Category Archives: Communication

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September 21, 2011

Teach Me Law Radio Interview

Radio Interview Job Search

Image from Teach Me Law Radio

I was recently interviewed by Tara Kachaturoff of Teach Me Law Radio, a blogtalk radio station “with one objective in mind, to learn about the law and it’s impact on our lives.”

Tara and I spoke about my business, Attorney’s Counsel, as well as other topics related to my work as Chair of the Law Student Perspectives Committee at the NYCBar, including, law school and it’s continued viability, legal job searches, alternative legal jobs, tips for recent law school graduates and common resume mistakes I see in my practice.

I have included the audio from our interview here. There are many other topics that Tara and other expert interviewees have covered so please take a look and pass along the link if appropriate.

Next week, each day, I will highlight one topic from my interview since Tara and I were only able to touch on each one briefly.

I am looking forward to answering your questions as well.

September 13, 2011

Don’t lose touch!

Don't Lose Touch - Miss You

image from letsgolinda.com

I know it’s been a while. I hope you all had a wonderful summer and are enjoying Back-To-School season!

I’m looking forward to getting back to blogging. This summer I was busy writing legal and non-legal job search and resume advice for Vault.com and Job-Hunt.Org with more to come soon.

I am thrilled to announce that I am the new Attorney Job Search Expert at Job-Hunt.org. You can read my 1st post about Tracking Changes here.

There are many more new things I’m looking forward to for Attorney’s Counsel including a new website and more events on my LinkedIn profile.  I’ve been presenting seminars and organizing programs for years but now all of you will be able to see the topics and when and where you can attend. There is always more to do!

While I have you here, I’m happy your back. I promise not to lose touch again and to continue to provide advice and answer your questions. Please let me know if there are any topics that are of particular interest to you and questions you have about how to tailor your resume to a particular field or how to prepare for an upcoming interview. I’m here to help.

Thanks for visiting.

Catagories: Communication Job Search Resume
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July 29, 2011

5 FREE Resources to Find Whom You Already Know at Your Dream Job

Last week I wrote that resumes submitted through a person at the firm or organization will be reviewed first. Now, how do you find the people to whom you should send your resume?

The following are 5 free and simple things to do, some you may already be doing, to find people you already know at your dream job.

    1. LinkedIn – You are already on LinkedIn and updating your status regularly, now join groups, answer questions and “Follow Companies.” Find people who work at your dream job. How closely connected are you? Find people who have recently started (now might not be the best time for them to hand off your resume, let them get settled in, but now’s a great time to reconnect) and who have recently left (they still have friends there and can tell you recent news, hopefully without any bias or conflicts)
    2. Career Center – Career counselors at your law school know which firms are looking to hire alumni from your law school. They know which firms might not currently be looking but are more likely to hire alumni. They know how to update your resume and do mock interviews. Most schools have a specific counselor whose job it is to focus on alumni.
    3. College and Law School Alumni – Read recent news and join your alumni organizations. Attend alumni events when you can. I know I am always happy to help a current student at my alma mater (Brandeis University and Brooklyn Law School). Networking with alumni is easier. You know you already have something in common to discuss.
    4. Twitter – Follow the official tweets of the firm you are targeting, follow the people who have the job you want, people who work at the firm you want, and people who are connected to those people. Now engage them in a conversation, ask them what they think of a recent and relevant news article, find out what they like and don’t like and once you have an online relationship consider taking it off-line. There are many success stories of lawyers and law students using Twitter to engage people whom they might not have met otherwise.
    5. Mass email – You do not want to send your resume out as a mass email. However, writing to friends and former colleagues is a great way to tell people what you are looking for. Ask if they know anyone at your target firms and organizations. Be flexible. Everyone knows someone and that someone might be the one you’re looking for. Then offer to help them.
July 19, 2011

Recruiting Tips from the Insider’s View

A few weeks ago I attended a program at the New York City Bar Association sponsored by the committee I chair, the Law Student Perspectives Committee.

The program, Recruiting Tips from the Insider’s View, was well attended and the reviews were great. A lot of what was said by the experts from law firms and government employers has been said before but bears repeating.

It might be worth reading this post twice.

People ask why we, legal career and resume professionals, continue to use the same examples. The answer: People aren’t listening!

The simple advice remains unheard (use a professional email address) and the harder to tackle projects (update your resume), for which you really do need an expert’s eye, go ignored because you have too much to do (although if you hire someone to help you there is actually less for you to do…not more).

