An Effective Legal Resume

April 18th, 2013 by Tyrone Norwood CPRW

Though sharing much in common with other professional resumes, a legal resume presents some unique challenges. It must cover essential cases and rulings from a lawyer’s career without violating the privacy and confidentiality of clients.

And as lawyers are generally specialists, their resumes must reflect their areas of specialization. The title itself is not nearly specific enough, as there are criminal lawyers, entertainment lawyers, civil lawyers, employment lawyers, tax lawyers, etc., all with unique qualifications and practices. When someone uses the term “lawyer,” a variety of images come to mind, not all of them positive.

In order to communicate your brand to HR as well as other attorneys, it is important that you craft your resume differently from the way you craft your legal briefs, while at the same time maintaining the flavor of your litigating style. Just as you may argue a point in court by offering examples and defenses, in a similar way, your resume is a sort of opening argument in the job process.


Here are a few of the essential features that must be included on a lawyer’s resume:

Summary: The opening of a legal resume isn’t much different from other professional resumes and should present a quick synopsis of your qualifications, experience, fields of study, and practice.
Recent Graduates: Competition among recent graduates for the best jobs is intense. To stand out, focus on academic results, internships, research work and simulation exercises, and seminars, webinars, and other special training attended.

Areas of Specialization: The professional experience section of the resume is similar to other resumes but more important for a lawyer, as you must clearly spell out your skills in a particular specialty (e.g., Mergers and Acquisitions or Project Finance or Industrial Amalgamations or Arbitrations, etc.).

Your profile should include a brief snapshot of your portfolio, research papers, and actual case summaries (while maintaining client confidentiality). Particularly significant results that have since become case law should be emphasized and details provided. Senior lawyers should keep in mind that academic qualifications matter but generally only during the first few years of employment.

Articles, Publications, and Awards: It is appropriate for senior lawyers to incorporate details of their citations and research work. Areas of research, contributions to public interest litigation, pleas, special citations and commendations, certifications, and special areas of study should all be included.

General Skills and Personal Strengths: The legal profession requires a number of intangible skills and these should be highlighted in the resume, including analytical, communication, and negotiation. As with other professional resumes, broad and vague statements should be avoided. Instead, provide examples and weave these intangibles into the wider scope of your accomplishments where applicable.

Additional Details: Lawyers can mention their number of billable hours and any honorary assignments that they have undertaken for community and social benefit.

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Salary Negotiations: The Lie of Leverage and the Pursuit of Gain

April 4th, 2013 by Tyrone Norwood CPRW

A pay hike or a salary increase is something every professional eagerly looks forward to.

Many professionals, however, wait to renegotiate their salary with their existing employer until after they have received an offer from another employer, using it as leverage. This is generally not the best idea, as many people who accept a counteroffer and stay at their current company inevitably leave within a matter of months. This stems from a number of factors:

  1. By even contemplating another offer, you have shown disloyalty and the company will treat you accordingly going forward.
  2. If your company knows you are entertaining other offers, they will likely build their plans for the department and organization without you. They will utilize the time they bought by giving you a raise to find your replacement.
  3. You will likely find yourself at the end of the line when it comes to future pay increases and/or promotions, which will encourage you to leave on your own.

The fact is that employers do not want to lose experienced, talented, and loyal employees to rival firms and thus it is not generally necessary to obtain that sort of leverage. A salary negotiation discussion can commence with either a direct conversation with your boss or with the human resources department, depending on your company’s structure. Here are a few tips to take your salary negotiation forward:

  1. Be clear about what why you think you deserve the increase. HR managers are used to salary increase requests coming in from employees at all levels. They will not necessarily be inclined to give an increase unless it is justified (and having problems paying your mortgage will, unfortunately, not be sufficient; neither will complaints about other workers making more than you, for whatever reason). It is important, therefore, to provide concrete examples of your achievements, typically, though not always, through a direct employee evaluation.
  2. Be aware of your own worth and do your best to invest in its increase. Build your skill set via training, education, and certification, acquiring skills that may be transferable to other jobs in the future. This will not only help you become more indispensable to your current team but also to your company as a whole and may provide you the background to transition into a new department or into a manager role in the future (bringing with it an increase in salary).
  3. When entering negotiations, do not start off by giving a specific number or percentage. Employers will often ask for this information upfront but it’s generally best to avoid the temptation to provide it. Instead, begin by showing what you have done in the past year and what you plan to do in the coming months and years for the company and ask the employer what he or she believes those past and future achievements are worth. This will get the negotiations started and by then bringing in industry figures, past salary history, etc., you will be in a firm position from which to negotiate the best possible increase. Be polite but firm. This isn’t Oliver Twist asking “Please, sir, may I have some more?”; you deserve it.
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Creating an Impressive CV

March 21st, 2013 by Tyrone Norwood CPRW

The curriculum vitae is a professional document designed to present the entire scope and content of a professional’s career. This format is mostly used in medical or academic professions (and also overseas) so as to highlight research projects, journals, citations, etc. The format of a CV is similar to a professional resume; however, the CV is often much longer, being far more comprehensive, and generally includes details that a resume would not.

