Top Ten CV Tips for Getting a Legal Job
By Robert Proctor 1. Keep it brief its easy to go into too much detail when creating your CV. Its worth realising that there could hundreds of people applying for the position, the person compiling the shortlist will be scanning. Make sure your resume is never more than two pages of A4 and dont make the font too small. 2. Dont Lie the worse thing you can do in a CV is lie. It might help you get an interview but you will get found out eventually. The law industry is relatively small; there might be an old colleague at the new firm. Its a risk thats never worth taking. 3. Dont Include Irrelevant Old Jobs its never going to be useful for a potential employer to know when you were 13 you had a job doing a paper round. Keep the work experience relevant. Include full time jobs and part time ones which offered relevant experience. 4. Vary the Language theres nothing more boring than a repetitive CV, Dont start every job description with responsible for it makes you seem unimaginative & uncreative. There is a built in thesaurus in Microsoft Word so you have no excuse! 5. Make it Easy to Read Dont overload the page, instead, split the content up into understandable categories with easy to read titles. It helps people find the info they are after and help you stand out from other people with crowded & dense documents. 6. Dont be too Flashy it might seem like a good idea to print onto luminous paper or include a large glossy photo but it isnt. It will make you seem like a show-off and unprofessional. Not qualities many legal firms are looking for in candidates. 7. Dont Be Vague its an easy trap to fall into when describing your experience not to go into much detail, however being too evasive can work against you. Let the potential employer know exactly what you do and what results you have achieved. 8. Get a Second Opinion the best piece of advice on creating a CV for a legal firm is to gain a second opinion. No matter how great you are at writing, a second pair of eyes will be able to spot mistakes you and your spell checker have missed. Similarly theyll be able to judge the tone and style of the CV much more objectively. Make sure they are honest though! 9. Guarantee there are no misspellings Check as many times as humanly possible. Never rely on your word processors spell check, especially for grammar. Poor grammar and bad spelling will count against you no matter how qualified or suited you are to the job. 10. Customise for each Application sometimes youll find yourself sending out lots of job applications at once, even so its always worth taking a few minutes to customise the CV to the job you are applying for. Look at the skills in the job description and make sure youve featured every one in your CV, sometimes it is even worth changing the wording to the same as in the job description. It shows youve paid attention to their advert and shows them you are exactly what they are looking for. Robert Proctor works Legal Week Jobs, a website specialising in legal jobs including, legal secretary, solicitor & law graduate jobs. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Proctor http://EzineArticles.com/?Top-Ten-CV-Tips-for-Getting-a-Legal-Job&id=472308 1055mbna credit card debt elimination1520 legally eliminating credit card debt eliminating debt services eliminate credit card debt without paying
