the interviewer having told S.O. that he would contact him in the near future about the job. He waited and waited and waited . .. The penny was finally dropping. He consulted with friends who had recently got jobs and compared notes on his letter of application, his C.V. and his interview technique. He now changed his letter of application emphasising his legal experience (rather than the lack of it). He applied for further jobs. Oh! by the way he did hear from that man who interviewed him. He received a letter which read: "Dear S.O. I regret the delay in writing by way of follow-up to our recent interview. The vacancy has been filled by a person better suited to our needs. Thanks for your interest. Yours sincerely, Mr. Flushed". S.O. kept his head up and finally his luck changed. One day he got invited back to a second interview. He felt relieved. He attended the interview - "Yes they did need a Solicitor with his ability and yes, they would like to offer him the job". However, they were going through a bad patch at the moment and could not offer him a very high starting salary but it would be reviewed regularly. A further problem was that they were short of staff and space and would he mind sharing a room with another Solicitor and sharing his Secretarial facilities". If you were starting out and had applied for many jobs, got a few interviews and one offer what would you do? Accept the offer? Of course you would and so did S.O. Furthermore, he worked extremely hard and did every- thing he was asked to do. His employers were impressed and said so but S.O. never got a wage increase. He started on £2,500 and a year later was still earning that sum. What do you think he did? He waited and waited and waited ... To many young Solicitors this ia familiar story so what lesson can be learnt from it? There are a number of lessons to be learnt, some by the employer, some by the employee and some by the profession. We will take each in turn. The Employer - Messrs. Box No. Z2002 1. It does not cost much effort to reply to all job applications. When you consider all the effort the applicant has put into preparing his application the least you can do is to say "thanks for trying". 2. Every applicant is entitled to your full attention at the interview. No phone calls should be put through to your office nor should your Secretary enter the room during the interview. This is common courtesy. 3. Every applicant is entitled to a proper living wage and proper working conditions. Nobody has spent four to five years preparing for their profession to be told that they are less than useless and for that reason cannot

This is an extremely sensitive subject for a member of our Profession to write about because you can never hope to make friends among your own profession by criticising them. However, this memo is being prepared in order to assist a newly qualified Solicitor in his search for a job and not specifically as a criticism of our profession. It is hoped that some of the ideas set out in this memo will be of assistance to both the Employers and the potential employees resulting in improved conditions for young Solicitors. Yo may ask what is wrong with the conditions of newly qualified Solicitors? We would like to answer this question by way of an illustration. The story which follows is that of Mr. S. O. Licitor but it could be that of anyone. "The first thing S.O: did after hearing that he had passed his third law exam was to purchase the Irish Times and Inish Independent. As you would expect, he examined the legal Section of the appointments page for jobs and saw some possibilities. That evening he prepared his letter of application and curriculum Vitae. Having no prior experience of these things S.O. did not prepare his application properly; it was not typed and it put emphasis on the wrong things. He sent the application to Messrs. Box No. Z 2002 & Co. While waiting for replies to his applications he dreamt about the great career he was about to commence and the terific salary he would earn. He was not worried by the fact that he had no previous legal experience; after all he had a good law degree and had passed all his Solicitors exams. So he waited and waited and waited ... He applied for more jobs but before doing so took the advice of his father and had his sister type his application and C.V. He also made photocopies to save typing new C.V.'s every time he made a fresh application. At last there was some joy, he received a reply to one of his many applications. But the joy was short lived because the letter stated: "Dear Ms. S.O. Many thanks for your letter of the 2nd ulto. I regret to inform you that the position has now been filled. Yours sincerely, Mr. Humble". More applications were prepared, the odd one pro- ducing a reply but always the same - "We regret etc." One day, however, there was some good news, he received a letter which stated quite simply: "Could you please attend for an interview?" He certainly could. S.O. got out his new suit, cleaned and polished his shoes, even got his hair cut; he prepared for his interview. He attended punctually at the interview and discussed his career and legal experience with the interviewer between important telephone calls the interviewer had to make. S.O. felt that the interviews had gone quite well (he did not know any better) and even told his friends that he

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