Why the Perfect Resume Gets You the Interview
Your ability to make a good impression can make or break every opportunity. As a law student, this can help you land your dream internship or summer associate position and set the tone for your career. In this multi-part series, PracticePro’s Niki Moore explains each phase of the summer associate hiring process—and how you can excel at each one.
When you’re fixated on getting your dream job—or, at least, the summer associate position that will get you closer to your dream job—it’s easy to forget one thing: Your potential employer is just as enthusiastically looking for their next outstanding candidate.
That person could be you, but if you’re going to prove yourself you need to get through the front door and into the interview room. That means your resume and cover letter need to be on point.
The first thing you need to know is that the perfect resume won’t get you the job—and, contrary to popular belief, it isn’t meant to. Your resume is a teaser; like a movie trailer, its purpose is to grab someone’s interest so they want to learn more. It should underscore the three qualities that make a good impression: competence, connection, and confidence.
To do that, you need a strategic approach to formatting and substance. Here’s a look at the best practices that will help your resume and cover letter get noticed.
DITCH THE LIST AND TELL A STORY
Many resumes are a list: Every employer and leadership opportunity, all extracurricular and volunteer activities, and all the related dates and locations. But there’s an inherent problem with this approach. When it comes time to start cutting things, the default is typically to start by eliminating things that are old or not directly related to law school.
Use your resume to tell a story instead:
Figure out what your audience is looking for
Identify the skills and qualities you can contribute
Consider every part of your professional story and how each aligns with the above.
Then, create a narrative that gives them snippets of that. Every point you include should have a purpose.
FORMAT YOUR RESUME WITH A STRATEGY IN MIND
Your summer associate application should reflect your unique qualities and personality, but not when it comes to formatting. While you can take some flexibility to ensure your resume looks awesome, getting overly creative could make your resume stand out—and that may not work in your favor.
If you stick to these two guidelines, your resume’s appearance won’t go too far wrong:
Use a legal resume format. Ask your career development office for a template or work with a career coach to find good examples of legal resumes—and follow them.
Rely on the eye test. Your resume needs to look good online and on paper. Print a copy so you know what yours looks like; get a friend to give you their feedback, too. The information shouldn’t look squashed or overwhelming, and the font needs to be legible. See what jumps out if you only have time for a quick scan, then adjust until you get it right.
Here are a few other considerations:
Length
Keep your resume to just one page. Seriously. Remember: Your resume provides snippets to capture interest and get you an interview. Even if you’ve already had an illustrious career, limit yourself to one page or at the very least put all the legal and otherwise relevant information on the first page.
For example, I had worked in cancer research for a few years before law school. I had great exposure to technology and had been published. I was very interested in becoming a litigator, but was not set on a specific practice area at the time I applied to summer associate positions. So, I had a one-page resume for most firms as well as a two-page version of my resume for IP-focused positions.
Font & Margins
A lot of different factors can influence your font and the margins you set. This is one point where the eye test is essential.
As a general rule, I think:
Headings should be in a larger font than the body.
For the body text, don’t go smaller than Time New Roman 11 pt font. (You also don’t need to stick with Times New Roman, but make sure your font is easy to read or your creative streak could become a liability.)
You don’t need to stick to 1” margins all the way around; you can usually get away with shrinking the top and bottom margins substantially and decreasing the left and right margins within reason. Just make sure, you have enough white space in both print and digital versions.
Bullets vs. Sentences
Some schools advocate for bullets and some for sentences. In terms of substance, they’re exactly the same. So use your own preference.
As a former litigator, I like using bullet points strategically. If you use them everywhere, then they’re little more than a formatting convention. If you use them judiciously, however, bullet points can be eye catching. When you list your jobs, for example, you could use sentence format to describe older positions, then use bullet points to draw attention to newer and more relevant legal experiences.
Field of Vision
Formatting your resume has one aim: To get the eyes of the interviewer, who might be scanning dozens of resumes, to go where you want them to go. If you can influence the items that get their attention, it’s more likely they’ll talk about the things you want to talk about—things that enable you to show your competence, your fit with the firm, and how you’ve performed confidently in the past.
