Legal Advice

In early May, the Anti-Defamation League will be hosting a conference in Washington, D.C. The issues, says A. Harrison Barnes, LegalAuthority.com founder, will focus on restoring civility to the American Public discourse, immigration, the Mideast policy, “cyber hate”, anti-Semitism and Iran. Lawyers from across the country are expected to attend. On Monday, May 03, 2010, Iran announced that any accucsations of its creating nuclear weapons are without a “single creditable proof”. This certainly highlights the importance of the conference.

The LegalAuthority.com founder says this conference is an important annual event that allows the media, as well as policy makers, to come together with the unified purpose of directing attention to these important legal matters. It’s these broad attendees and subjects that allow real change in policy to occur. So just who are some these speakers expected to attend? Take a look:

Ambassador Edward S. Walker Jr., former Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs will speak on the U.S. Mideast Policy – what’s working and what’s not working

Daniel B. Shapiro, Senior Director for near East Africa and the National Security Council will also be speaking on the Mideast policy.

From the U.S. Department of Justice, Robert Moossy, Acting Chief for the Criminal Section Division will speak on those matters relating to Iran and its nuclear Armament.

Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary with the U.S. Department of Education will speak on the different programs for drug free schools.

Mara Liasson, National Political Correspondent for NPR will be speaking on “Tea Parties and America’s Changing Political Landscape” along with Gerald Seib, Washington Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal.

Attorney General Eric Holder will deliver a keynote address.

These are just a few of many speakers who will be in attendance, says the LegalAuthority.com founder. It’s a great opportunity for law students, those lawyers who are looking for a way to make a difference and even those attorneys who have long since established themselves in the legal field. With such a broad coverage, including many legal minds and law enforcement officials who will come together in search of solutions for dealing with hate crimes, it’s clear this annual conference is a significant event and one worth attending.

Another reason this conference is so important is that it allows new law school grads the opportunity to see for themselves the many specialties that they can make a difference in. Conferences such as these have inspired many to change their minds about which area of law they thought they wanted to practice. So what does A. Harrison Barnes recommend? “Attend the conference, see which topics inspire you and then head over to LegalAuthority.com and see which opportunities will allow you to run with your inspiration for real change.

Of course we all strive to make a good impression with our boss or our superiors in the workplace. Many times this is not an easy task to accomplish. In certain situations, a nice gesture may be to present your boss with a gift. Whether it be for a holiday, birthday or other special occasion, do not undertake this task haphazardly. There are many things to keep in mind when choosing the appropriate gift for your boss.

You must first and foremost analyze the relationship that you have with him or her. Be honest with yourself. Is it basically a superior and employee relationship or are you sometimes included in their personal business and events? Once you have answered that question honestly and candidly, it will be easier to move to the next step in your gift giving pursuit.

It may be a good idea to now focus on the occasion for the gift giving. Is it a holiday, employment advancement, birthday or maybe just a “you’re a great boss” gift? If you are possibly considering cash as a gift, it is usually considered extremely impersonal and shows lack of thought. This more than likely is not the way you would like to be perceived by your boss. If you are ultimately perceived as thoughtless when you are trying to attempt what you believe is a nice gesture, your employment could be effected in the long run.

This is why the thought put into the gift should heavily outweigh the value of the gift in most instances. You should not expect to achieve a job promotion just due to the fact that you wrapped up your bosses favorite donuts for his birthday. It does show some thought, but it may be a little frugal to truly make a sincere impact. A tried and true gift will always be a sincere card and some flowers. Another idea may be to focus on a particular hobby that your boss may enjoy. If you have worked at your career for any length of time you usually know if a boss or a co-worker has a favorite hobby or not. If you are not sure you may want to ask someone at your job that you are close to. Whether it be golf or knitting or maybe something in between; you are bound to find a sincere, thoughtful gift that your boss will enjoy.

Here are a few pointers after you have purchased your gift. Though it may seem trivial, always remember to remove the price tag off the item. Nothing is more embarrassing to have the receiver of the gift hold the gift with the price tag still dangling from it. Also, try to give your gift in private. If you attempt to give the gift in front of a room full of co-workers it may be perceived as if you are looking for nothing but “brownie points” from your boss.

Though not the easiest task to accomplish, purchasing a gift for your boss can be done successfully. Just think it through, shop wisely and put your boss’ interest before your own and you’ll do just fine.

