Career Alternatives, In-House Counsel, Job Searches

The Road Not Taken: Closing In

If you're trying to find a non-legal job, you're going to have to rewrite your résumé entirely. In-house columnist Celeste Harrison Forst has some advice on how to do that.

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resume job search applicant application lateral move lawyer associate partnerFollowing last week’s column, you should have two lists: one of things you want to do and another of things you can do.

Know what that means? It means you are ready to start looking for real jobs. Do you still have that stack of paper with job listings that you highlighted? Yes? Good. If you have a job listing that has lots of highlights, take a look at that job more closely. You may not have to work hard to find a new career option.

However, even if you are lucky enough to have a well-highlighted job description that looks like a yellow Magic 8 Ball where all signs point to yes, it makes sense to do a little more searching. The easiest and most obvious search criteria will be the same job titles, but that immediately limits your search to just that  particular job. Expand your search to the job skills that appear on both lists.

When you do your search, use the words from the job listing  list, not your list. The vocabulary for non-legal jobs is different than that for legal employment. The words you think are relevant for your new job search may not match up with those in a different sphere. Until you become fluent in the language of the non-legal job search, use the words you find in job listings to guide your search.  

After a bit of searching, you will eventually find something you want to apply to. Do not pull out your résumé and forward it on. Your legal résumé will not work for this opportunity. You have to rewrite your résumé to de-emphasize the lawyer part of your work history and emphasize your specific skills. I do not mean give your résumé a 10-minute edit. You are going to have to rewrite your whole résumé.

The résumé rewrite is necessary for two reasons. The first is the obvious disconnect between your legal résumé and what a non-legal employer is expecting to see. The second is less obvious: many organizations use software to identify résumés to be reviewed by a human. You need a résumé that will be picked up by the software that will get an actual person to give your résumé a closer look. To do this, you need to create a résumé that looks like the job description. You have to look at each requirement for the job description and find a way to use the the tools in your legal toolbox to mirror that requirement as part of your skills and experience in your résumé.

You need to do this for every job posting you apply to, unless you know for sure a human will perform the first review of résumés. Even if you know a human is performing the first-pass review, you should still follow the common wisdom and tailor your résumé to reflect the job description. You have to make it easy for the potential employer see you in the role they are hiring for.

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An easy place to find résumé guidance is the résumés of people who are doing what you want to do. Find the résumés of other people who have the job titles you are interested in (some job search engines make it possible to search résumés). What do they highlight as their accomplishments, skills, and experience? Your experience won’t match up exactly, but it will show you what people in the industry find important.

Keep in mind as you look at these résumés that you don’t have to hit each job posting requirement, just enough to get an interview.

Celeste Harrison Forst has practiced in small and mid-sized firms and is now in-house at a large manufacturing and technology company where she receives daily hugs from her colleagues. You can reach Celeste directly at [email protected].

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