Thinking About the Job Hunt? What You Should Be Doing This Summer

What law students aren’t thinking about the job hunt these days! Whether you are a rising 2L or 3L, there are things you can do this summer to make sure you are moving forward with your job hunt.

Get Your Resume in Order

No law student should have an out-of-date resume. You want to make sure your resume is in tip-top form before you send it out to anyone. How do you get it in tip-top form? Well, you need to thoughtfully draft it, get feedback on it, and perfect it. We frequently give students feedback on their resumes and there are a few common mistakes that I see over and over again.

First, there are typos or formatting errors. These are really inexcusable. You never want to submit a resume to a networking contact or a job without making sure it is perfect and free from errors. So how do you do that? Well, get different people to proofread it, if necessary. I have had students send me resumes with mistakes and then claim that someone in career services proofed it so it must be okay. Well, hopefully, career services can help you out and give you feedback, but ultimately you are responsible for your resume. So make sure your first impression on paper is a good one.

And Be Sure to Network!

Networking is critical to the job hunt these days. And networking today isn’t exactly like the networking of yesterday. It used to be that you could get away with going to a few events here and there and handing out business cards. Today, you need to be more proactive. But it may be easier than you think to get started with your networking. If you haven’t done much networking up until now, this summer is a great opportunity to get going.

Online Networking

There is quite a bit of networking you can do online these days. Are you active on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook? If not, we have handy tools to help you make the most of these networking tools. You can check out our series on online networking:

• Online Legal Networking: LinkedIn
• Online Legal Networking: Twitter
• Online Legal Networking: Facebook

There really isn’t any excuse not to use online networking tools during the summer. No matter where you are located, you can spend time reaching out to people and increasing your online presence.

In-Person Networking

There is plenty of networking you can do over the summer in person as well. You can set up informational interviews or just try to meet up with people for coffee (but be careful not to make this networking mistake). When you meet with people, it is important to keep in mind good things to talk about (and to remember to be a nice person, not an asshole). You should try to attend some events and meet people with interests similar to yours. Once you meet them, you can follow our handy-dandy template for sending networking emails. Seriously, folks, this stuff isn’t rocket science, but you do need to set an intention to make time for networking.

Some law students still think they don’t have enough time to network. We would argue that is simply not the case. Networking doesn’t take a ton of time, but it can have huge payoffs.

I know there are a ton of other things you might want to spend time doing this summer, but don’t ignore the job hunt. You will thank yourself later.

—

Want more tips on law school? Sign up for our free mailing list today.

And check out these helpful posts:

• How to Use the Summer to Jumpstart Your Job Search
• When Networking, Ask for Help!
• Job Hunting 101: Get Out and Meet People
• Project a Consistent Image

Photo: Racorn/Shutterstock