Blank Resume Forum

[CrunchyTone]

So I plan on applying this cycle and my resume is basically blank. I was lucky enough to have a big scholarship pay for my undergrad and I've never had a job, internship, or done any volunteer work.

I'm realizing how lazy I was the past 3 years in undergrad as I'm (attempting) to put together a resume with my applications. My numbers are good, for what it's worth (4.0 gpa, PTing around low 170s while waiting on July LSAT results), but I'm quite frankly embarrassed by my lack of anything to put on a resume.

What can I do over the next 2-3 months before sending applications in that is substantive enough simply to fill space on my resume?

[Platopus]

So I plan on applying this cycle and my resume is basically blank. I was lucky enough to have a big scholarship pay for my undergrad and I've never had a job, internship, or done any volunteer work.

I'm realizing how lazy I was the past 3 years in undergrad as I'm (attempting) to put together a resume with my applications. My numbers are good, for what it's worth (4.0 gpa, PTing around low 170s while waiting on July LSAT results), but I'm quite frankly embarrassed by my lack of anything to put on a resume.

What can I do over the next 2-3 months before sending applications in that is substantive enough simply to fill space on my resume?

Why the rush to law school? You literally have never had a job, internship or any volunteer work. How could you possibly be sure that you want to be a lawyer? Go get a real job after graduation, do that for 2-3 years, and then come back if you really want to be an attorney still. Going K-JD without literally any relevant experience is quite frankly dumb.

[Lawman1865]

So I plan on applying this cycle and my resume is basically blank. I was lucky enough to have a big scholarship pay for my undergrad and I've never had a job, internship, or done any volunteer work.

I'm realizing how lazy I was the past 3 years in undergrad as I'm (attempting) to put together a resume with my applications. My numbers are good, for what it's worth (4.0 gpa, PTing around low 170s while waiting on July LSAT results), but I'm quite frankly embarrassed by my lack of anything to put on a resume.

What can I do over the next 2-3 months before sending applications in that is substantive enough simply to fill space on my resume?

It is indeed not a terrible idea to put it off, even for just one year and maybe get some substantive work experience. If you've literally never held a volunteer, job, or internship over the last 3 years then it might really be helpful to get some of that before throwing yourself into yet another academic experience. From the vast majority of people I talk to who went straight into law school from undergrad, they almost all admit that they would have liked to have taken a year and either worked, traveled, volunteered, or some combination of the three. And those were people who had at least some experience working internships/volunteering, etc.

That being said, let's assume you've really thought it through and absolutely HAVE to go to law school right away. I would really go through your experience in the last three years and see whether it's actually true you've never done anything. Most resumes have a bit of fluff and you need to try and find some of that (obviously without overtly misrepresenting or lying). Maybe there was an "experiential" class you took that you can put down, or some minor work you did for a professor. If you taught some kids basketball/baseball, you can put that down as tutoring or teaching, etc. Try and really look to see if you can even put down 1 or 2 things, because there obviously needs to be something on that resume.

Another option (and I would suggest this regardless) is to set yourself up really quickly with either 1 or 2 internships/jobs/volunteer opportunities and count that towards this upcoming year. If you can get a volunteer position a couple hours a week and an internship or job you can probably get away with listing that prospectively on your resume. What would really be valuable is to look for a law firm or judge who's willing to have an undergrad around.
Good luck

[dvlthndr]

Everybody starts somewhere. You need a resume even if you want some meaningless internship. I used to recruit college seniors, and let me assure you that the vast majority of them have done nothing of interest. But you still need to go through the motions. Common fodder is:

• 1) Tutoring (paid or unpaid)
  2) Board positions at nonsense school clubs
  3) Volunteering (charitable/social/political/governmental organizations)
  4) Unpaid teaching/research assistants
  5) Notable school projects or papers
  6) School work/study positions
  7) Meaningless fluff sections about your interests, special skills, or coursework

Talk to your school's career advising or professional school advising office. They can help walk you thorough this.

That said, law schools want to make sure that you could sell yourself to an employer if you slapped "J.D. expected 202X" on top of the resume. A majority of students aren't going to be landing in the top 25% of the class after 1L. They want to see you can pique a firm's interest in some other way. That's part of the reason why many law schools will *force* you to use a certain resume format that includes an "interest" section for firm recruiting.

It's going to be hard to do something meaningful in the next 2-3 months. I would suggest taking a long-term view. Maybe try to land a gig volunteering for the local congressman for the next 8 weeks + part time over the next semester? It's the kind of thing that usually has a low barrier to entry and seems vaguely "legal." Worst case scenario you can stick with it for the next year and have something on the resume for the future (whether you are applying to jobs, doing another cycle of law school apps, or trying to find a random gig as a research assistant for your law school professors).

[Stratus_Counseling]

I agree with the above comments - great feedback for you there as well. In all likelihood, you have done SOMETHING that could be spun (without misleading) into a resume. You could likely fill up half a page with your contact information, summary of yourself/some bullets listing skills and your education (which should have information about relevant coursework, significant papers you have written, honors, scholarships, any clubs, intramural sports volunteer activities etc.). In terms of professional experience, have you never held a summer job, helped the family business (started a business idea) or invested for your own or your family's portfolio? If you truly have nothing to put here and you absolutely have to apply to law school this cycle, I would encourage you to apply now for something (multiple things) that is fairly respected in the legal world (internship or legal assistant at law firm of business, paralegal, volunteer/charity work) and continue to do as much as you can on the professional side of things as long as you are able to.

Having said this, I think you should strongly consider taking a year off to gain some professional experience. First, law schools are valuing that a lot more these days - more like the MBA side of things. Second, even if you get into a great law school with your LSAT/UGPA, you won't have an impressive resume when you are looking for legal jobs, which could be a giant issue. You are going to be in school with people who will have outstanding resumes (experience at top investment banks or companies, management consulting, founding tech businesses, politics). You will be shocked when you start law school, how much others have done while going to school full-time and a lot will have worked between college and law school. When a law firm (or whatever you are looking to do after law school) is looking to fill their summer class, they will want someone that has real exposure to the professional world. Unless you land in the top 10% of your law school class, which I wouldn't bank on, having a solid resume will be really important. Also, in the future if you transition from law firm to in-house or anything in business (which many people do), having prior experience working in business is greatly valued and now is your last chance to gain that experience before entering the legal world.

As other posters have said, now is not the time to rush things. You have laid a great academic foundation for law school, but there are a lot of other considerations to keep in mind. If you get the LSAT score you are expecting, you should take some time out of academia to build your resume risk-free.

[notinbiglaw]

Op, I felt the same way a long time ago in college. I had to fill the resume by blowing up research projects and being baseball team captain.... in little league.

Nobody really cared. People knew you gotta somewhere.

For your situation now, the resume for law school honestly doesn’t matter. But you should start looking locally to volunteer to help people do immigration/tax forms. It’s very easy work that is legal and can be spun as real experience navigating codes/refs. Draft a letter or two and now you got a story to spin into legal writing experience.