Career Tips

Market is Hot Now, But How to Tell When It Will Turn!

  • On August 2, 2019
The job market is red hot now (especially for lawyers), but economists are keeping an eye out for the next recession (what goes up must come down!). It will be obvious for lawyers when the legal downturn will be — lawyers are laid off after business people. The lag is due to our being a […]
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Cover Letter

Take Advantage of Summer & Get Your Cover Letter in Order!

  • On July 27, 2019
Summer is the perfect time to think about where you want to work and what you have to offer. Once you have that down, get in order your LinkedIn page and your resume. Next you should create your basic cover letter. Crafting one is easy since you have already thought through what skills you offer to […]
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Resume

During Summer Doldrums, Fix Your Resume!

  • On July 18, 2019
After your LinkedIn profile, your resume is the second most important thing to fix. You should always have a presentable resume handy because you never know when opportunities will arise. I have seen good candidates miss out when it takes them a week to pull together a basic resume. Take the time now to get […]
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Career Tips

Top 10 Crowd-Sourced Career Tips

  • On July 5, 2019
I’m sure you’ve heard how crowdsourcing makes information more accurate. So I’m sharing the best work advice collected by the New York Times from the masses this past year. (See https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/smarter-living/best-advice-youve-ever-received.html and https://nyti.ms/2FXUv0w.) From fellow smart human beings on their best lesson learned about their career: Prepare questions for the interview. You will get dinged […]
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Career Management

Executive Coaching for Lawyers: 5 Take-Aways

  • On June 23, 2019
I recently attended a fantastic talk sponsored by APABA-SV featuring Linda Lee, Manager of Career Development at Wilson Sonsini. A Stanford Law grad and former WSGR associate herself, she has coached over 200 associates at the firm. She explained what coaches do: coaches help clients set and achieve professional goals after understanding their values, strengths, […]
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Recruiter

3 Things about Recruiters You Didn’t Know

  • On June 16, 2019
Here are three things I didn’t know about recruiters until I became one! Most companies will not accept your resume from an external recruiter if you ever applied there in the past, for any office and for any position. The employer’s rationale is it already knows you so why would it give the recruiter credit? […]
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Interview

Surviving Ultralong Interview Processes

  • On June 9, 2019
Most companies have long, painful interview processes. A super quick search from job posting to offer still takes about four weeks, and can easily be double or triple that. I completely agree with this article on how to manage successfully a long interview process. Ask what the interview process is like. The typical process starts […]
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Resume

What Conventional Wisdom to Apply to Legal Resumes (and What to Skip!)

  • On June 2, 2019
Advice on resumes abounds, but not everything applies to legal resumes since law is a conservative and niche space. Below I clarify what pieces of conventional wisdom you should follow and which you should disregard. Traditional advice on length holds true. Keep your resume one to two pages max: one page for anyone 10 years […]
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