Resume Questions (1L): Forum

[Anonymous User]

As December 1st approaches, I keep looking over my resume and have some questions maybe someone has some insight to:

1. How strict is the 1-page limit per 10 years of experience rule? I've had 7+ internships just in undergrad alone that dealt directly with law, but it's so difficult to condense them all to 1 page. Same with organizations I did in undergrad, in where I had a leadership (substantial) role. How much of that should I be cutting out?

2. I've heard that one should highlight if you worked almost full-time and attended school full time (I did both while earning a double degree). How do I highlight that? Never included it before, and recently heard an attorney mention it.

3. Biggest question: The majority of my experience is in litigation firms and criminal courts. My resume is very litigation heavy. For that exact reason I know I want to do transactional. How do I convey that message? I can imagine that Big Law recruiters don't have time to read a cover letter too, so if they just see a resume, how do I let them know?

[CaptainLeela]

Welcome to TLS

[A. Nony Mouse]

I would think if your concern is that your resume is too long and too litigation heavy, cutting some of the litigation stuff is the way to go.

[Companion Cube]

Cut stuff and add it to a linked in that way if they really want to see everything they can

[RedGiant]

As December 1st approaches, I keep looking over my resume and have some questions maybe someone has some insight to:

1. How strict is the 1-page limit per 10 years of experience rule? I've had 7+ internships just in undergrad alone that dealt directly with law, but it's so difficult to condense them all to 1 page. Same with organizations I did in undergrad, in where I had a leadership (substantial) role. How much of that should I be cutting out?

2. I've heard that one should highlight if you worked almost full-time and attended school full time (I did both while earning a double degree). How do I highlight that? Never included it before, and recently heard an attorney mention it.

3. Biggest question: The majority of my experience is in litigation firms and criminal courts. My resume is very litigation heavy. For that exact reason I know I want to do transactional. How do I convey that message? I can imagine that Big Law recruiters don't have time to read a cover letter too, so if they just see a resume, how do I let them know?

I had nearly 15 years of work experience and another grad degree before law school, and my resume is one page. There's two things you could do--one is a functional resume that lists skills and condenses employers. This is a very rare form of resume, and, in my opinion, rare is not a good quality--recruiters don't want to see a weird resume. The second things is what the above posters recommended. You need to condense and cut. A resume is NOT a list of every single thing you've ever done at every job you've ever had. It's a tailored document which broadcasts your most marketable skills, in an edited fashion, to make you an attractive candidate for the job you want.

If your title was similar at some of the jobs (say, intern), then you could put a few of the employers in a row and then put a description of what you did, mixing the skills gained/tasks performed together for more than one employer, while still listing their names and the dates.

Highlighting that you worked in college is pretty easy to do from dates and from adding "Worked XX hours per week at internships while achieving X.XX GPA" or just mentioning it in your CL.

If you want to move from Lit to Transactional, then I would get rid of your most-litigation heavy skills (checking privilege logs) and instead talk about stuff that might marginally be related to transactional work. Also, it's fine to say that in the CL that you are "open" to transactional work and see where an interview goes. Your goal is just to get into the interview pool and you can hammer out specifics later. If you get offered a lit job you don't want, deal with that at the time, but don't take yourself fully out of the running by screaming, "I only want to do transactional" from the get-go. [This advice does not stand if, say, you have an all-lit resume and want to do lit--then it makes sense to say that in your CL.] GL.

[2807]

You convey the message through bolded headings.
You convey the facts underneath them,
Therefore, try this:

EDUCATION
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX

LEGAL LITIGATION EXPERIENCE
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX

OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX

AWARDS and ACHIEVEMENTS
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX

You get the idea. It is the headings that convey what you have.
An employer looking for "transactional experience" would see that you do not have it.
An employer looking for "litigation experience" will quickly see it and thank you for your clarity.
Use headings wisely and with an agenda.
Change them when needed for different jobs.

I had years of varying experiences, and using a timeline approach buried important and relevant experience.
By breaking it into categories of types of experience I could label my experience what I wanted it to be, and draft a succinct sentence or two under each job to highlight facets of the job/duty accordingly.


Hope that helps.

[wolfie_m.]

.

[RaceJudicata]

I've heard (and do) 1 page of education/experience, and 1 page for references. Pare down as necessary.

Also, make it easy to read. People are only going to spend 10 seconds reading it, and you would be surprised at how few of your peers will format their resume well.

Don't need references. If employer wants them, they will ask. 1 page means 1 page.

[BlueLotus]

This strict one page rule does not apply to International Human Rights positions, FYI. Also, some public interest employers (i.e. Legal Aid) like to see longstanding commitment to community service. But if you are interested in firms, absolutely keep it to one page.

Also there is no need to scramble to apply to stuff on December 1. Focus on grades. A high GPA is worth far more than a "cool" 1L summer internship, believe me. Take it easy until Christmas Break.

[wolfie_m.]

.

[iamgeorgebush]

one page. your internships are not as important as you think they are.

[kalvano]

3. Biggest question: The majority of my experience is in litigation firms and criminal courts. My resume is very litigation heavy. For that exact reason I know I want to do transactional. How do I convey that message? I can imagine that Big Law recruiters don't have time to read a cover letter too, so if they just see a resume, how do I let them know?

As a 1L, I'm not sure anyone is going to look at past internships and paint you into the litigation corner. No one really expects you to know what you want to do yet.

Also, 1-page. If I saw a more than one-page resume from a 1L, I'd trash it.

[Hand]

Is OP seriously asking whether 2 pages are permissible to list all these fine, fine internships they completed in undergrad?

[RaceJudicata]

http://cdn.theladders.net/static/pdf/Se ... Resume.pdf

President had a two page resume (which w/ some formatting is more like 1.5)... Regardless of what you think of him, the rest of us can get our resumes down to 1 page.