I came pretty close to proposing to my wife 20 years ago on the balcony of a great restaurant in Wilmington, NC. I was working my way toward popping the question when we were attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes and had to hustle to safety inside. The moment ruined, it took a few more weeks before I had another chance.
While I won’t forgive the mosquitoes, we still love North Carolina and visit Kure, Carolina and Wrightsville beaches quite often. In addition to a long personal relationship with the State, I have an even longer business relationship, and have helped many clients on their attorney job search or executive job transitions from Wilmington to Raleigh to Charlotte and points west.
The North Carolina legal job market is complex. The U.S. average for number of lawyers per state is 40.6 for each 10,000 in population. North Carolina has far fewer lawyers than other states, at 23.1 lawyers per 10,000 people. North Carolina is 44th lowest in lawyer density; neighboring South Carolina is dead last at 50th , 20.5 attorneys per 10,000.
I don’t know if this means the 24,000 lawyers in North Carolina are really, really busy or if there are not enough clients to support more law jobs in North Carolina.
What I can say is that the legal job market in North Carolina is tight. As of this writing, there were 467 attorney jobs posted on Indeed.com, only 84 of which paid $100,000 or more. The lawyers to law jobs ratio is 1.9%, which is quite tight, indeed. The larger firms, McGuire Woods, Van Winkle, Robinson Bradshaw do their share of hiring, but the competition is fierce.
To win a law job, whether law firm associate position or in-house counsel position in North Carolina, means you’ll need to have a great attorney resume, strong messaging, and know the different ways to crack the hidden attorney job market. We can provide those for you. Helping lawyers win hard-to-find legal or executive jobs is what we do.
If you are doing an executive job search, or are looking at alternative careers, the picture is brighter. North Carolina has financial services jobs in big companies like Bank of America / U.S. Trust, and executive and in-house counsel jobs in places like Haynesbrands and Jeld-Wen. We found 220+ CEO jobs in North Carolina, 153 financial manager jobs, 129 training and development jobs, and just shy of 1,000 executive jobs paying six-figures.
The opportunities are out there for North Carolinians seeking legal jobs, executive jobs or who are looking to explore their career options, but landing one takes more creative job search strategies than are necessary in areas with more rapid growth. We can give you a winning edge.
If you would like to talk about how we can help you secure a legal job or executive job in Wilmington, Winston-Salem, Raleigh-Durham or other part of North Carolina, call us today or click here to schedule a free initial telephone consultation. https://live.vcita.com/site/bruce.blackwell/online-scheduling?service=d6dc6699