Positioning of work experience in resume and essays Forum

[mdnyc]

Hi folks,

I'm applying to law school after working for three years in management consulting and in corporate strategy roles. I'm planning on making these experiences the main focus of my essay and my resume, rather than anything I did in undergrad, including classes and extracurriculars. The academic portions of my application will come from two strong recommendations from professors who wrote immediately after my graduation, in addition to a strong GPA and LSAT.

A few questions:

• Is it wise to place work experience front and center in my resume & essay, without talking very much about my college classes & activities?

• In general, what do admissions officers view as the value of work experience? And what do they view as the unique value of an academic experience that I will need to highlight regardless of what I've done in my career so far?

• What parts of my professional experience should I highlight? And what shouldn't I highlight? For example, I'm sure my Powerpoint, Excel and database skills aren't all that impressive to an AdCom, but client service and analytical thinking may be (backed up by concrete examples, of course).

Thanks!

[Dcc617]

Hi folks,

I'm applying to law school after working for three years in management consulting and in corporate strategy roles. I'm planning on making these experiences the main focus of my essay and my resume, rather than anything I did in undergrad, including classes and extracurriculars. The academic portions of my application will come from two strong recommendations from professors who wrote immediately after my graduation, in addition to a strong GPA and LSAT.

A few questions:

• Is it wise to place work experience front and center in my resume & essay, without talking very much about my college classes & activities?

• In general, what do admissions officers view as the value of work experience? And what do they view as the unique value of an academic experience that I will need to highlight regardless of what I've done in my career so far?

• What parts of my professional experience should I highlight? And what shouldn't I highlight? For example, I'm sure my Powerpoint, Excel and database skills aren't all that impressive to an AdCom, but client service and analytical thinking may be (backed up by concrete examples, of course).

Thanks!

This is my personal strategy, so take it for what it's worth considering that I haven't applied yet.

I led off with an academic section, listing GPA, major, and honors. If I had done a thesis or anything I would have put that there, but I was not that proactive In college. Then I listed all of my post-college work experience. Then I listed my big college extracurriculars, followed by quick summaries of work in college (I've had a lot of jobs). I rounded it out with some of the volunteer work I've done. It's right at two pages. I could cut it down but I'd prefer for the adcomms to see a little too much rather than not quite enough.

For my personal statement my intent was to flesh out my work experience in a more impressive way that the resume bullets could not. I also loosely tied it to wanting to attend law school (couple sentences at end, not the main focus).

As far as what schools like, I know that top law schools are increasingly filling their classes with people who have post college work experience. So I assume they like it.

My two cents. Good luck!