The Logistics
Graduate vs. Student
The Paper
The Envelope
Electronic Submissions
Before You Start-Do Your Research
Font
How Many Pages?
The Content
Your Name & Contact Information
Objective Line - Not Needed
Education or Experience First?
Study Abroad
Transfers
High School
Bar Admissions or Certifications
GPA & Rank
Honors & Activities
Publications
Employment or "Experiences"
Formatting
Military Experience
Volunteer Work
Computer Skills
Languages
Hobbies & Interests
References
Hot Topics
Things That Don't Belong on a Resume
Other Proofing & Formatting Considerations
Words That Get Results
Self-Descriptive Words
Skills Often Used By Lawyers/Transferrable Skills Sought
Samples
Your resume and cover letters are some of the most important writing samples you will ever create and revise (and revise). They are instruments to assist you in getting interviews that will lead you to a job.
As you go through this process, please remember to take the time that is needed to produce a quality product. This is a project that requires much thought and consideration. Plan to continue to revise and update your resume many times in your professional career
Graduate vs. Student
There is very little difference between the formatting of a student’s and a lawyer’s resume, so the tips contained herein will generally be applicable to both students and graduates. If you have any particular questions not addressed, however, please do not hesitate to contact us.
The Paper
Print your resume on a high-quality printer, on resume paper. Use plain paper; fancy marbled background will copy poorly and make your resume look messy. Use white, ivory, or a similarly light and neutral color. Make a copy of the resume to see how it looks copied, as employers will make copies and circulate them once it comes in the door.
You can never go wrong sending your application materials in an 8.5x11 envelope that matches your resume paper or, alternatively, in a nice looking larger envelope. If you are only sending a few documents (cover letter and resume only), and it will easily fit into a regular envelope, then you can send your application materials in a business-sized envelope that matches your resume paper or otherwise looks professional. You should type rather than handwrite the name of the addressee on the envelope or on a label.
If you are invited to apply electronically, it is a good idea to condense your cover letter, resume, writing sample, references, etc.(as requested) into one document (so the prospective employer doesn’t have to open five attachments) and make this document into a pdf. You can do so by uploading it into Symplicity and then opening the pdf converted documenting and doing a “save as” to your computer. Email that saved-as document. Be sure to proof it to make sure the pdf conversion did not alter your formatting! If it did, go back and fix it before sending. Do not send a Word or like document, as that is fraught with too many potential hazards (formatting and printer glitches, edits not being hidden, spell and grammar check underlining the document as its opened, etc.).
Before You Start – Do Your Research
You should start by making a general resume. As you apply for specific jobs, however, you will want to go back and tweak the resume to best market yourself to each specific employer. A vague or unfocused resume is unlikely to compel the employer to want to learn more about you. To tailor your resume, you need to research the employer, or at least be conscious of specific job requirements (if it’s a job posting). Then, make sure your resume focuses on what the employer does or wants. For example, you could look at an employer’s web site to see in what areas of law they practice, what their attorneys’ bios say, etc. Then, play up or play down various aspects of your resume accordingly. For example, if they do business law and all your experience is in family law, perhaps you would change your family-law job descriptions to make them more skills focused (performed legal research, drafted various motions and legal documents) than area-of-law focused (researched child-custody laws, drafted marital termination agreements). On the other hand, if you were applying for another firm that did family law, and all your experience and your Law Review article and your seminar paper and everything were about family law, you might create an entire “Family Law Experience” section of your resume and list all those things there rather than just as generic “Experience.”
You can research employers by looking at their web sites, by looking in www.martindale.com, by searching the internet (just a Google search, for example), by talking to us or professors or employers, by looking in The Almanac of the Federal Judiciary (for federal judges) or our “Judges” binder for MN judges, or the Minnesota Judicial Directory in our office for Minnesota state and federal judges, etc.
Don't Make Your Font Too Small
Ideally, you will use about a 12-point font. Don’t go too small or too big. If you are being as effective yet concise as possible and find you still need to go on to two pages, it’s better to do that than reduce your font to something difficult to read. Conversely, do not use unusually large font just to take up space on your resume because that tends to look unsophisticated. Make sure you have at least 1” margins on all sides before uploading your resume in Symplicity.
How Many Pages?
