A reluctant convert to the electronic age shares an "up close and personal" look at how one school conducts student computer training.
A workshop can help students overcome their fear of networking.
New tools can help students build a strategic online presence as well as assisting in their job searches.
If you would like to teach law students and lawyers to stop committing social gaffes on social media (and perhaps learn more about social media yourself), the NALP E-Guides on E-Professionalism can help.
Learning to mindfully focus attention on the task at hand boost success at every stage of the job search, from applications through interviews, while also helping to relieve stress.
Most students may think they don't have time to build a professional network but career counselors can help them understand how to get there with one contact, one hour, one step at a time.
Some tips on interviewing from hiring partners and recruitment managers.
By teaching students the theories behind our decision-making process on résumé revisions, we can teach them to fish, as opposed to catching the fish for them.
"Plugged in" Millennials need to be encouraged to take advantage of all networking opportunities, not merely those online.
Here are some tips and free tools to help both career counselors and students manage the information flow.
A career counselor offers job search advice to a graduate.
As with government agencies and nonprofit organizations, private public interest firms offer students the opportunity to use their law degree as a tool to advocate for the public interest, but how do students identify opportunities and conduct successful job searches?
Informational interviewing is especially vital to a public service job search. Here are five tips to share with students.
Kudos to those of us who counsel students on public service careers — we have helped to get the word out about this important and stable sector. So, now what? How do CSOs support these enthusiastic students and prepare them for the federal job search?
Firms are finding themselves in an even more competitive environment for top candidates. Use these methods to improve your process.
Cybele Smith and Jim Tomaszewski explain the importance of listing your law school’s job openings on PSJD.org.
Web-based enterprises offer JD students and graduates an unprecedented opportunity to circulate their resumes electronically. Here are some tips for avoiding pitfalls (and some explanations for those who wonder why some resumes appear the way they do).
InterviewStream and MediaNotes are helpful but different mock interview tools CSOs can use in student training.
Career services professionals can guide students to write more mature and persuasive cover letters by being alert to this "invisible elephant."
5 tips for job searches in a difficult market
Career counselors as well as law students should be aware of these potential social media blunders that can derail a job search.
So how can career services offices effectively reach their student population and motivate students to translate career services guidance into action? While there’s no magic answer to the $100,000 question, a nice place to start is by providing students with a realistic view of the skills they will need in the profession, as well as straightforward advice and clear action items that offer ways to prepare for their career and further refine these needed skills. This gentle balance of being realistic about the demands of law, while also supportive and encouraging, is handled exceptionally well by author Neil W. Hamilton in the second edition of...
This article discusses how to advise judicial clerks on their search, from self-reflection through offer acceptance.
From the Employer's and Law School's Perspectives
Here's how one career advisor answers her students' questions about informational interviews.
Corporate alumni programs have emerged from organizations’ back offices and have become true front and-center efforts. These programs have proven to be strategic assets for business development, brand building, and talent management. You should build a programmatic structure and then find a solution that fits those needs.
Review of Lessons from a Headhunter ... with Heart, by Patricia Comeford and Gina Sauer
Review of Objection Overruled: Overcoming Obstacles in the Lawyer Job Search
Review of It's Who You Know: The Magic of Networking in Person or on the Internet
Here are some resources that can help LGBT law students evaluate potential employers.
These tips will help students craft more effective cover letters.
While the civil legal aid hiring outlook remains bleak, there are ways law students can increase the likelihood of finding a job in this area.
Cover letter writers need to think like lawyers to create a great first impression.
These tips will help law graduates set SMART goals for their continuing job searches.
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart’s Kelly Druten Green offers a series of steps to help measure the return on investment for legal training programs.
summer associates must take their clerkship experience seriously and get to know the firm both personally and professionally. In turn, the firm should expend the same effort. It takes effort on both sides to make the program work effectively.
The value of an informational interview can never be understated because it often provides valuable insigh not readily obtainable from traditional sources.
Even those alumni who are already on LinkedIn may lack an understanding of the site's purpose and its value in a job search. This article will help career advisors discuss effective use of LinkedIn with alumni.
This career advisor's past experience as an attorney defending criminal cases has proved useful in helping students think about what employers want.
Here are some tips for advising students when appearance or personal hygiene may be the reasons for not getting past an interview.
The truth is that introverts can be very good at networking; they just need to approach making connections with people differently.
Over the past decade or so, the number of law school graduates who pursue JD Advantage positions has risen from 8.8% to 16.9%.3 But what does one need to do to secure a JD Advantage position? As someone who is currently going through the process of finding a JD Advantage job, I want to share with you my perspectives on best practices for a JD Advantage job search. I’ve written the remainder of this article as advice I would give to someone who wants to pursue a JD Advantage job search.
Our digital age has made applying for jobs easy, but it's also made it easy for students to skip the steps that will make their application stand out.
Book review of "Relationships to Infinity: The Art and Science of Keeping in Touch."
It is important to encourage even students participating in OCI to stay active on other avenues of their job searches ... The second round of interviews and potential lack of an offer through OCI can be devastating.
Review of The Law Firm Interview: A Guide for Law Students
It can be more difficult to establish a rapport when interviewing by phone or Skype, but these tips will help.
Law students seeking a public service position face a challenging market, but these resources can help.
This speed networking event was easy to administer and helped students build interviewing skills.
Here are six ways students can continue to advance their job searches during the summer months.
Legal services employers are looking for somewhat different characteristics in resumes. Here are some tips.