The advice given at this program was invaluable, and I’m sure you’ll agree when you follow it and your next position comes along a little easier and with less work you’ve been doing for the past few months sending out resume after resume.

  • Resumes submitted through a person at the firm or organization will be reviewed first, even if there is already a pile of previously submitted resumes waiting for review. If you do not know someone at your target firm or office, use your resources to meet someone.  A follow-up post is coming soon with a list of some of your best resources.
  • Do initial research on the firms to which you plan to apply. Only apply if they have practice areas you want to explore and offices in which cities where you would consider living.
  • Be familiar enough with the firm’s website and relevant current events.

The panelists also said that they realize 2Ls and 3Ls (second and third year law students) do not yet know exactly what they want to do. However, each applicant should have an answer to the questions Why do you want to work here? and Why are you interested in ____ practice area? If you are flexible, definitely say so.

Being willing to try different things, and to listen to those who know, is crucial in a job search. Whether you are just starting the search for the 1st job in your legal career or you have been practicing for years and are seeking something new, listen first.

June 8, 2011

5 Top Interview Mistakes

Do's-and-Don'ts-Jessica-Silverstein-Attorney's-Counsel

The top 5 interview mistakes that I have seen repeatedly, and it is (VERY) difficult to choose just 5, are:

  1. Candidates are unprepared. Either the job seekers don’t know enough about the company at which they are interviewing, enough about their own resumes, or they are unable to answer basic interview questions, for example their strengths and weaknesses.
  2. Candidates appear sloppy. Either their hair and clothing is a mess or their documents are treated as garbage in their bag. Please do not hand me an updated resume with finger prints on it.
  3. Candidates are rude to support staff in the office. The receptionist is the gatekeeper, the security guard will remember you and everyone talks. You never know who knows or who is who. We’ve been over this already [link to biggest mistake].
  4. Candidates are late or do not show up at all, without an explanation. People are human and emergencies happen but they must be communicated. People schedule their day and an interview is always a potential opportunity. Don’t show up and don’t get in touch and they will remember your name. It is a small world, especially when applying to multiple jobs within the same industry. Communication is key!
  5. Candidates smell bad. This one seems silly but no one can concentrate on your achievements when they can’t breathe. Your breath, your body odor and your clothing and hair all can offend an interviewer’s sense of smell. Just because you can no longer smell your own perfume doesn’t mean it’s gone. Don’t get me started on candidates who walk into my office smelling like an ashtray. I remember you later, but not in a good way.

There are countless stories of interview don’ts. If you need more, feel free to get in touch. Some people do not believe these things happen but people really do come into my office and put their feet on my desk. Besides being rude, dirty and offensive, it is overly familiar and frankly odd.

June 2, 2011

Are you making the biggest mistake?

Are you consistent? One of the biggest mistakes job seekers make is that they are inconsistent. They are inconsistent with their message, their level of professionalism and their documents.

YOUR MESSAGE:
If you are a lawyer seeking to change practice areas or any professional seeking a position different from the one you have, your message must be consistent. A legal resume is not ideal when applying to a fundraising position at a non-profit, a professor’s CV is not appropriate for a position as a barista. You have to know your audience,  then send the appropriate documents and dress the appropriate way (or be overdressed) for the interview, and then send the appropriate follow-up note. If your resume is professional and you show up at the interview in a mini-skirt or shorts and flip-flops, or, in some cases, open toe shoes and no stockings or slip-ons with no socks, your message is inconsistent with the image you are seeking to portray. Do your research so that you can prepare to be consistent and professional.

YOUR LEVEL OF PROFESSIONALISM:
You are being watched. While the receptionist may not be the hiring partner or decision maker they will report back on your behavior so it ought to be professional. I have heard repeatedly that law students hoping to be summer associates get completely different reviews from partners as they do from associates that interview them. Why? They treat the partner with respect and associates either as friends or as simply not worth their time. Besides being inconsistent, those law students are fooling themselves if they think everyone they see and meet with will not give opinions that will contribute to the hiring decision. Plus, how often do you think you’ll be working with the partner? Not very much. With that associate you weren’t so nice to but you impressed the partner enough to get hired anyway? Yes, all the time…Good Luck! When you park your car in the lot and step into the elevator you never know who is who and you should treat everyone as a potential decision maker…or family member of a decision maker.

