Landing a job after graduation is always a daunting task. Experts offer tips on job hunting.
Treating the job search like a job itself means you remain professional when contacting and meeting with potential employers, and it means you turn in professional resumes, cover letters and other supporting materials — just as if you were turning in written work product on the job.
Many books have been written to address the struggles of job-hunting.
You’ve got “The Lawyer’s Guide to Finding Success in Any Job Market” and “Roadmap: The Law Student’s Guide to Meaningful Employment,” for example.
Richard L. Hermann wrote the former, which was published back in 2009. Hermann, who received his J.D. from Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York, is founder of the website Legal Career View.
Having credentials that stand out is particularly important in a highly competitive job market and is one of the best ways to differentiate yourself from competitors.
“The quickest way to realize credential enhancement is via online law and/or law-related certificate and comparable programs, of which there are now hundreds offered,” Hermann said. “They are much less expensive than LL.M. programs and, depending on which ones you select, provide more credentialing bang for the buck and can be completed in far less time.”
Hermann also stresses the importance of maximizing and motivating your networking contacts.
That means providing each of your contacts with a roadmap that will help “energize and enthuse their efforts to help you achieve your job hunting goals,” he said.
Your roadmap should have four parts: specific positions that interest you; geographic preferences (if any); specific employers where the previous two situations are found; and reasons you are interested in such positions.
“Providing a networking contact with a roadmap is guaranteed to impress him or her with your foresight, thoughtfulness, strategic planning prowess, organizational skills and concern for the contact’s time constraints,” Hermann said.
Your resume still plays a key role. Hermann said students should put themselves in a prospective employer’s shoes when creating theirs.
“What would you like to learn, and where in the resume do you want to see the key information,” Hermann said. “The answers to both questions are simple. First, I want to know what you can do for my organization based on what you have learned and done to date, and secondly, I’m very busy, so get to the point quickly.”
Resumes should first present a person’s profile or statement of qualifications, he said, and they should summarize key information an employer needs to know.
“In other words, provide a ‘grabber’ so that the employer will read on,” he said.
Adding a single sheet addendum to your resume will also be helpful to potential employers, Hermann said. This is an opportunity to elaborate on one of your accomplishments that demonstrates how you tackle a problem.
“Don’t worry about exceeding any mythical one-page limit to the length of a resume,” Hermann said. “No employer cares if the information you provide adds to the ability to get to know more about you.”
Next in the job-hunting process is the interview. Hermann talks about how to win the interview in his book as well.
“The best way to do that is to be prepared to ask great questions once the ‘power equation’ switches from the interviewer(s) asking you questions to you being able to ask questions of the interviewer(s),” he said.
“The importance of asking great questions at a job interview cannot be overstated. The impression your questions leave on the interviewer(s) as you walk out the door are often the difference between imprinting yourself impressively (and a consequent job offer) and being forgotten and dismissed from consideration the minute the door closes behind you.”
There is one caveat though. Hermann said asking questions that you already know the answers to, or that you should already know because they were outlined in the job posting, will not win you any points.
Another resource for law students and job-hunting graduates is Neil Hamilton’s book “Roadmap: The Law Student’s Guide to Meaningful Employment,” published in 2015 and again in 2019.
“I wrote the Roadmap book to help each student, especially the student who is not in the top 10% of the class, take ownership over their own professional development toward their goals of bar passage and meaningful post-graduation employment,” said Hamilton, a professor of law and director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions at University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis.
The Roadmap book outlines the normal principles of networking.
“The student should be asking experienced lawyers in the student’s strongest areas of potential post-graduation employment what communication works best in this context,” Hamilton said. “I am certain that a student with a written networking plan who seeks feedback on the plan is signaling major differentiating skills from other students.”
Hamilton suggests reaching out to talk with experienced lawyers will show potential employers that you understand what it’s like to be a service professional.
“In a service profession, it is not about you; it is about the client and the employer and what you bring to help them,” Hamilton said.
For additional insight on what questions to ask in an interview and five easy ways to use LinkedIn for your job search, check out the Spring 2024 digital issue of The National Jurist.