The CV allows for a more free flowing format and style than a standard resume, and each profession or field has variations on what’s included. There are certain standard features, however, that a CV should have, and certain strategies you should use to artfully present your information, including:

• Highlight the most relevant and sought after qualifications, skills, projects, and research right at the beginning, in order to grab the attention of recruiters and hiring managers.

• An educational summary in reverse chronological order is recommended. For fresh or junior applicants, it is important to mention academic grades, internship credentials, awards, and dissertation summaries. For experienced and mid-career professionals, it is more important to mention citations and academic and research papers written or quoted, with clear mention of the journal or university to ensure the credibility of the claim and to augment the achievement.

• Brief summaries of the challenges and outcomes of important projects and research assignments is also important. The placement of these summaries should not disrupt the overall flow of the document.

• Unlike a resume, it is common to mention recommendations and references directly on a CV, alongside awards and medals. Make sure these are relevant to the position and don’t be afraid to name drop if you have recommendations from important people in the field.

• Avoid the temptation to overuse academic jargon unless it is relevant and helpful for explaining your credentials.

• A neat and crisp presentation is essential. It is not considered professional to add lots of colors, unusual fonts, or graphics to the document. Be judicious with your use of bullet points: while they are helpful for organizing content, too many will break up the flow of the text and make the document appear much longer than it actually is.

• While there is no defined length for a CV, and details are essential, do not allow the document to become too long. A very long CV does not reflect clarity of thought and busy hiring managers may only have a minute or two to read it. It is therefore important to highlight and emphasize the skills and background that clearly illustrate why you are the best candidate for the role.

• As this document represents the overall scope of your career, and is likely the first thing an organization will see, it is important that it contain honest, consistent, and accurate information. Make sure to spell check the document to ensure that no inadvertent errors have slipped in and be sure to avoid the temptation to expand or inflate your achievements.

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Application Tracking Software – Brings Out the Robot in You

March 7th, 2013 by Tyrone Norwood CPRW

Job seeking is challenging and often leads to frustration. Professionals browse for the right jobs, keep an eye out for profile fits, and send in their resume expectantly but often do not receive a response, any response, from the myriad of job boards they apply to. The main reason that your resume may not be soliciting a response is because it is being read first by companies’ Application Tracking Software (ATS), which is promptly filtering your resume into oblivion before human eyes ever see it.

ATS is a software application that enables the electronic handling of applications according to a predetermined search criteria based on keywords or other qualifications. To get a response for your resume, it is important to understand that resume design is as important as resume content. In fact, for online applications, it is even more important than the content, as most times it is the ATS which will scan the application first and not the recruiter and may discard it for trivial or technical reasons.



Meet Your New Robotic Hiring Manager

So what can be done to ensure that the ATS picks your resume and passes it along instead of junking it? Here are some simple rules to follow that will maximize your success when dealing with the “robots”:

  • Generic resumes do not work well with an ATS system. Your resume must utilize words from the job description or it will be declined immediately. This means that each time you apply for a job, you need to “tweak“ your resume to match what the job is looking for, using its terminology (even if you utilize slightly different wording at your current role).
  • Avoid images, shading, graphics, special effects, arrows, and any other special characters. Stick to simple text and numbers on the resume (and you can’t go wrong with bullet points). Use of images just confuses the ATS and it may reject your resume as a result. And if you are attaching a photo of yourself, that’s a big HR no-no in the first place, as it can lead to all sorts of hiring discrimination and bias issues.
  • For your resume, only use standard fonts like Arial, Georgia, Calibri, or similar that are commonly used on the web and easy to read. Use Word format, not PDF!
  • Always include a carefully worded professional summary, which should also incorporate important keywords from the job description.
  • Use spell check on your resume. Words that are not recognized in standard dictionaries will not be picked up by the software so proofread your resume as well. Where use of acronyms is necessary, ensure that the explanation is provided alongside to maximize search fit percentages.
  • Don’t ignore designations, titles, and relevant certifications. They attract attention and are likely to be keywords in the ATS.
  • Contact information should always be at the top so the recruiter knows where to reach you once the ATS has chosen your resume to be short listed. It is now common to have more than one page in a resume but it is important to ensure that the first page of the resume has all the contact details and keywords in case the second page is misplaced.
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Negotiating Salary