As you begin to draft your resume, keep in mind that the goal is to highlight your experience and transferable skills but not necessarily provide an exhaustive list of every job or job duty you have had. Given that, some employers say it doesn’t matter if you have one or two pages as long as everything is succinct and relevant, but some still firmly believe one page is a maximum. Employers are generally more impressed by someone who can effectively convey pertinent information in the least amount of space possible than by volume. Most people aren’t going to read everything on your first page, so don’t make them go to two if you can help it!
If you go on to two pages, do so with something substantive. Write “[your name], page 2" at the top of the second page. If you go on to two pages, make sure you space out information so it’s not just two lines on the second page, making it appear that you just can’t format very well.
When in doubt or when starting out, stay as short but effective as possible within each section, but feel free to include any entries you’re not sure about and then we can talk and whittle down from there if we need to!
Start with Your Name & Contact Info.
You can play with how you list your name and contact information on your resume. If you put it across the page, it takes up less room on the page, which is always important when you’re trying to get all of the information in! Just experiment and see what you like best and what works given your space constraints.
It’s a good idea to have your name in bold and slightly (not three times, but slightly) larger font than the rest of the information. You should list your full legal first and last name. If you have a common last name, you may want to include your middle name or initial as well.
You then list your address and phone number. Use your current address, unless you are hoping to relocate and have an address in that city as well (in which case you can list both addresses and label them as “current” and “local” or the like, or just list one). It is appropriate to list an email address as well, so long as you check it regularly and it is a professional-sounding address. Be sure the voice mail at the number you list is professional, and warn roommates to be professional when answering the phone and taking messages. Try not to list a cell phone, unless that is your only phone. It’s rude to take an employer phone call from the grocery store or in traffic when you’re distracted. It is probably not necessary or ideal to list a personal web site.
Example 1:
Peter A. Piper
1536 Hewitt Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55104, 651-523-2470, cso@gw.hamline.edu
Example 2:
Peter A. Piper
1536 Hewitt Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55104
651-523-2470
cso@gw.hamline.edu
You Do Not Need an Objective Line.
Typically, you don’t want to put an objective line or a Summary of Qualifications on a legal resume. It is not required, expected, or wanted. It will make you stick out (in a manner that says you don’t get the legal thing). Instead, include this “sum up” information in your cover letter.
Should You List Education or Experience First?:
Education is typically listed first for students and new graduates seeking JD-required employment. It’s most effective to list experiences first when you have “Esq.” (standing for “Esquire,” which denotes “licensed attorney”) after your name so they know you’re licensed and an attorney, or for jobs for which a license to practice law or enrollment in law school are not required. Many attorneys who have been practicing for several years will focus on their pertinent legal experience first.
Your education section should be formatted in reverse chronological order like this:
Hamline University School of Law, Saint Paul, MN
Juris Doctor expected May 2007
Rank/GPA: ...
Honors: ...
Activities: ...
Undergraduate Institution, City, State
Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, May 2004
GPA: …
Honors: …
Activities: …
Note that it’s better to list the date a degree was conferred or is expected than the span of time you were or have been at the institution.
Also, there is no need to mention your scheduling choice on your resume (whether you be weekday, weekend, morning section, all-day section, etc. – everyone is getting the same JD). If you feel you want to explain your availability, or your ability to multi-task, you may choose to casually work this into your cover letter. If you do mention your scheduling option in your cover letter and you are here on the weekends, do not say “weekend program” because an employer unfamiliar with the option may mistake a “program” as something different and lesser than being in law school. In that instance, refer to it as your schedule. For example, “I currently work full-time for Joe Schmoe Accounting Firm while attending law school on the weekends [or through Hamline University School of Law’s weekend scheduling option].”
Note that Latin words (cum laude, magna cum laude, etc.) should be italicized.
If you want to list study abroad experience on your resume, you may tab it in as an activity under the school from which you were generally receiving your degree at the time. If the program was through another university, you can clarify that in the bullet. For example:
Hamline University School of Law, Saint Paul, MN
Juris Doctor expected May 2007
Rank/GPA: ...
Honors: ...
Activities: Study Abroad, Paris, France (through ABC Univ.), Summer 2005
If you started school at one institution and transferred to another, you should list both, but list “attended [year – year]” at any institution from which you did not receive a degree in place of listing a degree conferred. For example:
Hamline University School of Law, Saint Paul, MN
Juris Doctor expected May 2007
Rank/GPA: ...
