By Jared D. Correia
Finding a job is hard work. Finding
a job you like is harder work still. And finding a job you like in
the middle of the economic crisis in which we are now mired may be
the hardest work of all, perhaps the hardest job anyone has had in
a long time. This is equally true for those trying to find their
first job, for those looking to transition jobs or careers or for
those seeking their last job, before retirement. No industry has
been left unaffected, as job slashing and salary cutting are
superficially effective measures for combating losses in other
sectors. Within the legal profession, finding a new job may seem
nigh impossible, especially in Massachusetts. This past year, the
commonwealth saw an 86.4 percent bar passage rate for the July
test, the results of which indicate that there will be scads of
attorneys joining the job hunt here at the dawn of 2009. But, the
dawn brings with it enlightenment.
The fact of the matter is that, has
always been that, finding a job is possible in almost any economic
climate. And, finding a job becomes more and more likely, more
probable, when the correct investment is made in the process.
Regardless of the interruption, recession or depression, companies
will always choose the candidates who make the best general
impression following the application and interview(s).
Opportunities may shrink, but that only means that your job seeking
skills must be more finely sharpened, further refined, such that
you might slip in through your limited windows of opportunity, when
they become opened for you. You must be a lean and mean job
searching machine.
Everything on Earth seems to be more
sophisticated than it was but 10 years ago. And, the job
application process has not been left unaffected, either. If
everyone else is increasing their savvy, moxie and technical
abilities, so should you, lest you be left behind, with your
graying, antiquated skills. It is no longer enough to send the same
resume, even if you have printed it upon the finest linen paper, to
each job offering you run across. There is much, much more to
today's job seeking. And, you don't have to have a job posting in
front of you to begin. You can start as early as you want to, even
if you want to start the day you walk into law school for the first
time.
But, all of this requires rethinking
the ways in which we approach searching for a job; most especially,
it requires us to change our attitude toward the job searching
process, so that we might remake ourselves over, from passive
participants in our careers to proactive managers of our careers.
Fortunately, the leap is assisted: there is an aid for study.
The fifth edition incarnation of the
American Bar Association (hereinafter "the ABA") treatise on
finding a legal job,
The
At times, this book does read like a
how-to written by the child of an unholy union between Friedrich
Nietzsche and Vince Lombardi. But, once you grasp the overarching
concepts that the authors seek to drive home, you may process to
the nuts-and-bolts directory, remembering Plato as only a colorful
modeling clay. And, there is plenty here to sink your teeth
into.
The
In addition to the headline topics
generally covered by the
In any economic climate, those who get the jobs will separate
themselves most effectively from their competitors during the job
application and interview processes. In an economic recession,
during which the job market reveals itself in fits and starts, and
through concealed cracks and shafts of daylight, separation becomes
more distinct and hierarchies of skills and attributes are more
closely analyzed and tiered. It will still be that those who get
the jobs will be those who separate themselves most effectively
from their competitors; but, the margin for error will be reduced.
Now you are the student attempting to get into an Ivy League
college by proving to the administration that this is the year that
they must provide a scholarship to the tuba playing high school
javelin star with an interest in invertebrate biology, which figure
is cut by you, and you alone. In the same way, you must convince
your targeted legal employers that you are the only one who suits
their needs.
The Legal Career Guide: From Law Student to Lawyer, is
ostensibly a chronological recording of steps to be taken by law
students in order that they might one day find the legal career
that they have always dreamed of. And, if you take up the text, and
read from cover to cover, that is exactly what you will find. Such
a review could result in looks of disdain covering the features of
law school graduates, and practicing attorneys, who might feel as
though they have missed the boat, and are now left without a life
preserver, by virtue of the mere chance that they did not start law
school in 2008. The authors of the text (ABA stalwarts Gary A.
Munneke and Ellen Wayne), though, warn against such a limited
reading. They insist that readers should pick out sections of the
book as they need them, such that those who inquire of the text in
this way will begin to hold in their hands not a stuffy legal text,
but a field guide for the job search, to be accessed at any point
in the job search, and by any law student or attorney seeking a new
position. Viewed in this light, the advice is generic enough to the
legal profession that it may be applied to various life
circumstances, from those prevailing upon the student to those
prevailing upon the old salt, to those prevailing upon everyone in
between.Guide's greatest strength resides in its three-pronged
lesson, consisting of the following trident points: be yourself;
prepare yourself; work hard. It is a humanist application of the
ideal of the Trappist monastery. Before you may reach to the
specific lessons for job searching robustly covered in the
Guide, you must find the wisdom left for you at the very top of
the mountain. The points are simple, but rest on solid bedrock. How
are you to know what job you want unless you know what your own
values are? How are you to sell yourself as a unique person unless
you know what skills you, and only you, possess? Know Thyself.
