How To Create Content For Your Law Student Resume
The typical work duties and responsibilities of law students are to provide assistance to the senior attorneys they are working for, whether it’s providing support on a significant case or transaction. Law students spend most of their time gathering and collecting information, as well as drafting basic documents to assist senior attorneys complete their tasks. Therefore, as a law student, to be able to secure a good legal internship in the competitive field of law, excellent research and legal writing skills are tantamount. That is why writing a good law student resume is crucial to your chances of landing a job. Not only does the law student resume have to include relevant content, but it will also be viewed as a writing sample, and therefore have to be written well. This article will highlight how to write a more effective law student resume. Below are few of the important items that you will need to include in your law student resume to create content to get you noticed:
Your Career Goals
Your law student resume should include your career goals. This should be a very brief statement that conveys to a potential employer your long term plans and objectives. Some of you may not be completely clear as to what those are, and that’s okay. However, you should be able to convey some sense of purpose as it relates to your chosen field: the practice of law. If are still at a loss, consider an area of law that you’ve enjoyed, and indicate an interest in getting a position in that area as an opportunity to broaden your knowledge of that specialty. Whatever approach you choose; try as best as you can to relay your career goals to the position you are applying to. Your career goal statement should not exceed 2-3 sentences. If you are so verbose and wordy as to extend beyond three sentences, chances are that your readers will end up bored and lose interest in reading your law student resume. The key to a good law student resume is to entice potential employers to read through the whole thing.
Your Track Record
Most employers reviewing law student resumes are not only looking at what a law student has already achieved, they are also looking at a law student’s potential. Your law student resume needs to convey that element by highlighting what type of person you are. For instance, you may be someone that enjoys facing new challenges. Perhaps you signed up for a tax class because of the mental challenge that it posed. You may be someone who likes to help others, which is why you volunteered your time at a local shelter, community center, or charitable legal organization. Your greatest strength may be your outstanding interpersonal skills. This is why you’ve been involved in alumni events, or volunteered at a bar association. Whatever your strength, make sure to discuss them, and highlight them in terms of your “track record.” In other words, describe how what you have done caters specifically to those strengths. This will give potential employers a good glimpse at your potential as a future attorney.
Your Educational Background
As a law student, your educational background is the single most important element of your resume. Rightly or not, this is the first thing that potential employers will want to look at and consider. Therefore, it should be at the very top of your law student resume. That said, is simply listing your educational background enough? Not necessarily. There may be certain things that you can add here that could make a difference. For instance, if you worked full-time while obtaining your law degree, mention it. This could have had some bearing as to the amount of time it took for you to graduate, the type of law school you attended, or even the grades you received. Were there special circumstances – i.e. such as a death in the family or a divorce – that prompted you to take a semester off, or that negatively affected your grades? If this is the case, you do not need to go into a long diatribe about those circumstances, but a few words relaying them should be included in your law student resume.
Your Experience
This is an area that may probably be a little thin when it comes to your law student resume. It is very vital to indicate in your law student resume ALL of the experiences you’ve acquired to date, as long as you can demonstrate how those allowed you to acquire certain skills that can be transferable to the legal arena. It is especially important to emphasize transferable skills when you are discussing prior non-legal positions. For instance, if you worked as a counselor or a teacher, chances are you can highlight your strong communication skills. In other words, you have the ability to present concepts, explain them, and work with a wide range of people, including administrators, parents and children. If you were involved in sales or fundraising activities, you can certainly highlight your marketing and people skills, attributes that are considered very beneficial in a law firm setting where generating business is of critical importance. Whatever your prior experience or background, being able to parlay that experience in a way that makes your skills relatable and transferable to a legal setting is what will set your law student resume apart from the competition.
Remember that your primary aim in writing your law student resume is to make it stand out. To be able to do that, you need to have content that is reflective of who you are and what you bring to the table. You should aim to paint yourself, your character, and your abilities onto your law student resume. This will make it easier for potential employers to get to know you, and ultimately want to hire you.
