法学毕业生遭遇“完美求职风暴”

    不久之前，拿到法律学位绝对意味着手捧铁饭碗，肯定会找到一份高枕无忧、收入丰厚的工作。然而，如今的法学院学生已是风光不再。

    哈佛法学院（Harvard Law）毕业生、资深律师萨纳•布莱斯发现：“问题在于，没有人会想到经济衰退会持续这么长时间。希望凭借法律学位平安度过经济低迷期的那些人发现，他们还没毕业，律师就业市场却已经越来越糟糕。”目前，布莱斯的第二职业是为身处困境的律师们提供职业咨询。

    2011年毕业的40,000名律师，只有不到一半在律师事务所找到了全职工作。据美国国家法律就业协会（National Association for Law Placement）公布的信息显示，在新晋律师中，只有不到65%的人在需要法律学位的工作岗位就职，而在四年前，这一比例高达75%。

    造成这种情况的原因有很多。首先，公司纷纷下定决心削减开支，于是，聘用法务专员来代替要价高昂的律师，将之前由律师负责的大部分工作都交给法务专员来处理。或者，公司会寻求更便宜的在线服务，比如法律服务网站LegalZoom.com。与此同时，布莱斯还注意到，新晋律师还面临着来自前辈们的激烈竞争，因为那些失业的律师拥有更加丰富的实战经验。除此之外，“近几年，并购收购活动大幅减少，导致对律师的需求也在不断下降，而且剩下的工作也轮不到一年级律师，而是掌握在资深律师甚至合伙人手里。对于律师事务所而言，一年级律师通常是一笔财政损失，因为他们的时间并不能转化成利润。所以，由于客户纷纷紧缩开支，律师事务所也不再需要招聘大批新人。”

    布莱斯将这些糟糕的境况统称为“完美风暴”，而已经债台高筑的2013届学生只能眼睁睁地看着风暴袭来。此外，推迟求职的法学院学生最终陷入困境的可能性最大。她说：“法学院校园招聘季通常是从九月底或十月初开始。但今年，招聘企业少于往年，而且，他们现在就已经开始对求职者进行面试。”

    布莱斯出版了一本新书——《新晋律师与法学院学生求职指南》（How to Get a Legal Job: A Guide for New Attorneys and Law School Students），并在最近成立了一家网站howtogetalegaljob.com，旨在为焦虑不安的职场新丁们提供咨询服务。她认为，有一件最重要的事情，许多学生都没有去做，那就是建立关系网。布莱斯在为新书做调查过程中曾对在公司和律师事务所中任职的150多位资深律师进行过访问，受访者大部分同时还兼任招聘经理。她说：“几乎所有人都表示，他们通过建立关系网得到了自己想要的东西。但大部分法学院学生并没有在这方面下功夫。”

    她补充说：“并不是因为他们没有时间。而是他们并不理解建立关系网的真正含义。建立关系网并不是贸然给对方打电话，要求得到一份工作。而是建立一种长期的关系，帮你得到一些隐藏的机会。”布莱斯还表示，虽然许多法学院学生确实忙着在律师协会活动中推销自己，也在商务社交网站LinkedIn上与潜在雇主保持着联系，但大部分人都犯了一个同样的错误：“他们的目标定的不够高。”

    要想得到关注，并最终获得聘用，她的建议是：“不能害怕被拒绝。调查一下你所就读法学院那些出色的校友，以及你实践领域内的明星律师，然后可以通过LinkedIn与他们取得联系，或者亲自前去拜访，两种方式都可以。其实，这样做最糟糕的结果能是什么呢？他们对你的请求视而不见？那又如何？毕竟，你很有可能从中获得巨大的好处。比如，就算你联系了100位业内杰出人物，只要有一个人给予了回应，并最终成为你的导师，你所得到的回报也是不可估量的。所以，还犹豫什么呢？”

    想想看吧，这确实是一条非常明智的建议，即便是对于不做律师的求职者来说，也同样有用。

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    Not so long ago, a law degree was a surefire ticket to a secure, and often highly lucrative, career. Those days are gone.

    "Part of the problem is that the recession wasn't supposed to drag on this long," observes Harvard Law grad and longtime lawyer Shauna Bryce, who has launched a second career as a career counselor to beleaguered attorneys. "All the people who got law degrees as a way of riding out the economic downturn are finding that, while they were in school, the job market for lawyers has only gotten worse."

    Fewer than half of the 40,000 attorneys who graduated in 2011 have found full-time jobs in law firms. Just under 65% of newly minted attorneys hold positions that even require a law degree, the National Association for Law Placement reports, down from 75% four years ago.

    The reasons are many. For one thing, companies bent on cost cutting have been hiring paralegals to do much of the work high-priced lawyers used to do, or they've migrated to cheaper online services like LegalZoom.com. At the same time, Bryce notes, novice attorneys face stiff competition from more seasoned legal eagles who have been laid off.

    And that's not all. "The dip in merger-and-acquisition activity in recent years has reduced demand for lawyers, and much of the work that remains has moved up from the first-year associate level to more senior attorneys or even partners. First-year associates were always a financial loss to law firms, because their time can't be billed out at a profit. So now, with clients tightening the purse strings, there are no legions of junior minions anymore."

    Bryce calls this combination of woes "a perfect storm," and sees the heavily debt-laden class of 2013 sailing straight into it. Moreover, law students who put off job hunting are even more likely than most to be left high and dry. "Recruiting season on law school campuses used to start in late September or early October," she says. "This year, there are far fewer recruiters out there than there used to be -- and they are interviewing candidates right now."

    The author of a new book called How to Get a Legal Job: A Guide for New Attorneys and Law School Students, Bryce recently launched howtogetalegaljob.com, aimed at advising nervous neophytes. The most important thing students aren't doing, she says, is networking. In researching her book, Bryce interviewed more than 150 senior-level lawyers in corporations and law firms, most of whom are also hiring managers, and "almost every one of them said they had gotten where they are by networking," she says. "Yet most law students don't do it.

    "It isn't that they don't have the time," she adds. "It's that they don't understand what it is." Done right, networking "isn't cold calling people to ask for a job. It's building long-term relationships that can lead you to opportunities that aren't advertised anywhere."

    Even when they do get busy working the room at bar association events and connecting with potential employers on LinkedIn, Bryce says, most lawyers-to-be make one common mistake: "They don't aim high enough."

    To get noticed, and ultimately hired, "you have to overcome your fear of rejection. Research illustrious alumni of your law school and stars in your field of practice, and reach out to them, either on LinkedIn or in person, or both," she suggests. "What's the worst that can happen? They ignore your invitation to connect? So what? Meanwhile the upside is potentially huge. If you contact, say, 100 distinguished people and even one of them responds, and ends up being a mentor to you, the payoff can be enormous. So don't hesitate."

    Come to think of it, that's smart advice even for job hunters who aren't lawyers.