Make sure that you use proper office etiquette at work. Often times we don’t think about our etiquette at work, but any career counselor will tell you that proper office etiquette is crucial to making a good impression at work. Sometimes when we make a big career change it can be difficult to pick up on the proper etiquette of our new work place. Just use your best judgment. Make sure that you are polite to your co-workers.

If you borrow something from someone, don’t forget to return it. You need to use proper etiquette in the lunch room as well. Cover your food when it is in the microwave and if you make a mess, make sure you clean it up! All of these things will make your boss and your co-workers value your courtesy and respect.

Accept Your Mistakes

It is important that you own up to your mistakes. Remember no one is perfect, when you make a mistake you should acknowledge it right away and do what you can to correct it. It is much easier to gain the respect of your peers and your co-workers if you are willing to admit when you are wrong.

Dress Appropriately

Whether you are a teacher or a mechanic it is important that you dress appropriately. If you are a women, than you should avoid clothes that are too reveling. It is important that you stay away from miniskirts and shirts with plunging necklines. If you have to wear a uniform to work then you should make sure that it is clean and pressed every day. Always keep in mind that you should dress for the job that you want, not the job that you have!

Avoid Calling in Sick

If you have ever spoken with a career counselor then you know that calling off sick can be detrimental to your career. Of course there are times when you really are too sick to work, but if you call off sick excessively then you may be looking at a career change sooner than you expected! Only call in sick when you are extremely ill. If you just have a little cough or a headache, then you should take some medicine and head into work. Your boss as well as your co-workers will appreciate your dedication.

Topics to Avoid Discussing

Whether you have made a recent career change or your have been working in your office for a number of years, there are some topics that should be avoided in the work place. These include things like sex drugs and politics. There is a time and a place for everything and work is definitely not the place to discuss these topics. You would also be wise to avoid talking about anything that would make your company look bad. Don’t gossip about your boss or your co-workers.

Manage Your Time Effectively

This is some of the best career advice out there. Companies love employees who are good at time management. Don’t spend too much time on a small project. You should also avoid making personal phone calls and checking personal e-mail on company time. Not only will these things make you look bad to your boss and your co-workers, but they can also get you fired!

What should be the right reaction to losing a job? Legal careers have been considerably affected by the recession. Well, to start with, the fundamental law of nature is that order results in disorder and vice versa. Both order and disorder are good things as they help improve our social and personal lives. It is also something that affects the way you direct your career and the success and failure you encounter in the process. Sometimes, the value of property is hard to determine and put up with since it is often so high. This is complemented with the fact that property taxes need to be paid and the property has to be maintained regularly.

This is precisely what happens when you lose your job: disorder is created and there is need for order to be restored. A. Harrison Barnes, the CEO of a legal career company BCG Search, believes that everywhere there is a need for decorum to be restored, whether it is law and order, criminal behavior, social life, education, or anything else. When you have been put out of a job, you are exposed to disorder. However, it is true that wherever you are employed in, will eventually leave or lose. This is a natural law. When a legal job company goes out of business, the phase is punctuated by an extreme amount of disorder in the employees’ lives. Moving thus from one profession to another is something that exposes them to disorder, with the potential of changing their lives for the better.

How Should You Respond?

Those who are employed in legal jobs and have lost the job are exposed to disorder. Your reaction to this turmoil is actually a determinant of how successful you will be in your career and life. A. Harrison Barnes believes that a lot of people in law employment start panicking as they are upset and anxious about future possibilities when faced with such disorder. There are several ways in which they react to this: employment lawyers take up the job at first, even if it is beneath their skill levels; secondly, they often do not look at other geographical places where more opportunities are available; often, those in the attorney employment may resort to alcohol, drugs and other addictives to battle bouts of depression; finally, the law career pursuers may restrict their job search methods to looking at a particular job search engine or job board, instead of exploring all available opportunities.

The two primary laws that you need to take into account, according to A. Harrison Barnes are that order leads to disorder and disorder to order. This is true for attorney jobs too. If it is disorder generated out of a job loss or a professional setback, you need to utilize that for your growth. In fact, how you react is how your life will take shape. If you are in the law jobs, you will know that conflict is an essential part of your job and millions are made by attorney careers in the business. Conflict plays a major role in acting as a conflict against others: companies sue other companies, people sue companies, companies sue people, and people sue people.

