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How many honors/achievements are too many on a resume?

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 3:48 pm
by Anonymous User
As a recent grad with 1 yr of law firm experience under my belt I have 9 items under honors/achievements and activities. Is this way too many? What are some things that should be on and not on? For example, I have a pro bono hour achievement listed. is this the kind of thing i should remove?

Re: How many honors/achievements are too many on a resume?

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 4:09 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:As a recent grad with 1 yr of law firm experience under my belt I have 9 items under honors/achievements and activities. Is this way too many? What are some things that should be on and not on? For example, I have a pro bono hour achievement listed. is this the kind of thing i should remove?
Are you prepping a resume in order to lateral? If so, there is a pretty specific format and it is quite different than a law school resume. You may want to look into that before sending it out. My resume highlighted my firm experience at the top in some detail, shortened and moved my educational experience to the bottom and did not include any honors/achievements section. To the degree that you have important work accomplishments, such as a demonstrated dedication to pro bono (although I would tailor this to be firm specific) or participation in other important/relevant professional activities, you should probably highlight it at the top with all of your other firm experience. Keep in mind, you have actual relevant stuff to boast about now (hopefully), unlike when you were a law student and had to fill space with interesting information about your love of windsurfing.

Re: How many honors/achievements are too many on a resume?

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 5:47 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:As a recent grad with 1 yr of law firm experience under my belt I have 9 items under honors/achievements and activities. Is this way too many? What are some things that should be on and not on? For example, I have a pro bono hour achievement listed. is this the kind of thing i should remove?
Are you prepping a resume in order to lateral? If so, there is a pretty specific format and it is quite different than a law school resume. You may want to look into that before sending it out. My resume highlighted my firm experience at the top in some detail, shortened and moved my educational experience to the bottom and did not include any honors/achievements section. To the degree that you have important work accomplishments, such as a demonstrated dedication to pro bono (although I would tailor this to be firm specific) or participation in other important/relevant professional activities, you should probably highlight it at the top with all of your other firm experience. Keep in mind, you have actual relevant stuff to boast about now (hopefully), unlike when you were a law student and had to fill space with interesting information about your love of windsurfing.
well i graduated may 2015 so i dont know if this will be a lateral or just 4L law student application. I have pretty good clinical experience in law school and as I mentioned, 1 year of heavy litigation. is this tiny experience enough to warrant moving my academic honors stuff at the bottom (scholarships, mootcourt, publications etc)?

Re: How many honors/achievements are too many on a resume?

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2016 12:43 am
by Anonymous User
OP here. Do people put "pro bono honors" and "bar association scholarship/fellowship" on their resume?

Re: How many honors/achievements are too many on a resume?

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2016 8:21 am
by kryptix
Anonymous User wrote:OP here. Do people put "pro bono honors" and "bar association scholarship/fellowship" on their resume?
Rule is 1 page for every 10 years of experience roughly so if you have white space at a reasonable size font you can put stuff like that but yeah... It's also a sign your trying to fill space.

Re: How many honors/achievements are too many on a resume?

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2016 4:28 pm
by Anonymous User
kryptix wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:OP here. Do people put "pro bono honors" and "bar association scholarship/fellowship" on their resume?
Rule is 1 page for every 10 years of experience roughly so if you have white space at a reasonable size font you can put stuff like that but yeah... It's also a sign your trying to fill space.
is this trolling or for reals? can someone please confirm?