Transcript
Employers want to hire people that have focus. A resume with a specific direction will definitely stand out. In this video, Harrison Barnes is evaluating a resume of an attorney who graduated in 2018. He notices a couple of things on his resume that could hurt his chances of getting a job at a law firm or any company.
- Overemphasis. This attorney graduated in 2018 then put there that he/she is already a certified and experienced mediator. Most older attorneys do the opposite.
- No need to put “Bar Admissions”; it is an obvious fact that you had been admitted to the bar.
- For dates like graduations, it is best to place only the year. The month is not necessary.
- Any information that detracts from the message on what you want to look like you are doing is never a good idea.
- People think that it is a benefit to have many different types of experience on the resume. However, the benefit is only for you but not the employer. The employer will not plan to hire you for the 2-week experience you listed on your resume.
Transcript:
Okay. This person graduated in 2018 and says they're a certified and experienced mediator. I don't know that a couple of years out of law school, you can be a really good mediator. I'm not saying that in a and in a negative way. I'm just saying that that that may not be trying to, have bravado and stuff when even Mo most older attorneys, by the way, even the ones that are the, that are 30, 40 years out, they always deemphasized there.
No, they're their achievements a lot of times. And but this stuff, by the way, the Bard missions and certifications you don't need to call a Bard mission, just, obviously, you're admitted to the bar, people, you should have that on there. You worked for four months at Axiom.
I suppose you can put that on there. I don't know that basically means that you were a contract attorney and couldn't get a job for some reason, but now you have this job with a mayor, which is awesome. I think th this is very good experience.
And even though this experience, after you graduated I have no problem with it. I think it's okay to put it on there and start with that. I did for five months
Again, I'm not sure you can, I don't know. And St it's associated with your law school. I don't know. I guess that's okay. Jackson corporate law office. So a lot of these things that you did while you were in law school are probably okay. Put on there, but I liked this experience right here.
I don't know what you want to do. If you want to work in another government office or something, but again, you want to put people off the scent, if you do, what you want to do is work is in a government office. Then you need to give people the idea that's really what you wanna do.
And and again, a lot of these descriptions and stuff aren't that necessary, and this actually is not a bad resume. I like this neat, the Bart missions and stuff should disco at the end. You don't need to put November, you can just put 2018 which is great. That means you passed the bar.
Not right away. It was perfect. I don't know what all this stuff is. But if you want to be a trial attorney, then that's probably good, but no, I don't have any idea what this is. It's attraction and everything. I also would just I would put I don't know if you want to put your minor in paralegal studies and management.
If you put your minor in parallel major in paralegal studies, it makes it look like you want to be a paralegal and would just go to, I just don't think that's a good idea. You want to look like an attorney? Cause you're an attorney. So anything that says something different is not a good idea. You're underselling yourself, just put natural science and then the date and you don't need to put what the degree is and then you can just stay you were pre-law or paralegal, or, if they ask, I don't know, but you have to be honest, but I wouldn't really get too far into it.
Anything that, national, transactional law, meat, finance, FINRA, securities dispute, resolution, triathlon, like this is a very strong resume for, doing policy, doing things inside of the company, but a lot of the stuff anything that tracks from the message of what you want to look like you're doing is never a good idea.
So you just need to be very careful with that. I like this as a, is a government resume. There's a lot of things I like about it. But then now here you're doing corporate. Then you're doing compliance and doing trademark, just, you can't have all this stuff going on. There are people having lots of different types of experience.
Then now you're doing collections. Having all this different types of experience people think it's a benefit. Like it's great that I got experienced doing this stuff. That's for you. It's not for the employers because the employers are not going to say, oh, we're going to hire this person for a trademark job because they did trademark for a job to go for two weeks and they don't care what it makes it look like, cause you're not focused.
And so people want to hire people that have focus and that's one of the biggest resume or, things you guys can learn and just, people firms, organizations, and other want more than anything.
Okay. You have to have a focus and so anything you do that detraction that is kinda hurt you. And and this just this, this resume is a good resume, but it's bouncing all over the place.