YOUR DOCUMENTS:
Your cover letter, resume, references page and thank you note all must match. The contact information heading, the font, the paper they are printed on, and the title you give your documents all must match. It shows care and consideration and consistency. All things an employer wants in an employee.

If the documents you send to introduce yourself and show your worth as a potential employee are not consistent there is no reason for a potential employer to believe your work product will be anything but the same.

May 24, 2011

5 Cover Letter Errors to AVOID

Cover-Letter-Lawyer-Do's-and-Don'ts-Attorney's-Counsel

  1. Not including a cover letter – This is your opportunity to tell your target employer exactly why you are the perfect candidate and how your work experience exactly matches their current needs and will make their life better. Make them want to read your resume. If a job application has a section to upload your cover letter, do it! If you are emailing your resume see #4.
  2. Not matching the tone and formality of your resume and other job search documents – Be consistent. Your cover letter is your introduction to an organization and might be the only thing they see if it isn’t perfect and compelling, meaning that they won’t even see the resume you spent all the time drafting. Your header, if you mail it (see #4), should match your resume header and any other documents that are requested, writing sample, deal sheet, etc.
  3. Not including how your past accomplishments will benefit your potential new employer and save them energy, money and time – Highlight items from your resume and clearly link them to how you can help the employer and potentially solve a current problem. I know I want to hire people who so perfectly fit my needs I can go home early and trust that my business will get done as well as I … never mind, just make sure you clearly and relevantly explain why YOU, and not anyone else, will accomplish things with and for them. You’re not saving lives, unless you are, but remember to tell them how you can be an EMT, and save them Energy, Money and Time.
  4. Attaching your cover letter to your email instead of putting the letter in the body of the email, or worse, including the letter in the same attached document as your resume – Do not give the person receiving your documents more work to do, or attachments to open. 98% of cover letters are emailed now (I made up that statistic but I’m guessing there must be about 2% of people who still mail things or are required to) so yes, it is OK. Note: When I say “[put] the letter in the body of the email” I mean start at Dear ___: . . . and end at Sincerely, Your New EMT. Do not include the date and letter head. Have you ever seen an email that looks like a letter? If you include your cover letter in the same document as your resume there is no reason for a recruiter or hiring decision maker to scroll past page 1 and they may not see your resume. True Story: I’ve thrown out coverletterresumes. The cover letter, is a COVER letter.
  5. Your cover letter is too long or not long enough – 1 page maximum and 3-4 paragraphs is the norm. Be concise but inclusive. I don’t like to give strict rules on this but as a former recruiter and after speaking to many people in career services and placement, this is the norm. Job seekers always ask for rules, it makes just one part of the process easier. You’re welcome.

Here’s a freebie – Spell check and eliminate typos!

If you have any questions please get in touch.

May 17, 2011

5 Resume DOs and DON’Ts

Legal-Resume-Law-Student-Job-Search-Attorney's-Counsel Resume Do’s and Don’ts apply to everyone. But, like the law, there are rules and standards and consequences. For example, if you skip to the bottom of this post to find the link to the 5 Do’s and Don’ts you’ll miss a few additional rules. You wouldn’t skip the instructions on your exam would you!? Is this you: OH NO, I didn’t know it was open book!!!!! Keep reading…

PS. Yes, I have no apostrophe in the DOs in the title of the post because the “s” in that case makes the word plural. There are multiple, 5 actually, DOs. However, in the text of the post an apostrophe is necessary otherwise Do’s becomes the Spanish word for two, Dos, and we’ve already talked about the fact that there are FIVE Do’s (disgree with my potentially made-up grammer? Comment away!). As my dos-year-old would say, Get it? Got it? Good! Wonder where she heard that….

Wanted to point that out because it is something I would have noticed and it probably would have cost a candidate an interview. Hopefully, if you follow these do’s and don’ts (see, that word already comes with an apostrophe) you will have every interview opportunity, at which time you can explain all of your own made-up grammar rules.

Moving on, the rules and standards of resume review can be found easily online.  Legal resumes follow the standards of most other industries but most law students and recent law graduates have specific types of experience to include and information potential employers need to know. Ask yourself these questions:

  • Did you have legal experience prior to law school?
  • Did you have a career before entering law school?
  • Did you participate in any clinics during your 3-4 years of law school?
  • Are you admitted to the Bar or is admission pending?

