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Eximius Hong Kong Ltd.

Asia Headquarters

Level 6, Citibank Tower

Citibank Plaza, 3 Garden Road

Central, Hong Kong

T: +852 3978 5088

When is the right time to move? Reasons to read this document: You are a lawyer based In Hong Kong You are working in the In-House Legal sector You are thinking about a career change but unsure if now is the right time, advice needed!

Background to this document: My time in Hong Kong started on the 5th April 2011; it was from that point onwards that I started to understand the key difference in recruiting In-House lawyers is not just about how good a cv looks! For the record and with the added benefits of real life success and failure, this difference is that personality and cultural fit are crucial and perhaps even more important than a list of technical skills. I’m not saying that matching skills to a job description are to be ignored but that this is only part of the candidate profile. I’m working in the commercial sector, is there a month or quarter where lawyers move? Yes and no. In Hong Kong, the tradition of Chinese New Year often sees an increase in employee’s looking to make a move and start fresh for the year ahead. I’ve personally seen this drop in recent years but we still see an increase in movement across the first quarter of the calendar year. The other side of this is that we have around 1,400 local and international businesses that reside with a regional headquarters in Hong Kong. These businesses often have parent companies located in the US, Europe and other parts of Asia. With such a variety of businesses based in a relatively small country, obvious differences in business practice and culture will play key parts to any interview process. On top of this each business will have varying financial calendars giving various equations around end of year reporting, bonus pay-out schedules and performance / salary review dates. Compare this with the banking sector where US banks pay bonuses around January and European banks pay a month or two later, far easier to predict employee movement.

Year

Number of regional

headquarters in Hong

Kong

Country/Territory where the parent company was located

United

States of

America Japan

United

Kingdom

The

mainland of

China Germany France Switzerland

2012 1 367 333 219 122 106 86 62 41

2013 1 379 316 245 126 114 81 66 43

2014 1 389 310 240 120 119 91 68 45

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Year

Country/Territory where the parent company was located

Netherlands Italy Singapore Australia Taiwan Sweden Canada Denmark Belgium

2012 51 42 42 34 31 30 18 16 14

2013 46 44 41 32 33 29 19 18 15

2014 43 43 43 37 31 28 16 14 14

My top tips to help you decide if now is the right time for change:

“Advising people to move jobs is easy”. I say that statement not to be over confident but to say that giving advice is far easier than actually being the person who is moving. Changing jobs is an emotional roller coaster with lots of uncertainty, nerves, excitement and general panic. I would put moving jobs in the pecking order of third behind marriage and starting a family. So to help rationale thought, look over the below and apply them to your situation. Pull factors

This is where you are in demand and often headhunted for a specific new job. The initial ‘pull’ can be started with the lure of promotion, change in sector or simply a hike in salary.

My view – I’m not saying ignore these opportunities but I highly advise you to think hard before entering the process. If you are happy in your current role with no reason to move, think about the impact this process could have on your current career plan. For example:

It’s highly likely that even if you are offered the role you would find it hard to move because the emotional tie’s you currently have with your current employer will inevitably counter any financial offer made.

Be aware that once the trust ends, I.E your current employer finds out you have been looking elsewhere in the market, this will likely be the end of your current career track. Would you want to promote someone internally who has clearly stated intentions to leave the firm?

Worst still, imagine if your current boss finds out you are interviewing elsewhere and you don’t even want the role but window shopping to see what is going on, how will that effect your relationship? I’ve seen employee’s lose their current job without even having an offer of a new job on the table – not a great conversation to have with loved ones!

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Push factors

This would be categorised as having a number of factors in your role that do not match your current expectations. This could be salary expectations, bonus pay-outs, working hours or simply a change in office location.

My view – this can start to get complicated so my best advice is always list the top three things that are important to you and work from there. For example, let’s say that a salary increase, better hours and regional exposure are the top three reasons for moving.

Salary – When was the last time you had a salary review? If it was over a year then you are more than likely going to get an increase in this next move. The fact your current firm has not recognised this would make me question how they value your input and any late increases (on resignation) are just a belated way of saying ‘whoops, please don’t leave’. At the same time, if you have just had an increase in basic salary, do not expect this move to be lucrative and if anything you may see a like for like offer come through. Hopefully you have other reasons for moving.

Better hours – During the interview process you will be told what the typical hours are likely to be. It is EXTREAMLY difficult to directly ask your potential boss exactly what time you will finish for fear of giving the wrong impression on work ethic. So how do you find out the real work/life balance? Simple, ask your recruiter to find out what the typical hours will be and to get real life examples. I am more than happy and capable of asking a General Counsel or CEO this direct question without you losing any integrity around intent to join. Also, find out if friends and family have worked in this team but use this as a benchmark and not a guarantee, things change!

Regional exposure –Firstly, how much of your time will be spent working on regional matters vs. local (Hong Kong)? Secondly, will you have the chance to travel to these locations? I say this part because a true regional counsel will require face time with your counter-parts / subordinates in each country, how else are you truly going to influence.

Finally…. Remember, keep it simple and always come back to what you really want from the next role. If you have a number of push factors that are nothing to do with your top three motivators, try and work out if they are short term issues or long term problems. The latter would for me move any issue up the priority ranking whereas short term issues can often be resolved with up front conversations, no need to start up a recruitment process just to get your point across. Good luck! Nathan