Honors: ...
Activities: ...
Undergraduate Institution II, City, State
Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, May 2004
GPA: …
Honors: …
Activities: …
Undergraduate Institution I, City, State
Attended, September 2000-May 2001
Skip High School
Do not list high school. Employers look at this with surprise and think that you haven’t let go of your high school days yet. Stick with what they want to see and what is most timely and pertinent. If you want to mention some sort of connection to a region, it is often more effective to work that information into your cover letter.
Where Do You Put Your Bar Admissions or Certifications?
There is no right or wrong place. Once you’ve passed the bar, you could make a heading called “Admissions” or “Certifications” or “Licenses” and list them there (for example: Licensed to practice in the State of Minnesota, current). This section could go at the top of the resume, the bottom, or under the Education section. They probably do not belong within the Hamline entry, however, unless the certifications were awarded by Hamline.
To List GPA and Rank or Not...
Whether to list your GPA and Class Rank are up to you. You do not need to list your LSAT score. If an employer has a job description that is posted in terms of rank or GPA, you probably should include them. Employers often tell us if you don’t include this information, they assume the worst, which may be worse than reality. Other employers don’t care so much. Some say a rule of thumb is to include your rank if you’re in the top 30% of the class, others say top 50%. Beyond that, it’s a judgment call depending upon the circumstance.
To compute your percentage rank, divide your place in the class by the number of students in the class. (Use the numbers from the Registrar’s Office or on your transcript; do not guess, and note the class size will likely change from semester to semester.) For example, if you are 101/200, you are in the top 50.5% of your class. If you decide to list rank, it is most helpful if you do so in terms of percentage (although if you happen to be at the very top of the class you may find it equally effective to list both the number and the percentage rank, or just the number if your percentage would be less than 1%). That way, employers don’t have to do the math themselves. It is appropriate to include the rank rounded out to the tenth, as above, or you can round up (or to your disadvantage) to “top 51%” if you choose to not use a decimal point. Never round down (or to your advantage).
List your GPA out of 4.00 (ex: 3.50/4.00) to eliminate confusion as not all schools have always used a 4.00 scale. Never round your GPA up, or to your advantage (a 3.49 is not a 3.5), and do not calculate it yourself. If the Registrar has not issued a document listing your GPA or rank, you do not have one and cannot list one. At that point, use the last available GPA, or if you’re a 1L, say “GPA/Rank not yet available.” It is okay to go out 2 decimal points or to just round down. Also keep in mind that you should market yourself in whatever manner is possible and most flattering. Some people will list year-by-year GPAs and then cumulative GPA to show improvement. Some choose to list grades in relevant course work (just be sure you understand what is relevant for any given employer). Sometimes you might choose to just list GPA because you think the GPA sounds better than the rank. That may be a good idea, just know that rank is more helpful to show how you do compared to the rest of your class because every school grades differently. See us if you’re wondering how to proceed. (In any event, be prepared to talk about your class standing if asked about it at the interview stage.)
Give the Honors and Activities Context and Only List if You Have Something to Say
Only include honors or activities you pursued for their full worth. For example, if you were chosen to participate in moot court but didn’t follow through, you didn’t learn the advocacy skills you gain through moot court. Therefore, this experience didn’t really happen and the honor isn’t necessarily as meaningful to a prospective employer. Likewise, only include activities you are actually involved in and can talk about for a minute or two. If you had the best of intentions of joining an organization last year but didn’t quite get around to attending meetings, or if the organization never took off, then don’t list it. When you’re asked what the organization has done lately and you have to admit you don’t know, it casts doubt upon everything on the resume. The only exception would be if you have been granted an honor or joined an activity but have not yet had the opportunity to participate. For example, if you have been selected for Law Review or Journal or Moot Court or Mock Trial, you could say something like, “Civil Rights Moot Court, will compete winter 2006.”
Some people like to make personal rules, such as, “If you have three honors, list three activities.” That looks nice, so if you have three of each, no more, no less, it’ll be pretty. Don’t exaggerate or chop out too much just to meet this arbitrary rule, however, at the risk of losing something of substance or detracting from important information by listing extraneous information.
Some people like to make a separate Honors and Activities section on the resume (vs. having them subsections in the Education section). You can do that, but many employers tell us they tend to prefer for the honors and activities to be listed under the appropriate institution to give them context.
