The Armadillo Club
| Career |
I am not going to post the contact information for the jobs on the web site. Search engines pick up our jobs and post them on other law job web sites and then attorneys who know nothing about coverage (other than how to spell it) send in resumes to our firms. From now on, the complete contact information will only go out in the club e-mail or you can contact me if between e-mails. |
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Over the last couple of years, I have reviewed about 300 resumes of
Armadillos and Notre Dame alumni (and their friends) so I have learned a few
things about what a resume should look like.
Note a few things:
1. Many of the resumes I get have the person's name, then address and
other contact information tiered from the top down like this:
That wastes about four lines of valuable real estate. The format on my sample
resume puts all of the relevant info on 2 lines.
2. No need to put "cell:xxx-xxxx" or "E-mail: joe.blow@yahoo.com"
Who cares if it's your cell? Just give them one number you want them to call.
Perhaps you needed to put "E-mail" on a resume back when Al Gore first
invented the Internet, but by now, most people recognize what an e-mail
addresse is. Just give them one e-mail address. Don't confuse them. Also -
give them a mailing address. Every now and then I get a resume with no
mailing address. It makes you look homeless.
3. Don't include your LinkedIN Profile address. First of all, the blue font ruins
the look. Second: what if you have more than one resume out and you want
to tailor each resume just a bit. Now your LinkedIN Profile is going to be
inconsistent with at least one of them. If they want to look you up on the
Internet, they will. This brings up another point: Google your own name to
see what they will find when they do. Is there anything that needs to be
fixed? Do it now... and remember the next time you are posting something
bombastic on some blog or website, that whatever you post is there forever...
You may think it's gone, but I regularly go into archived web sites to find info
that people don't want found on cases and don't think I'll find....
4. Treat this resume as the most important brief you have ever written. You
are a persuasive writer. Sell yourself. Think of all of the things that you have
done that might be of value to your future employer. Don't forget to list
computer skills. In this day of cost savings and staff reductions, many
companies want to know that you have these skills.
5. Pay attention to formatting. Make sure margins line up. Right-hand justify
dates. Make sure that formatting is consistent. Did you put "Illinois" in the
first job description and "IL" in the next? Do you have periods after some
bullet points but not all. (Doesn't really matter which you do, just be
consistent.) Are you abbreviating some months, but not all? Different fonts?
Use 12 point font for the Company and Job Title lines. Use 10 pt font for the
bullet points. You need to save real estate. Use black print. Times New
Roman seems to be the easiest to read and looks professional.
6. Do not allow your e-mail address to hyperlink. The blue messes up the
look of the document and no one is going to hyperlink to your e-mail address
from within the document.
7. PDF your resume before you send it off so that when they open it, it won't
be messed up, no matter what program they are using.
8. Name your resume with your name, i.e. "John Doe Resume.doc" If you
just name is "Resume.doc," how will anyone find it in the folder with 100
other unnamed resumes on their computer.
9. Do not include "References available upon request" on your resume and
do not list references on your resume. That uses up space and is obsolete.
As if you wouldn't provide references if they ask??? Duh.
10. Include your bar admissions but not pro hac vices.
11. Sometimes I'll get a resume that lists some of the person's major wins,
but doesn't give a generalization of what the person does in the bullet points
under the specific jobs. It makes it sound like the person only handled a
couple cases while he was at the firm. Give some generalized overview
statements in the bullet points for each job that are meaningful - specifically
the types of coverages and issues you have dealt with (see the first bullet
point under current job in my sample resume), and then include some
examples of your spectacular wins if you want.
12. If you are less than 5 years out, RARELY should your resume be more
than one page. No matter how old you are, RARELY should it be more than
two pages. If you are unable to synthesize what is important in that amount
of space, it might simply be a reflection of the inability to synthesize, unless
you have a lot of publications or something like that.
13. No need to put a header on page 2. Rarely has Microsoft lost the second
page of a two page document when e-mailed. That just takes up more
valuable space.
