Need Resume Advice for 1l Summer Jobs Forum

[the11111111]

Hey guys,

I am formatting my resume and I was wondering if anyone else has been told that the resume should not have any special formatting (i.e it should be bland, other than the info). Our career services guy is new and super type A (harvard grad, with a few years of experience so I'm not saying Im completely not listening to him). I was only making a minor font change here or there to set my resume apart but the career services guy was saying basically to follow some of the generic templates to a T....

[BlueDiamond]

Hey guys,

I am formatting my resume and I was wondering if anyone else has been told that the resume should not have any special formatting (i.e it should be bland, other than the info). Our career services guy is new and super type A (harvard grad, with a few years of experience so I'm not saying Im completely not listening to him). I was only making a minor font change here or there to set my resume apart but the career services guy was saying basically to follow some of the generic templates to a T....

i took the approach that if you follow the generic template that you look generic.. why would i want my resume to look just like the same piece of paper 100 of my classmates sent the same person.. applied to fed district court judge Dec 3rd.. got the internship Dec 9th

[Ludo!]

Look at sample legal resumes. They are supposed to look really boring. That said, a minor font change is probably ok. It doesn't have to be in Times New Roman, but it shouldn't be in something totally weird either.

[the11111111]

Yea it wasn't totally wierd but it was a different format than the sample generic one that out career center is trying to make everyone follow....

[BlueDiamond]

Yea it wasn't totally wierd but it was a different format than the sample generic one that out career center is trying to make everyone follow....

they cant MAKE you do anything.. use their template.. change where needed.. send on nice paper.. dont write on the envelope, type and print labels

you and the government pay the harvard guy

also harvard guy working career services = harvard guy who was bottom 5%

[kalvano]

I've had much better luck doing the opposite of whatever career services tells me to do.

[kaiser]

You are old enough to make judgment calls and use your discretion regarding what resume font you think is appropriate. If you don't have an eye for it at this point, you never will, and no counselor should be instructing you on the matter. So I wouldn't give two shits about what he says.

[the11111111]

Thanks guys

[Firms.ly]

There's definitely a balance between being too generic and being too different. Generic doesn't have the upside of standing out, but there's no real chance of turning a recruiter off to your resume solely based on its looks. A little different can catch the eye and make them pause half a second longer than the 5 seconds they usually spend skimming, but the downside is you may not appeal to the personal taste of a particular recruiter. I wouldn't stress over minor differences, though, and say go for it. Although it's probably better to leave off the glitter and cologne.

_________________

[TheFutureLawyer]

godamnit, I really hope there are still some jobs in DC. And I really hope that no one asks for my Fall grades, cause that shit is gonna be embarrassing.

[sundance95]

godamnit, I really hope there are still some jobs in DC. And I really hope that no one asks for my Fall grades, cause that shit is gonna be embarrassing.

Don't worry; there weren't any to begin with.

[quiver]

I ran into this same problem with my CSO. I decided to take all of their advice on the content of my resume (what to put on there, how to phrase things, etc.) but I used my own format. I figured that in the end, it had my name at the top so I better be happy with it.