Some people wonder whether an entry is an “activity” or an “honor.” There are no hard-and-fast rules, but one way to look at it would be if you were selected for, or one of a limited number invited to participate, you might look at it as an honor. If anyone could join or participate, it might be an activity.
Experiment with whether you prefer to list your honors and activities in paragraph form (one after another across the page) or in stacked-list form. The benefit of the stacked-list format is that they stand out more than when they’re all lumped together. The downside is that it can make the resume too long in a hurry if you take up too many spaces with this information.
Play with the order in which you present information
List your honors from most to least unique to you. A CALI award is only given to one person per class, whereas many people make the Dean’s List. You should also be sure to put “required” or “preferred” (according to the posting) activities or honors toward to top to increase the likelihood that they’ll be seen as the resume is being skimmed. Be sure to explain what awards are if it’s not evident (for example, explain what a CALI Award is in parentheses).
Combine redundant or related information
For the sake of saving space (remember, less is more and most people aren’t going to read every word), you should combine entries when relevant. For example, if you were in swing choir, small group choir, and the university choir in undergrad, you might list “various choirs” rather than each name. Eliminate anything irrelevant.
Let Go at Some Point
The number of honors and activities you include as a first-year law student as opposed to a fifth-year attorney will be different. As you have used the honors and activities to make the leap from undergraduate school or law school, and then from law school to a legal career, some may have served their purpose and may no longer be the most impressive asset you bring to your search. Law School honors will likely always be relevant. Activities may or may not be after law school, depending on whether you held a leadership role, etc. Undergraduate activities and honors are most helpful in your first year of law school before you have law school grades or activities upon which you can focus. Over time, however, they may become stale. At that point, leave on particularly noteworthy honors or activities but shift the focus to other aspects of your resume.
Publications
If you have been published, you should include a separate section between Education and Experience, or just after the Experience section, to list your work. List the work in Blue Book format. If you have numerous publications, however, it may be better to attach a publications addendum to the resume.
Employment or "Experiences"?
Functional or Reverse Chronological?
There are two basic ways to structure the experience portion of a resume, in reverse chronological order or in a “functional” manner. The most common and most expected way to organize each section is in reverse chronological, so that is what we generally recommend (particularly for students). For example:
EXPERIENCE
Company Most Recent, City, State
Job Title (dates of employment)
Job Description…Researched….Negotiated…., etc.
Previous Company, City, State
Job Title (dates of employment)
Job Description…….
If you have a great deal of experience that might fall into a few identifiable and relevant (to the job for which you’re applying) categories, however, you might choose to use a functional format, meaning you would organize this section not by job but by skills. In that case, you would list the skill (for example, “research” or “negotiating”) and then under that describe your experience and then have a brief list of the applicable employers. For example,
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
· List something you researched here
· List another research project here
· List research you did elsewhere here
· And another, etc.
Employer 1 where you did something listed above, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Employer 2 where you did something listed above, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Employer 3 where you did something listed above, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Etc.
NEGOTIATING EXPERIENCE
· List something your negotiated here
· List another negotiation project here
· List negotiation you did elsewhere here
· And another, etc.
Employer 1 where you did something listed above, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Employer 2 where you did something listed above, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Employer 3 where you did something listed above, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Employer 4 where you did something listed above, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Etc.
Or, if you didn’t have several jobs, you might choose to just put the jobs at the end like this:
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
· List something you researched here
· List another research project here
· List research you did elsewhere here
· And another, etc.
NEGOTIATING EXPERIENCE
· List something your negotiated here
· List another negotiation project here
· List negotiation you did elsewhere here
· And another, etc.
Etc. (Until You’ve Exhausted Categories)….
Employer 1 where you did something listed above, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Employer 2 where you did something listed above, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Employer 3 where you did something listed above, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Employer 4 where you did something listed above, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
The downside to the functional approach, and why many employers tell us it’s not their preference, is that it doesn’t tend to give the reader a sense of the comprehensive nature of your previous jobs. They’re not sure how much of your job entailed this, and how much might have been made up of ten other things you didn’t list. That can make the description seem incomplete, or even almost misleading if what you’ve plucked out what not the essence of your day-to-day duties.
