Margins on Resume Forum

[Anonymous User]

Do these have to be 1 inch from left to right, and .6 from top to bottom?

I find it impossible to fit everything into 1 page.

Will being .78 left to right, and .36 top and .19 bottom be ok?

I have tons of white space, and everything in there is important. Let me know?

[Anonymous User]

Do these have to be 1 inch from left to right, and .6 from top to bottom?

I find it impossible to fit everything into 1 page.

Will being .78 left to right, and .36 top and .19 bottom be ok?

I have tons of white space, and everything in there is important. Let me know?

I have weird ass margins. My impression was to do what you can to get the thing on 1 page without making it look like a freak show.

[20160810]

I used to teach syntax and I like tigers because they fit my personality. Is this morally culpable?

[ragelion]

I used to teach syntax and I like tigers because they fit my personality. Is this morally culpable?

I'm not sure. Do you eat thick foods?

[AntipodeanPhil]

I have weird ass margins. My impression was to do what you can to get the thing on 1 page without making it look like a freak show.

Yeah, that paraphrases what career services said at my school fairly accurately -- "get the thing on 1 page without making it look like a freak show; don't use 2 pages unless you're really special." They used different words, though.

[TooOld4This]

I have seen resumes from attorneys who have been practicing for more than a decade and have had multiple jobs be able to use a single page resume without freakishly small margins. As a law student, if you can't fit your resume onto one page with .8 side and .6 top/bottom margins, you are doing it wrong.

[lolwat]

I have weird ass margins. My impression was to do what you can to get the thing on 1 page without making it look like a freak show.

Yep, this. Mine's at .75 all across. Re: 1-2 pages, I'm at a point where 2 pages seems fine to everyone that I've talked to, but I'm also 2 years out of law school. If you're in law school, you should be able to fit everything relevant onto one page, possibly going to two pages if you had enough WE prior to LS. Also, interestingly, the more you've been in practice, the less you really need on your resume. Stuff like honors and activities during LS become completely irrelevant which frees up space.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Yeah, I think the next time I apply for a job (hopefully not for a reallllllly long time), I'd probably get down to 1 page, after using 2 during LS. (Although I disagree a little about the LS honors stuff - activities, yeah, most can go, but in biglaw, LR and honors seem to show up on every attorney bio I've ever looked at!)

[lolwat]

Yeah, I think the next time I apply for a job (hopefully not for a reallllllly long time), I'd probably get down to 1 page, after using 2 during LS. (Although I disagree a little about the LS honors stuff - activities, yeah, most can go, but in biglaw, LR and honors seem to show up on every attorney bio I've ever looked at!)

Well, true, but you don't need many lines to basically state: School, J.D., year, LR, (major honor, e.g., Coif/summa cum laude/whatever). Definitely not as many as people in LS tend to put. I just saw a resume with like 15 lines of stuff under law school. Totally unnecessary even during LS, but moreso the further out you are in practice.

I think summer employment can probably go too unless it's actually significant? IDK.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Yeah, I think the next time I apply for a job (hopefully not for a reallllllly long time), I'd probably get down to 1 page, after using 2 during LS. (Although I disagree a little about the LS honors stuff - activities, yeah, most can go, but in biglaw, LR and honors seem to show up on every attorney bio I've ever looked at!)

Well, true, but you don't need many lines to basically state: School, J.D., year, LR, (major honor, e.g., Coif/summa cum laude/whatever). Definitely not as many as people in LS tend to put. I just saw a resume with like 15 lines of stuff under law school. Totally unnecessary even during LS, but moreso the further out you are in practice.

I think summer employment can probably go too unless it's actually significant? IDK.

No, that makes sense about the honors, I agree. And yeah, I would probably ditch all my LS externships now that I can put actual paid legal jobs on there. (Maybe one line saying something like "Externed at X, Y, and Z during law school"? But probably not even that.) I think 2L summer employment would depend - I probably wouldn't put mine on any more because it's a completely different practice area than what I'm now doing, but if it ended up being the same practice area (or I was trying to make a switch back to that) I might include it. Customizing dat resume.

[Benjamin1987]

I have seen resumes from attorneys who have been practicing for more than a decade and have had multiple jobs be able to use a single page resume without freakishly small margins. As a law student, if you can't fit your resume onto one page with .8 side and .6 top/bottom margins, you are doing it wrong.

+1

Everyone plays by the same rules. Be careful to avoid looking like a person who can't conform to standards of business etiquette. This is an important characteristic in an attorney. Hiring partners are not going to think your extracurricular activities are that cool. They certainly aren't going to impact the hiring decision. Grades + interviewing skills.

[Myself]

.

[A. Nony Mouse]

This is really not universally true. I'd say it's more like a presumption that can be rebutted.

[schweitziro]

If you can't fit it within one page, then you're just wrong.

I've had like 5 extern/ft/pt clerk gigs + transfer school shit. Its hard to fit everything on 1 page.

[Anonymous User]

Well this got off topic fast.

If I'm one page but just the standard word preset margins I'm good?

Career services recommended a much small page.

I have lots of white space but 5 jobs over the past 5 years that are all relevant in unique ways to big law.

[kalvano]

If you can't fit it within one page, then you're just wrong.

I've had like 5 extern/ft/pt clerk gigs + transfer school shit. Its hard to fit everything on 1 page.

No, it's not. I've had LS jobs, pre-LS jobs, externships, publication, and I'm all on one page with a couple lines to spare.

You're not doing it right.