Networking is critical to getting a job in the tight-knit public interest community where most legal professionals know one another.
Here are some tips for helping students write effective cover letters.
This article aims to help educate law school career services professionals regarding student usage of AI in the legal job search process and offers some practical insights.
Northeastern's program for unemployed graduates may spark ideas for other schools — and for some employers involved in outplacement — as they seek to help sustain the spirit of lawyers searching for jobs in a difficult market.
Social media tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, when used wisely, can help law students position themselves in the job market.
These six tips will help students get past their reluctance to network.
A law firm partner shares advice for job seekers on strategies that may prove most effective in the current legal employment market.
Can Twitter be a useful networking tool for job seekers, and, if so, how does one get from virtual networking to in-person contacts?
While winter break offers a welcomed reprieve, it also presents an ideal opportunity for law students to devote time to strategic professional activities that will further their career goals.
A creative writing class offered unexpected insights into career counseling.
Freda Coleman-Jackson describes how legal career advisors can use the IRAC method to help ease law students’ anxiety around the job search process.
Tommy Latino explains Organizational Portfolio Theory and how it can be applied to the job search.
This article illustrates how three elements of LinkedIn, profile, activity, and connection, influence how candidates are found, evaluated, and contacted, and how career professionals can help close that visibility gap. For legal career professionals, LinkedIn is no longer optional as a brand asset. It now sits at the intersection of visibility, reputation, and reach.
NALP has recently released a free webinar on the public interest job search. Here are a few highlights.
Here are just a few suggestions for ways to create or promote different types of in-person networking opportunities for students.
What should a career counselor tell students to do and what pitfalls should they avoid to make their online networking easier and more effective?
Here are some tips for dispelling common myths 1Ls have about the search for a public service summer job.
As counselors for international students, we must be aware of how our own culture may be both similar to and different from a student's culture.
This article looks at the notable trend in job search strategies that involves leveraging generative AI and other advanced tools to craft application materials.
Director of Research Danielle A. Taylor shares key findings from NALP’s Survey of Law Students Who Interviewed with Law Firms for a Summer 2022 Position.
In the technological age, the legal job search has shifted from hardbound book resources to primarily online databases. Since there are vast numbers of online databases, it can be daunting for a law student to conduct an online search.
Career counselors can share these tips with third year students who do not yet have jobs.
Review of Full Disclosure: The New Lawyer's Must-Read Career Guide
Review of The Lawyer's Career Change Handbook: More Than 300 Things You Can Do with a Law Degree
Review of The First Five Minutes: How to Make a Great Impression in Any Business Situation
The seemingly insurmountable obstacles to landing that first job can be daunting and frustrating to law students. Career counselors can help students break the search down into bite-sized pieces.
How can career counselors prepare students for behavioral interviews? Here are some suggestions.
Weighing the pros and cons of incorporating an assessment tool into your career support options for law students.
Preparing properly for an interview can make all the difference. Eva Wisnik offers advice for responding to the tough questions.
This law school perspective on preparing for behavioral interviewing may also suggest interviewing strategies to employers.
Career services professionals can assist students by educating them about effective ways to schedule and conduct informational interviews and by guiding students as to how to properly maintain these newfound networking contacts.
On behalf of legal employers everywhere, I offer the proverbial "ten things" that will endear law students to us ... and leave us wanting to hire dozens more like them!
career services; career counseling; economy
preparing students for callbacks
Sharing these ten interview strategies will benefit almost every law student.
Here are a few suggestions to help students for whom networking is difficult.
As the school year kicks off, career services professionals are considering how best to support law students in the use of social media. Here are some suggestions guided by the NALP Principles and Standards.
Internships and externships provide not only needed experience but also valuable professional networking opportunities.
In his newest book, Richard Hermann describes in detail how small-town lawyers thrive, and how one can best prepare for a small-town law practice.
Students who want to pursue positions in nonprofit organizations should research the organizations' missions.
Advising students and graduates on negotiating the terms of their offers can have an impact felt throughout their careers.
How contributing fresh information, knowing key players in your firm’s departments, and improving a process can add value to your firm as a newer professional.
This process of "writing a résumé backward" can be helpful to students who enter law school knowing exactly what they want to do after graduation.
McDowell Hetherington’s Amy Hancock details a new series of student tips videos on www.nalp.org from the Developing the Professional Lawyer Work Group
These three pieces of advice can help public-interest minded students who want to participate in OCI.
This article explores the unique psychological impact of job loss on lawyers, and offers firms trauma-informed strategies to mitigate the harmful effects of terminations and pave the way for productive transitions.
Navigating Detours on the Road to Success: A Lawyer's Guide to Career Management
Law students and graduates who apply the concept of saving for a rainy day to their careers -- in the form of investment networking -- will be better able to survive the next economic downturn.
tips for acing public defender interviews
A Muslim student wears a headscarf during her interview, and the interviewer asks about her religious affiliation. What should the student or the career services office do? NALP's Principles and Standards suggest some answers.
With today's free social media tools, today's law students and job candidates can create their own personal brand and position themselves as experts-in-training looking for the right opportunity.
A law firm recruiter shares insights about the 5 W's of thank you notes.
Here are some of the ways law students and lawyers can use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ to build their brand during a job search.
NALP’s 2019-2021 PSJD Fellow Brittany Valente explains why employers should look at remote work as a tool and continue to offer fully remote internships for law students even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.
Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff’s Heather DiFranco offers tips on networking and getting involved for newer professionals in the legal community that have recently joined NALP or are looking for career resources.
