Psychology of the Legal Job Search

A job search can be lonely if for no other reason than that you are putting yourself on the line. The situation is made lonelier still when you are seeking your first legal position and are surrounded by peers with whom you compete for jobs. There are allies out there; you must take the trouble to develop them.




Practical considerations and pragmatic problems about planning a career and finding a job are being addressed. Implicit in much of this exercise is the fundamental psychology and must get the tools to understand it. Perhaps a more reflective look at this "psychology" for success will help to place the career planning process in perspective. Too many self-help books ring untrue. They seem to suggest that you can talk yourself into success. Or they imply that there is a secret formula that when imparted to the uninitiated will allow them to achieve happiness and success.

Too often, these works read like the high school cheerleading squad exhorting the football team to win. Self-help writers feed on the American dream that if you want something enough you can have it. The converse, of course, is that if you fail to achieve your goal, the reason is because you did not want it enough.

There is no doubt that a positive mental attitude is absolutely critical to success in any job search. Employers are not impressed by the "hat in hand approach" of a candidate who says in effect, "I know nothing, but if you teach me, I might be a good lawyer some day." Of course, you do not know everything there is to know about practicing law when you graduate law school. Employers understand that. You do not need to remind them how little you know.

What you must do instead is tell them what you have to offer. This simple, fundamental necessity in many cases is the biggest hurdle separating the job seeker from the job. Why, because many people do not learn the skills of identifying and presenting their qualifications to others. Self knowledge and personal marketing skills are important. Returning to our football team analogy, these skills are the running, tackling, and blocking that we need to have to reach our goal.

These skills are defined in your past achievements. Your future accomplishments will utilize old skills as well as new ones you develop as you grow. It is important to take the time to develop a professional identity. With that knowledge, you can recognize and place yourself in situations where your particular talents can most effectively be utilized.

Here is a formula to help you figure out who you want to be and how to get there. There is nothing mystical about this formula. It does not say that if you fail to proceed step by step, you will not find a job or happiness.

What it does offer is a logical approach to a fundamental problem that everyone faces: deciding what to do with their lives.

The psychology of winning as presented here is more than desire. It is a positive presentation of your skills based upon careful analysis. The confidence you take to the job search should be based upon preparation, and not hype. The line between winning and losing an oral argument is often preparation, and preparation also provides a psychological edge when you stand up to speak. Good BS without preparation is just BS. Anyone who has been through eight weeks of law school knows this. Why should it be any different when you look for a job?

Another underlying concept is self-determination. Too many people are willing to give up their self-respect by handing over the power to make decisions about their lives to others. We come into this world and go out alone.

When we make fundamental career decisions no one else can be inside our heads. A host of individuals and forces can influence and contribute to these decisions, but no one else can make them.

It is assumed that you are willing to take responsibility for your life and make decisions that serve your personal best interests. Many of the "don'ts" relate to various devises used by job seekers to abdicate this basic responsibility. Only when you can be your own woman or man can you exercise this existential right. For many it is simply a matter of making the decision. For others the task may be complicated by emotional baggage from outside the legal environment. For those people, personal counseling may be a necessary part of this process.

Mindset for Success

It may seem trite to say that you must maintain a positive attitude if you are to be successful in the job search. Books have been written about the importance of positive thinking in attaining personal goals. Although it would be simplistic and unrealistic to suggest that one could attain success simply by willing it, the history of humankind is replete with stories of people who achieve seemingly impossible objectives through the strength of their personal will.

What separates the achievers from the always dreamers? Surely the beggar on the street once had dreams just as the successful person.

But is it enough to say that one was a quitter and one was not? Is it enough to say that one got the breaks when one did not? Or to say that in the final analysis one had talent and one did not? The intellectual traps of social Darwinism, metaphysical predestination, and existential nihilism all suggest that events shape our destinies, and that personal decisions are meaningless in the course of our lives.

If you accept the notion that you are not in control of your life, then you will probably not be in control of your life. If you want to say that blind luck, God, or society hold the strings in your life, then you minimize the importance of personal decisions.

You must take control. You must decide that your decisions make a difference in what happens to you. You must accept the significance of your responsibility for your own career. Saying this does not mean that luck does not have a role in what happens to you, nor does it preclude a relationship with God, whatever your conception of a Supreme Being may be. It certainly does not suggest that your family, cultural inheritance, societal norms, or personal talents and limitations have no bearing upon what happens to you.

Events and forces outside your control do affect your life. Much of what happens, however, lies within your own control. Too many people give away too much in this sphere. They abdicate choices which are theirs to make.

It is no a mean feat to assert control over decisions that are not intrinsically dictated by external forces. It is easy to go with the flow and difficult to take charge. Frequently we run up against brick walls and get knocked down in our efforts to scale them. There is a distinction between an insurmountable barrier and a challenge that can be overcome.

The fact that you are in law school attests to your ability to overcome obstacles in your life. Law school will give new meaning to the word challenge. From the law school you attend, to your class rank, to your extra-curricular activities, to your work experience, everything and everyone will seem to conspire to stand between you and the job you want. You must adopt a mind set for success.

In order to devolve this discussion from the esoteric to the practical let us look at some ways that you can achieve a positive attitude:

• Pick your friends wisely. Surround yourself with people who are realistic but supportive. Why spend time with pessimists, doomsayers, and negative thinkers? You can choose your friends, so pick ones who are upbeat and positive.
  
  
• Eat right and exercise. There is a definite correlation between a positive self-image and a healthy lifestyle. Law school tends to push you away from physical activity, good dietary habits and reasonable patterns of sleep. Trust this advice, you will feel better about yourself if you get plenty of sleep, eat something besides fast food, and work out regularly.
  
  
• Reward yourself. Since much of the career planning and job search process involves setting and achieving goals, you can enhance your performance by imposing some simple conditioning on yourself. Set up a base schedule of rewards for accomplishing objectives. Give yourself small rewards for small accomplishments and big rewards for major ones. Let yourself be happy when you succeed. Pavlov would be proud of you.
  
  
• Meditate. Many law students blanch at the idea of meditating, but meditation is simply a period each day when you clear your mind of the thoughts and pressures that normally clutter it. It is important to find a peaceful setting uninterrupted by telephone calls, noise, and other people. For many law students, such as those who are also working mothers, finding time alone is almost impossible, but if you can take just fifteen minutes each day to clear out the cobwebs, your attitude will improve markedly.
  
  
• Take time to plan ahead. By following the logical steps, you can provide yourself a methodology with a track record of success. If you know that you are doing all you can to maximize your opportunities and further your career, you can approach this process with confidence and vigor.

Alternatives

The importance of using options as a technique for maintaining a good mental attitude in the job search cannot be overemphasized. The concept is simple: always give yourself an alternative.

Desperation is an insidious thing. It starts with those little seeds of fear we all have that no one will ever hire us. It triggers panic when our initial plans fail to materialize. It can blossom into full blown depression when we perceive that there are no viable options open to us.

When that happens we are likely to say, "I'll accept any job." And when we do, it often turns out to be a mistake.

Maintaining a list of options can preclude the sense of helplessness brought on by having no options. Even though you will naturally spend more time focusing on options at the top of your list, periodically review what you would like to do if you do not get your first or even second choice. You can avoid much grief later on by following this advice.