Therefore, a hybrid approach is probably most appealing; highlight certain aspects of your experience by tailoring and breaking down your Experience section headings (such as “Law Firm Experience” or “Research Experience” or “Other Professional Experience” or “Insurance Experience”), and then list the jobs that fit under each heading in reverse chronological order. That way, you’re still sticking with the preferred reverse-chronological format, but you’re presenting it in groupings, which help the prospective employer see your experience in transferable terms. This is very helpful when your past experience was not in a legally-related setting. For example:
LEGALLY-RELATED & RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Law Firm, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Complete Job Description…..
Hamline Clinic, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment – further back than job above)
Complete Job Description…
Research Project Job from Past Life Employer Name, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment – further back than job above)
Complete Job Description…
CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE
Name of Employer Where You Did This, City, State
Job Title, (dates of employment)
Complete Job Description…
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Name of Employer at Which You Held a Professional-Level Job, City, ST
Job Title (dates of employment)
Complete Job Description…
Etc.
(Depending on your past experience and depending on each job for which you are applying, this approach may or may not make sense for you [see family law example in Do Your Research section above]. If it does not work for you, for example if all of your jobs would fit under each heading because your past experiences were so similar, there is nothing wrong with sticking to a straight reverse-chronological format. If you have questions, just let us know and we’re happy to offer suggestions and feedback!)
How much detail?
Typically, you do not need to list the number of hours you worked or how much money you made. You do not need phone numbers or the names of supervisors on your resume. Simply list the name of the employer, your title, the city and state, dates of employment, and the description. One exception would be the federal government, which often specifically requests this other information.
How many jobs to include, and which?
As for how many jobs to include, remember the more you list, the more the reader has to review and the more you potentially dilute unique qualifications. Therefore, when in doubt, less is often more.
Then again, don’t short-change yourself when you’re not sure where to draw the line; come see us if you have questions! Most likely every job you’ve ever held involved transferable skills that you will bring to the job for which you’re applying. Over time, if you have gained legal experience and are applying for a legal job, you’re probably best highlighting the legal jobs first and then, depending on circumstances, possibly leaving off less pertinent jobs. To determine what’s “pertinent,” see the job posting and/or required skills listed at the end of this handout.
That being said, if you don’t have “legal experience,” by all means list what you’ve got and focus your descriptions on highlighting transferable skills. (Know that government employers, especially, like “real work” or “manual labor” experience because it helps weed out the workers from the prima donnas. That Lifeguard or Bartender or Ditch Digger job will show them that you’re willing to work hard and may not have attitude problems.)
What if you’ve got a long employment history? You generally don’t want to have large gaps in a resume. Then again, you don’t want to look like someone who flits from job to job. “Flitting” isn’t so much of a concern for students just out of undergraduate school or for jobs worked during law school. If you’ve had fifteen jobs in the past fifteen years before coming to law school or after law school, however, you may want to pare that down or find a way to break up and categorize jobs. You can do so as set forth in the hybrid approach above, which helps the potential employer make sense of a long history and to see how it’s resulted in transferable groups of skills. Remember, your primary goal is to make it as readily apparent as possible to the reader that each prior experience has provided you with transferable skills relevant to the job you are hoping to now obtain. You’ll want to find a way to showcase them in order from most to least relevant by using subcategories whenever possible.
Your Job Descriptions
List a job description using action words and focusing on transferable skills. Make your grammar teacher blanch by not using full sentences. You do not need to use introductory comments, such as “Duties Include.” Instead, jump right in with verb-based descriptions. (Lists of action verbs and needed skills are at the end of this section.)
Each description should be as succinct, yet descriptive and on-target, as possible. Use terms of art. For example, “Drafted legal memoranda,” versus, “Wrote memos” sounds more impressive. (Note the word memorandums, while technically a word, is not proper usage in the legal world. The more accepted plural form of memorandum is memoranda.) You’ll know what is pertinent for any given job based on the job description. If you’re not sure, see the skills lawyers use at the end of this section, and see if you can describe any past experiences in those terms. Tailor your resume so you’re playing up what each employer would like to see. (For example, if your experience is in business but you’re applying for a public service job, don’t focus on the fact that you worked on specific corporate issues, focus on your transferable analytical skills gained in doing so.)
