Patent Attorneys – we’re free, we’re easy going and we might just be able to help you.
In 2015 an issue for most firms and corporations is that the supply of candidates for the jobs they are recruiting for has narrowed tremendously. This is having an impact on attorneys who are not looking to move jobs. You’re being approached more – both via social networks and cold calls. Here is a rationale for why you shouldn’t simply ignore/dismiss contact from a recruiter, and how treating the contact favourably could help your career.
Speaking to people will make the calls/emails stop.
Why might a recruiter be in contact several times over a short period? The most likely reason is that they haven’t heard from you so they presume that you haven’t received a message that they sent. You have an advantage in intellectual property – there aren’t many recruiters at all and even less of them that actively headhunt, so actually fielding these calls/messages should take you a couple of minutes but mean that you won’t get contacted again for a while (and it is better to be specific – i.e. “not looking now but might be in 2 years’ time”, etc.). Frankly, recruiters don’t want to waste time speaking to people who have no interest in moving at all as it’s simply not profitable.
Being rude may lead to unintended consequences.
We do actually take ‘no’ for answer. In fact we’ll respect it. We may connect on LinkedIn and then contact you once a year or when a really great job crops up, but never to the extent that would be considered a nuisance. What we don’t like is unnecessary rudeness or being ignored. In the case of the former, we will remember, and may be less inclined to work with you in the future – there may be times when you need us more than we need you (I’m sorry that this sounds sinister but it is honest). Being rude creates a bad impression – ultimately we get paid by the businesses we work for and if someone asks us what we think of you, then we have to give a balanced assessment. Being rude to people is not, generally speaking, a major selling point. Likewise, ignoring us is counterproductive. If we don’t hear from you at all we’ll likely contact you again. It’s more efficient to tell us what you’re up to and we’ll respect that. Yes I appreciate you’re busy and yes I appreciate that you don’t need us right now but a simple acknowledgement could mean that when that in-house job comes up in Barbados that you told us that you’d move for (“the only way I’d leave my firm is for a corporate job in Barbados”) we’ll tell you about it. Then you can be sitting in Barbados on the beach sipping cocktails fighting IP litigation (it’s possible I don’t yet understand what working in Barbados would be like, but I’ll find out if you want to work there).
We might be offering something better.
This seems obvious to me and I don’t understand why so many people’s knee jerk reaction is to dismiss something without at least hearing us out, even if only for the sake of curiosity. I know when I’ve been headhunted in the past I’ve always heard what the person has to say, usually because I’m curious as to why they have contacted me. What if you’re being massively underpaid and/or not getting as fully rounded an attorney perspective as one might expect?
We will provide you with career perspective even if you never plan to leave your current firm.
You love your job. You don’t intend to leave. But isn’t it worth finding out if what you have is market competitive – if nothing else, to improve your negotiating position when having salary discussions? In general, staying put anywhere for a long time means you are paid less than those that move more frequently, simply because those that move have a greater sense of their own market worth by, well, going to the market. You can mitigate this to some degree by asking us and we can give you a realistic perspective. As many of you know, we conduct an annual salary survey each year that is published in the CIPA Journal. This survey is unique in the sector because we ask attorneys who are working in the profession for their opinions, instead of getting a view from firms. So both this and our collective experience working with IP professionals gives us a perspective that you won’t get from colleagues.
We are not in the habit of trying to persuade people to leave jobs that they love – this is a fruitless endeavour. Even if you went for a first interview somewhere else, if everyone knows you’re going to stay put there really is no point. However, we do hopefully give good constructive advice. If you doubt our motives in doing so, then I can assure you that (for the cynics amongst you) there are demonstrable self-interests in this for us. First, if we give you good advice then you will see us as credible people who can provide a solution, so in the future you would consider using us if/when you are hiring people yourself and/or recommending people to us who are looking to move. And given we have seen circumstances change for many candidates who were happy in their jobs, having a network of people we know who aren’t looking to leave their positions is always useful because eventually some of them will change their mind or have their mind changed for them (there I go again with the sinister undertones. I need to work on my evil laugh or spend money on a trapdoor and rotating evil chair).
We can rule in/out crazy ideas and help you to achieve them.
You’ve had a successful career as a patent attorney but what you really want to do is dance. Okay maybe we can’t help you with that, although our Consultant Phillipa Holland had an early career as an Electric Boogaloo dancer (I might have lied about that). However, we can tell you how realistic it might be to move to another country or in-house, or to a non-fee earning IP role. We often have conversations with candidates mulling over a career in a corporate or dreaming of working in North America, or Asia, and we can advise as to how feasible that might be and how you might go about achieving it.
