14 steps to write the perfect resume

14 steps to writing a lawyer’s resume

Step 1

We receive the login and password for the account from the applicant, study the original version of the resume here https://resumegets.com/barista. There is only one resume in the account, called “legal counsel, leading legal counsel”. The expected salary is indicated.

Career – studied to be a lawyer, worked as a legal adviser in industrial enterprises. There are three jobs in the track record. I quit the last month and a half ago but continues to perform one-time work on it. A photo in a resume is unsuccessful – looking tired and a colored shirt with an open collar does not contribute to the image of a successful corporate lawyer.

Step 2

We determine in what professional field and in what position the applicant may be of interest to a potential employer.

If the applicant had work experience in different fields of activity and in positions that imply different professional experience, he would have to consider all possible options – both in terms of positions that can be applied for, and in terms of areas of activity, experience in which may be requested.

In our case, everything is simple, jurisprudence is the only field of the applicant’s activity in which the applicant’s experience can be profitably “sold”.

With posts, everything is also obvious. I have experience working as a single legal advisor, I have experience working as a leading legal adviser. Therefore, it makes sense to offer yourself both as a performer – a legal adviser or a leading legal adviser, and as a head of the legal department/department/service.

We have decided on the choice of the field of activity and positions.

Step 3

Studying the labor market. The task is to understand what requirements employers impose on job seekers with the same experience, knowledge, and skills as our job seeker, and how much they are willing to pay future employees with the same experience, knowledge, and skills as our job seeker.

For this, we use the array of vacancies in the “Jurisprudence” section, the data from which we enter into the Salary calculator. When selecting vacancies from the array, we use a step-by-step algorithm from the article How the market value of an applicant or employee is calculated.

I will not describe the tedious work of forming a sample of 139 vacancies, the final calculation of the salary calculator showed that the average salary offered to a legal adviser with a similar qualification available to the applicant is 2000 dollars.

Offers for leading legal advisers start at 2500 dollars. Salary for the heads of the legal department/service/department – from 2500 dollars. We excluded vacancies with a salary of about 3000, which are offered to lawyers with fluent English and international practice, from the analysis – our applicant does not have such skills and experience. Conclusion – as the expected salary in the resume, we indicate 60,000 rubles for the position “Legal adviser” and 2500 dollars for the positions “Leading legal adviser” and “Head of the legal department”.

In this case, the problem of determining the expected salary was solved simply, if the salary is not indicated in the proposals of employers, then you may have to use the method described in the article Non-standard case for assessing the cost of an applicant.

Step 4

We agree with the applicant on the list of positions for which he is ready to apply, we agree on expectations regarding the amount of salary and their indication in the resume.

Step 5

Checking the correctness of the title of the resume. A searchable resume needs to be named the same as employers call suitable vacancies.

The audit revealed that the most common job titles are “Legal Counsel”, “Lead Legal Counsel”, “Head of the Legal Department”. Solved – that’s what we’ll call new resumes.

Step 6

We register an additional account to place a resume “head of the legal department” in it. It is worth doing this, since in the search results, under the link to the applicant’s resume, there is a line indicating whether the applicant has another resume.

Information that an applicant who is ready to work as a legal advisor is simultaneously applying for leadership positions is clearly superfluous for a potential employer. Therefore, we will post a resume named “legal advisor” and “leading legal adviser” in one account, and the resume “head of the legal department” in another.

Step 7

Getting ready to edit the text of the resume.

We analyze the texts of descriptions of suitable vacancies, looking for stable and common phrases and expressions describing the requirements for applicants and the content of the work – they will be searched for by recruiters by looking at the resume of applicants.

Making a short “cheat sheet” listing what must be reflected in the resume to meet the common expectations of employers. To do this, copy the fragments of the vacancy descriptions to use them later in the resume text.

Step 8

We edit the text of the resume in terms of the description of the work performed at the previous places. We didn’t have to rewrite almost the entire text, as is often the case, in our case. The text was good in itself – everything to the point and without “water”, but had a significant drawback – it took up a lot.

If there are several jobs, then for each we allocate 6-7 lines of informative text. In our case, the track record consisted of three jobs, so the description of the last job was increased. But the text was still seriously “squeezed” with the use of info style – reducing the volume of the text without losing the meaning of the statement.

For readability, paragraphs describing different blocks of work performed by a corporate lawyer have been separated by blank lines, because in the original version it was a solid, voluminous, unstructured text.

Step 9

We change the status of the applicant from “unemployed” to “working”, indicating at the last place of work “works to the present”. Yes, this is slyness, since the applicant does not work there permanently, but, in our opinion, this status is more advantageous than the status of a resigned person and a job seeker.

To explain that currently only one-time jobs are being performed, please refer to the interview.

Step 10

We edit the section “About me” – we remove hobbies and hobbies from it, we enter key professional skills into it, using the phrases “successful experience”, “excellent knowledge” etc. since the section “Key skills” does not allow you to describe skills in a free form, and few people pay attention to ready-made skillsets selected from the catalog.

Step 11

Removing an unnecessarily detailed description of the profile of previous employers.

Suddenly, the field of activity of potential employers is radically different from the one in which our applicant worked before. In this case, knowledge of the specifics of another business will not add any advantages to the applicant.

Step 12

We place five resumes in two accounts. In the first account, make two copies of the revised resume using the “duplicate” command.

The first resume is called “Legal Adviser”, we indicate in it the desired salary – 2000 dollars, the second – “Leading Legal Adviser” with the desired salary of 2500 dollars. The logic is simple – it is not necessary to indicate different positions in one resume, especially positions, the content of which may differ significantly. The source, which is called “Lead Legal Counsel, Legal Counsel” – do not delete – let it remain visible in the search, but without specifying the amount of salary.

When sorting a resume by salary, it is unlikely to be noticed, but, just in case, let it stay – suddenly the recruiter decides to view the resume without specifying the salary. But it is better to respond to vacancies that interest you, of course, a resume with one job title. In the second account – for “executive” resumes – we post two resumes with the most common names of executive lawyers – “Head of the Legal Department” and “Head of the Legal Department” with an expected salary of 2500 dollars.

Step 13

We get a high-quality photo from the applicant with a confident look, in a jacket and tie, slightly tweak it in Photoshop, crop it, paste it into all resumes.

Step 14

We inform the applicant about the completion of the work, explain the logic and details of the changes made to the resume.