Finding the Paralegal job You Want

For paralegal job seekers strategies and first moves after graduation lead one naturally to a discussion about how to approach the advertised market and the unadvertised or "hidden" job market. Various studies have put the "hidden market" at 70-80 percent of the existing market for any given profession. A good opening strategy is to decide that you are not going to ignore the larger market. However, many people in entry-level circumstances have one strategy: Wake up by 10:00 A.M. on Sunday morning, write some cover letters, and wait until next week.

There is a way of dealing with both the advertised market and the unadvertised market simultaneously. Advertised leads are "easy to find" because they are announced through some means, but they are "hard to get" because all those looking are put on notice to apply. Thus the competition is more furious and intense with an advertised lead. An unadvertised opening is one you discover through the various methods we will be describing. It is "hard to find" but "easier to get" because the competition is either minimal or nonexistent. With a networked opening, the work is all upfront and, by the time you are interviewing, you are virtually in. You have been prequalified and there is a strong interest in you. And that's before your first interview!


Every moth once a caterpillar

Most advertised leads you see in a paper were once openings in the unadvertised category. The evolution of a lead is such that many openings never even make it to the networking stage. Many are announced at a lunch in a paralegal association meeting, a friend tells another she is moving to another city, and they tell a third who has been wanting to leave her firm for several weeks. She quietly interviews and then gives notice after receiving an offer. It all happens before it's even announced.

Or an entry paralegal who joins an association hears about a big case for which assistance will be needed. With the help of the paralegal friend, the new paralegal writes a letter to the attorney involved and an opening is filled, again, before it is
"announced."

Once an opening is in the networking category, it could stay that way for a time if the workload does not demand an immediate replacement.

This is usually the main determinant of a "networking situation" going to the "advertised" category. It is simply the extremity of need that makes people go to the advertised market. Then, often, schools and associations are the first ones to hear before the newspaper does. When the newspaper gets the lead, the unqualified, the qualified, and the remotely qualified apply, inundating the firm with cover letters and resumes.

The opening that isn't an opening until the person and the timing are right. Some openings do not proceed to the level of extreme need because other support personnel are taking up the work. Legal work is such that by pushing it around artfully a smaller staff can handle it. Loyal and professional paralegals take up the slack by working harder and the firm goes on without worrying about hiring. The message is, "We are not going to replace Sally right away; we think the staff will be able to handle the upcoming workload."

And so the opening is there. But it's not there. Management puts off the decision until a later date and time goes on. Then in a few months, maybe the work increases and the staff starts to communicate their feelings about the need for a "replacement of Sally"; and then, management may start to "unofficially look." If your direct mail letter, by sheer coincidence, arrives on a certain contact person's desk at this time, they pick up the phone and ask you to come in. And a star is born.
Networking--the way around the labyrinth and into the inner sanctum: The front door may be just as close to the inner sanctum as the back door; but there is a labyrinth.

At the front door everyone knows of the old saying, "It's not what you know, but who you know, that counts." That does not tell the whole story. It is what you know and who you know that matters in the law. Networking can be a valuable skill. The key elements of successful networking can be summarized as follows:

Finding the Job You Want: Advertised and Unadvertised Leads
 

1. Tell everyone. Tell every friend and relative that you are in the business of networking attorneys and paralegals and law firms.
2. Utilize a direct mail program. Use a regular weekly system to develop leads, contacts, and informational interviews.
3. Associate. Join every professional association for which you are eligible and go to their meetings.
4. Socialize. Put yourself in the right social settings to meet people.
5. Dress for success. Dress for the job that you are aspiring to. Under-dressing for any event is a felony; overdressing is a minor misdemeanor.
6. Develop interviews whenever possible. Every circumstance in which you find yourself-baseball games, church socials, family picnics--all provide a chance to get a name, to write a letter, to perhaps get five minutes of someone's time to talk about opportunities in a given practice area.
7. The "Backward Cousin" Rule. Everyone has an enemy or two.
   
   Maybe it is someone you pushed too far, or someone who pushed you too far. A "backward cousin," if you will, one who you swore you would avoid at all costs. Invigorate that relationship. Swallow your pride and see if that old friend or backward cousin might have a connection. It couldn't hurt. Anyone and everyone can know a lawyer.
8. Use a job search journal. Log everything you do. Keep a record of the entire effort that you have undertaken. Have one three-inch binder that contains every name, address, advertisement, beer-stained napkin, or coffee-stained envelope. This journal will be your bible and your organizer. Knowing this helps allay inner fears and nerves.

While we will have much more to say about networking and direct mail later on, this early emphasis is to alert you to integrate this into a grand strategy for yourself, so that you can dive into the frenzied and stimulating life of a full-time job hunter. It must be your strategy to embrace this concept of professional networking from the very beginning. If you do not believe in it, you probably will not undertake it. It is a job that requires hustle!

The final strategy has to do with the quality of your effort. Very little of this comes naturally . . . unless you are a natural hustler. The first spirit of America is fierce independence. The fiercely independent declared that without the shackles of the old world binding a person to a state or class, an individual by dint of competition, energy, drive, and persistence could and would succeed at any fully engaged endeavor. That ideal still exists.

In fact it is never truer than in the Synergistic Job Search. If there is any natural order that emerges in this realm, it is the one that says: Those who must survive and succeed will!

Simply outlining the basics of networking and delving into the myriad details of the job hunt will not aid you without your unqualified effort. If you hustle, you will notice how you are building a circuit of contacts that take on a life; you are planting a crop that will eventually yield a harvest.

In the end, your self-development and your professional development go together. We are all interconnected and interdependent--not unlike the law. The concept of hustling involves the self- awareness that your future is always being planned for you.

The truly competitive person is out there shaking hands, having lunch, and meeting people. You will be sitting down and discussing your profession with people from whom you can learn. These people will constitute your network. Those who try to hunt for a job solely by responding to ads are not hitting the streets. Go out on every interview you get; the experience of interviewing is invaluable, and it is difficult to fabricate. Any interview, even a bad one, can be useful experience.