14. If you are five years out of law school or less and your GPA is good, I
would include it. The general rule of thumb for recent grads is that if your
GPA is less than 3.0, do not include it. Of course, by implication, if you are a
recent grad and you do not put a GPA on your resume, reviewers will assume
it was less than 3.0, since that is the conventional wisdom. So if good, put it
on.
15. Don't put your name and address in the header. When someone views
it, the print in the header is never as dark as the print in the body of the
document so it detracts from the overall look of the document.
16. Don't exaggerate. I know that sounds simple, but so many times I ask
someone about some item that just seems a bit extreme on the resume and
the response is, "X told me to do it that way. He said it would sound good..."
For example, a young attorney worked as a contract attorney for a Company
that did document reviews for big law firms. Rather than list the contract
company, he listed the firm at which he was performing the review as if that
was the firm that employed him rather than just the firm at which he was
performing the review. Who would trust you to work for them if what you
have represented on your resume is not true and accurate?
17. Objectives. Sometimes I get resumes with "Objective" statements at the
top that say the person wants a rewarding job doing meaningful work or
something similar.... Duh. Isn't your objective to get whatever job you are
applying for??? So why do you need an Objective at the top of your
resume??? Again, it is a waste of space. Even worse, to the extent your
Objective differs from the objective of the hiring partner, you may have raised
a question in his or her mind that leads to someone else being chosen for the
job. Drop the "Objective."
18. Summary Statements. Sometimes I get a resume that has a half page of
bullet points, or just a bunch of words (like: "Leadership" "Innovative"
"Team Player" etc.) or a list of isolated accomplishments taken out of context
from the last 20 years that may even be redundant of what is in the bullet
points in the job sections. Most often, this is a self-serving waste of time that
the reviewer skips over, as he heads straight to the Experience section. If
you have something important in that section, it may never be read. One or
two sentences at most could be put at the top, but as you can see from my
sample, I don't really think it is necessary unless you have a bunch of
disjointed or different types of jobs over your lifetime and you need a way to
tie them together to give some picture of how your experience overall might
be helpful to the employer.
19. Try to use action verbs. In your current position(s), the verbs should be
in the present tense. In past positions, they should be in the past tense.
20. Be careful about using shorthand phrases or acronyms. In financial
resumes I kept getting the term "ROI." That's great for the top finance guy,
but if someone in HR or the office admin assistant is doing the first screening
of resumes, they may not know that means Return on Investment. That
phrase just became meaningless. Keep in mind that the first cut may be
done by someone in HR, not in the legal department.
21. Use spell check but don't rely on spell check alone. Carefully proof.
Powerpoint is PowerPoint...
22. In some companies or search firms, a computer does the first cut and
looks for keywords. Look at the job description. Does it have keywords
that seem to be important? Are those keywords on your resume? If not, and
you can work them into the bullet points, you will be better off. For instance,
if the Job Requirements state that the job requires you be proficient at
Microsoft Word and Excel, I think I would make sure those words are on my
resume if I have those skills. Does it say that expertise in construction defect
cases is required? I would make sure my resume mentions that.
23. New grad: Education at top, experience second. Older grad:
Experience at the top, education at the bottom. 3-5 years out? Well if you
had stellar grades, I think I might put that at the top. If you worked for a top
firm that everyone will recognize or you had really great experience in your
first job, then you might lead off with that. You have some discretion there.
24. Formatting. I hate those templates where the stuff is in boxes. I also hate
strange off-set formatting. They are not hiring an art major. Just give them
the information in a way that lets them take everything in easily and see what
is important to them. A reviewer may only spend about a minute on a resume
when doing the first cut. Make it easy for him or her to see how great you are.
25. Hope this helps. Good luck!
Armadillos and Notre Dame alumni (and their friends) so I have learned a few
things about what a resume should look like.
Note a few things:
1. Many of the resumes I get have the person's name, then address and
other contact information tiered from the top down like this:
That wastes about four lines of valuable real estate. The format on my sample
resume puts all of the relevant info on 2 lines.
2. No need to put "cell:xxx-xxxx" or "E-mail: joe.blow@yahoo.com"
Who cares if it's your cell? Just give them one number you want them to call.
