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Roo to my bruhs. Happy founders day
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First, be vocal and explain to the ones responsible for delegating you work that you want to find ways to take on more responsibility as well as describe to them what your experience so far has been like and where you are are trying to take your career (usually just say you aspire to make partner, even if you don’t ).
Second, when you’re on a matter and are given normal grunt work, execute this work and then think about what the next steps are on the matter and request to take the first stab at this work (ie don’t wait on them to delegate it to you). Keep doing this and never stop. When you finally get something, take ownership and make it yours and do whatever it takes to do it well (doesn’t have to be perfect).
Third, continuously learn on your own and build relationships with external mentors and most certainly recruiters, so that you can keep an eye on how your peers are developing in the market and what they are expected to do at a certain level. Also, seek internal mentors by talking with other associates to see who they would recommend and then ask the prospective partner or senior for a coffee chat. Explain what you’ve been going through at a high level and find some mutual element to connect with them on, then literally ask if they would mind being a mentor for you (ie closed mouths don’t get fed). Some people will be sponsors (ie they have the ability to bring work your way and advocate for you) or just mentors (ie they can show you how to do the job but may not have strong internal influence).
Fourth, now that you know the market and desired skill set for you level. Continuously sharpen your resume with those points in mind and build an external network that you can tap when and if you need to leave. Sometimes the firm just doesn’t have enough work to go around and/or is struggling with other institutional issues that has nothing to do with you personally or your performance. At that point, it’s time to go but make sure you’re doing it on your own terms.
FYI, I’m going through this now loll
I appreciate this guidance so much! Thank you
I was never successful at finding someone to train me/mentor me when I was at a firm, but A1s advice above seems great. The firm I was at was more catered to good ole boys. I'm in-house now and there really isn't training IMO because you are just expected to do your job.
That's right. Same in my experience
I’ve trained a bunch of people that didn’t work out. I’m in a niche area, so it’s a lot of time to invest. Showing that you’re eager to learn, taking feedback seriously, asking questions in advance if you don’t understand something, reviewing redlines, then following up with questions about changes you don’t understand… These are things I would appreciate seeing as a sign that an Associate is serious about receiving training. In hindsight, I realize that I was doing a lot of the prompting and that is not a good sign. Some of us are trying really hard to give back to folks from marginalized identities because we’ve been there, but it’s pretty disheartening to waste your time on people who have no interest in learning.