Numerous books have been written about resumes and many career professionals
will try to convince you that there are hard and fast rules about proper resume
drafting. What follows are my own thoughts and observations about resumes (in a
very distilled form) along with some good samples that I have seen (and
redacted).
A resume is a direct mail marketing piece (which may
or may not arrive by mail). It is only designed to help a candidate secure an
interview. The piece should be error free, accurate and tailored to the
particular position for which the candidate is applying.
It is my belief that many professionals in a job search spend too much time and
energy thinking about and perfecting their resume (I was one of those
professionals). Time spent getting the wording on the page absolutely "perfect"
could be better spent networking.
Your resume is a summary that should emphasize those skills and experiences that
are relevant to the job you want. It should not be a summary of everything that
you have ever done or even necessarily every law related activity you have ever
been involved with (unless omitting the information would distort your
background or leave large gaps of time that go unexplained or unless the
experience clearly demonstrates that you have closely related skills and
experience).
In many ways, it is similar to writing a brief. When drafting a brief, a good
lawyer will include only her best arguments, not every argument that she can
articulate. Similarly, a good advocate is very selective about which facts to
include in a brief while being sure not to distort the case. If you were
applying for an in-house position with a company that does a lot of acquisition
work, for example, it would be a good idea to include anything you have done
that relates to mergers and acquisitions; but your pro bono work with the
District Attorney's office is probably less relevant.
- make sure at least one other person proofreads
your resume
- have a few versions for the different kinds of
jobs that you are considering
- in addition to your general responsibilities,
try to list specific examples of your accomplishments. Include case names if
they might be recognized by the intended reader
- put the most important information first.
Typically, this means putting education below your work experience. It can
also mean putting dates in a less prominent place. For an example of this
see my training resume
- where possible, and if impressive, try to
quantify your accomplishments (e.g. "extensive corporate transactional
experience including significant involvement in over 50 mergers;" "drafted
and argued over 100 motions")
- don't obsess about whether your resume should be
one or two pages. Anyone who proclaims that resumes should never be more
than one page may be right with respect to some readers, but entirely wrong
with respect to others
- try to do something to make your resume stand
out of the pack, realizing that attorneys reading the resume will not react
well to something that is too unusual
- use language and formatting to emphasize what
you think is important and de-emphasize what is not really important (in my
training resume, I emphasize activities and accomplishments that lead the
reader to the conclusion that I know how to design training for lawyers. I
have not overly emphasized my experience as a mediator.) You may want to
consider attaching a selected list of transactions that you have worked on,
a description of their magnitude and something impressive about your role
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