Email Outages & Productivity

This blog posting Turn an Email Outage into a Productivity Boost made me proud that I shut down my email when trying to complete projects. The opportunity and ability to focus to get the kinks worked into and then out of a PowerPoint presentation is crucial. So do you turn off your wireless in class to make sure you are focusing on the process? Don't you think doing this would enable you to follow the discussion more closely, getting to the fine points the professor is trying to make, and probably providing you insight on what the professor will find important in the final exam? When you're writing your resume or editing a writing sample, do you focus on the task at hand or do you allow yourself interruptions that cause you to lose focus? Consider what putting down the iPhone/Blackberry, etc for just part of every day can mean for your productivity.

Chicago Lawyers' Advice on Road to Practicing Law

The Chicago Lawyer recently posted an article, Points to Ponder, with advice from attorneys at various size firms, from associate to partner, for their advice to law students in these tumultuous economic times. The advice ranges from simple to complicated, but boils down to creativity, dedication, and experience.

PICs Picks: Bar Association Memberships, Part Deux

In the on-going series, the Law Career Services Public Interest Coordinators share their greatest hits of advice and resources. A great resource for finding professional bar associations globally, can be found here.

Joining organizations can further your career search in at least two meaningful ways. First, membership in general bar associations such as the Chicago Bar Association can expose you to many practice areas and specialties of which you may not have been aware. Beyond the informational and organizational meetings conducted by these groups, there are often opportunities to be exposed to tangible applications involving the particular area of law of the specialty committee or section, including various pro bono, community service and Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminars. These opportunities highlight the second major benefit of organization membership, which is networking and socializing that is a significant portion of most meetings and events. The chance to meet attorneys, judge, and fellow law students will allow you to begin to make inroads and contacts in your area of interest well in advance of graduation, a necessary and valuable advantage in the increasingly competitive legal market.

Prepare For A Job Interview If You Want To Get Hired

The best line from this blog posting Prepare for A Job Interview if You Want to Get Hired is this: "The single best thing you can do before a job interview is to prepare for it." Don't just look at the employer's website -- do a LexisNexis/Google/Law Bulletin,etc. search to find their major litigation, who their biggest clients are, and who has won the pro bono awards. After all, per this post, "On average, an interviewer will make up their mind about a candidate in the first five minutes of the interview." So if you're not prepared with a strategy that includes questions about some of that in-depth information you found, you know you didn't actually prepare. Check out the Preparing for Job Interviews: Are Excorcists & Voodoo Necessary? session in the Symplicity video library today for additional ways and information to research.

Job Search as an Entrpreneur

Job searching can be a lot like being an entrepreneur -- you really have to believe in your brand, which of course in this case, is you. The blog entry For Entrepreneurs, Every Day is Game Day really resonates as an approach to developing your professional skills and career. Here's the rewrite to make the application fit:

1. Prepare to work long days. You've heard us say it before, we'll say it again. Looking for a job is a job, and it is part of your job as a professional law student. It means reaching out and constantly developing, growing, and nurturing your professional skills, network, and opportunities.

2. Learn to relish the door slam. Okay, maybe not relish, but don't despair either. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Reach out to Law Career Services to maximize our resources and help you craft your job search strategy.

3. Don't make any major strategic decisions in haste. Don't assume that because your best friend found a job quickly that you need to follow their strategy. There are literally thousands of unique reasons why individual job searches unfold the way they do. If you've done your CSI homework by considering your Credentials, Skills & Interests, as well as carefully crafting your personal brand, elevator speech, materials, and job search strategy, you'll be making decisions based on your own insight, not whim.