The rules law students and recent graduates must follow are fairly basic:

  • NO typos,
  • NO color,
  • NO objective, and
  • Only put class rank or GPA if you graduated within the past year and have over 3.5GPA or were ranked in the top 10% of your class, otherwise you are a member of a much larger pool and it is not a distinguishing factor.

The consequences of not following the rules are not prison time or a lengthy trial. However, a job search can certainly feel like both.

Read these 5 Resume Do’s and Don’ts and let me know which you think are rules and which are standards.

March 15, 2011

Really? No one noticed? Or…

…did you not get the irony?

Who can tell me where in my Trailblazer post there is an intended typo?

Wait, hmm, how would you know if it was intentional? Fair enough.

1st commenter to tell me where the typo is gets a free 1/2 dozen Fretzels by Jill sent to their home or office.

1st tweet, from a different reader, gets the same.

March 14, 2011

Do you blaze your own trail? It’s as easy as ABC…

Are you a lawyer? Do you know your acronyms? Here are a few: LSAT, SBA, NYC, and CLE. What are your favorites?

Last Thursday, March 3, 2011, New York County Lawyers Association’s (NYCLA) Women’s Rights Committee (WRC) and the Financial Women’s Association’s (FWA) Professional Services Liaison Committee (PSLC), together with Price Waterhouse Coopers LLP (PwC) sponsored a continuing legal education (CLE) class, Women Trailblazers: Pathways to Executive Level Success.

This took a while to post because of the 3 day conference I just attended, Tory Johnson’s Spark & Hustle Conference, which was full of trailblazing female entrepreneurs. I wanted to really focus and also, finding a image for this post that wasn’t annoying or slightly wrong for some reason took a week. Good think I learned over the past few days to STOP BEING A PERFECTIONIST (in life at least…not at work!). That said, NO MORE EXCUSES for this trailblazing woman. Except I really do have to go wash my hair!

The President of the FWA, Susan Ganz, spoke at Spark & Hustle and although I did not get the opportunity to meet her I look forward to learning more from her and those in her organization that I already consider friends and colleagues.

Back to the CLE class: The speakers, including Judith Kaye, Susan Blount, Sheila Davidson and Susan Merrill, are all prominent women in law who rose to the top of the field in private and government practice and have held and currently hold senior executive level positions.

All four women spoke about their families, their mentors and the women and men that preceded them.

They each gave their words of wisdom and I have highlighted some here for you:

Judge Judith Kaye, the 1st female Chief Judge of the State of New York and also the longest serving Chief Judge, got the most laughs with her quick wit and her avoidance of the word men. She called them, “non-women.” I started to use that terminology at home but my husband didn’t get it. Figures. Judge Kaye instructed the group to

•   make meaningful use of your lives

and

•   use “self-propulsion” to take responsibility for your own career.

She owes her success to many things, but she made clear that from a young age she had a desire to accomplish. One of my favorite comments of the evening was during her description of her job search. After graduating from law school in the early 1960s she as repeatedly told that the quota for women associates was filled. She wondered, “was the quota zero?” She was eventually hired as an associate and has continued to blaze a trail for the female lawyers that have come after her.

Susan Blount, Senior Vice President (VP) and General Counsel (GC) of Prudential, recommends that on our way up the ladder, and beyond, we listen to suggestions about how to improve and take the next step. Women often take things personally, but our ability to listening gives us an amazing competitive advantage.

Sheila Davidson, Executive VP, Chief Legal Officer and GC of The New York Life Insurance Co., conveyed her story of repeatedly telling people that she did not feel qualified to do the job they were asking her take on, relenting and accepting that same position and in the process advancing her career. Her advice was to listen to those people who push you and tell you that you can do something. You can do it and the new skills you will learn will serve you well as you move forward and blaze your own trail.

Finally, Susan Merrill, former head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and current Partner at Bingham McCutchen, said that the two things that have been important to her in her life and career assent have been

•   public service

and

•   having dinner with her family.

One of the final words of the evening, from Susan Merrill, was: Jump, take the leap; it can be the difference between “having a job or having a career.”

Co-Chair of NYCLA’s WRC, GC of the FWA and moderator of the program was Susan Harper. She led the panel and asked questions that encouraged candor and wit.

Besides the amazing number of acronyms and Susans on the panel the advice was genuine, and the potential to follow it and in the footsteps of these trailblazing women is something I know I strive for. At the very least I know I can definitely be home for dinner!