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LDRS432FA20Example11.docx

c K. Kush, EdD 2020

Exploring How to Become A Lawyer in B.C. 

Pryce Xie International Degree Completion, Trinity Western University

LDRS 432: Building Leaders II

Professor Ken Kush

December 10, 2020

Exploring How to Become A Lawyer in B.C.

Five years ago, I worked in a law office in China and engaged in the case of agency work. I have many years of experience as a lawyer. Although Canada and China belong to different legal systems, my belief and persistence in legal work have never changed. My goal is to become a lawyer or legal consultant in Richmond. Hence, I decided to use the official employment search website in B.C. to complete my career planning (Government of British Columbia, 2020).

Leadership is a vital and valuable subject to help the leader, manager, and employee improve their charisma, communication and interpersonal relationships. Effective leadership can create a flexible and humanized work environment and improve employees’ performance, such as enhancing the competitiveness of a product or service, enhancing team cohesion, and achieving organizational prosperity. Thus, effective leadership means to realize personal and corporate “value-add” with no upper limit. The “value-add” based on leadership, including the improvement of work efficiency, encourages innovation, the inflow of talents, and promotes the organization image. Nowadays, almost every lawyer seeks to “value-add” when delivering their services because adding value strengthens the client relationship and demonstrates an understanding of client needs and business challenges. However, sometimes they ignore that effective leadership intervention as a hidden and potential way to add value can help themselves and their organizations achieve long-term sustainable “value-add”. In my experience, when I was a lawyer in China, my leader often gave me some emotional help and support because of heavy mental pressure from intensive work. Firstly, he was patient enough to listen to me about my frustrations or hardships and sympathize with my situation. Then he could use his own life-story to connect with my experiences and resonate with me. Finally, he would give me some of the methods he had used to overcome the suffering so that I could get rid of negative emotions quickly. In retrospect, my leader took an emotional healing strategy to make me trust and identify with him. Under his care, I worked harder and achieved high performance for three years in a row. Clearly, my leader influenced me through servant leadership and allowed me to performance beyond expectations and become more valuable to the organization. This example demonstrates that effective leadership is an intangible value that can be translated into personal growth and business gains. Therefore, leadership studies are helpful and meaningful for lawyers even if the “value-add,” which is based on leadership, is not directly and obvious.

I plan to interview a lawyer in Richmond, Peter, a friend of one of my classmates. This interview aims to get to know the lawyer industry's current situation in B.C. province and the development trend in the future. I hope he can solve my long-standing confusion, including how to become a genuinely influential lawyer in B.C., the daily work content of B.C. lawyers and the conditions of a registered law firm in B.C.. Although the hidden job market is challenging to be broken, I still expect to seek a valuable occupation by looking for others' stories rather than just looking for a job. According to Burnett & Evans (2016), “Life Design Interviews is exactly the best, if not only, way to get into the hidden job market in your field of interest, once you know what you want” (p. 146). Maybe I need to prepare for some questions for Peter. The first question is that let him tell me a story that happened in his work. Through his story, I will have a basic understanding of the status quo of lawyers' work in B.C. province. The second question is about how I become a genuinely influential lawyer in B.C. after telling him about my work experience and education. The last question is that I hope he can give me some advice on how to plan my career if I want to become a lawyer in B.C..

In the next two months, I will take some actions to better understand the job opportunities and develop the prospects of lawyers in B.C.. Firstly, I prefer to use a job search engine to find the right law firm or legal service agency by matching keywords with my interests and where I want to work. Narrowing my search criteria will help me focus my job search and will give me more relevant job lists to review and reduce non-relevant job lists to filter. Simultaneously, using the advanced search option, can drill down to where I want to work and the specific position I am interested in. Next, I will check the official website of B.C. Bar association for more information about the prerequisites for becoming a lawyer, including work experience and education. In addition, I will be looking for someone with experience as a lawyer in B.C. province, hoping to get some useful information and help from them. In the end, I will do my research at some of Richmond's law firms to find out about the profession's latest recruitment.

To sum up, career planning can determine the direction of a person's career. Through in-depth investigation, research, and analysis of lawyers' practice in B.C., I can grasp this industry's development trend in the next few years to make full preparations and predictions for my future work as a legal consultant or lawyer in Richmond.

References

Burnett, B. & Evans, D. (2016). Designing your life: How to build a well lived, joyful life. Penguin Random House.

