Job Search Resources

Résumés

Résumés
Cover Letters
Writing Samples
References
The Interview
Offers, Acceptances and Salary Negotiation
Establishing Legal Credentials
Summer Employment Opportunities
Networking
Conducting an Out of State Job Search
Word to the Wise: A Corporate Recruiter's Insight on Job Searching

While it is true that the legal profession is more diverse than ever and has opened itself to new and innovative ideas, it is still overwhelmingly conservative and straight-laced. As such, your résumé needs to be the same. The résumé you may have used for a public relations account executive position or a teaching job or even as a bartender/wait staff, is not going to work for Hiring Partner Jack Landsharq, Esq. at Dewey Cheatham & Howe.

Cute fonts, elaborate fonts and Courier are no-nos (Courier looks too much like a legal brief and/or typewriting!). Remember, your résumé may be photocopied many times over -- the more complicated it looks, the more blurred it will become over time. Use of bold typeface, italics, underscoring, small capitals, and uppercase letters can be used to emphasize that which needs to be. Avoid mixing too many fonts or point sizes (except for headings). Don't go any smaller than 10-11 point -- no larger than 14 point.

With very few exceptions, your résumé should fit on one page. Doing so forces you to focus on only your most relevant experiences. Exceptions include: 1) extensive pre-law school experience; 2) intellectual property, where describing technical experience and publications may require more than one page; 3) public interest if you have extensive experience relevant to the job applied for and 4) academic résumés or vitae, which would need to include publications, presentations and conferences.

Your résumé should include the following basics:

Heading

Your name, address, phone number and email address (if you use it) should be at the top. Your name should be larger than the other information. If you are looking for a position in your hometown or outside of the Chicago metropolitan area, list a current address in the Chicago area and a "permanent address" in the town/area where you are seeking work.

Education

List your education in reverse chronological order (most recent first): law school, graduate school (if applicable) and undergraduate college. Include your undergraduate major as well as the degree received. Other education (such as study abroad) should be listed as well. For each school, list the city and state, degree received (or to be received) and the month and year of graduation. Depending on employer criteria, you may want to consider including your GPA if it's 3.0/4.0 or higher.

Honors & Activities

Following each degree, list any honors or scholarships and any school activities and leadership positions.

Experience

List the positions you've held in reverse chronological order. Include the name of the employer, location (city/state), dates of employment and your title, followed by a description of the work you performed. For legal employment, discuss specific motions you wrote, areas of law you researched and projects you worked on. Use active verbs and concrete statements. When describing what you did, use short verb phrases, preferably set off by bullet points. Remember to focus on transferable skills -- especially if you have no legal experience.

Publications

Law Review, other law journals, undergraduate or graduate research or articles for other publications should be listed. Use correct (Blue Book) legal citations.

Languages

Include languages if you can carry on a basic conversation.

Computer Skills

Basic word processing (Word, WordPerfect, etc.) and basic legal research (Lexis, Westlaw) are no longer considered "special" skills and every law student is, in fact, expected to have acquired such skills. However, if you know programming, HTML, web design, software design, spreadsheets (Excel, Lotus, etc.), databases or have other computer-related skills, by all means, list them on your résumé if they are relevant to the position for which you are applying.

Personal Interests/Activities/Hobbies

This is a very optional section and should be left off if it makes your résumé more than one page long. If you do have this section, make sure to list interesting activities and community work that can be used as icebreakers during an interview.

The following information, commonly found on non-legal résumés, should not be on a legal résumé: Objective, References (or Writing Samples) Available Upon Request and Personal Statistics.

Resume Tips

The proper name of the school is DePaul University College of Law, not DePaul Law School, DePaul School of Law or any other misnomer.
The degree you will earn is a Juris Doctor or J.D. It is not a Juris Doctorate, Jurisprudence Doctor or anything else!
Your GPA is calculated after every semester, including summer. NEVER round-up your GPA -- a 3.698 is a 3.69, not a 3.7.
The correct listing for law review is DePaul Law Review.
The correct listing for the various journals is: The DePaul Journal of Health Care Law, The DePaul Art & Entertainment Law Journal, The DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal, The DePaul University Intellectual Property Digest, The DePaul Journal for Social Justice and The DePaul Journal of Sports Law & Contemporary Problems. Do not list any of these journals on your résumé as "law review"!