Jobs

BY DAVID C. JAMES

You can make your résumé stand out from the rest of the pile

SAVVY JOB SEEKERS TAKE pains crafting their résumés. And they should. As a hiring lawyer, I've come across a lot of résumés. For this column, I'd like to offer some résumé-development pointers based on what I like, and don't like, to see.

Employers are not going to scour your résumé for information. When they get a stack from a law school, they screen each one in a matter of seconds. Therefore, it's important to design yours so that important information is prominent and easily found.

Obviously, your name, address, and phone number where you can be reached most easily should go at the top of the page. If you have a unisex or unfamiliar name, add "Mr." or "Ms." By doing so, you'll be clearer and more considerate of employers who want to know the proper form of address to use when responding to you.

Be sure to include your e-mail address. Employers probably won't use it in their initial reply, but when your overture provokes further interest, employers may use e-mail for subsequent communications.

Next, go straight into substantive information. I recommend that you do not include an "Objective." Employers don't need details about your objective to rule you in, but including one may rule you out. Employers may conclude your objective is too narrow for a comfortable job fit, or too broad to indicate a particular interest in the job.

In organizing the information you want to include on your résumé, use the functional format, a way of organizing your qualifications according to basic functions. As a law student, your two functions are education and experience. The information should read in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent items.

Enter legal education first-that's what you're doing right now-followed by any other graduate education, then undergraduate education. Setting out your educational background as a functional group allows employers to assess it quickly.

There is no getting away from your class rank-employers want to know it. If your school ranks students, and you don't include your ranking, employers will assume you are in the bottom half. If you are in the top half of your class, put your class rank on your résumé. Don't report grades simply in terms of grade point average-imagine the employer's frustration, trying to sort out the meaning of an unfamiliar multipoint scale. Even if your school uses the familiar 4-point scale, the meaning of a given GPA varies widely; students with a 3.0 GPA are in the top half at some schools but the bottom half at others.

Be sure to list any scholarships and other academic honors. This is important information. When your awards involve a competition, quantify the distinction whenever possible. "Top 12 of 200 competitors" has a greater impact than "Finalist."

Unlike your academic honors, which can go on all versions of your résumé, activities should be mentioned on a case-by-case basis. Employers don't rate you higher for belonging to an organization unless it has rigorous academic requirements or reflects your interest in the kind of law the employer practices. When your activities reflect your interest in areas the employer does not practice, those activities can actually hurt your candidacy.

Let's say you are a member of the Family Law Society. Mentioning this could make members of corporate law departments, for example, wonder why you're interested in their firms. Anything you list on your résumé that doesn't jibe with what the employer does will raise a doubt about you in the employer's mind.

After your academic qualifications, set out your work experience. You don't have to list every job you've ever had. Instead, merely include those that strengthen your application for the position in question. Always include the cities and states in which previous jobs were located. If you've already worked in the employer's city, listing your former job will strengthen your application by showing ties to the locale.

Don't describe work experience as a narrative, saying, "I did this" and "I did that." In fact, "I" should never appear on your résumé. Rely instead on active verbs-present tense for your current job and past tense for former jobs. In reverse chronological order, list legal experience first, followed by any important nonlegal experience.

It's common for applicants to describe previous work experience in too much detail. If you had a previous career, don't belabor that fact. Employers are not as interested in your previous career as you might think they should be. They are not hiring you to be a teacher, computer programmer, military officer, or whatever you may have been in the past. You want employers to see you as a top-tier candidate for a lawyer or some related position. When you seem to identify with your previous career more than with the prospective one, you detract from your candidacy.

Avoid a two-page résumé, even if you have significant work experience. Only a small percentage of the two-page résumés I receive actually needed to be two pages. When I get a two-page résumé, I'm skeptical. If you don't have a lot of degrees, honors, activities, and a previous career, you don't need two pages.

Some job applicants try to squeeze two pages of information into one page. Avoid this at all costs. When you reduce the font size, eliminate margins, and cram sections together in order to fit your résumé on one page, important information dissolves into a muddle. Don't assume an employer will use a magnifying glass on your résumé. Instead, eliminate any nonessential information.

I'm often asked whether job seekers should list their skills. This depends on whether you have any skills that are both distinctive and germane. The only skills worth noting are those that not all lawyers have but some might need, such as fluency in a foreign language. There's no point in listing skills an employer knows every law student or legal assistant has or can quickly develop, such as the ability to do computer-assisted legal research.

Should you include interests on your résumé, even at the bottom of the page? If you can include them and stay on one page, listing your interests can be useful. Interests may strike responsive chords with employers who share, admire, or are intrigued by them. Your interests can provide interviewers with convenient icebreakers or even substantive discussion topics.

Your résumé reveals a lot that employers want to know. In addition to the information you convey, it tells employers whether you take pains to be clear and well organized, take pride in your work, and attend to detail. When you get your basic résumé as perfect as you think it can be, take it to your career services office and have a professional critique it. The extra care you take in fine-tuning your résumé will pay off.

David C. James is the hiring lawyer for the office of the San Diego city attorney.