Work history and Resume length in application

Comments

• CPAtoJD Member

  February 2018 112 karma

  Hey Hari,

  I’m in a similar position to you. I’m almost 5 years out of school and have had 3 full time jobs since graduation as well as a host of extra curricular activities in school.

  I haven’t applied for law school yet so I apologize if this goes against any law school specific resume advice but when I’m updating my resume and trying to keep it to just one page I typically alter it based on a priority system.

  First, I make sure the most important position or experience that I’m emphasizing has the most detail (maybe your latest full time job, or a particular internship that is particularly relevant to law school)

  Second, I will skin down on bullet points and details of a position that doesn’t have as much relevance to what I’m applying for - maybe limiting to just a bullent point or two. If it comes to it I’ve even deleted college activity that I felt wasn’t as strong as other experiences. Typically I prioritize my professional experience to my college activities and internships.

  Lastly, and this is the most annoying, I play around with font sizes on headers and bullet points, page margins, etc. You can get away with a petty small font size on a resume to keep it to one page (I’ve gone as low as 9 and it’s been readable). Just make sure everything is consistent (I.e all your bullet points use the same size, etc.)

  If after all of the above you still absolutely cannot get it down to a page - then I see nothing wrong with having some info spill onto a second page. Unless they are very specific about it being just one.
• 1 Like

  Leah M B Alum Member ⭐

  February 2018 8392 karma

  I have been out of school for almost 12 years now and the resume was a bit of a challenge for me too. I already had a regular resume I use for job applications and I'm adamant on keeping it to 1 page as much as I can so I omit most of my early career things like my internship and temp work. But, law resumes do call for more detail (feels silly as a 33 year old to put college activities and such on a resume, but that's the standard) so mine is about a page and a half I've been submitting.

  It's very important to follow directions though. If they say 1 page, keep it to 1 page. I'd probably omit part-time work or internships done during college. Anything that can be included in other places on the app. Those seem to be the easiest. I would say don't go below 10 point font and 1 inch page margins. But you probably can cut down on job descriptions too. Only provide more detail on probably your current job and any position that's particularly relevant, like law-related work. But still, you probably only need 2 or 3 bullet points for each position max. You're not trying to get a job here, so don't need to go into great detail on your positions.

  Don't include a "skills" section containing things like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, etc. (Again, you're not trying to get a job. That's not the most important thing here.) Also no "objective" if you have that.

  If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend the $10 Admissions add-on. That gives you a really good break down of formatting and examples for all the essays and resumes too. That helped me a lot in just knowing what schools are looking for.
• OneFortyDotSix Alum Member

  February 2018 634 karma

  Super advice, thank you both! I think it was my fault in thinking to approach this as I would a B-school application or resume. Naturally the information they're most interested in is quite different
• LCMama2017 Alum Member

  February 2018 2134 karma

  Take a look at this article and accompanying resume. If you put your cursor on the resume you will see helpful comments.

  https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/articles/2017-02-02/a-law-school-resume-that-made-the-cut

  I too made a mistake with my resume and wasn't planning on changing in until I read the article. My resume is geared to get me a job, not to get into law school. Because I've been working for the past 20 years I have a two page resume and can't really condense it. However, I agree with @"Leah M B" that if a school said they only accepted one page resumes then I would do what I could to condense it to one page - it would be hard though!
• OneFortyDotSix Alum Member

  February 2018 634 karma

  @LCMama2017 thanks for the very helpful article. I suppose if you've condensed 20 years to two pages there's no reason my measly 5 can't fit on one!
• mcglz_64 Alum Member

  February 2018 891 karma

  For context - I am 3 years out of school and have been working full time since then.
  I'm sure this was said already but one of my recommenders (academic) told me it was important to put my academic information first (even if school was a while ago). Also, remember that your resume does NOT have to have everything - just everything relevant. For example, if you worked 3 years in a law firm, that's one entry, but don't put that part time waitressing position you held for 5 months. This is information that can be included in the "employment" section of the application. I have to double check if Yale has that, but I know other schools do. You can also shorten your job descriptions. My jobs currently have 3 bullets describing my experience- something I will need to edit for Yale. Of course, you may still end up going over 1 page, especially if they have legibility requirements. If you absolutely have to go over, use that space wisely. Don't go overboard with wordy descriptions and fancy formatting.