On The Job: Furthering Your Career Starts with Your Resume

Finding the next step in your career path can be the hardest job you ever tackle. If you are not currently working in a firm with a large marketing function and staff, the chances are you can only advance by leaving.If you are going to look outside for your next position, the place to begin is your resume. Bring it up to date with your latest experience. While you are updating it, analyze whether it is telling and selling. Telling your career story is just one part of constructing an effective resume. Selling your experience and its value to your next employer is just as important. Your resume should begin with your current contact information and a brief, bulleted summary of your experience and education. Each time you apply for a position, review your resume and rewrite it to highlight the specific attributes that you think would be most applicable to the position. I also list the position title in the first section information as “Position Objective,” so the hiring authority knows that I have reviewed my data in light of the firm's needs.

Explain the duties of your previous and current positions in active language, with strong verbs and compact task descriptions. Use the official position titles. Avoid listing every responsibility and concentrate on the ones that brought the most work or visibility to you and the firm. I favor listing a specific contact or supervisor right in the position description, but you may choose to withhold that information until the interview. Make sure the dates for the position agree with the personnel records where you worked. If you can't be exact, just list the years you worked.

In the description, sell your effectiveness by connecting results with every responsibility. When you list a task, include the explicit benefit it had to the firm. Document these with definite numbers in order to create credibility. Lawyers (and law firms) are evidentiary; they want to see proof for your claims.

The final section of your resume should give more detail about your educational and personal background. I usually try to get my entire business career experience on one page, even if I have to make the type 10-point and the margins wider than usual. Page two covers the other attributes, features and benefits of my particular background. I prepare two resumes when I update my own, one which lists the business experience chronologically and another that I call “Knowledge, Skills and Abilities” which collates my background under specific production and management expertise.

The task of a good resume is to gain you access to the hiring interview. Most law firms have a multiple-step interview process. Your resume takes you to the first step.

Don't wait for your reputation for excellent results to spread through the industry and the headhunters to come bearing offers of responsibility and riches. Bring your resume up to date and sharpen its focus right now so that you are ready to aim and fire when the right target pops up on your career horizon.

Finding the next step in your career path can be the hardest job you ever tackle. If you are not currently working in a firm with a large marketing function and staff, the chances are you can only advance by leaving.If you are going to look outside for your next position, the place to begin is your resume. Bring it up to date with your latest experience. While you are updating it, analyze whether it is telling and selling. Telling your career story is just one part of constructing an effective resume. Selling your experience and its value to your next employer is just as important. Your resume should begin with your current contact information and a brief, bulleted summary of your experience and education. Each time you apply for a position, review your resume and rewrite it to highlight the specific attributes that you think would be most applicable to the position. I also list the position title in the first section information as “Position Objective,” so the hiring authority knows that I have reviewed my data in light of the firm's needs.

Explain the duties of your previous and current positions in active language, with strong verbs and compact task descriptions. Use the official position titles. Avoid listing every responsibility and concentrate on the ones that brought the most work or visibility to you and the firm. I favor listing a specific contact or supervisor right in the position description, but you may choose to withhold that information until the interview. Make sure the dates for the position agree with the personnel records where you worked. If you can't be exact, just list the years you worked.

In the description, sell your effectiveness by connecting results with every responsibility. When you list a task, include the explicit benefit it had to the firm. Document these with definite numbers in order to create credibility. Lawyers (and law firms) are evidentiary; they want to see proof for your claims.

The final section of your resume should give more detail about your educational and personal background. I usually try to get my entire business career experience on one page, even if I have to make the type 10-point and the margins wider than usual. Page two covers the other attributes, features and benefits of my particular background. I prepare two resumes when I update my own, one which lists the business experience chronologically and another that I call “Knowledge, Skills and Abilities” which collates my background under specific production and management expertise.

The task of a good resume is to gain you access to the hiring interview. Most law firms have a multiple-step interview process. Your resume takes you to the first step.

Don't wait for your reputation for excellent results to spread through the industry and the headhunters to come bearing offers of responsibility and riches. Bring your resume up to date and sharpen its focus right now so that you are ready to aim and fire when the right target pops up on your career horizon.