Resumé tips for new lawyers
By Roey Z. Rahmil
Despite continued improvement in the legal job market, competition
for many entry-level and lateral positions remains fierce.
Although the resumé is only one part of a typical job application,
it is likely the document that potential employers will review first; their
impressions of a job candidate’s resumé will likely color their evaluation of
the rest of that candidate’s application materials. The following tips for
improving your resumé, collected from senior hiring attorneys and new lawyers
alike, can help ensure that your resumé has the desired effect.
Be honest to a fault. Everything on your resumé must be true. There are no exceptions.
Lawyers are trained to detect dishonesty and will spot any embellishments,
overstatements or inconsistencies, no matter how innocent. Getting
cross-examined during a job interview is not pleasant and will not result in
the outcome you are hoping for.
Proofread, proofread, proofread. Lawyers pride themselves on attention to
detail. Although this attitude can cause occasional awkwardness at social
gatherings, it also helps ensure that briefs and other documents lawyers
prepare on behalf of clients are as close to perfect as possible. Hiring
attorneys will expect the same from your resumé. Fair or not, meeting this
expectation will give your resumé the best chance of impressing who it needs
to. Besides, typos and grammar or punctuation errors are, at the very least, distracting
and will interrupt the employer’s evaluation of your credentials.
Treat your resumé like a writing sample. Your resumé is often the first chance
employers have to judge your writing. You should craft your resumé as you would
any written communication: Be concise, be concrete, use the active voice and
choose each word with precision and purpose. For example, “assisted with the
drafting and revision of various agreements” is wordy and obtuse; try “drafted
financing documents for $40 million capital investment” instead.
Be mindful of aesthetics. There are myriad articles on resumé formatting for a reason.
Choose a readable and professional font, create a logical hierarchy for
headings and descriptions and use consistent typeface choices. The visual structure
of your resumé should add to your candidacy, not distract from it.
Additionally, when you submit a resumé via email, send a PDF instead of a word
processing document. PDFs look cleaner and more professional.
Emphasize practical skills and real-world achievements. Employers are looking for lawyers with
practical skills who can get a running start; they would not be hiring
otherwise. It’s up to you to show potential employers how you can help and why
they should trust you. If you’ve obtained good results for clients in law
school clinics or with a previous employer, don’t be shy about highlighting
those accomplishments (while, of course, respecting confidentiality
obligations). And experience, even if it doesn’t seem earth-shattering to you,
is worth noting: Employers need new lawyers who can take on even mundane tasks
without needing too much supervision.
Consider customized versions. You may be seeking jobs from different kinds of employers.
Law firms, corporations, governmental entities and nonprofits will prioritize
different experiences and skills. Your undergraduate finance coursework, while
impressive for an in-house position, may not go far with a criminal defense
firm. You can use customized versions of your resumé to highlight items that
will be of interest to specific employers. A word of caution: Remember which
version of your resumé you submitted when you show up for your interview.
Be prepared to talk about anything on your resumé. Anything on your resumé is fair game
during an interview. And it’s a good thing, too: Interviewers can only talk
about legal matters for so long, and discussing novel topics can be a chance to
set yourself apart. So if your resumé notes your senior thesis on Norse
mythology, review it before an interview; you never know when your interviewer
might have a master’s degree in Scandinavian history. Likewise, if you
advertise fluency in a foreign language, don’t be surprised if an interviewer
starts asking questions in that language!
Get a fresh pair of eyes. The more you stare at your resumé, the less likely you are to
catch errors, awkward phrasing or accidental nonsensical sentences. Get a
friend or family member—preferably a non-lawyer—to give your resumé a fresh
look. If it makes sense to them, chances are it will make sense to a potential
employer.
As an aside, this article presumes that you are accompanying your
resumé with a well-crafted cover letter. Unless a job posting specifically
instructs you not to send one, sending a resumé without a cover letter tells
employers that you are putting little effort on your job search. Your cover
letter should identify, with specifics, why you would be a good match for the
employer (without simply mimicking language from its website). State (in
tasteful terms) why you are seeking a new position and/or location and
emphasize the value you can add to the employer’s business.
In conclusion, your resumé is a prime opportunity to show
prospective employers that they should pay attention to your candidacy. The way
to make sure employers take your resumé seriously is to take it seriously
yourself. Spending just a little extra time on this important document can
significantly improve your chances of obtaining an interview. For the
interview, you are on your own.
Roey Rahmil serves on the board
of the State Bar of California Young Lawyers Association (CYLA). CYLA is the
nation's largest association of young lawyers with over 55,000 members. For
more information about CYLA go to http://dnn-cyla. This article originally appeared in the winter issue
of the 2015 CYLA eNews and is printed here with permission.