One test we use is the “so what” test. If you were a teacher applying for a teaching job, you might simply describe your job as “Taught 8th-grade social studies.” If you kept that on your resume for a legal employer, they might say, “So what? We don’t teach social studies here, so why should I care?” You’d most likely be a little offended that they didn’t realize all the skills you used on that teaching job that were transferable – public speaking, breaking down complex information to an age-appropriate level, conferring with parents, developing lesson plans, budgeting time, working as part of a team, etc. The key is, you need to anticipate the “so what” and answer that implied question in your description to begin with! Spell those transferable skills out in the description!
Another example might be a nurse. Instead of detailing the various procedures you’re certified to perform, use the “so what” test to see if you’re detailing the transferable skills gained (attention to detail, working in emotionally-charged situations, working in a timely and efficient manner, conveying information in language clients are able to understand, etc.) and not focusing on things the employer doesn’t do (placing IV’s, administering meds, etc.).
When looking at the words at the end of this section, remember that not all will be pertinent to a student. It is illegal to practice law without a license. Therefore, you cannot “advise clients” or “represent” someone, etc. (unless you are licensed or licensed under a student practice rule). You can “describe” or “inform,” etc. Be careful!
Quantify your experiences, if applicable and advantageous. For example, “Oversaw $100 million budget is more impressive than, “Oversaw budget.”
Do not evaluate your own work in your description (for example, don’t say you “effectively” did something or that you were “excellent” at something else). While that is more common in business resumes, legal employers tell us they like to evaluate for themselves; just stick to the facts or let your responsibilities, promotions, and accomplishments speak for themselves.
If your job was extremely self-explanatory, such as “Lifeguard,” or “Bartender,” or “Server,” you don’t even need a description, unless it’s the only job on the resume and you’re looking to take up space. If you were afforded more responsibility than may be readily apparent, however, explain. For example, if you were the Head Lifeguard, meaning you supervised, disciplined, mentored, trained, and coordinated schedules for twelve lifeguards, you would want to spell that out as those transferable skills would not have been assumed by the reading “Lifeguard.”
Make sure you have former jobs described in past tense and present jobs in present tense.
For your jobs and education, put the most important information on the left, and the least important on the right. Dates are good to have on the resume, but put them to the right of other information (not flush right, just at the end of the entry) because they’re not what you want to stick in the reader’s mind after skimming the resume. They’ll remember what’s on the left.
For example:
Hamline University School of Law, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Director of Career Services (December 2000-present)
Rather than
December 2000-present, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Director of Career Services, Hamline University School of Law
Whether you put your employer’s name in bold or your job title in bold is up to you, you just have to be consistent throughout your resume. Take an inventory and see which most often sounds more impressive, the title or the employer, and use bold accordingly. (For example, if you have Law Clerk, Law Clerk, Law Clerk in bold, that’s not very informative or particularly impressive.) The purpose of using bold is to set off each new entry, thereby making the resume easier to read/skim.
As with your Honors and Activities sections, it is largely a matter of personal preference whether you list your job description in paragraph form or in bulleted form. If we have ever heard a preference, however, it has been for paragraph form, with the explanation that the corporate world deals with bullets but the legal world is about conveying information through the artful turn of a phrase. The bulleted form takes up more space, but it can also make tasks stand out. If you go to bullets, try to keep it to 3-5 bullets at the most, or your resume will get too long. (The same is actually true in paragraph form; readers skim resumes they don’t read them, so less is more!)
Military Experience
Some employers (typically the government) will give preference to veterans. If you have military experience and haven’t listed it in your other general “Experience” section, you may consider including a separate section if you are applying with the government.
Volunteer Work - Should You Include It and Where Does It Go?
Again, consider your audience. Non-profits and public-interest organizations particularly love volunteer experience because they rely upon volunteers and people interested in the cause, whatever that may be for any given organization. The for-profit world also likes volunteers because they are socially-conscious people but also because it’s a networking connection. Extroverts are generally considered to be good rainmakers.
Only include those that you can discuss for at least a few minutes, which are meaningful to you, and which are most current. If you did one thing ten years ago and nothing else, unless the experience was extremely pertinent to the job for which you are applying, you’re probably going to be looked at skeptically for trying to hold yourself out as a “volunteer” when you’re not at all active in the organization and haven’t been for some time.
You can either have a separate “Volunteer Experience” section, or for more substantive experience akin to a job, you can put this in the main body of the resume with other employment experiences, as mentioned above.
Should You List Computer Skills?
