Lawyers! Get Job Ready for 2017: Update your CV

Have you decided that 2017 is the time for the next step in your career? Are you moving up? Sideways? If dragging yourself back to the office after Christmas was a bit of a chore, it might be time to move on.

During February on the Legal People blog, we are bringing you a series to get yourself job ready. We are starting with our Lawyer candidates and getting your CV into shape.

Is there is a specific role that you are pitching yourself for? If so, make sure you go through the job advertisement and highlight the keywords that stand out. These are the words you should include in your CV where they are appropriate. They should also be accurate and relevant to your career history! If the role relates to a specific area of law, then this is the experience that you should be highlighting.

Often a hiring manager or recruiter will scan your CV in the first instance. This is why you should aim for easy readability. You should come across as enthusiastic and relatable. You want them to feel like they need to get to know you better!

First let’s talk about style.

The abundance of downloadable templates on the Internet means that some people try to be too fancy. Whilst a bit of style is fine, keep the fancy fonts, colours, borders and graphics for other things. It should be on white paper with black font. Your CV should first and foremost look professional.

Ensure there is lots of white space on the page. Make use of headings and bullet points to make it easy to read. You should avoid long sentences and long paragraphs. People scan information much more easily in short sentences and bullet points.

If a job advertisement, recruiter or hiring manager asks for your CV in a particular format ie .doc or .pdf, ensure you follow these instructions. This will be the format required for screening software/ internal processes.

Essential Information:

· Your full name

· Your Contact Details

o Your contact details should include your full address. Consider whether you provide a mobile number or work phone number. If you cannot take discreet telephone calls in the office, then it should be your mobile number. Ensure that the voice mail message on your mobile phone sounds professional.

o Ensue the e-mail address you provide looks professional. You probably don’t want to be e-mailed at work so use a personal e-mail address. Check that your personal email address is not something silly from your youth!

Languages:

Include this if relevant.

Tertiary Education:

Include the University and the Degree. If you achieved Honours in your Degree it should be included here. It may help you stand out from the crowd. This is not the time to list all the subjects you studied. However, if there were any major awards or prizes you won during your studies they should be included here.

Date Admitted:

It is important to include the date you have been admitted to practise as a Lawyer. This helps a prospective employer understand your length of experience. This should be in the following format:

Eg: Admitted to practise, in Victoria, 14 February 2017

Chronological

In chronological order, list the Roles and organisations you have worked for. Your most recent role should be first.

The format should look a little like this:

1. Law Firm:

Position Title:

Division/ Area of Law/ Speciality

Dates:

Some background about the firm including what it specialises in. Include the size of the firm and the size of your team. Ensure you include any supervisory/ leadership responsibilities here.

Examples of Matters

Area of Law:

Eg. Commercial Litigation

· Include the Case, an outline of the dispute, your role in its resolution and the outcome. Include the level of autonomy with which you worked and any significant facts. If you are unable to mention the client name, describe the type of client they were.

Achievements:

This is one of the most important details of any role. Did you perform well against your budget?

Did you bring in any clients? Did you do any notable public speaking? Did you win any awards?

Were you involved in any marketing for the firm? Have you been published?

Repeat the above for the last 3-4 roles you have undertaken. If you have been with a firm for less than two years, you might like to include your reason for leaving as this will be a question an employer is likely to have.

Page Numbers

We suggest your resume should be no longer than 3-5 pages.

Professional Qualifications & Memberships:

Include memberships to professional associations and the details of your practising certificate here.

Interests:

Law firms want their employees to be well balanced, and well -rounded people, so include a couple of interests. Firms may use this information in order to determine cultural fit and leadership potential. Consider sports you follow or participate in and social activities you undertake. Don’t go overboard 3-4 is plenty.

Computer Skills:

Include any details of any legal software you are familiar with here. You should particularly include any that are widely used by other firms.

Include a section for Referees:

You can either include their details or suggest that these are available on request.

Ensure that the referees you have included are happy to refer you. This is a good time to touch base with these people so that they know you are on the lookout for a new role.

Spelling!

Please spell check it! It also helps to read over the document out loud to check your grammar and wording. Check it over again to ensure you have used the relevant key words from the job advertisement.

It can be a good idea to have one big master document for your CV. This way you can cut and paste and tailor your CV to be particularly relevant to a specific role.

So if updating your CV is on your to do list, get going! (For a resume template please visit this page on our website https://www.legalpeople.com.au/candidates/resources/ ). If you are looking for a role in Melbourne, Australia, then you can upload it to us at Legal People and we can be on the lookout for roles for you! https://www.legalpeople.com.au/candidates/submit-resume/