Professional Career Management in Professional Services Firms is rather like motherhood and apple pie - everyone agrees that it is a "good thing". Most people believe they are practising it but very few people can tell you what is really happening. Commenting on styles and standards of parenthood is beyond the scope and courage of this writer, however we have all had experience of the variable quality of products described as "apple pie". Career management is distressingly similar -much talked about, assumed by management to be being delivered but meeting with a range of bafflement and confusion by its intended recipients.

In practice, there are three distinct ways in which career management takes place in firms and most firms practice at least one of these. Most common is the informal method, based on relationships and loosely modeled on the principal/articled clerk pattern which still has a semi mystical place in many lawyer 's memories. The modern equivalent of this is a firm wide mentoring scheme of assistance by partners, which has recently been introduced by many firms.

Unfortunately many of these schemes have been introduced with inadequate preparation and training, the idea being agreed at a partners meeting and then implemented the following month. As a result they have slid into sociable lunches with alcohol induced honesty and rapport being mistaken for effective mentoring. When however, the scheme is designed carefully to suit the firms' culture, implemented with training and support, and then monitored effectively it quickly starts to pay dividends. Recent experience of such schemes demonstrates that they are often helpful in discussing career issues, particularly partnership prospects.

The second approach used by an increasing number of firms is that of targeted specific interventions. These range from giving career advice to assistants through the provision of general career talks in the firm, to the use of impartial, expert career coaches to help individuals progress their careers, and finally the intervention of psychologists or counselors to help resolve stress situations often initially caused by career issues. Increasingly firms are recognising the value of the middle way of specific targeted, confidential career advice to help individuals resolve issues positively before they become a major cause of stress.

Finally, a number of firms are beginning to implement a full career management programme for their staff along the lines already used in a large number of corporate organisations. Probably the best established in the professional services world is that run by a large firm of management consultants. This scheme involves a confidential, individual referral programme available to all consultants, designed to develop a better understanding of their career opportunities both within and outside the firm. At least three law firms are currently investigating similar schemes and they have met with a very positive response from the assistants involved.

To be effective such a scheme has to be impartial, confidential, knowledgeable and therefore the right balance of internal and external resources has to be found for each firm. Recent rapid strides in internal delivery for career management promises to revolutionise its use in the near future with a balance of internal, external and intranet resources producing a cost effective, accessible and tailored service.