Yes – wait until you’ve struck it lucky with the Euromillions!
No, in all seriousness, I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits all here. I think it comes down to your answers to a balance/ range of different questions, like:
- Do I feel stagnant/ unable to grow?
- Does my organisation align with my own values/culture?
- Do I feel satisfied and/or that I have purpose in my role?
- Am I ready for a new challenge?
- Has anyone (be it colleagues and peers, or friends and family) suggested that now might be a good time for a change?
- What are my personal and professional goals, and does/ will my current role help me achieve them?
- What’s the current job market like?
One of the best litmus tests I’ve heard though, and one I always remind myself to use, is to ask yourself if you like your job on a Wednesday morning. If you ask yourself on a Monday morning, chances are you’ll be overly pessimistic after the weekend. Do it on the Friday, on the other hand, and you’ll be overly optimistic given the incoming weekend!
There can’t be a hard and fast rule, or one that suits everyone.
Some people move organisations regularly; others build an entire career with one or two, and either route can be ideal for different people.
There can be some pointers, though:
Does your role still fit with your career plan?
Very few of us will manage to have – and adhere to – a strictly defined plan, but as an in-house legal career develops, you will often have an idea of whether you want to be a subject specialist or to follow a General Counsel path, which might well involve more management and less law.
What career progression does your role allow?
Are there opportunities for promotion, for job swaps or secondments, or are you waiting for someone to move on? Does your organisation have a clear plan for developing people?
Does your role stretch you, allow you to develop your skills and to learn something new every day?
If it doesn’t, how will it allow you to progress your career plan?
Are you doing a lot of work below your skill level?
In a busy in-house environment, there can be a danger of doing work which has to be done, rather than work which matches your level of skill and qualification. If this becomes excessive, are you gaining the more senior skills you need?
Is your organisation (and specifically your boss) interested in you and your career?
Are you having regular discussions about how you develop and what options you have? Often people develop in organisations because they have a formal or informal sponsor – if you don’t, can you find one?
Is the culture and behaviour of the organisation satisfactory, working with integrity and with appropriate professional standards?
If not – and especially if you are being asked to compromise your professional role and standards in any way – it is almost certainly time to move.
And finally, a question which is really a proxy for most of the above - are you still enjoying your role?
If there are three consecutive days where you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, it may well be time to move.
Richard Tapp – Legal Sector Specialist
Never stop moving!
I used to think of role change as getting a promotion, perhaps a “sideways” move if we are stuck or need to mix things up a bit, or a “career change” where you go and do something totally different outside of law, like a passion project.
Another type of role change is where you are continually developing the role you are currently in so that it better aligns to your skills, needs and ambitions.
Once you realise your role is not static, everything changes. To avoid going off-piste and becoming seen as a bit of a solo player, the key is to find a hook to align what you want with the needs of your organisation.
Organisations are always changing and there are endless opportunities to insert yourself into those changes and to gain additional experience, skills and exposure.
It’s really important to listen to your executive team when they talk about where the organisation is going, and also to stay on top of external developments that will require the organisation to change.
Once you have that alignment, you can self-start initiatives or you can work with others in your network on projects that are going to take the organisation forward.
You can also ask to join an important project, or start doing updates and sharing knowledge with your team and network on the changes. I always find it amazing how many people will say yes to something you want to do once you have that alignment right.
Over time, this can turn into a formal role change where the new activities that you have developed come to be the main focus of your new role. And then, the cycle can start again.
Looking at role change this way can be really satisfying. It can break you out of the doom loop of worrying about whether you will ever have an opportunity for a promotion and give you a sense of adventure and agency over your career. It can also be very intellectually stimulating to be continually learning and to be on the cutting edge of developments in your sector.
And in the end, it’s also probably the best way to get that promotion too!
The biggest clue for me is when I feel a sense of predictability going into work. The feeling of knowing what the week will bring is usually a sign that it’s time to move.
Whether a move happens is not a necessary consequence of that feeling but it probably makes one more alert to opportunities. And makes it worth reflecting on what has most energise you in your current role, why has that energy gone and where might you look for a role that could restore it.
Or it could be a change of direction in the role you’re in – taking on new responsibilities, a project outside the “normal” lawyer’s remit.
But in essence, if you’re not in any way looking forward to going to work, then something needs to change.
I think you need to constantly manage your career particularly as few companies will do this for you and on the basis you may have to work much longer than you think! So, no rules other than forward thinking!
Ian White and Simon McCall - In-house legal consultants
One of the most valuable and accurate pieces of advice that I was given at the start of my career (and one which, when I have not followed it, I have regretted it) was:
- it takes 12-18 months to get to know a role and for those around you to get to know you in that role (this is based in part on going through one complete annual financial cycle of your company in the role);
- the next 12-18 months are when you can give your best to the role and learn and develop most in it.
Thereafter the value that you can add to the role and that you can gain from it will start to diminish unless there is a total or partial reset in what the role does either because of a scope change in what the role covers caused by changes in the role itself or by changes in the team or in your company which affect your role.
So be patient and focus on learning and maximising value for yourself and for the company in the first 18 -24 months, and start consciously to look for ways of adjusting the scope of the role and/or changing the role so that somewhere between month 24 and month 36 (typically at the point in that time period when annual objective setting is done) you can add to or change your role to keep the role at least partially fresh.
Always remember that actual performance deteriorates when you are bored and you are normally bored sub-consciously (and so under-performing) before you are conscious that you are bored. So make sure that you are able to identify what it is in your role that is stimulating you consciously and so keeping you freshly focused and top performing.
As a line manager you should also think this way in terms of role development, objective setting and succession planning for your team.