Applying General Resume Advice to Legal Resumes

You may be wondering what general resume advice applies to in-house legal resumes in the Bay Area. Some rules apply, and others don’t. Let’s go through those listed by a hiring expert in the CNBC article “The resume mistake that will land it in the ‘no pile,’ according to a hiring expert of 30+ years.”

Are these resume mistakes landing you in the no pile?

1. Only highlight work in the last decade? I disagree with that. In-house employers generally want to know if you trained at a big firm or – if you didn’t – how you got your foundation. That’s because in-house law requires good judgment, so you need to have a strong baseline of knowledge to then decide tradeoffs between risk and growth. Also, employers of lawyers are usually on the conservative side and want to know you’re not a job hopper and have the exact skills without training; so, they want to see the trajectory that leads you to the job in question. (If you have worked a long time, you can abbreviate the earlier entries or group them together like put your private practice together and not list years.) Finally, lawyers’ backgrounds are uniquely traceable since we have to be registered with the state bar. It’s easy for a reader to look up where you went to school and when you were barred so it’s not like you can completely hide this information.
2. Not having a basic resume that you then tailor for each job. I agree it’s essential to have a good template resume, and it’s essential to line up your resume to the job you’re applying for. And, yes, tailoring “shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.” See here to update your resume in 5 minutes. And for extra credit, see here.
3. Your picture on the resume. Yes, do not put your picture on the resume. I wouldn’t say this is a good tip because it’s super rare for US lawyers to put pictures of themselves on their resume. Pictures belong on your LinkedIn profile instead. (See here for why.)
4. Details that people don’t put on resumes anymore: objective, street address, AOL email. Yes, do not put any of these things on your resume. That info on your resume won’t get you banned from a job, but they aren’t exactly helping you. The objective takes up important real estate space at the top, so lead with more relevant information like employment at a top company doing important things or impressive statistics. The street address can be replaced by metro area, and AOL emails make me wonder how tech-savvy you are.
5. Creative resumes. I agree with this: “Don’t add creativity if it comes at the cost of readability.” Lawyers should be remembered for their legal capabilities, not visual flair. Stick to one page if you are early career, and two pages for everyone else. I would add that if you have a ton of experience, do a separate deal sheet. (See also here.)