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Common mistakes made by law graduates going for jobs that do not require a JD
Being aware of common mistakes made by law students and law graduates in the given situation would help you avoid them. Common mistakes made in attempting to get jobs that do not require a JD include:
- Not properly researching the job market, and going for openings that are not aligned with personal interests, skills or track record
- Believing a JD to be useless, and emphasizing such
- Trying to convince the recruiter that the candidate is hard pressed to get away from the world of law and would not leave his job at the first available opportunity
- Being unable to identify and emphasize transferrable skills that ensure success in a new position
- Failing to prepare an alternative resume that focuses on transferable skills rather than on a chronology of academic achievements
Identifying your transferable skills
It is most important for a law graduate attempting to get a job that does not require a JD to first identify the transferrable skills he or she possesses, whether obtained from studying at law school or from other personal curricular or extra-curricular activities beyond the scope of law school.
Common transferrable skills that employers expect a graduate with a JD to possess include Writing ability, Research skills, Documentation skills, Public-speaking skills, Fact-analysis, Risk-awareness, Familiarity with legal terminology, Ability to persuade and negotiate, Ability to listen and solve problems, Ability to think independently and be a self-starter, and Ability to work under pressure and beat deadlines while juggling multiple responsibilities. Besides these obvious transferable skills, you may also bring to the table specific knowledge of law directly or indirectly relevant to the employer's business.
Go over the common transferrable skills list that any potential employer would expect of a person holding a JD, and you'd know it's more than what they would have expected from most managers employed at their office.
Once you have identified your transferrable skills, you have to prepare a resume that focuses on them and proves your utility to a potential employer seeking to fill a non-lawyer position.
How to tackle employer resistance to recruiting a JD for a non-lawyer position
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The normal questions of resistance that a JD going for a non-lawyer job would face include:
- Why are you not trying to become a lawyer?
- What is the guarantee that you would not leave the job at the first opportunity?
- How are you a better candidate than others for the job?
The answer to the third question obviously depends upon your ability to educate the interviewer about your transferrable skills and how the employer would benefit from them. However, many law graduates trip up on the first two questions that are almost inevitable, and even if they are not stated explicitly, they would be implicit in the interview process.
One of the best ways to tackle the first two questions is to be candid about the economy, being positive, and stating that the market for legal jobs changed while you were at college.
Rather than taking things negatively, you believe the state of the market gives you a chance to look at other opportunities from which you stand to gain. Please do not make the mistake of trying to state that it had been always your dream to go for that particular non-lawyer job, but you still went to law school.
Emphasize that you are certain that the state of the legal jobs market is not going to improve significantly in the near future, and while many lawyers make career changes mid-career, you decided to make that change now.
Stress that you value your JD and the learning and training you received, but would like to build an alternative career, which can become formidable given a JD background. On questions of the chances of leaving your job, do not make false promises, but state that you would abide by the contract of employment, and wish to build a career in the new field. Usually, with some preparation from your side, that is sufficient to allay fears of the employer about recruiting a JD for a non-lawyer job.
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