After having completed paralegal training and received your Bachelor’s degree or paralegal certification, it’s time to start your job hunt. After having located a paralegal job opportunity, it’s time to submit your application to the prospective employer – the process of acquiring legal employment consists of three phases, the resume submission, the interview, and the post interview follow up – were you not a stand out for the position.
Submitting Your Paralegal Job Application
Submitting your resume is a prerequisite for acquiring a legal job, all employers will require this of their applicants to get a sense for your qualifications. Your professional resume should inched your educational background, professional background and experience, and a list of references. Don’t list “references available upon request” at the bottom, just include them on the resume, or in your cover letter. This will illustrate your professionalism and commitment to land the job.
Write your resume with the singular goal of simply developing interest in the employer to consider you for an interview. As they say, first impressions are everything, so make it count with your resume. Don’t attempt to make the resume stand out with loud fonts, colored paper, or any other attempts to grab attention. The legal industry is traditionally very conservative, so your resume and complete package should display professionalism.
Use a standard font such as Arial or Times New Roman. Make sure there are no spelling or grammar errors by proofreading it several times – if this minimum requirement isn’t met, you may be killing your chances of landing a job before you even start. This is not to say your resume can’t be unique, quite the contrary. You are a unique individual, so likewise, your resume should be unique – but more importantly, it should convey a good fit for the unique needs of the employer. For information on producing a winning resume, see our post on how to write a paralegal resume.
Interview Advice
If your cover letter and resume have been persuasive enough to sell the employer, they will most likely call you in for an interview. Interviews depend highly in the law firm or group of attorneys conducting the interview. They can include a single interviewer, or a whole panel of interviewers, as paralegals typically report to more than one attorney, unless a sole practitioner is conducting the interview.
The questions asked can also range quite heavily, from simple factual questions about your resume, education and experience, to more open ended questions about a particular experience in your past, or your work history in general. You may be asked to list your strengths and weaknesses, or a particular situation where you were caught in a tough spot and how you dealt with it. Or you may be asked to respond to a hypothetical situation.
These questions can all be prepared for well in advance.
The key is to appear calm, collected, and confident. Job applicants that are excessively nervous or uncomfortable don’t get hired – employers want to work with people who they’ll be comfortable with and who they think can handle the pressures of the job.
One very important part of the interview is asking questions about the job, what it entails, whether it would be a good fit for your needs, about the law firm, and generally anything that reverses the roles of the interviewer and interviewee. This is a great way to convey that you value yourself enough to weed out any jobs that may not meet your requirements. And of course, this eases your burden to carry the conversation with the prospective employer. It also gives you the opportunity to stress how your qualifications meed the demands of the job. Taking notes is always a good idea, not only for referencing later, but to project the impression that you care and are interested in the job.
If you perform well during the first interview, most likely a second interview will be scheduled. Here you can explore the specifics about the job, such as the paralegal salary, or the paralegal job description. Never discuss salary until you are offered the job. You’ve made it to the second interview, which means the attorney or law firm is interested in you, so be sure to use the opportunity to stress the qualifications you have, especially how they meet the needs of the position.
