Resume

marki121

Hi all,

Can I include my position with the Public Defender's Office on my resume even though it was around my senior year of high school? I like putting this position down because it shows interest in the law at a relatively early time (and affirms my narrative that I've been interested in pursuing this field for a long time) but I understand that high school-related experience is really not something we should be putting down.

Also, are resume's for law schools really only supposed to be one page in length?

Thank you all in advance!

Alex

1) Ehh... That's a tough call. I usually advise against putting things from high school on your resume. This is hard because it does show interest in law, but, then again, how much "law" could you really have been involved with as a high school senior ..... you know what I mean?
I'd leave it off, but I'd also like to hear what an actual expert on this thinks. @david.busis What do you think?

One page is usually good. 2 pages I hear is alright if YOU absolutely need an extra page. I'd say one page is usually best 9 out of 10 times.

David Busis

As @"Alex Divine" said, I usually tell people to leave out anything from high school, but I think you can put this in if it doesn't take room away from something more recent. It depends how full your résumé is.

Here's the deal with length: most AOs won't ding you for going over a page, but they won't spend any more time reading it, either. That means you have more control over what they read ("scan" is probably more accurate) when you keep it short.

I'd say eighty-five percent of the long résumés I see are better when we cut them down to a page.