A lot of us have thought this when we are looking for a new job. How hard can it be to learn on the job? In my specialistion of temporary legal support recruitment, experience and the type of experience is everything. My job is to source qualified, skilled and experienced legal talent, fast. In the legal support market, this requirement is particularly unforgiving. I speak with a lot of great, talented and very placeable admin support candidates, but I have to let them down as I am not able to secure a temporary assignment for them without legal support experience.

When a temporary assignment becomes available, it’s usually because a legal firm is short staffed. This could be due to unforeseen illness, a special project or an increased workload.

The hiring manager has the expectation that the successful candidate can be up and working with minimal guidance and training and within a very short space of time, sometimes as little as half an hour. There just isn’t the time to train and the hiring manager is very aware that they are paying the temp by the hour and we all know that ’time is money’. So if you are in the market for a temporary assignment and you have a great generalist admin background, focus on those types of opportunities and try and steer away from those roles which ( frustratingly) require a very specific and unforgiving skill set and knowledge. Your skill set is highly sought after, make sure it’s put to good use!