Government of British Columbia. (2020). Official website of British Columbia.

https://www.workbc.ca/Jobs-Careers/Explore-Careers.aspx

Appendix

Strategic planning grid

Strategic Planning Grid

Making

An

“Informed”

career decision & Plan

Student Name: _____Pryce Xie______ Student Number: ___613531_____

Occupation being researched: ____________LAWYER________________

Instructions:

1) Rate the degree to which your occupation is consistent with each of a) your personal criteria, (does the occupation “FIT” you?) and b) what is important to you compared to your research findings about the occupation (do you “FIT” the occupation?), using the following scale:

3 = Very Consistent[footnoteRef:1] [1: LDRS 432 (FA20) Strategic Planning Grid posted.docx]

2 = Consistent

1 = Somewhat Consistent

0 = Some Aspects are Consistent While Others Are Not

-1 = Somewhat Inconsistent

-2 = Inconsistent

-3 = Vey Inconsistent

2) Add up the columns for each section of criteria for this occupation.

3) The higher the score, the greater the likelihood that you will find this occupation satisfying with respect to the topic of each section.

4) The greater the cumulative score of all the sections, the greater the likelihood that you will find this occupation satisfying as a whole and something you may wish to explore further.

To what degree does this occupation allow for you?

Occupation

Personal Criteria

Rate each item on a scale of

-3 to +3

VALUES

(Values Survey)

1. Knowledge

3

2. Helping others

2

3. Power

2

4. Security

2

5. Friendship & Companionship

1

6. Moral judgement & Personal consistency

3

7. Money & Wealth

1

Sub-total A = 14

skills

(Skills Inventory)

1. Analyzing

3

2. Resourcefulness

2

3. Reading

3

4. Researching

3

5. Serving Others

2

6. Problem Solving

2

7. Mediate

2

8. Negotiating

2

Sub-total B = 19

To what degree does this occupation allow for you?

Occupation

Personal Criteria

Rate each item on a scale of

-3 to +3

INTERESTS

(Birkman pg.13, items >75)

1. Administrative

3

2. Persuasive

2

NON - Interests

(Birkman pg.13, items <25)

1. Literary

1

2. Artistic

1

3. Musical

2

Sub-total C = 9

Personality factors

(Birkman, Needs, Usual beh., Stress beh. )

1. Genuine in feelings

3

2. Sympathetic

2

3. Serious and earnest

2

4. Insightful

3

5. Undue sensitivity

1

6. Over-directness

1

7. Self-assertive

2

8. Enjoys exercising authority

2

9. Provocative statements

1

10. Logical in thought process

3

Sub-total D = 20

To what degree does this occupation allow for you?

Occupation

0ccupational Criteria

Rate each item on a scale of

-3 to +3

important job factors & Consideration

(Posted on Moodle)

1. Sense of security

3

2. Satisfaction of personal goals and values

3

3. Use of personal skills and abilities

3

4. Working conditions and pace of job.

2

5. Level of responsibility and status

2

6. Salary and advancement

3

7. Geographical location

3

8. People you work with and/or report to

2

Sub-total E = 21

education & experience required

(Research)

1. Lawyers in B.C. must have three to four years of undergraduate studies and a Juris Doctor or bachelor's degree from a recognized law school.

1

2. To complete bar courses, provincial law society exams, and carry out a period of articling.

2

3. lawyers must be members of the Law Society of British Columbia.

2

4. I will not need significant additional training, experience, testing or assessment if my qualifications or certificates are recognized by a Canadian regulatory authority. 

2

Sub-total F = 7

To what degree does this occupation allow for you?

Occupation

0ccupational Criteria

Rate each item on a scale of

-3 to +3

nature of the work environment

(Research)

1. To work in offices and courthouses.

3

2. To be stressful when facing deadlines for court.

2

3. To schedule one’s workloads in advance.

1

4. To frequently work overtime.

1

5. Lawyers often travel to meet clients, attend meetings, conduct research and gather evidence.

3

Sub-total G = 10

physical energy required

(Birkman pg.15 & 18)

1. Energetic

2

2. Enthusiastic

2

3. Vigorous reasoning

3

4. Time

1

Sub-total H = 8

Social energy required

(Birkman pg.15 & 17)

1. Sociable

2

2. Communicative

2

3. At ease in groups

2

Sub-total I = 6

To what degree does this occupation allow for you?

Occupation

Economic Criteria

Rate each item on a scale of

-3 to +3

projected earnings

(Research)

1. Annual provincial median salary $115,621

3

Sub-total J = 3

labor market outlook

(Research)

1. 10 year expected job openings: 5,160

3

2. Forecasted average employment growth rate

is 1.8% from 2019 to 2024

3

Sub-total K = 6

Strengths

(Birkman pg.26)

1. My insight into your own and other people's feelings, I have considerable assets in the warmth and sincerity that I display toward others.

3

2. My sensitive and respectful approach to others in one-on-one relationships is a real asset.

3

3. I show a healthy respect for established authority, whether verbal or in the form of formal procedure and control.

3

Sub-total L = 9

1