And, Introduce Thyself to Others, sayeth the Guide. How can you
know whether you wish to work at a company unless you have
researched it thoroughly beforehand? How can you expect to know
what to say in an interview for a judicial clerkship if you have
not reviewed that specific form of interviewing, and have done no
research on the proclivities of the particular judge and
court? Preparation is Nine-Tenths of the Law. Why Wouldn't You
Treat an Interview Like an Important Case? Measure Nine Times, Cut
Once, thunders the voice of Gary Munneke, from the mountain. You
thought law school was hard, involving intense study and grueling
hours, and yet you think that somehow the legal job search will be
different? Your work as an attorney involves intense concentration
and grueling hours, and yet you think finding a new job will
somehow be different? Finding a Legal Job Is a Full-Time Job
Unto Itself. Best to Ora et Labora. Then Labora Some More. Thus
spake Ellen Wayne.Guide will show you how to make the best
analysis, from the point in time at which you stand, as to what the
appropriate direction of your career should be. The answer will be
determined by your own values, your interpretation of your skills
and your assessment of the job market. The Guide will show you
how to look for jobs, and how to decide which one to take, by
showing you how to draft a resume, research employers, create a
network and interview effectively. Along the way, you will pick up
helpful hints about the hiring process for law firms and other
entities, you will find out where to look for aid should your
search falter or waiver and you will learn how to manage the
setbacks that inevitably occur during the job searching process.
You will be reminded that a setback is not a termination. You will
be buoyed, once more, to start anew, with renewed determination to
find a career, and not just a temporary paycheck, despite how
tempting it might give in to immediacy, with responsibilities and
debt bringing their crush bearing down upon you. The Guide
will also provide you with a thorough review of where the legal
marketplace stands, and where it is going, such that you may yoke
your knowledge of the present legal scheme with an expert's peek
into the future of the legal world, in order to determine what your
next career choice will be, and how it will lead you to where you
will end up, further on down the road.Guide, there are
simply-presented nuggets of practical advice that are recognized as
golden upon the closer inspection of a determined alchemist. As a
non-exhaustive sampling list: the authors promote this ideal that
attorneys are unique individuals, with special skills to sell in
the marketplace - this explodes the notion that law school strips
away identity, and leaves the remaining humans as lawyer-drones,
who are replaceable, interchangeable parts; the authors insist that
the earlier and more effectively lawyers and law students can
access their unique, job-transferable skills, the more options they
can create for themselves in a changing marketplaces - this
seemingly goes without saying, and is undeniably true, yet this
dramatic tool for success is ill-used, if used at all; young
lawyers should understand that their first assignments may
determine the course of their legal career - so they should take
care in deciding what initial work they should accept; attorneys
should always be mindful of the business aspect weighing upon all
practices - the law is not an entirely theoretical exercise in the
real world; the authors refer to the interviewing of employers, and
not the other way around - this is a hammer in the toolbox of the
enterprising attorney, who wishes to reduce his nervousness, or,
further, to reverse the power structure inherent in the traditional
interview. Beyond these strings of pearls stretching across the
pages of the Guide (making careful reading a must, for you
know now what you will miss when you divert your attention),
readers should take care not to dismiss the Appendices. The
Appendices alone are worth the price of admission. Appendix A
provides a clearinghouse of online and paper resources that will
assist in every aspect of the job search. This listing of vetted
sources is essential for building your career planning information
base. Appendix D is instructive for its lists of "real-life" duties
attendant upon specific attorney positions, so that you may find
out just what your employer may not tell you: exactly what you are
getting into. Appendix D also implicitly underscores another theme
running through the Guide: that the future of the legal
profession (and where the money is at, incidentally) lies in
specialization. The growing complexities of the modern world must
be discreetly argued by someone: that someone is the
lawyer.The Legal Career Guide: From Law Student to Lawyer will
help you to make that argument a winning one.