new job

So I am currently just over a week into my new job (qualified around 1 month ago) - the firm is a massive step up and the people are nice, but i feel utterly incompetent and useless - I don't know how anything works really (case systems etc etc) and this is spilling in to my usual work as well (i.e. second guessing what I am doing etc).

 

I was really excited when i joined having been very successful at my old firm but feel like i am a first seat trainee again. This is coupled with much higher billing targets and I feel that i am not cut out for it.

 

Any reassurance / 'it'll be alright having been in the same situation' appreciated :(

Take it easy and don't be so hard on yourself - you will be fine.  Perhaps try to befriend a mid level or senior associate or two who you can bounce any potentially "stupid" questions off and get the lie of the land from in respect of office procedures (and politics).  I remember that, as an NQ, I had an overwhelming sense of being out of my depth - give it time and experience.  As long as you work hard and have "grit" you shouldn't worry.  (speaking from experience from a MC firm then US firm).  All the best.

There's nothing more aggravating than firms which don't take time to explain the systems to new starts and just let them flounder / rely on the kindness of varyingly nice colleagues

Find some people your level you can moan to and to who you can ask stupid questions.

Find some people more senior who are generally nice and can help with legal stuff.

Maybe ask one of them to 'mentor' you informally, coffee once a week type thing.

But yeah give it time.

Just take as long as you need to work stuff out and make sure you record all your time for it, no matter how long soent floundering with systems. Dump it all, rounded up in 15/30m increments natch.

Being an NQ is hard esp in those cicrumstances -but if you meet your deadlines and get your time down, you will find your feet eventually..

Wot pencil said. Try to find a competent senior associate who is a good person and won't mind if you ask newbie questions.

Also, don't sweat. It's not a sprint. If you are smart, and I assume you are, diligence and a good work ethic will carry you. Mistakes and misunderstandings are effectively unavoidable. Just try to never make the same mistake twice.

essentially whats happened rham, feel like one step forward knowing how to use the new time recording system etc and then three steps back when asked to do a very basic task but no idea what the procedure/policy is.

 

Thank you for the kind words pencil, how long did it take you to start feeling fairly comfortable with the new procedures etc?

It took a while but don't sweat it too much re systems etc.  I'm sure what the partners care about is your attitude, work ethic and of course the quality of your work product and future potential.  Try not to get hung up on things like time recording systems etc. - also, being pleasant to your secretary is likely to go a long way and they are normally a great source of help and information.

Set aside some time to learn the systems you are struggling with. It's completely legitimate to ask for help with that, and there may well be people in e.g. training or IT that will do it without judgment (but only a twot fee earner would judge anyway).

There's no issue asking for help as an NQ. If you have to, butter someone up by massaging their ego and see if you can get some of their time when things are quiet, which would normally be first thing. 

Bear in mind, if you are in a US Firm, that it is full of alpha types, many of whom don't know much law but know about looking like they are a big cheese. You are probably a better lawyer than many of them, so hang in there. Also try to make use of your expense account so that in 4-5 years time you are bringing in moolah, in which case they will not give two fooks about whether you can do the work or not.  

You've only been there a week! Nobody is going to complain you are behind on your billing target after a week FFS (even at a US firm).

What everyone else said. Find someone senior who is nice (the eternal senior associate in their 40s/50s or the PSL if there is one are often a good place to look) to ask legal questions and a nice PA to ask about process stuff. 

Don't even think about worrying whether you fit in/are right for the job until you have been there 3 months. 

Great thread well done everyone.

relax, a week is way too early to stress, the fact you are shows you care. that's a good start. it's always fixable. so follow the good advice above

There will be people whose entire function in the firm is to provide you with training / know how (assuming they firm is a decent size) and if they aren't used the resource is in danger of being canned, so they will be delighted to assist. find out who they are and use them to the max to help you. 
 
 

And create yourself outlook sub folders so if someone emails you an answer to a query, you have somewhere to store it for future ref - likewise IT circular emails with useful links etc. Keep them (not in your inbox)

before you know where you are you'll be the helpful person able to recirculate info to the team and they'll all think you're great 

I moved from a small firm to a very big firm when I was a couple of years qualified. All of the things you describe I experienced. I would expect they are compounded if you are an NQ. It took me a while to feel like I actually deserved to be there, but I did that by sticking at things and throwing myself into everything, despite the fear. I ended up working there for nearly 20 years.

Psl's can be quite good people to explain things because they are generally more relaxed and their job is to help people.  

When people ask you to do something tell them if you don't know how.  They want x done so they will be happy to explain, or will delegate to someone to explain.  no-one will be surprised or annoyed at you asking.

You will look back with hindsight, probably next year, and realise that no-one expects you to know everything and considers asking for help and taking time to get up to speed completely normal.  Your co-workers will think it bonkers that you would feel this way and take all that responsibility on yourself.  Its going to be fine.

Dont worry, try and relax. Everyone has been there. All of the above advice is spot on.

Dont be afraid to ask, its expected.

Also cant recommend highly enough about making friends with the support staff.

As a NQ the reality is that you are just a baby, depending upon your niche you may well not have seen one matter from beginning to end particularly true in any form of litigation. It sounds as if you have moved to a proper outfit. They know this better than you. They have hired a NQ knowing exactly what to expect.

Just show a positive attitude and be like a sponge.

Good luck.

 

NQ + new firm means it’s entirely natural that you would feel out of your depth etc.

Stick with it and find some friendly faces - including making friends with people at similar level in other teams if that’s feasible. 

Warren15 Sep 21 11:13

Psl's can be quite good people to explain things because they are generally more relaxed and their job is to help people.  

Heh!  We clearly trained at different firms.

It's so good to see a RoF thread which hasn't descended into aggro and point-scoring within the first 3 or so posts - and with some genuinely good advice to boot.

Not sure I can add anything useful to the advice already given, but it may be vaguely comforting to know that most people experience something similar in their careers - you're just dealing with novelty on more fronts than most this time around.

I'm roughly a gazillion years PQE, have been a partner and a team head, and consider myself a pretty confident and mostly competent lawyer, but a few years back I started a stint in-house at a very large, globally-household-name type company and found I was second-guessing myself on far too many things, struggling with how to do various process tasks, and generally feeling useless.

I came through it, and so will you.  Once you find an anchor of familiarity (either because something crops up which is firmly in your comfort zone, or your comfort zone expands as you learn the ropes better), you'll find that effect snowballs, and more and more things settle down to be OK. 

Take a mental snapshot of yourself now, and compare it to where you are in 3 months - you'll be amazed and the before and after photos.  Just need to get through the stuff in between.

This can be a savage time. The worst part of this is if you have hyper-competitive people around you who want to make you feel stupid, eg there are probably some trainees there who have got a better handle on the ropes, clients, work, processes, partners’ preferences etc, than you currently do, and want nothing more than to show how far ahead they are than you. It can be very hostile and toxic. The same can apply with established associates undermining new senior associates.

Lateral partners don’t seem to have this problem because everybody around them is there to help them, but as an associate it is your job to help partners, and if you can’t manage the basics, it’s very frustrating.

You will get through it. Most people have to do this at some stage. My technique for learning is to take notes on everything. You probably won’t reread a lot of the notes but just making them helps a lot with enforcement.

so thankfully things are picking up, billing targets are massively higher than my old place at 6 chargeables a day. Out of interest, what are yours and what is the general attidtude towards them? I.e. if you do 5.5hrs a day chargeable out of 6, are you on the chopping block or is it literally a target to get too?