Articles
If your cover letter succeeds in making you sound special, as we discussed in the last issue, the hiring attorney will turn next to your resume—which needs to be equally successful.
How a resume looks is just as important as the information it contains. To be most appealing, leave clean margins at the top, bottom and sides. The white space frames the information as a mat does a picture, and invites readers to spend time reading what you have to say.
At the same time, find ways to visually highlight your key accomplishments, leadership roles and honors using bold type, bullet points, underlining, and italics but use them sparingly.
Select Relevant Information
Rather than simply listing all of your skills and previous experience, think about how to make this information relevant to a hiring attorney who is mainly interested in your potential. The fact that you belonged to a club, fraternity, sorority or other organization during college, for example, merely signifies that you are a “joiner.” To emphasize the significance of your membership, describe your leadership capabilities, or explain what you contributed that made a difference. Hiring attorneys want to know that you are bringing something special and unique to their firms, and they are particularly interested in knowing that others have recognized your potential as well. The rest is superfluous.
Highlight any special skills or qualifications such as the number of trials that you first-chaired, NITA training, Guardian ad litem certifications, or any particularly relevant course(s) that you taught or in which you excelled.
How Long Should My Resume Be?
Although most advise drafting a one-page resume, this is often most apt for newly-graduated law students. If you are “chronologically advantaged”—that is, if you’re not new to the business world, don’t hesitate filling two pages. Otherwise, by withholding relevant past job experience, you risk unnecessarily eliminating yourself from the competition. Many law firms are looking for mature, stable, and grounded applicants who can navigate the world of work. Often, second and third career applicants offer just that.
If you are fresh out of law school and have had very little work experience to brag about, focus on your other strengths and accomplishments. Highlight your good grades in undergraduate school, your leadership roles, your promotion from hamburger flipper to supervisor, your awards, or the regularity of your summer jobs.
If you’ve moved from job to job more than just a few times, you should have addressed the reason for this in your cover letter, succinctly, in just a sentence or two. In your resume, simply list your jobs.
Make Yourself Come Alive On The Page—And Don’t Lie
Show that you are not one-dimensional. Good grades are important, but many hiring attorneys are also interested in finding applicants who have had substantive hands-on experience. Legal employers are looking for well-rounded applicants who can “hit the ground running.” The less time employers will have to spend “hand holding” you through the basics of your practice, the faster they can start billing for your time and theirs, which is always a positive for employers.
Present yourself as energetic and as a “gets things done” kind of person. Use the active voice in describing your activities. Where possible, show how you identified a problem, took specific action to resolve it, and what happened as a result. For example, perhaps you saved your former employer money, were responsible for an increase in business revenues by an impressive percentage, or successfully supervised a large group of people to achieve positive results. Say so—and use numbers.
Finally, and perhaps most important, be honest. Lying can’t be justified; firms have been known to fire liars right away. Never exaggerate your level of proficiency in a language, sport or other activity. If your dishonesty is discovered, your ethics will be called into question—and nothing is more important than your reputation as an ethical practitioner.
Should I Include References?
If references aren’t specifically requested, should you include them? The answer varies. Here’s one possible rule of thumb: if you are a law student responding to a job posting from a specific law firm that does not request references, don’t send any. Simply wait until they are requested and then type them up neatly under the title “References for Mary J. Smith.” Of course, there are always exceptions. If you have impressive letters of reference or extensive contacts, then, by all means, go ahead and list them or attach the letters so that they follow your resume.
If you have practiced for a few years, then include a list of references on a separate page behind your resume. Make sure all the names and addresses are correct (and correctly spelled), provide telephone numbers, state their relationship to you (professor or former or current employer at ABC Law Firm), and indicate the period of time that you have known each other. You can refer to this list in your cover letter. By all means, inform your references in advance that they may be receiving a call from your potential employer.
Do these tips seem too common-sensical? Do they sound superficial? Maybe—but a minor slip-up can make the difference between an interview call and a decline letter. You can’t control the grades you received, but you can control the product that you submit to a busy hiring attorney. Just as you wouldn’t show up for an interview wearing jeans and flip flops, you shouldn’t send out a cover letter and resume that aren’t the equivalent of a neatly pressed suit or dress and shined shoes. The impression that you make first is the one that will define you.
For more help, reach out to your law school’s Office of Career Development, whether you are a student or an alumnus. Draw on their expertise and desire to see you win the job you want. No doubt, you have a lot going for you. Make sure your cover letter and resume reflect this.