Unless the job for which you’re applying specifically requires you to understand/be familiar with certain applications, you generally do not need to list computer skills. This is particularly true if your skills are basic word-processing software and legal research knowledge. Employers expect you to have this knowledge. That being said, some small firms/solo practitioners or judges may find your computer skills very important, as you may have to pitch in on the clerical end of things even more in a small office. In that instance, the cover letter would be a good place to make mention of your clerical skills.
If you have language skills that may be of interest to a potential employer, definitely list them! Just be sure to be very, very accurate in describing your level of proficiency. Include whether you are “fluent,” “conversational,” have “basic knowledge,” etc. If your written and spoken abilities are at different levels, indicate that. If you used your language skills in a job setting, spell that out either in the job description, here, or in the cover letter if particularly relevant. If you list these, be prepared to be asked about them (or to have to speak or write in the language at the interview)!
Hobbies & Interests
Hobbies and interests are completely optional. If this section is the only thing that puts you on to two pages, or if you’d have to exclude any other information to include it, leave it off. The benefit of including them is they may help you break the ice in an interview if they are unique or interesting. If they’re nondescript, they have a neutral effect (if not the effect of making you seem boring). Therefore, if you have something unique (but not strange), feel free to list it. If you can only say you like reading and travel (without being more specific), then it’s probably best left off because most all of us do that.
Do know they can hurt you. Some employers are very conscious to ask the exact same questions of each interviewee (government employers, for example) and may feel uncomfortable treading into more “personal” areas. An employer may feel a distance from you if he or she can’t stand your hobby. Be aware that some employers may read (way too much) into your interests (ex.: He likes to read and swim - these are solitary activities - he must not be good at teamwork and wouldn’t fit in here).
While interests and hobbies can serve as an icebreaker, don’t overlook the fact that every entry on your resume should also be marketing you. As you consider your hobbies and interests, think about whether or how they allow you to highlight strengths, leadership experience, passion, and/or significant achievements.
Regardless of whether you list hobbies and interests on your resume, know that most employers want you to have a life and hobbies and will want you to discuss them. Many believe the more well-rounded you are, the less likely you are to burn out. They are also interested because they have to work in close proximity to you for long periods of time. Therefore, if you’ve taken inventory and decided you don’t know what to say that’s okay for the resume stage, but spend a little more time considering this before going into an interview!
Do References Go On the Resume?
No, and you don’t have to say “References available upon request.” They pretty much assume you’ll give them whatever they request.
Hot Topics – Religion, Abortion, Etc.
Consider whether you want to include information identifying particular political or religious affiliations. If you work for a political party or a place of worship, it’s absolutely fine to list which party or which religion if it is important to you that the employer knows about you from the get-go. Just be aware that we all tend to have our own personal stances and biases, for better or worse. An employer may respect you if you’re political party “A” and the employer is “B,” but it may place a little psychological distance between you in the employer’s mind nonetheless, and it often will not be relevant to the job.
Furthermore, if your resume is plastered with a political or religious theme (if it pervades your honors, activities, jobs, and volunteer opportunities), an employer may suspect that either you might not want to work for him or her or “get it” if the doesn’t necessarily deal with such issues, or that you have an agenda that is not appropriate or welcome in the workplace but that you may not be able to separate from your work (will you be running campaigns from the office?).
If you simply don’t care if they agree with you, more power to you! You’ll be more efficient in weeding out employers that you really wouldn’t want to work for if they cared about this and it was important to you that they were on your page. But...if you aren’t tied to the party so much as the process and experience gained, you might be well-served to say that you volunteered for a political campaign, without listing the person or party, or say you were President of a Campus Political Organization without mentioning denomination.
The same is true of “hot-topic” issues, such as abortion or the like. If you’re more interested that people hire you for your legal experience and potential, you may want to leave hot topics off the resume and let the employer focus on other things. If they are relevant to the job or if you really want them to know and take-or-leave your stance on any issue, however, by all means include them.
The bottom line is you should do what feels right, just make an informed decision!
Things That Never Belong on the Resume
You don’t ever list your race, religion, sex, age, marital status, children, weight, or other personal data that does not relate to the job on a resume.
Other Proofing & Formatting Considerations
Abbreviations
Be uniform. If you spell out Saint Paul once, always spell it out. Make it either JD and BA or Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Arts. If you abbreviate dates, always abbreviate them. If you abbreviate MN, always abbreviate, etc.