When people skim, particularly on a screen, their eyes tend to follow an “F” pattern. Organize your resume accordingly: As you format your resume, decide where to place buzzwords, and set the order of information, keep this pattern in mind. Specifically, I recommend thinking about the order of your bullet points of sentences and putting the best of your experience first. Your entries should also start with your best foot forward, i.e., strongest verbs and tasks that skimming eyes can catch.
Transmission
Sure, you know how to email a file. But too few people think about the file itself, and while these points are relatively minor they can still make a difference:
Always send a PDF. Not only does this appear more professional, it also locks in your formatting; if someone prints off your resume, there’s a smaller chance your careful formatting will be messed up.
Tailor the name of your document. Before you hit send, rename your file to include the name of the document as well as your name (e.g. “nikimoore_coverletter.pdf” or “resume_nikimoore.pdf”.
When someone’s dealing with dozens or even hundred of applications, this takes seconds to do but the small-but-thoughtful touch gives them one less thing to worry about.
PACK YOUR RESUME WITH SUBSTANCE
The secret to a great resume is knowing how to be brief while hitting a home run with every carefully chosen word you include. Here’s how to decide what information should make the cut:
Stay focused on your purpose
Your main objective is to showcase your education and experience as they relate to the skills your employer is looking for.
Everything in your resume—your formatting, deciding what to keep and what to take out, what you list as bullet points, your first sentence/bullet point and your last, the phrasing you use—should showcase your talent and qualifications. If I’m an employer and something catches my eye, I’ll ask you about it.
Balance between brevity and detail
As a litigator and as a coach, I’ve seen a lot of resumes that lack detail—which means they lack substance. Meaningful doesn’t need to be lengthy: By using verbs or buzzwords you can provide enough information to give an interviewer a glimpse at how your previous experience might apply. Write the strongest and most concise description you can in a light that is most favorable to you.
For example, if you were a paralegal who “Assisted attorneys in different practice areas (zoning, business, litigation),” I can imagine the type of writing you’ve done and your familiarity with different types of documents.
Being effectively brief also sends a subconscious signal that you can write good entries—something that matters when it comes to billing time, whether you work in big law, at a small firm, or even (in some cases) for the government. It shows that you’re competent and working at a higher level than other entry-level lawyers or summer interns.
Powerful Formula: Strong verb + strategic description
Start each point with a strong verb. Remember the “F” pattern people use when they read? The most strategic part of every description is the first few words; move less important words toward the end. If each point begins with a strong action, even a quick skim of your resume can be powerful.
Here are a few lawyerly verbs to help you brainstorm: Drafted, researched, analyzed, prepared for and attended, led, managed.
Space Wasters
When students start to run out of space, they often turn to old standbys: Shrink the font, shrink the margins. But they keep what I call “space wasters” — details that don’t need to be there.
Being selective takes careful balance between what’s important and what’s extraneous. Dates for employment are absolutely important. Things like positions of leadership you’ve held can also be important in telling your story. But the dates for activities and positions you held as a student, for example, may not be necessary.
A potential employer doesn’t need your whole history, just give them the highlights. If they want to know more, they’ll ask.
Gaps
Your resume should account for gaps, such as years you may have taken off between college and law school. If those years aren’t directly related to law school that’s fine: A brief entry shows the employer what you did, what tasks it involved, and how it reflects your knowledge and abilities.
So be truthful and write a description that makes the information as applicable as possible. As an interviewer, I may even ask questions about these non-legal jobs; how you present and speak about them can show me that you’re intelligent, competent, confident.
An effective resume is one that earns enough interest to get you an interview. If you’re clear about your purpose, present the information clearly, and focus on the points that will matter most to the interviewer, you’ll create a resume that makes it easier to see why you’d be such a fantastic summer associate.
In the next part of this Series, we’ll look at how to write effective cover letters.
Need help crafting your resume or summer associate job search strategy? Schedule a free initial consultation with a PracticePro coach here.