Resume....no work experiance Forum

[faexylona]

I am going to apply for law school in December after taking the LSAT (it all has to do with my current score). In the mean time, I will work on the other components of my application. The obstacle I have, and I would appreciate some advice is the following, my resume.

I have grades, honors/awards (scholar award & honor society), extracurricular (sorority, ethnic club, etc), community service, but I do not have work experience I do have Model United Nations, and my team was recognized, but that is it. What I am trying to say and I am ashamed is that I have not worked a day in my life, and I sacrifised an intership possibility for the LSAT.

I have done some research, and I have seen that work experience is a large part of the resume.
My question is what should I do to compensate?

I thank you in advance. You cannot imagine how troubled I am

[GettingReady2010]

While work experience is good (especially if it's substantial), I don't think it will have a big impact, if any, on your applications.

[Hannibal]

It'll be fine as long as you don't have your heart set on Northwestern.

[xqhp82]

i'm in a similar situation....although i can pull up a 2-week internship at WWF and a 2-week research assistant internship at a university. Do several short work experiences make me even more pathetic than no work experience at all?

[MiamiUG]

i'm in a similar situation....although i can pull up a 2-week internship at WWF and a 2-week research assistant internship at a university. Do several short work experiences make me even more pathetic than no work experience at all?

Maybe don't mention that they were both 2 weeks?

[OGR3]

i'm in a similar situation....although i can pull up a 2-week internship at WWF and a 2-week research assistant internship at a university. Do several short work experiences make me even more pathetic than no work experience at all?

Does two weeks even count as an internship? In high school I worked for a week at a landscaping company, not once did I use it in a resume.

[094320]

..

[Burger in a can]

i'm in a similar situation....although i can pull up a 2-week internship at WWF and a 2-week research assistant internship at a university. Do several short work experiences make me even more pathetic than no work experience at all?

You can format your resume to only show years instead of months and years. There is no rule saying that you have to disclose the exact dates you worked somewhere. I used this technique all the time when I didn't have any substantial work experience and nobody ever even blinked an eye. (of course if someone asked how long I worked somewhere I answered truthfully!)

[whymeohgodno]

It'll be fine as long as you don't have your heart set on Northwestern.

Why is this true? Just curious, is Northwestern especially keen on their applicants having WE?

And if so what other schools consider softs particularly more than most t14 schools?

[Burger in a can]

It'll be fine as long as you don't have your heart set on Northwestern.

Why is this true? Just curious, is Northwestern especially keen on their applicants having WE?

And if so what other schools consider softs particularly more than most t14 schools?

Northeastern has a reputation for liking candidates with WE, and supposedly disliking those without it. I can't answer the second part of your question because I don't understand it.

[Dany]

It'll be fine as long as you don't have your heart set on Northwestern.

Why is this true? Just curious, is Northwestern especially keen on their applicants having WE?

And if so what other schools consider softs particularly more than most t14 schools?

Northeastern has a reputation for liking candidates with WE, and supposedly disliking those without it. I can't answer the second part of your question because I don't understand it.

It's not really a "reputation" - it's a requirement with very, very few exceptions. Over 95% of last year's 1L class had a year or more of post-college work experience.

As to the resume question, make sure every responsibility, organization, and leadership position you've held is fleshed out. Since you haven't had any jobs, you want to make sure your resume makes you look as mature as possible, and not like you just coasted through undergrad with a few clubs here or there.

[whymeohgodno]

It'll be fine as long as you don't have your heart set on Northwestern.

Why is this true? Just curious, is Northwestern especially keen on their applicants having WE?

And if so what other schools consider softs particularly more than most t14 schools?

Northeastern has a reputation for liking candidates with WE, and supposedly disliking those without it. I can't answer the second part of your question because I don't understand it.

It's not really a "reputation" - it's a requirement with very, very few exceptions. Over 95% of last year's 1L class had a year or more of post-college work experience.

As to the resume question, make sure every responsibility, organization, and leadership position you've held is fleshed out. Since you haven't had any jobs, you want to make sure your resume makes you look as mature as possible, and not like you just coasted through undergrad with a few clubs here or there.

That's pretty much my resume - coasting through.

I just hope it doesn't hurt me dramatically.

[OrdinarilySkilled]

It'll be fine as long as you don't have your heart set on Northwestern.

Why is this true? Just curious, is Northwestern especially keen on their applicants having WE?

And if so what other schools consider softs particularly more than most t14 schools?

Northeastern has a reputation for liking candidates with WE, and supposedly disliking those without it. I can't answer the second part of your question because I don't understand it.

It's not really a "reputation" - it's a requirement with very, very few exceptions. Over 95% of last year's 1L class had a year or more of post-college work experience.

As to the resume question, make sure every responsibility, organization, and leadership position you've held is fleshed out. Since you haven't had any jobs, you want to make sure your resume makes you look as mature as possible, and not like you just coasted through undergrad with a few clubs here or there.

HUHHHH?!?!? This is 97% of people. I checked.