Perhaps you needed to put "E-mail" on a resume back when Al Gore first
invented the Internet, but by now, most people recognize what an e-mail
addresse is. Just give them one e-mail address. Don't confuse them. Also -
give them a mailing address. Every now and then I get a resume with no
mailing address. It makes you look homeless.
3. Don't include your LinkedIN Profile address. First of all, the blue font ruins
the look. Second: what if you have more than one resume out and you want
to tailor each resume just a bit. Now your LinkedIN Profile is going to be
inconsistent with at least one of them. If they want to look you up on the
Internet, they will. This brings up another point: Google your own name to
see what they will find when they do. Is there anything that needs to be
fixed? Do it now... and remember the next time you are posting something
bombastic on some blog or website, that whatever you post is there forever...
You may think it's gone, but I regularly go into archived web sites to find info
that people don't want found on cases and don't think I'll find....
4. Treat this resume as the most important brief you have ever written. You
are a persuasive writer. Sell yourself. Think of all of the things that you have
done that might be of value to your future employer. Don't forget to list
computer skills. In this day of cost savings and staff reductions, many
companies want to know that you have these skills.
5. Pay attention to formatting. Make sure margins line up. Right-hand justify
dates. Make sure that formatting is consistent. Did you put "Illinois" in the
first job description and "IL" in the next? Do you have periods after some
bullet points but not all. (Doesn't really matter which you do, just be
consistent.) Are you abbreviating some months, but not all? Different fonts?
Use 12 point font for the Company and Job Title lines. Use 10 pt font for the
bullet points. You need to save real estate. Use black print. Times New
Roman seems to be the easiest to read and looks professional.
6. Do not allow your e-mail address to hyperlink. The blue messes up the
look of the document and no one is going to hyperlink to your e-mail address
from within the document.
7. PDF your resume before you send it off so that when they open it, it won't
be messed up, no matter what program they are using.
8. Name your resume with your name, i.e. "John Doe Resume.doc" If you
just name is "Resume.doc," how will anyone find it in the folder with 100
other unnamed resumes on their computer.
9. Do not include "References available upon request" on your resume and
do not list references on your resume. That uses up space and is obsolete.
As if you wouldn't provide references if they ask??? Duh.
10. Include your bar admissions but not pro hac vices.
11. Sometimes I'll get a resume that lists some of the person's major wins,
but doesn't give a generalization of what the person does in the bullet points
under the specific jobs. It makes it sound like the person only handled a
couple cases while he was at the firm. Give some generalized overview
statements in the bullet points for each job that are meaningful - specifically
the types of coverages and issues you have dealt with (see the first bullet
point under current job in my sample resume), and then include some
examples of your spectacular wins if you want.
12. If you are less than 5 years out, RARELY should your resume be more
than one page. No matter how old you are, RARELY should it be more than
two pages. If you are unable to synthesize what is important in that amount
of space, it might simply be a reflection of the inability to synthesize, unless
you have a lot of publications or something like that.
13. No need to put a header on page 2. Rarely has Microsoft lost the second
page of a two page document when e-mailed. That just takes up more
valuable space.
14. If you are five years out of law school or less and your GPA is good, I
would include it. The general rule of thumb for recent grads is that if your
GPA is less than 3.0, do not include it. Of course, by implication, if you are a
recent grad and you do not put a GPA on your resume, reviewers will assume
it was less than 3.0, since that is the conventional wisdom. So if good, put it
on.
15. Don't put your name and address in the header. When someone views
it, the print in the header is never as dark as the print in the body of the
document so it detracts from the overall look of the document.
16. Don't exaggerate. I know that sounds simple, but so many times I ask
someone about some item that just seems a bit extreme on the resume and
the response is, "X told me to do it that way. He said it would sound good..."
For example, a young attorney worked as a contract attorney for a Company
that did document reviews for big law firms. Rather than list the contract
company, he listed the firm at which he was performing the review as if that
was the firm that employed him rather than just the firm at which he was
performing the review. Who would trust you to work for them if what you
have represented on your resume is not true and accurate?
