Have you just landed your first job within a firm? Here are some tips to stand out and lay the foundation for a successful career.
On the media ”Bloomberg Law”, lawyers Jennifer Trock and Orfeh Vahabzadeh shared advice for starting your career as a lawyer. Indeed, from the beginning, it is important to develop your brand and cultivate relationships with customers Law Tutor.
Here are five practical tips to consider at these stages of your career.
Get to know your team and your business
Get to know your team, your practice group and your business.
With many firms hosting happy hours, lunches and other social events, now is the perfect time to take advantage of these opportunities to connect and get to know the attorneys and business professionals in your group practice and your office.
Develop your brand
Developing and regularly reviewing your brand is essential to raising your profile and opening doors to new opportunities.
Your brand should reflect your strengths, your aspirations and what sets you apart from the crowd. Think about a colleague you admire. What is its brand and what do you like about it?
Next, think about your own goals and objectives. Once you’ve identified your goals, use internal and external resources to build your brand.
This might include volunteering to help a customer services team, contacting a colleague to write or co-author an article, or joining external groups.
Don’t forget about LinkedIn as a tool to grow your brand outside of your business through posts, connections, and engagement.
Get to know your clients
Like you, your clients will one day become senior executives in their organizations, and now is the perfect time to develop those relationships beyond billable work.
This could be as simple as checking in to ask about their vacation or forwarding an article of personal or professional interest.
If your client is local, you could invite them to a networking event or get together for a quarterly lunch. However you choose to do it, get to know your customers as people outside of work.
The same goes for your law school classmates and your personal network beyond the office, both of which can become excellent sources of work, guidance, and support throughout your career.
Ask questions regularly
Take advantage of your company’s mentors and resources to ask questions and be open to receiving honest answers: Am I progressing as I should?
What else do I need to do to get to the next level? What can I do more or less to succeed? Am I fulfilled by what I do?
Maintain a good perspective
Make sure you consider and appreciate the positives of your job, even on longer, more difficult days.
At this stage of your career, every assignment presents an important learning opportunity and a chance to build a positive reputation.
Remember everyone who helped you get to where you are now and look for every opportunity to support others in their own goals.