We know lots of people and tapping into any network can ultimately help your career.
All of us at Fellows and Associates (as well as the broader IP recruitment sector), are very well connected. Many of the people we know are Partners and senior executives working for corporations and private practices internationally. Simply connecting to us on LinkedIn would give you more access to some of those contacts, and we may also be a useful resource for marketing information when you’re building a client base of your own. We attend a great many international IP events such as the INTA Annual Meeting and AIPPI Congress, so we can give a view on how to get the most from these particularly from a business networking perspective.
We offer you insurance should economic circumstances shift, and we might not be offering something better now but may well do in the future.
It is naïve to think that life will never change. You might be drifting along happily in your comfort bubble for years, but there are pins everywhere that could potentially burst it (I know, I know this is not one of my best metaphors, but I like the thought of being in a giant bubble…maybe I should go zorbing). We know of instances where a Partner leaves a firm, creating a vacuum that is often unpleasant, or where you suddenly find yourself doing work that was never in your remit and you are just not comfortable with. In my opinion it is better to be prepared for this – it is not an eventuality but is always a possibility. Spending a few minutes on the phone with a recruiter won’t do you any harm, and you will be better placed if such an unfortunate situation were to arise. In an extreme case of flux within a firm, a number of attorneys may wish to leave all at once so anything you can do to be ahead of your colleagues could make a significant difference.
Quite a lot of the recruitment firms in the IP sector are small businesses, and finding a job for one of you has a healthy impact on our bottom line. But it also means that we take it personally – many of the candidates we deal with have spoken to numerous members of our team, and we’ve known them for years, placing them in new positons at key points during their career. Therefore, we feel for you when you are unsuccessful and celebrate when you succeed. We are more invested in the people that invest in us and we will try everything we can think of to help a candidate that we really believe in. This is what you need in an economic downturn. I know this, having worked through at least two (the most recent, and the economic fall following the events of September 11, 2001). In economically difficult circumstances it is not easy to make money as a recruiter and we find that we often have more candidates than we do jobs. So we prioritise and human nature is such that we go to bat for candidates that we are personally invested in. Now of course pragmatics come into this too, if you have a more in demand skill set then that will help, but having someone put their faith in you is a strong motivator for us. However, our relationships with our candidates often predate their immediate crisis so we are able to support them more effectively than if we had only known them at their lowest point.
In desperate circumstances it is easy to presume that the right thing to do is to ring every recruiter that you can think of and apply to every job going, but the net result would be that no recruiter would work their hardest for you because, frankly, this job is about relationships and trust (I appreciate you might find that hard to believe) – we’ll tell you what we can do, we’ll do that and if we know you are putting your faith in us to achieve your goals then we’ll try everything we can think of.
You might need us when you’re hiring in the future.
Having a shared history might mean we are more successful at finding you future employees. If we know you, we can sell you better to potential candidates and find someone who is a good fit. As market conditions are at the moment, finding people to work for you is not that easy at all. If you alienate all of the suppliers in the sector then you do run the risk of, at the very least, not being the first (or second, or third) person they approach when they find a great candidate. This competitive disadvantage could be the difference between recruiting someone and not.
It’s in our interest to accommodate your interests, so not speaking to us is arguably going against your own interests.
So we call you up and offer something for free that you don’t have to use now but can at some point in the future. If we were giving away a free, time unlimited ‘claim a free microwave’ voucher most people would take us up on it. So what’s with the aversion? Seriously it doesn’t cost you anything. At all. We are offering to help you find a new job, but that’s not all we do. We can also help you stay in your current job on better terms, or help you to address the reality of your future aspirations. And we do all of this without charging you anything, so why wouldn’t you speak to us? I really can’t see a downside. Yes, my perspective is coloured somewhat by my experience, but nevertheless it seems self-evident to me and a lost opportunity for those who don’t agree.
We might give you free stuff.
Finally, and perhaps less importantly, we might give you free stuff. We appreciate the value of information – if you give us good information that leads to a placement then we’ll reward you for it. Because we like you – in particular when you speak to us.
As a brief addition as I have essentially written an article saying that we have a lot to offer I should mention that we have a lot to offer. A few of the jobs include Senior Associate, Partner and Finalist level Patent Attorney positions in electronics, a variety of biotechnology positions from part-qualified up to Partner a very unusual position for a Patent Attorney who would like to focus on registered designs and more than a few chemistry positions.
Pete Fellows
This article was first published on LinkedIn Pulse on November 12, 2015.