Ok to bring up hours? Forum

[lymenheimer]

an one-page resume.

an one-page resume

an one-page resume.

[reasonable_man]

I think about the only way you can discuss hours without sounding a bit like a douche is in response to a direct question on an interview asking about your hours.

Q: How are your hours generally ... what are your firm's requirements?
A: I've never had a problem with meeting hours. My firm expects a minimum of X and I routinely bill between Y and Z.

End of discussion on hours. Starting to bring up percentages, etc. to support your strong billing credentials will add nothing to the conversation. And if your hours are really that high - the number will speak for itself. And again, I'd only answer a question on the topic and I wouldn't actively seek out a way to work it into the conversation.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

OP: I'm going to do this douchey thing, give me confirmation that it's not douchey.

Everyone: It's douchey.

OP: fuck y'all I do what I want

[kalvano]

If someone put that on a resume / brought it up in an interview, they would immediately go to the bottom of the list.

[glitched]

Out of curiosity, how many hours is top 10% at your v15? Wondering if I should be working way less.

[Anonymous User]

No.

If someone asks you about your hours, go ahead and tell them how much you've billed. But under no circumstances should you suggest that you're "in the top 10% of your class" for hours—or anything else—at your law firm.

Why not? Especially if that's what I was explicitly told (not guessing here)? That happened because of a combination of luck (meeting supportive seniors) and hard work (the purpose of which was to break into a specific tough market all along for personal reasons). This seems to be a lot more helpful for firms evaluating me and humble compared to people who put Magna at HLS or 3.96 GPA at Columbia UG on their resumes.

So you want to brag about being lucky, and that you worked hard? Do you think other people vying for the job aren't also working hard? And how is it humble at all to be bragging about hours? Bragging is bragging, whether it's hours or honors.

Magna at HLS at least tells an interviewer that you did well in your coursework, and therefore do at least have a solid basis in the law you're about to go into, even if you have no practical experience. Hours don't tell them how hard you worked, or what you worked on, how good your work product was, how varied your work experience was, etc. It just tells them you billed that amount, which could mean you're a machine, but it could also mean you're extremely inefficient/got put on a lot of grunt projects that kept you busy but didn't teach you anything useful for another firm.

I'd echo others that I wouldn't hear "Oh I billed in the top 10% of my class" as a positive--it would just raise more questions. Like, is everyone else in the class just more efficient/does this guy not have a life outside of work, and do I want to work with a guy like that/why is he telling me this instead of using that line of his resume to actually describe the work he did/etc. To other people I know, it'll tell them you'll be willing to spend your life in an office doing their reject work until you burn out, so they may hire you, but you're still not coming in with the best of impressions.

[DELG]

Hey man I'm really sorry you didn't get a 3.96 at CLS or magna at HLS but you're going to have to just forgive yourself and let it go.