February 21st, 2013 by Tyrone Norwood CPRW

Salary negotiation skills must be an essential component of every professional’s career toolbox if they are going to achieve new levels of earning power. Negotiating salary, however, is never an easy task, especially when a professional is highly motivated, if not desperate, to take the job, or any job. Salary negotiations can be quite intimidating unless they are conducted in a prudent and productive manner. Even though you might deserve a better salary, it is extremely important to convey this fact in an appropriate way to a potential employer.

One of the most important aspects of salary negotiation is knowing what you might expect from a potential employer and understanding what you are wiling to accept. If the employer lists a number or a range on a job ad, go with that. If there is a recruiter involved in the process, ask the recruiter. You should also determine, in advance, the lowest level of compensation you will accept, beneath which you will be ready to walk away from the table. This ensures that you will be prepared for any offers that may come and that you will not accept, even verbally, any offer you may later regret.

Do not rush into negotiating salary during the interview process; rather, be patient and wait until the job has been offered to you. In case you are required to provide compensation expectations in advance, you must be vague and offer a salary range suitable to the job or industry, indicating that the compensation package is dependent on the specifications of the job. Never pinpoint your ideal compensation while there are other candidates still in the candidate pool. Wait for the potential employer to provide you with a starting number from which you can then begin negotiating your salary.

You must be well-informed about the fair market value of your skills and expertise and also of the position that you are seeking. Research what the company’s competitors are paying for the same job. Even though you will probably not tell a potential employer what their competitors are paying, you can always use the information to determine how far you can go during negotiations.

You should also cite examples from your past achievements to use as leverage in the process. Emphasize to the hiring manager what you can bring to the team, the ideas that you already have for making improvements, and the successes that define your background up until today.

It is extremely important that as a candidate you understand the financial position of the company as well as the budget for the position that you are seeking. If the company is financially stable, expanding, or is having difficulty filling the role for some reason, you can always negotiate for a hike in the offered compensation; however, if the company does not have much flexibility or you are already aware that the department is making cutbacks elsewhere, it is always best to be reasonable and not attempt to drive the compensation above where you believe the employer is willing to go.

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Improving Networking Success

February 6th, 2013 by Tyrone Norwood CPRW

Networking is an art and a skill. It’s an easy skill to learn but a difficult art to master. The simplicity of networking is that there are ample opportunities available, whether in your community, your company, or your industry. In fact, every time you meet with anyone, you’re basically networking whether or not your realize it or take advantage of it. What is needed is to learn to employ the right strategies to get the most out of each engagement.

Experts say that professional networking should be treated differently from social functions like partying with your friends after work. Social functions can also be wonderful networking opportunities but the protocol to be followed is different in each case. Here are a few simple Do’s and Don’ts for achieving success in your networking endeavors:

  • Do carry a lot of business cards to pass out at social, business, and networking forums. This will allow for future follow-up opportunities and by exchanging cards with others, you won’t have to be surreptitiously taking notes the whole time in order to remember contact information.
  • Do dress appropriately for the situation. A business dinner requires formal business attire, whereas a public event or a social setting might only necessitate smart and casual.
  • Don’t forget to wear your most important accessory – a calm and smiling face!
  • Make an effort to look and appear approachable. If you are always on the phone at the event, not much networking is going to happen so keep your phone on silent for awhile and direct your important calls to someone who can attend to them while you are busy.
  • Strike up conversations with people you do not know by seeking out common interests and gradually steering the topic to your business or your personal brand pitch.
  • It is important to have a one minute personal brand statement ready for these types of events. The statement should be simple, honest, concise, and well-rehearsed, without sounding scripted or memorized, of course. If you are presented with an opportunity to speak with a hiring manager of a company you want to work for, or with a prospective new client, it pays to be prepared and able to express yourself and your brand quickly and succinctly.
  • Send a polite “nice to meet you” note within 48 hours of having met a person (this being another important reason to exchange business cards). Make a note of who the person was and what opportunities may exist with that person. If your email is not acknowledged or answered within a few days, try following up, but as you don’t want to appear desperate or aggressive, if they do not respond after 2-3 attempts, it’s best to slip the contact into your “do not contact” category and move on (perhaps looking to meet up again at future events).
  • Do not spend more than ten minutes with one person; that should be sufficient time to know if your contact has the potential of being a long-term connection or not. If the conversation is dragging and has long pauses, politely move on and seek out others. However, if the conversation is going well and you are enjoying the direction it is going, agree to meet up at a later date, in a venue more conducive to serious and in-depth topics.
  • Don’t do all the talking, especially if you find yourself talking mostly about yourself. On the other hand, don’t continue a conversation that appears to be dragging on, with long uncomfortable pauses.
  • Remember that networking is not a job or something to check off your to-do list. When you interact with people at these events, it should not appear that you are just going through the motions and you should never give the impression that you’re just in it to take from everyone else for your own benefit. Network to help out others as much as you want them to help you.
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Your Resume – Summary vs. Objective

