Showcasing the Written Presentations for Paralegal Job Search

1. Cover letters - The basic cover letter announcing your availability and your skills and qualifications should be prepared in at least an outline form. From this skeleton, you customize elements of your cover letters.
    
2. Follow-up letters - In a Synergistic Job Search, all of your efforts are connected by oral and written follow-up. A chance meeting at a bar on a Friday night in which you get a business card and an invitation to "call me and we can talk about a future paralegal opening" should be official with a follow-up letter that next week.
    
3. Direct mail letters - Based upon the idea that a number of letters can "uncover" an unadvertised opening, these letters should be crafted for:
   
   
    
   • Any potential paralegal opening (part time, temp, contract, permanent)
   • Targeted openings (practice specific)
   • Geographic-specific openings
   • Combination
      
4. Networking letters! These letters also official and confirm professional contacts. It is with the networking letter that you can truly generate and continually renew your network. These are a part of your professional development as you proceed beyond your entry employment. A networking letter opens with the connection. For example: "I enjoyed discussing your practice with you at The Elegant Saloon last Friday and would like to take you up on your offer . . . "My Uncle, James Shapiro said that you were a close friend and professional associate . . . "Municipal Judge Smith told me that your busy practice might need some legal support help. . .
    
5. Thank you notes. These can be a standard letter. After an interview, it makes a strong impression on the employer to see who will send a thank you note. This is often a hidden qualifier that makes you stand out. After all, you know the next round of interviews will be smaller than the previous round-you want to be a part of the new group.
    
6. Letter accepting job. This is a great way to confirm a decision officially. If you are starting a job in two weeks, you should write a letter that says you have accepted an offer. This is an extremely professional touch that many overlook.
    
7. Reconsideration letter. If you have had an excellent round of interviews and developed a strong feeling for the firm and then you are not chosen, write a letter and ask them to reconsider, or keep you in mind, if things do not work out.

Your personal network: get people to think about you even when you aren't thinking about you. One night, when you can steal two hours, sit down with a pen and paper and start writing. Do not stop too soon. Sit there and document all of your friends and relatives. These are the people who really care about you. Then document your acquaintances. These are people who may not care about you as a loved one, but people who can nevertheless help you out because you are known to them. After you have finished your list, meet with these people. Tell them you are in a quest to find employment as a paralegal and want to elicit their help. The human desire to help is very strong; take advantage of it. Get people to think about you and your situation. Tell them you need names. Ask them to be on the lookout for attorneys or situations in law firms or legal settings. Remember, most all companies and corporations have attorneys working for them or in them. Sit down with your family and ask them to think of everyone they know who would not mind giving you some help. Tap in to the natural interconnectedness of your existing life, and let that work for you.

A Synergistic Job Search Week

• Objects in Motion Tend to Stay in Motion
• Objects at Rest Tend to Stay at Rest
• Synergistic Job Seekers Tend to Stay in Motion
• Sporadic Job Seekers Tend to Stay at Rest

Employ the tools described above in a continuous flow of productive activity that keeps you in motion. The job search is challenging all by itself, but if you must overcome inertia all the time it can be agony. The key to using these tools is to use them at every turn. One way to stay in motion is to be active-initiate, follow up, and conduct continuous record-keeping. A synergistic job search week might look something like this:

Sunday: Read entire newspaper. Check business section out for articles concerning lawsuits, regulatory situations, mergers, bankruptcies, hiring, firings, profits, and losses. Go through the classified ads and read columns that pertain to legal and paralegal, but also areas such as insurance, administrative, and managerial.

Clip out all related and relevant articles and ads and place them in your Journal of Professional Contacts!

After you are employed, keep this notebook and add writing samples from your work, letters that commend your efforts, professional association memberships, certificates from seminars and workshops, and any other written material that will substantiate, validate, and perpetuate your professional viability.

Never discount the human equation in your paralegal career. Some wonderful friends can be made at difficult legal settings. A person who was formerly unimportant to you can suddenly become essential to you. A person whom you found just marginally civil, but whom you treated with dignity and respect, could become the key connection in getting you into your next opportunity. We cannot overlook the dark side, either: Your worst enemy from your last job could end up a supervisor in your present job. Don't haunt yourself with this, but be mindful that while most of our relationships do not become vital to our future, we do not know which ones could.

The human equation in law-protecting your paycheck through basic principles!

Some simple principles have proven vital to the human equation in the law. When we attend to these principles, they "protect our paycheck." Think of how often these rules are violated and what you see as a debilitating effect, and then consider these principles when they are positively followed and draw your conclusions about their benefit.