CBA Record January-February 2025
Quality Job Searching in Any Market By Kathy Morris
H ow many times, over the years, have you heard the Presi dent of the United States report that “the state of our Union is strong”— even when you may think otherwise? Similarly, what if I say, “the state of the lawyer job market is strong”—but you think otherwise? While there will always be so-called “hot” or emerging practice areas in an ever-cyclical market, the fact is that the strength of the legal job market is also always relative. It may depend on your particular sector or stage; whether you are in a traditional litigation, transactional, or regu latory role; have a generalist or niche focus; or work within a new industry such as cannabis, cryptocurrency, or cybertechnology. Sometimes bankruptcy, environmental, or labor and employ ment backgrounds are in demand; other times the popular prac tices may be elder law, healthcare law, intellectual property, or mergers and acquisitions. But one thing is always true: to strengthen your odds of pre vailing sooner rather than later in the job market, you need to know how to start and sustain a quality job search. What does the word “quality” mean in the lawyer job search context? Think about it. We all learned to write a resumé in law school. And for the most part, we all learned to use the same format, no matter where we studied. I see that same resumé all the time, whether the lawyer is right out of school, mid-level, or even a senior lawyer. It’s clean (hopefully no typos), but not always clear, and hardly ever impressive. Why? Because it’s undif ferentiated. It generally focuses on tasks only, can be repetitive and lengthy, sets up a dry or even difficult interview by listing jobs in a one-after-another cavalcade… have I said enough? No?
l If you take your GPA out to three decimal points… l If you write a cover letter that asserts your belief that you’d be an ideal candidate or thanks the reader for their time and con sideration… l If your cover letter merely repeats your resumé and creates no mood… l If you think you’re networking but you never ask about the pos sibility of working with the person you’ve taken to lunch, and only seek information that doesn’t move the search along one iota… l If you get no offers after interviews that are deposition-like instead of conversational… …then you are not conducting a quality search.
28 January/February 2025
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