Accuracy
Make sure you have the name of the school or employer correct. The name of this institution is Hamline University School of Law, not Hamline Law School. The degree is a Juris Doctor, not a Jurist Doctor or Juris Doctorate. You can say “Candidate for” and then the expected date of graduation, or we actually prefer, “JD Expected” or “Juris Doctor Expected” and then the expected month and year of graduation. Make sure your dates are correct and that you’ve got everything listed in reverse chronological order. Make sure your phone number and address are typed correctly.
Play with the tabs and margins
You should play with the tabs and margins to see what you like best. The goal is for someone to look at your resume for about 10-30 seconds and to absorb what’s important. Therefore, you should use headings, bold for entries, tabs in underneath entries to give them context and to make them easier to scan.
Proof, proof, proof
After you’ve created your resume, go back and proof, proof, and proof again. Beyond proofing for typos (don’t forget to check your contact information), look for consistency with the way you list your degrees, whether you abbreviate things or not, how you list dates, whether you have job descriptions in the proper tense, whether job descriptions are verb-based, whether there is any extraneous information or information that can be combined, etc.
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Words often misspelled or misused
Wrong Correct
Jurist Doctor Juris Doctor or J.D.
Juris Doctorate “” “”
Memorandums (plural) Memoranda
Memos (plural) Memoranda
Criterion (plural) Criteria
Judgement Judgment
Words often incorrectly overlooked or changed by spell-check programs
affect/effect
then/than
apprise/appraise
advise/advice
capital/capitol
principal/principle
my/by
is/it
complement/compliment
council/counsel
oriented/ (not)orientated
trial/trail
there/their/they’re
hear/here
public/pubic
you/your/you’re
of/or
way/was
ACTION WORDS:
Accelerate
Achieve
Acquire
Actively
Adapt
Administer
Advocate
Analyze
Approve
Arrange
Assemble
Attain
Bill
Build
Carry out
Channel
Collect
Communicate
Compile
Complete
Conceive
Conduct
Contract
Control
Coordinate
Counsel
Create
Delegate
Demonstrate
Design
Determine
Develop
Direct
Document
Draft
Edit
Effect
Eliminate
Enjoy
Establish
Evaluate
Excel
Expand
Expedite
Explore
Finance
Found
Gather
Generate
Handle
Implement
Improve
Increase
Influence
Initiate
Inspect
Interview
Introduce
Launch
Lead
Lecture
Look
Maintain
Manage
Market
Monitor
Motivate
Negotiate
Operate
Organize
Originate
Oversee
Participate
Perform
Persuade
Pinpoint
Plan
Prepare
Present
Produce
Proficient
Program
Propose
Prove
Provide
Publish
Recommend
Reduce
Refer
Reinforce
Reorganize
Report
Represent
Research
Responsibility
Responsible
Resulted in
Revamp
Reveal
Review
Revise
Save
Schedule
Screen
Select
Set up
Significantly
Solve
Strategize
Streamline
Strengthen
Successfully
Suggest
Supervise
Support
Teach
Transform
active determined independent realistic
adaptable diplomatic logical reliable
aggressive disciplined loyal resourceful
alert discrete mature respective
ambitious economical methodical self-reliant
analytical effective objective sense of humor
assertive efficient organized sensitive
attentive energetic optimistic sincere
broad-minded enterprising perceptive sophisticated
capable easygoing patient successful
conscientious enthusiastic personable systematic
consistent extroverted pleasant tactful
constructive fair positive talented
creative forceful practical
dependable imaginative productive
SKILLS OFTEN USED BY LAWYERS/TRANSFERABLE SKILLS SOUGHT:
Ability to build networks, networking
Ability to get along with colleagues, be a team player, good political judgment
Ability to inspire confidence
Advocating
Analytical abilities
Assembling/structuring deals
Business Planning
Commitment, drive, willing to put in long hours
Developing business/marketing
Financial Management/Analysis
Formulating a Strategy
Good judgment, common sense
Interviewing, counseling
Leadership
Management, managing complex tasks
Managing staff, people
Mediating
Negotiating
Oral Advocacy, public speaking
Productivity, ability to work well under pressure
Quality control/ attention to detail
Relating to, communicating with clients
Researching, fact gathering
Solving problems creatively
Writing, drafting
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