January 24th, 2013 by Tyrone Norwood CPRW

The days of writing a career objective are long over. The objective was traditionally reserved for recent graduates or professionals changing fields or industries to indicate to hiring managers the kind of position they wanted, as this might not be immediately apparent from their resume since it would either have little experience or unrelated experience. It soon became fashionable for everyone to write a career objective at the beginning of their resume. However, most recruiters rightly point out that hiring managers don’t want to know what a job seeker wants from an employer but what the job seeker can offer to the employer.

It is now standard procedure to include a brief summary rather than an objective. The summary is designed to provide the employer a quick snapshot of what you have done and for how long, outlining your strengths, skills, and expertise (especially intangibles).

Summary or Objective of a Resume

It is important to know what a summary statement should include, as there is no set format and templates should be avoided. Some of the key ingredients are:

- Mention your industry, your work experience in years, and the kinds of companies you have worked for.

e.g., Financial Services, 20 years, private and public sector, Fortune 500, etc.

- Include important functional and vertical skills or expertise you demonstrate.

e.g., back office, service delivery, music composition, lyricist, accounting, software specialist, etc.

It is also important to include keywords from the description of the job that you are applying for. Otherwise, while the human element (HR) might be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, that you have some possible relevance to the job, the Application Tracking Software surely won’t and you’ll be filtered out before they even see your resume.

- An executive summary should not attempt to confuse or deceive the reader. It must be honest and consistent with the rest of the resume. Be concise and avoid generalizations. Think of it as a quick road map to what the hiring manager will be reading further below.

- The summary should be just that: a summary. It should summarize the details and the breadth of your career and resume. And it should be able to convey your background in less than 20 seconds.

Problems occasionally arise, however, when a professional is attempting to move into an adjacent profession, such as when a musician wants to be a lyricist or a teacher is applying for a role as a personal trainer or tutor. The goal then is to make the employer understand that you have transferable skills that are applicable to the role for which you are applying, even though you don’t have any or much direct experience. The summary can be an excellent place to accomplish this, as it will explain the situation immediately to the hiring manager and provide the lenses through which the hiring manager should read the rest of your resume.

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Crafting Your Online Presence

January 10th, 2013 by Tyrone Norwood CPRW

The average person is spending more time on the internet than they ever before. Life revolves around social media accounts like Twitter, Naymz, Linkedin, and Facebook. In reality, having a profile on any of these social media sites is like virtually exposing yourself to the world and they can be just as important to your online image as your attire and manner are to your offline image. Therefore, you need to keep these accounts well-managed, updated at all times, and free from images or information that might put you in a bad light.

Social media is a great way to make initial contact with potential business associates and to effectively manage a much larger network than would be possible offline. It is also likely that, unbeknownst to you, your social media profiles are being checked by prospective and current employers, head hunters, and so forth. Thus, social media is a double-edged sword: it can work for your benefit but if not managed properly can lead to missed job opportunities or even termination.

The best way to work with social media is to ensure it works positively for you at all times. The following tips will help you receive the maximum benefit from your online presence and avoid negative results:

  1. Avoid uploading inappropriate photos. A holiday snapshot with your family is fine but one where you are improperly dressed or engaged in inappropriate activity (drinking, partying, etc.) might damage your professional image. With the internet, these sorts of things can potentially go viral in a hurry and you should never assume anything is private after you’ve posted it somewhere on the net.

  2. Be careful about giving your opinions and views on certain subjects in public places. You’ve probably seen a number of celebrities and public figures lately who have regretted posting something on Twitter that ended up costing them a great deal, even their jobs.

  3. If you maintain a personal blog, understand that it may be visited by anyone in the world (including your boss). It is best to keep the content unbiased and steer away from any racist, political, or religious issues or negative comments about the company you work for (or your boss, for that matter). You could also utilize your blog to discuss relevant industry topics and as a place to show off your technical knowledge.

