Part Qualified Patent Attorney? Is moving jobs a good idea or should I wait until I’m qualified?
Typically it takes around 4 years or so to qualify as a Patent Attorney in the UK. But if you’re miserable in your current firm this can be a long time to wait to move jobs. In this article I’m going to explore what the pitfalls might be of moving early career and if there are advantages in doing so.
The common wisdom is, I think, that you wait until you qualify and then you consider moving positions. And to some extent this does make sense because by that point you will be able to demonstrate a consistent track record and a stable career history, and for many firms you may well be an attractive prospect as you are fully trained but they won’t have to worry about making you a Partner of the firm anytime soon (an issue with hiring people at senior associate level for example). But this way of thinking is also a little arbitrary and not particularly rational or based on evidence. Should you really exclude all
opportunities that come along in order to wait for that perfect moment when you qualify to move positions? What if there aren’t any that appeal to you at that point? You’ll quickly gain experience with your current firm and within a couple of years of qualification it will become much trickier to move positions. Recruitment in the IP profession in the UK tends to move in waves, at various points in a year any one technical discipline is more in demand than others, sometimes because there has been an uptake in work across the board and more firms are competing for candidates, or people have retired at the top creating a trickle-down effect (they promote a senior associate, which creates associate positions) and then by one firm hiring from another, a new vacancy is created and so on.
The truth is that trends can be difficult to predict and last year, for example, as a newly qualified chemist there would have been various points in the year where we could have secured you interviews with several firms all at once, or none at all depending on activity at that time of the year. Therefore, starting looking for positions before you qualify maximises your chances of finding the firm you want by giving yourself a bigger window of opportunity. But what about moving earlier still? What about moving when you have only 18 months to 2 ½ years’ experience? In our experience firms like recruiting people at this level; you have proven you can do the job and therefore are less of a risk in respect to putting you through the rest of the examinations. There are often more vacancies at part qualified level than newly qualified, and you could be massively restricting your options by waiting. Also being in a job you dislike could damage your prospects of qualifying as it will add undue stress to the process of taking examinations. But even if you like your current firm there may be deficiencies in your overall experience such as not a wide enough range of work, a lack of client contact or being asked to work in technical areas you haven’t trained in (a common problem for some biotechnology attorneys, stuck doing mechanical work because biotech work has dried up for them at their firm).
But what about claw-backs on training costs? Yes, more and more firms are implementing these terms in contracts but they are not universally enforced. However even when they are enforced it would be highly unusual for the firm you were joining not to pick up the tab. As long as you are upfront about them at the start of the recruitment process they are never really an obstacle to moving.
So what pitfalls are there? The biggest risk is that you have to move again before qualifying. Having two jobs in the 4-5 years it takes you to qualify would be perfectly fine in respect to applying for jobs in the future but moving three times may cause some concern amongst hiring firms that you have less stickability. So you need to do your due diligence and ensure that you are indeed improving your situation by moving. However, because many people who get into the profession take the best of what they can at the time they applied (naturally, because it is a very competitive market at entry level), the likelihood is that you will improve your overall experience by moving simply because you would be in a much stronger negotiating position.
Delaying moving positions until you qualify could actually be much more of a risk than moving earlier. Joining a new firm, say, two years ahead of qualification would allow you time to assess the career opportunities there post qualification, in particular how likely you are to progress to the more senior levels. You would then have the option to move again once qualified, in effect giving you two bites of the cherry in finding a firm that suits your ambitions. Leaving it until you qualify gives you less chances of getting a move right and, if the firm were not what you supposed, by the time you realise this it may be much more difficult to move.
I appreciate there is a lot of nervousness currently amongst patent attorneys in training about moving positions, possibly as a product of the increased difficultly of securing a job at entry level. However, whilst these sentiments are understandable you could be acting against your own interests by not at least considering a change. Speak to us, we won’t send your details to firms without your permission and we will be able to give you an overview of what is out there and how it compares with what you currently have. At the very least you could find out that you are currently very well paid and have the best career opportunities available and there is likely a great deal of comfort in knowing that.
Pete Fellows