Resume Down, Cover Letters To Go

So, I've transported myself half-way across the country for a change of scenery and a supposedly reduced sense of academia-associated anxiety to Chicago. No island vacation this is, with hyper sugar and video-game induced children halting every thought once permitted to begin. It may look something like this: "Today I am supposed to..." It very nearly stopped there. The panting of a dog, the turning pages of someone reading, the rustling of a child jumping into bed and screaming for the return of a stolen chocolate bar, and the scraping of a chair accompanied by a booming voice requesting quiet, occupy all the space once available for thought. Tell me again, so why have I arrived? I suppose to keep the overwhelming boiler pot of anxiety from occupying all crevases of my mind as I await my internship rejection notices, usually arriving one month too late for me to have considered work at all. All these distractions in fact distract from the worst: fear of rejection. 

However, my renewed attempts to seek the most basic resources have given me some hope. Trying the things you thought you already tried. Taking a second look. It was always staring you in the face. But if you actually read it now, the words take on new meaning. They make SENSE. Billions of experiences, successful and unsuccessful have brought me to this place. Surely there is someone out there who is doing this right. So, I have asked 4 different people to review my resume. I get similar responses from all. Stick to punctuation. It counts (and I thought that was for elementary schoolers?). Use one of the formats provided by your Law Carreer Services Center. They look more professional, even if you thought yours was perfect already. Write your cover letter as if you were writing about someone you admire. Positive active verbs are as attractive to employers as your envied classmates or ambitious friends are to you. Try a new format. Paragraph format resumes may be more appropriate if your jobs are not all-inclusive in the title (and none of them are!). My fellow students are my best resource. They usually have more patience than the law career service people (because the career service center is bored of this and sees many resumes), and they have done this very recently themselves. There are more of them. They have a broader range of interests and ambitions than the career services center. Choose them because they may understand. Put it in PDF format if you employer will accept it. This ensures that the format on your computer that you see will be the same one that they get (trust me, this counts!). Employers spend on average 10 Seconds looking at your resume! What are you going to put on there to impress them? They are obviously looking for someone to impress them with clarity, brevity, and a sure sign of success. Law review, a prestigious legal internship, Honors, Scholarships, great GPAs. Now is the time to impress. 

If you are afraid you don't have these to impress? Don't worry, chances are you have done much more than you thought. Start with action verbs, throw in some numbers, (e.g. edited and complied bibliography for 900 page college textbook. Completed within publisher's deadlines ontime or early). Compare to: edited and compiled bibliography for textbook. Implicit in all your descriptions should be evidence of time-management, multi-tasking, precision, efficiency, and success. The numbers and specificity in this description say that. However, now is not the time to write an essay on your life experiences. Stick to the basics. Also, if you have many experiences, leave out those jobs with non-office related work, or other experiences in which there is little with which to impress. Although you may think that your job as a juggler in central park might tie into multi-tasking, err on the side of Not assuming the employer will immediately make this connection, and leave it out (unless you don't have any other job experiences). The jack-of-all trades resume is more sloppy and indecisive than professional and polished. Stick to the legal and office-related work and emphasize your law school extra-curriculars if your pre-law school jobs make you appear shifty. Once again, err on the side of less rather than more and selective and discretionary.

Ah, sorry for the novella. Got caught up in the details of what has truly been a revelatory experience for me. Obviously there is much more, but visuals and personal commentary is always recommended when writing the resume. 

Later, I will tell you about the beach, the euphoria from which has remained with me since May 15. This is even better than the latter! 

Night.