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All,

I changed firms around 5 months ago and the new firm is not what I signed up for. In 5 months, the firm lost a major client, the partner I am working for is currently not in the office for "medical" reasons, and today the senior associate I am working for has left the firm for personal reasons with no timetable for his return. Also, the main reason why I decided to change to my current firm was in order to work for the major client that my firm lost.

In addition, in the last few weeks my spouse got a very good job. Where we currently live, we both drive an hour to get to work. Our thinking when I got my current job was that we would move closer to my job when our lease was up, however, my spouse got offered a very good job an hour away in the opposite direction.

I was thinking of trying and find a job closer to where my spouse's job is. Our lease ends in a few months. My concern is, I have only been at the new firm for 5 months.

What should I do?

Where did you come from? If you had some longevity at your previous firm then it won't look as bad and you can explain it away. On the other hand, if you came from a 5-month stint elsewhere, you've got a pattern emerging.

I was at my first firm for two and a half years. I decided to leave because I though my current firm was a better opportunity.

I don't think there's any harm at all in applying for stuff. If the firms think you look like a flight risk they just won't interview you, but I think the wife's job provides a faultless excuse which everyone gets and doesn't require you to badmouth your current job. It's not like applying after a short stint at your current job is going to get you blackballed - they're either going to care about the length of time in your current job or not, they're not going to call up other firms and say you're an awful person for applying after 5 months somewhere (when your wife got a job in a new place and you want to join her).

The only concern I can see is if the fact that you're applying might get back to your current employer and cause problems for you (seems unlikely if they're different locations but who knows).

A. Nony Mouse wrote:The only concern I can see is if the fact that you're applying might get back to your current employer and cause problems for you (seems unlikely if they're different locations but who knows).

No prospective employer would ever contact someone's current firm. I've applied at peer firms in the same market, where partners from both firms talk all the time, and never once had anything come back to me. People jump ship all the time and people know that; it's part of the business.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:I don't think there's any harm at all in applying for stuff. If the firms think you look like a flight risk they just won't interview you, but I think the wife's job provides a faultless excuse which everyone gets and doesn't require you to badmouth your current job. It's not like applying after a short stint at your current job is going to get you blackballed - they're either going to care about the length of time in your current job or not, they're not going to call up other firms and say you're an awful person for applying after 5 months somewhere (when your wife got a job in a new place and you want to join her).

The only concern I can see is if the fact that you're applying might get back to your current employer and cause problems for you (seems unlikely if they're different locations but who knows).

Definitely start looking. This happens all the time. It may happen to you again. Job situations change. Sometimes it's because things were never as they seemed when you interviewed; sometimes it's because circumstances actually did change after you were hired.
The good news is the fact that that hiring process takes forever will finally work in your favor. By the time you start at a new firm, you likely will have been at this one long enough to say you were there for a year and then found a better opportunity. There will not be a gap in your resume and things will likely work out just fine.
Congrats on your wife's new job.
Best of luck to you and your family.

1styearlateral wrote:

A. Nony Mouse wrote:The only concern I can see is if the fact that you're applying might get back to your current employer and cause problems for you (seems unlikely if they're different locations but who knows).

No prospective employer would ever contact someone's current firm. I've applied at peer firms in the same market, where partners from both firms talk all the time, and never once had anything come back to me. People jump ship all the time and people know that; it's part of the business.

Yeah, as I said, I think this is unlikely. (I was also thinking more inadvertent than purposeful, because I've worked in small communities, legally speaking, where everyone in the bar knows each other.)

Get interviews closer to the location of spouse's job. At interviews, explain spouse got great job close by and mention current commute. Completely justifiable.

somedude wrote:Get interviews closer to the location of spouse's job. At interviews, explain spouse got great job close by and mention current commute. Completely justifiable.

+1