My thoughts on the Malaysian legal job market in next 6 to 18 months for law graduates and young lawyers. Here’s a thread and with tips.
1. For graduates, I think M’sian firms will be cutting down on available pupillage spots and the honorarium payment.

2. The escalating competition for pupillage pay will stagnate for a while. Before this, the top pupillage pay in KL was more than many 1st year associates.

3. There will be far less positions to retain pupils. A general sense of a hiring freeze now.

4. For foreign university graduates, it will be tougher to secure training contracts and employment overseas. I saw this during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. More foreign graduates returned to Malaysia for pupillage and for jobs.

5. There will still be places for the brightest graduates and those who do well at interviews.

6. It will be an employer market to pick and choose the best pupil candidates. Firms will also stagger when the pupil joins the firm.

7. For a lawyer right out of pupillage, it will be even more difficult to get employment. Employers will either look for a pupil (lower cost and can train) or a lawyer with at least 2-3 years experience. Next, on to some tips.

Tip 1: Get ready for far more phone interviews and video conference interviews. Face to face interviews may be rare in the near term.

Tip 2: Even more important to get the basic written application right. Perfect grammar, no typos, don’t address the letter to the wrong firm

Tip 3: No rotation. You will likely be more employable as a pupil if you are keen to commit to one area of practice for the 9 months eg in litigation only or in corporate only.

Tip 4: Some areas that may have higher demand for work and hence, higher demand for pupils and lawyers: tax (very good if you did this in uni), litigation, insolvency, employment. More of plateau or less work: corporate M&A, conveyancing, IP.

Tip 5: Be clued in to global legal and commercial developments relating to COVID-19. Be genuinely interested in changes in law and challenges in Malaysia and elsewhere. Interviewer will surely talk about this.

Tip 6: If you are already a lawyer, best to stay put in existing firm if you don’t have a job offer. Gain the experience for the near term and wait for the market to recover.

If anyone else has thoughts or comments on this thread, feel free to comment. Any tips you would like to add? @marcus__vg @cassieyypoo @Nimalan21 @xescx @ric_wee @kennethwpl

Tip 7 via @xescx : Employers and applicants have to be more flexible in having contract positions as legal executives, paralegals, research assistants. A chance to impress employer to secure pupillage or permanent employment. Contract so that it fixes the duration of cost

Tip 8 via another reader: Stand out with mastery of tech. Technology and digitisation will change the world going forward. Accelerated by COVID. Attend online courses. Showcase these skills in your application and at interview. Stand out among your peers by leveraging tech.

The @klbcylc is organising two good seminars this weekend. Relevant to this thread is the seminar on employability issues for pupils or young lawyers. It will be moderated by @louisliaw