The Hazards Of Not Researching Your Opportunities
Yesterday a candidate dropped a bomb on me when he casually mentioned that the company I am sending him to for a second interview next week has been mentioned as a potential participant in a scam.
You could have knocked me over with a feather.
This is a company that I’ve known for years and I follow industry news pretty closely and wasn’t aware of any problems. I’d seen the news item my candidate mentioned, but the client (as an alleged secondary participant) was not mentioned by name. My diligent candidate, on the other hand, followed every link in the article because the news is a brewing scandal in his practice niche, and found a mention of my client in a collateral document that hadn’t hit the media outlets.
Making a professional move is a big deal, and requires careful due diligence. On one hand, you can’t park yourself in one job your entire career simply because it’s too dangerous to move. Stagnation has its own dangers.
On the other hand, too many moves on your resume is subject to its own criticisms. What’s a lawyer to do?
Research, of course. Lucky for us, we’re trained experts in this regard.
So, what are your resources? Google is my favorite. Google the company/firm name, google the practice space, google the names of the people you’ll likely be working most closely with and google the name of anybody that you’re interviewing with.
Ask your professional contacts. No, you don’t have to disclose that you’re considering an employment opportunity. Create a cover story, such as that you’re considering reaching out to a particular partner at the target firm to collaborate on an article or ask him or her about a recent panel they sat on.
Quiz your recruiter about what she or he knows about the hiring firm. Good recruiters follow the news and trends in the industry, and hopefully in your particular space. A good recruiter will also share negative information, but as demonstrated above, even the best-intentioned recruiter might be missing some important information.
Listen to your recruiter describe the company and listen for any red flags. Even if you don’t hear any overt red flags, this description might give you more keywords to use in searching google that you hadn’t thought of.
What else? What have you used in the past that has worked to research potential opportunities? Leave a comment below and show us what a smarty you are.
What happens when you turn up negative information like my candidate above?
Just as my candidate intends to do next week, you can ask hard questions during the interview process. To the credit of my candidate, he is still willing to meet with the company and hear their side of the story. The opportunity might still make sense for him, or it might not. The important thing is that he has critical information to help him evaluate the opportunity and avoid making any mistakes that could hurt his career.
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Are you an attorney considering a move in these crazy times? To get all the resources you need delivered to your email inbox and/or RSS feedreader, use the links in the right sidebar to subscribe to AttorneyOnTheMove.com. Tracy also welcomes email to tracy @ attorneysonthemove.com or calls to 310.906.0171 to brainstorm ideas for getting your practice ready to move, trends in the industry and intel on new opportunities.
