I’m a small, petty man: what are your employability weaknesses?

As well as enabling you to find and compare potential employers, one of the main jobs of LawCareers.Net is to provide useful information and advice to help you present yourself to these law firms and barristers chambers in the best possible light. In service of this aim, we have launched a dedicated new section of the site detailing the key skills that you will need beyond the technical knowledge taught on a law degree, GDL or LPC.

To successfully build a career in law, from applying for a place on a vacation scheme to winning clients as a top partner or QC, you will need:

• to hone excellent written and verbal communication skills;
• the ability to network in various situations and with all kinds of people;
• an understanding of the commercial world and the needs of your clients within that context; and
• a range of 'soft' skills that will enable you to work with others and convey the best impression of yourself to people. 

All of these skills can be improved with effort and the application of some well-established techniques, so be sure to honestly assess your strengths in each of these areas and give yourself plenty of time to work on any weaknesses that you identify. Less-than-sound commercial knowledge can be improved through reading and analysing the commercial and legal press on a daily basis, for example, while discomfort or shyness in networking situations can be overcome through practice and arming yourself with a few tricks of the trade from which you can build more natural confidence. Even chronic body odour or being a small, petty man with an unjustifiably inflated ego like me can all be masked enough to secure gainful employment, so fear not and get to it!