Personal Branding

Personal branding is a part of your personal marketing toolkit. But how do you create one? First, you need to got through your CSI (Credentials, Skills & Interests) assessment. What do you bring to the table? What do you want to do with that? Second, develop your elevator pitch. Go through this Harvard Business School Exercise to develop and then determine the strength of your current pitch. Third, consider how your personal brand is (or is not) present in your cover letters, resume, LinkedIn profile, and how your references talk about you. Don't forget to make sure you're adjusting your personal brand techniques as you target different employers -- this blog posting will help you consider some key language to show that you've thought out your strengths, weaknesses, and why you'd be the right person for the job.

Cleaning Up Your Online Presence

This blog posting serves as a checklist and reminder as to the various places you need to be checking to ensure that your online presence syncs with your professional persona. Though this posting was targeted at new college graduates, this is important RIGHT NOW for every law student because your new professional life began the day you walked into law school. Be vigilant so that you can keep your image clean continuously.

5 Steps to Building Your Story to Get the Job You Want

This blog posting from Gotta Mentor echoes of the themes you will hear from career advisors: part of your job search is about building transferrable skills to get the experience you need as you develop the network that can help you get there. Building your story, and thus your windy career path, takes time and will not happen overnight. You need a plan, and these five steps can help you make sure you've done your homework and are developing the credentials, skills, and demonstrate your interests to get you to that dream job -- even if it is two to three jobs from the next one.

Being in School May Be Your Sabbatical but...

For some people, returning to school or continuing education is the sabbatical. This blog posting however provides ways to create spaces for creativity and general health and well-being that you are encouraged to incorporate into your own life, such as:

• Working out to create space in your mind
  
• Using your commute to focus on other interests
  
• Enjoy nature

Taking time to smell the roses will help you remember why you are in law school as well as remind you that your life is not just law school.

10 Tips for Safe Social Networking for Attorneys

We posted a tweet about this a couple of weeks ago, but thought it worth revisiting as ethics rules become more complicated, and are often not written with the latest, and certainly not the upcoming, technology in mind. In what jurisdiction is your avatar practicing in Second Life? When is it soliciting clients? Did your post just tip your hand to opposing counsel? And never, never consider yourself anonymous.