17. Objectives. Sometimes I get resumes with "Objective" statements at the
top that say the person wants a rewarding job doing meaningful work or
something similar.... Duh. Isn't your objective to get whatever job you are
applying for??? So why do you need an Objective at the top of your
resume??? Again, it is a waste of space. Even worse, to the extent your
Objective differs from the objective of the hiring partner, you may have raised
a question in his or her mind that leads to someone else being chosen for the
job. Drop the "Objective."
18. Summary Statements. Sometimes I get a resume that has a half page of
bullet points, or just a bunch of words (like: "Leadership" "Innovative"
"Team Player" etc.) or a list of isolated accomplishments taken out of context
from the last 20 years that may even be redundant of what is in the bullet
points in the job sections. Most often, this is a self-serving waste of time that
the reviewer skips over, as he heads straight to the Experience section. If
you have something important in that section, it may never be read. One or
two sentences at most could be put at the top, but as you can see from my
sample, I don't really think it is necessary unless you have a bunch of
disjointed or different types of jobs over your lifetime and you need a way to
tie them together to give some picture of how your experience overall might
be helpful to the employer.
19. Try to use action verbs. In your current position(s), the verbs should be
in the present tense. In past positions, they should be in the past tense.
20. Be careful about using shorthand phrases or acronyms. In financial
resumes I kept getting the term "ROI." That's great for the top finance guy,
but if someone in HR or the office admin assistant is doing the first screening
of resumes, they may not know that means Return on Investment. That
phrase just became meaningless. Keep in mind that the first cut may be
done by someone in HR, not in the legal department.
21. Use spell check but don't rely on spell check alone. Carefully proof.
Powerpoint is PowerPoint...
22. In some companies or search firms, a computer does the first cut and
looks for keywords. Look at the job description. Does it have keywords
that seem to be important? Are those keywords on your resume? If not, and
you can work them into the bullet points, you will be better off. For instance,
if the Job Requirements state that the job requires you be proficient at
Microsoft Word and Excel, I think I would make sure those words are on my
resume if I have those skills. Does it say that expertise in construction defect
cases is required? I would make sure my resume mentions that.
23. New grad: Education at top, experience second. Older grad:
Experience at the top, education at the bottom. 3-5 years out? Well if you
had stellar grades, I think I might put that at the top. If you worked for a top
firm that everyone will recognize or you had really great experience in your
first job, then you might lead off with that. You have some discretion there.
24. Formatting. I hate those templates where the stuff is in boxes. I also hate
strange off-set formatting. They are not hiring an art major. Just give them
the information in a way that lets them take everything in easily and see what
is important to them. A reviewer may only spend about a minute on a resume
when doing the first cut. Make it easy for him or her to see how great you are.
25. Hope this helps. Good luck!
| John Doe 222 North Street Chicago, IL 60000 (xxx) xxx-xxxx John.Doe@yahoo.com LinkedIN Profile Address |
Career Transition Center
Just in case you are not aware of it, there is a great place at 703 W.
Monroe that helps people in career transition. They have a variety of
programs that provide professional, emotional and spiritual support
for those seeking work or undergoing a career transition.
www.ctcchicago.org or call (312) 906-9908. Even if you don't
need the help, I bet you know someone who could use it. Pass on
the info. Being out of work is traumatic. I have found that even if you
don't have a job for someone, just the knowledge that you care
enough to invite them to networking events you are attending or to
pass on info like this can mean a lot to your friends.
Just in case you are not aware of it, there is a great place at 703 W.
Monroe that helps people in career transition. They have a variety of
programs that provide professional, emotional and spiritual support
for those seeking work or undergoing a career transition.
www.ctcchicago.org or call (312) 906-9908. Even if you don't
need the help, I bet you know someone who could use it. Pass on
the info. Being out of work is traumatic. I have found that even if you
don't have a job for someone, just the knowledge that you care
enough to invite them to networking events you are attending or to
pass on info like this can mean a lot to your friends.