Big Sis Briefing: The Missing Chapter Between Law School and Your First Job
I have recently coined a new term for the “messy middle” that almost every new law graduate goes through.
I call it the trough of despair.
It is the space between the high of graduation day and the relief of finally landing a role. In between those two points sits a complicated stretch of uncertainty. You are figuring out PLT, wondering if you will get a graduate job that will pay for it or deciding whether to start it yourself. You are weighing up whether to take any legal-adjacent job to keep the bills paid or hold out for something closer to your long-term career goals.
You might be working part-time, applying for jobs late at night or daydreaming about throwing it all in and going backpacking through Europe.
Some days the job hunt feels like a full-time job.
This is the trough of despair.
It is where your patience, resilience and hunger for the profession are tested in real time. It is where you decide how far you are willing to push outside your comfort zone. It is where you learn whether you are ready to ask for introductions, send the cold LinkedIn messages, walk into offices with your CV, pick up the phone or even create content online to make yourself visible to potential employers.
Most importantly, it is where you choose to keep showing up despite rejection after rejection.
Not everyone makes it through.
The people who do are the ones who want it enough to keep going. Remember, you are not alone in this. About 95% of law graduates in Australia do not step straight into a graduate role at one of the big firms. Those programs are designed for a very small percentage of the top graded students.
Everyone else finds their own path through the trough.
You are not failing because it feels hard. You are simply moving through a stage that the industry does not prepare you for and rarely talks about. It is lonely. It is frustrating. However, it is absolutely survivable.
What You Can Do Outside of Just Applying for Advertised Roles
While job boards and firm career pages are a starting point, they are not the whole picture. Many roles are never advertised. Others are created when the right person shows up at the right time. Here are some practical ways to widen your net and stand out:
Leverage LinkedIn strategically: Optimise your profile with a professional headshot, clear headline, and a concise summary that speaks to your skills and career goals. Share posts about your legal interests, recent cases, or industry trends. Comment thoughtfully on posts from lawyers and firms you admire. Use my LinkedIn Visibility Toolkit to audit your profile against best practice.
Informational interviews: Reach out to lawyers whose career paths interest you. Politely request a 15-minute coffee or Zoom chat to learn about their work and advice for graduates. These conversations often lead to referrals. Come along to a Group Career Big Sis Session or book some 1:1 Career Big Sis Strategy Time and let’s chat irl!
Volunteer or pro bono work: Offer your time to community legal centres, non-profits or university legal clinics. This builds your skills, network and credibility while helping others.
Industry events and CPD seminars: Attend conferences, webinars and workshops. Even if you do not yet need CPD points, you will meet professionals and hear about opportunities before they are posted publicly.
Cold outreach to small and mid-tier firms: Smaller firms may not advertise widely. A polite, targeted email or dropping in with your CV can get you on their radar. Bonus points for phone calls.
Create your own experience: Start a blog, podcast or LinkedIn series on legal topics you are passionate about. Show you are engaged with the profession and committed to learning.
Stay visible with your alumni network: Reconnect with law school classmates, lecturers and alumni working in interesting roles. They can be a valuable source of introductions. use LinkedIn to search for a broader alumni network and be shameless about approaching them cold with a “from one law school alumni to another, please help!” style personalised message.
Short-term or contract roles: Even temporary roles in compliance, research, policy or legal admin can lead to permanent opportunities.
Skill stacking: Use downtime to strengthen adjacent skills like Excel, project management, prompt engineering for lawyers (or anything AI related) or legal tech platforms. This can make you more attractive to in-house teams and progressive firms.
I have written before about navigating the early career legal job market here and here . This is where I come in. I work with law graduates and junior lawyers to help them find clarity, build a plan and keep moving forward.
✨ I promise: the trough of despair is not permanent ✨
With the right mix of consistency, determination and visibility, you absolutely will make it to the other side.
Most importantly, the resilience you build as you move up the other side of the trough will shape the lawyer you become.
Mel
💖