A consistent online presence is important and even some modest efforts will help ensure that your online brand matches not only your offline image but also the professional persona you want to portray to the world. With recruiters and potential employers lurking about the web, it pays to be prudent and proactive.

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Making a Career Change – What to do and what to avoid

December 6th, 2012 by Tyrone Norwood CPRW

Change, it is said, is the only constant in the universe, and the same goes for your personal life and for your career.

Sometimes, we are forced to adapt to change abruptly and at other times we have the luxury to plan for it in advance. Though a career change, especially a major one, can be a challenging process, it can also be extremely rewarding, if it is conducted properly and with the right attitude. It can be as complex as moving from accounting to lion taming or perhaps just to banking. Here are a few important things to keep in mind as you plan:

  • The first step towards your goal is to steel your resolve to pursue an alternative career option. You may be giving up a lot (money, job security, a wonderful work environment, etc.). But having made the decision, it is important to start winding down and disengaging from your current role as soon as possible in order to start the process of transitioning to your new field. You should begin researching and reading about relevant topics, joining industry forums, shadowing people who work in the field, participating in networking events, and so forth. Engage with your new career as deeply as you did your old.

  • Timing of a career change is also important. Sometimes the trigger to change does not happen at the most opportune time. Sometimes it may coincide with financial difficulties, the birth of a first child, or caring for sick family members. All of these could demand your time, energy, and money. Think carefully about what you can do to make the best of your circumstances and you might have to delay, if you have that option, until your situation improves.

  • You need to know what you want to do, have a grasp of what skills you have that are applicable to your new field, and determine what gaps need to be filled in before you move ahead. You’ll often need to acquire additional tools, resources, qualifications, and certifications in order to compete with other candidates, which can be time-consuming and expensive. Do your best to obtain these necessary items before leaving your current job, if possible. Be patient with yourself, as in many ways you are starting from scratch.

  • Finally, a career change can take longer than planned and it will likely take even longer to achieve the kind of success that you had in mind when you started (or that you had in your old job). Don’t get discouraged! You made this decision because you felt strongly that it was in your best interests and best served your long-term career and personal goals. Stay focused, keep making progress, and plan ahead as much as possible, and no matter your age or your goal, your career change is obtainable.

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Linkedin – Endorsements

November 23rd, 2012 by Tyrone Norwood CPRW

LinkedIn has recently launched a new Skills Endorsement feature on their website, to compliment their existing Recommendation option. Both are meant to get external validation of an individual’s profile, work history, background, education, and more.

While Recommendations are more general and allow for more extensive explanations and interaction, the new Skills Endorsement feature instead focuses on targeting particular skills an individual has. So if you have a particular talent for tax compliance, for example, and a former colleague wants to emphasize or recommend your proficiency in that skill, rather than filling out a long Recommendation, he or she can simply “endorse” your skill.

Here are a few tips to make the best use of this new feature:

Identify Key Skills on Your Profile: It is important to highlight the key skills you possess in the “Skills & Expertise” section of your profile so people can endorse them. Each skill will be listed separately, with the professionals who have endorsed them pictured to the right (for the top 10). Skills are initially listed in random order but as people endorse them, they are ordered by the number of endorsers, from highest to lowest. Thus, in a graphic way, people who visit your profile will immediately know which skills you are best known for by seeing which skills have the most endorsements.

Skill Suggestions: In addition to endorsing existing skills on your profile, this feature also allows for others to suggest relevant skills that they believe you possess that you haven’t mentioned (especially those all important “cross-functional skills” that we always take for granted). This helps to expand your profile and provides a collaborative work space for self-actualization.

Enhanced Visibility: The advantage of using the Skills Endorsement feature is that it raises your visibility on the LinkedIn network. Every time you add a skill to your profile, it gets added to your LinkedIn homepage timeline (which others on your network can see). There are also options to endorse skills, like them, or comment about them right on your homepage.

Endorse and Get Endorsed: When someone endorses your skills, it gets shown on their activity timeline and your own, thereby increasing the possibility of their contacts and others visiting your profile (which can be very important if you are passively looking for a job). And the same is true when you endorse someone else. So it’s equally useful for networking purposes to endorse other people as it is to be endorsed.

Acknowledgement of Endorsement: It is important to thank those who have endorsed your skills. One way of doing so is to use the “Like” button on the LinkedIn timeline. You should also reciprocate and endorse their skills in return.

Using the Skills Endorsement feature helps raise the visibility and credibility of your profile on the LinkedIn network and the earlier you start, the more impact it will have.

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