If you have no work experience, than don't put work experience on your resume. It'll look stupid if you try to make it look like minor things are important. Just put your education and emphasize your awards and achievements. Its not going to make or break your application. Now if you were trying to get a job...

[Bildungsroman]

I am going to apply for law school in December after taking the LSAT (it all has to do with my current score). In the mean time, I will work on the other components of my application. The obstacle I have, and I would appreciate some advice is the following, my resume.

I have grades, honors/awards (scholar award & honor society), extracurricular (sorority, ethnic club, etc), community service, but I do not have work experience I do have Model United Nations, and my team was recognized, but that is it. What I am trying to say and I am ashamed is that I have not worked a day in my life, and I sacrifised an intership possibility for the LSAT.

I have done some research, and I have seen that work experience is a large part of the resume.
My question is what should I do to compensate?

I thank you in advance. You cannot imagine how troubled I am

A lack of work experience might not affect law school admissions, but I'd sure hate to be interviewing for firm jobs having "not worked a day in my life". Be sure to think not only of the admissions process but also about the hurdles this lack of work experience will pose when interviewing for legal jobs.

[Dany]

It's not really a "reputation" - it's a requirement with very, very few exceptions. Over 95% of last year's 1L class had a year or more of post-college work experience.

As to the resume question, make sure every responsibility, organization, and leadership position you've held is fleshed out. Since you haven't had any jobs, you want to make sure your resume makes you look as mature as possible, and not like you just coasted through undergrad with a few clubs here or there.

HUHHHH?!?!? This is 97% of people. I checked.

If you have no work experience, than don't put work experience on your resume. It'll look stupid if you try to make it look like minor things are important. Just put your education and emphasize your awards and achievements. Its not going to make or break your application. Now if you were trying to get a job...

Maybe you misunderstood my post. I was talking to OP. You can't turn something into nothing or fabricate resume lines, but she has plenty of stuff to fill her resume with, so she needs to make sure her involvement is described in a professional/mature way so that it doesn't make the reader go "This person was in a few clubs; that's it?" Make sure the reader knows what you did (not just what you were a member of) and where your time was spent since you were not working. I certainly wasn't advising her to list clubs as work experience...

[MrKappus]

I'm watching people w/o WE on their resumes get continuously pwned in OCI, both at my school and at others. I cannot fathom why anyone would want to go to LS w/o taking at least 1 year off. You are handicapping yourself immensely if you don't. My $0.02.

[OrdinarilySkilled]

It's not really a "reputation" - it's a requirement with very, very few exceptions. Over 95% of last year's 1L class had a year or more of post-college work experience.

As to the resume question, make sure every responsibility, organization, and leadership position you've held is fleshed out. Since you haven't had any jobs, you want to make sure your resume makes you look as mature as possible, and not like you just coasted through undergrad with a few clubs here or there.

HUHHHH?!?!? This is 97% of people. I checked.

If you have no work experience, than don't put work experience on your resume. It'll look stupid if you try to make it look like minor things are important. Just put your education and emphasize your awards and achievements. Its not going to make or break your application. Now if you were trying to get a job...

Maybe you misunderstood my post. I was talking to OP. You can't turn something into nothing or fabricate resume lines, but she has plenty of stuff to fill her resume with, so she needs to make sure her involvement is described in a professional/mature way so that it doesn't make the reader go "This person was in a few clubs; that's it?" Make sure the reader knows what you did (not just what you were a member of) and where your time was spent since you were not working. I certainly wasn't advising her to list clubs as work experience...

I agree. The only thing i misunderstood was your implication of coasting through undergrad as immature.

[GettingReady2010]

It'll be fine as long as you don't have your heart set on Northwestern.

Why is this true? Just curious, is Northwestern especially keen on their applicants having WE?

And if so what other schools consider softs particularly more than most t14 schools?

Northeastern has a reputation for liking candidates with WE, and supposedly disliking those without it. I can't answer the second part of your question because I don't understand it.

It's not really a "reputation" - it's a requirement with very, very few exceptions. Over 95% of last year's 1L class had a year or more of post-college work experience.

As to the resume question, make sure every responsibility, organization, and leadership position you've held is fleshed out. Since you haven't had any jobs, you want to make sure your resume makes you look as mature as possible, and not like you just coasted through undergrad with a few clubs here or there.

Just for the record, Northeastern probably does not care about WE but Northwestern does.

[Burger in a can]

Just for the record, Northeastern probably does not care about WE but Northwestern does.

haha true!

[faexylona]

I'm watching people w/o WE on their resumes get continuously pwned in OCI, both at my school and at others. I cannot fathom why anyone would want to go to LS w/o taking at least 1 year off. You are handicapping yourself immensely if you don't. My $0.02.

I was just curious why some people recommend taking a year off from school. Anyways, I want to thank the people who commented on my post. I do have positions in my other activities, so I will make sure to make them shine.

[linquest]

Just for the record, Northeastern probably does not care about WE but Northwestern does.

Just for the record, Northeastern DOES care about WE, especially for people with borderline/median numbers and the PILS scholarships. It's just not as strongly emphasized as Northwestern.