Why your CV shouldn’t be the first thing you update in a job search

“I need to update my CV” - that’s the first thing lawyers say to me when they want to find a new job. But updating your CV is actually one of the last things you do in a strategic job search.

If you want a role that builds on your experience and moves you towards your long-term career goals, you need to start by:

CREATING YOUR IDEAL JOB SPEC

Because if you haven’t defined what you want, you’ll end up chasing opportunities that look good on paper, but don’t actually move you forward.

For example, Sarah was interviewing for a step-up in-house role. When devising her ideal job spec, she identified that her next role needed to develop her leadership and management skills so she could position herself for a head of legal or GC role in the next few years.

The role on offer would be doing some interesting work in a new sector, but offered no management responsibilities. She asked whether she might be able to supervise a junior member of the team, but the way the team was structured didn’t allow for this.

In the end, Sarah didn’t accept the offer, even though the package was very generous.

That might seem quite drastic, but it’s easy to get distracted by the job title, salary, location, etc if you haven’t defined the specific skills and experience you need to develop to propel your career forward.

Your ideal spec keeps you focused on what really matters: your values, what’s important to you, your deal-breakers and what needs to be in place for you to thrive.

It gives you a clear baseline to assess roles against so you don’t waste your time on jobs that look appealing, but which aren’t the best match for your aspirations.

And may well stop you from making a costly career mistake!

This is often the point where lawyers realise they need to slow down before speeding up.

So, what’s going in your ideal job spec?