Data bods use job ads to identify key qualities employers seek from legally-minded uni leavers
‘Excellent communicator’ and ‘team player’ are among the top personal qualities that employers are seeking from law graduates, according to new research.
Data bods ran 100 different graduate-entry legal job ads through a “text-reading algorithm” to identify the most commonly mentioned skills and competencies. ‘Excellent communicator’ came out top with a hit rate of 73%, followed by ‘team player’, which appeared in over half the adverts (55%) sampled. ‘Able’ and ‘a desire to succeed’ shared third spot with 45%.
Other desirable attributes included ‘research skills’ (43%); ‘can work on own initiative’ (35%); and ‘able to multi-task’ (25%).
The research, compiled by student accommodation firm Nido Student, also examined the language used by the companies to describe themselves and what they do.
‘Team focused’ featured in a whopping 90% of the adverts sampled, while ‘a law firm’ and ‘works with claims’ scored 60% and 35%, respectively. Other popular self-descriptors were ‘works with many clients’ (35%); ‘training and support’ (25%); and ‘provides commercial services’ (23%).
Unfortunately, the annoying buzzwords and phrases don’t stop once you’ve secured a job. Legal Cheek reported on research that revealed the legal profession’s most hated office jargon, with ‘it’s on my radar’, ‘smashed it’ and ‘I’ve got a lot on my plate’ coming joint top.
