Your careers questions answered

Self-belief: You’ve worked hard to get where you are – time to believe in yourself

I have worked in conveyancing for a number of years and have recently qualified as a Fellow. I’ve worked hard, studying and building my skills and experience but lack the confidence I need to progress. I know I have the right skills and experience but when it comes to asking for a promotion or a pay rise that reflects my new qualifications, I begin to doubt my abilities. How do I move forward?

Emma: Has your firm got a clear career progression framework? If so, what are the targets to achieve that next step? Where do you track against them? Taking a look at this will help you understand whether you have the skills required.

You should also ask for regular one to ones or appraisals to gain feedback on your progress. During these meetings, set targets and agree goals that you need achieve in order to progress. Set out an agreed pathway as to how you are to move forward, then set up regular catch ups to track progress.

Also consider having conversations with recruiters or peers that you trust. They will be able to give you a steer on salaries and what competitors would be looking for, in terms of experience and knowledge, when trying to get to that next rung on the ladder.

Lisa: It is very common to feel self-doubt – many people feel like this at some point in their careers and it can hold people back from acting assertively and feeling confident about demonstrating their contribution.

To help you speak to your manager about next steps and opportunities for progression it might be helpful to look at what you have achieved by compiling a business case to demonstrate your successes with evidence-based examples. Look back over the past year and consider how you have applied the learning you have gained through your CILEX qualification back into the workplace by providing examples that can be quantified.

Referring to previous performance reviews and the objectives you have been working towards can help with confidence. Being able to see examples of your achievements on paper can help challenge some of that self-doubt. Also consider what you bring from a personal perspective – what are the strengths you have outside of the technical aspects of the role? How do you support others, lead by best practice, or act innovatively?

It may also be helpful to consider who might be able to assist you within your networks in a mentoring capacity. Mentoring can be a fantastic opportunity to help identify and develop career goals and increase your confidence.

Louise: Firstly, you are a qualified CILEX Fellow and have worked incredibly hard to get to where you are – remember that first and foremost! CILEX is not a short-cut or easy route to becoming lawyer, it is just a different route which takes, as you know, years of hard work and bucketloads of determination.

Having conversations about progression is a vital part of career development but can feel awkward. For some this can be made harder by a lack of confidence in your abilities that can be referred to as ‘imposter syndrome’ where an individual doubts their skills, talents or accomplishments and fears being exposed as a fraud.

It’s fairly common and at CILEX we run a workshop for members to help them tackle those kind of thoughts and feelings as well as assertiveness and communications seminars that you may find useful.

CILEX can help you focus on your achievements and also to consider what you need to do to get to the next stage in your career. Now that you are qualified you might want to think about taking your qualification further and becoming a CILEX Conveyancing Practitioner in the future which would mean you could work in a regulated law firm without supervision.

I work in personal injury and have been qualified as a CILEX Fellow for coming up to five years. My department has seen a drop in work coming through the door and I am thinking about moving to a different area of specialism, to provide me with more job security. I have always been interested in family work. How do I make the move?

Lisa: Certainly at my firm promoting cross-practice working and developing transferrable skills is something we champion, as there are considerable benefits for our business and our clients. It is likely your firm will feel the same and be open to your move.

Sophie Engel, a solicitor in our professional and commercial risk team originally qualified with CILEX as a Fellow in our claims solutions property team. Her advice is not to be afraid to jump into something unfamiliar as there are always more transferrable skills than you think between different practice areas.

Before any interview in a new area, think of specific examples to demonstrate the transferability of skills you have learned. Do your research and speak to people on the ground in the new team you are thinking of joining about potential obstacles that might exist.

Also think about vocational courses and qualifications that might enhance your career prospects and opportunities for professional development in the role you are considering.

Emma: This is a difficult move, but it is possible. Make a note of all the experience that you have had within family law during training, practice or academically. Perhaps do some extra studying within family law and try to focus some of your CPD towards this area.

Mention your aspirations to your firm and if possible, try to volunteer for some family work internally, even if this means in addition to the workload you already have.

Family is a very buoyant area, so it may be that to move across, you would have to take on a more junior role, which would likely mean a lower salary. Consider the long game – you might have to settle for a lower income in the short term to get into your desired area of law but that may well prove more secure, satisfying or lucrative in the future.

Louise: It is perfectly possible to move areas of specialism with CILEX. Try to identify your transferrable skills. Both areas are client facing, dealing with parties who might be unhappy about the fact they are involved in court proceedings so you might be surprised how many you can identify.

In relation to Level 6 studies there is nothing to say that you must complete any further examinations as a CILEX Fellow in order to practice in another area of law. That said, you may still decide to complete our Level 6 family law/practice units to improve and enhance your confidence.

Whilst if you change role, your new employer may have plans to provide you with some training, CILEX will give you a detailed depth of technical knowledge that may be easier for you to absorb through a prescribed way of learning rather than wholly on the job.

You may also want to consider what your rights of audience will be before the family court without any extended rights - for you to exercise full rights of audience in the family court you would need to attain family litigation and advocacy rights through CILEX Regulation.

To book onto our CILEX workshops keep an eye on our events booking page. Recordings of our Assertiveness and Effective Communication webinars can be found on myCareer along with tools to plan your career path.

You can find out more about becoming a CILEX Conveyancing Practitioner, studying family law or gaining rights of audience on the CILEX website.

If you have a careers question for our panel please email editor@cilex.org.uk