Recently visiting a hiring manager, I sat with the Partner of a national law firm who briefed me on finding him his next legal secretary. As the end of the year is starting to ‘wind up’, we discussed how things move in the job market, no matter what time of the year.

Although this vacancy essentially doesn’t have a commencement date until the New Year, I assured him that job seekers are in fact, being snapped up, even on the run up to Christmas.

This is despite the silly season being in full swing! Particularly in the legal market, job seekers have several interviews they are attending daily. It is very common that legal job seekers; such as secretaries and assistants, are considering multiple opportunities, and, in some cases, it can come down to the speed of when a job offer is made. Over the last couple of years, I have particularly noticed how quickly the permanent job market has started to move and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of that slowing down. I always advise the hiring managers with whom I work, to move quickly to secure top talent. We never want to jeopardise quality for speed, however, if you have preferred job seekers and you want to hire them, please don’t delay. Until an employment contract has been drawn up and that job seeker has signed on the dotted line and resigned from their current employment, nothing is guaranteed.

When speaking with job seekers on a daily basis, if they are considering a couple of firms and there are offers ‘on the way’, these job seekers will never pass up an opportunity for a ‘potential opportunity’. Unfortunately, in my career, I have seen instances where job seekers have chosen an employer ahead of another, due to the length of time the preparation of paperwork, procedures, and approval has taken.

So do job seekers just accept the first role offered to them?

Consider it from their perspective, if you are a job seekers who have gone through a job searching process (while in a permanent role) of interviewing over lunchtime, taking time off work, completing extra skills testing in your spare time, and you are simply just a little tired of the process, then, you will want to accept an offer and agree on a start date, sooner rather than later.

To sum it up, yes, the market really does move that fast. At the recent meeting with the Partner of the law firm I mentioned earlier ended, he used the phrase that all recruiters say the “market is tight” and “candidate short”. However, he has experienced this first hand over the course of the last couple of weeks.