In the words of CEO A. Harrison Barnes, the key to being a successful legal employment professional is merely to be themselves, no matter what the situation is. Instead of losing their head, they must focus on staying calm and quiet even in the face of adversity. The secret lies in trying the change, and even being a part of it. This will help them become a new person. You must also note the fact that work and commerce also take into account conflict and disorder to a certain extent. The factors to consider are: whether the person is doing their work correctly, whether you got a good deal, if the person is cheating you, and whether a particular piece of work can be qualitatively improved.

BCG Search answers all your lawyer employment queries, and with the team of successful professionals out here to handle your applications, getting that dream attorney job is just a couple of clicks away. A. Harrison Barnes comes up with the best piece of advice, which is: instead of trying and looking outside, fulfillment is something that should be sought for from within. Even if you are jobless, it is important to ensure that you have a moderated reaction to the world. Instead of housing angst, frustration and depression, acknowledge the wonderful truth of accepting circumstances the way they are.

The Importance of Keeping your Resume Ready at all Times

Maintaining an updated resume is something we tend to forget, when we are enjoying our current work and feel comfortable in our job. Of course, if you have been laid off over the past year, you realize the importance of keeping your resume ready at all times. The thing that many people forget is that you should have your resume updated at all times because you never know when the perfect opportunity will come along. Updating your resume accurately should be an ongoing process.

After been laid off from a job might seem like the perfect time to update your resume because you have extra time on your hands, but the fact is that you are probably distracted, lacking in self confidence and scared to death. This is not when you want to write the most important document to sell yourself to a potential employer. A resume is an ongoing process that should be ready at the touch of a button and many of the best jobs can come by surprise from somebody you gave your resume to in a random meeting of networking.

Most of the successful job candidates land a job using a number of proven techniques. Among these are networking opportunities and spur-of-the-moment job vacancies that demand a quick and speedy response. That means you should have your resume updated and ready at all times.

The best way to relate the importance of keeping your resume updated might be to relate selling yourself, to the way you would sell a product. If you think of your resume as your personal business card and think of yourself as a “product”, you will realize that many buyers of your “product” may not immediately purchase, but at sometime in the future, they may find they have the need to purchase. Your resume will be the key to whether they decide it is your “product” that they want.

If you have ever had a salesman call on you, talk about their great pricing, their great product and then not have a business card, price list or brochure, then you wonder why they even tried to sell you. A week from now, you might not even remember their name!

If you meet somebody that may be able to offer you the dream position you have been waiting for, and tell them how you would be perfect for the position, but it takes a week or two to get your resume updated, then you are no different than the ill-fated salesman.

Being prepared is part of business and a great job candidate. If you don’t realize the importance of selling yourself, then how can a company expect you to be an asset that will sell their company? The most important part of keeping your resume ready at all times is that you never know when the perfect opportunity will come along and you only have a small window of time to respond.

If you think of your resume as the key to your “ten minutes of fame”, you will realize the importance of keeping your resume ready at all times. Just remember the ill-fated salesman – your business card or brochure is your resume and you should be prepared to “make the sale” whenever the opportunity presents itself.

As a job seeker, your first responsibility is your resume. It has to be perfect. There is no room for errors, big nor small. Begin with keeping your resume as current as possible. The best time to look at your resume is when you are contented and relaxed. This way, you are better placed to spot inconsistencies and mistakes in your resume and correct them in a calmer frame of mind without becoming too critical or too laid back.

Think of your resume as a representation of you. Your resume is a fact sheet that could reveal how you conduct your self, apart from the professional and educational qualifications. Does your resume show you to be a careful and organized person? Or does it come across as a hastily put-together document with uneven margins and text blocks?

It is often said, God is in the details. Think of it this way, why do some people make such a fuss about details? Is it really worth all the trouble?

Job Seeker, Double Check; Double Check

Look at this piece of text:

“My name is Hester. I work from a small town called Leeways. I wake up every morning for work and cache a train to my office. Before this, I wake up at 6 a.m. and make my cup of coffee with about a teaspoon of coffee powder and some sugar. For breakfast, I like my eggs poached and with two slices of toast done really well. I work as a lathe engineer from morning 9 am to evening 5, and I am well-versed with most lathe machines…”

If you noticed, it is not just about spelling mistakes; it is also about the way the piece is written. The writer, Hester, refers to work one moment, veering to breakfast, before talking about his occupation. The result is a write-up that tends towards confusion and mixing up.

When checking for errors, no amount of effort is enough. Ask any proofreader and she/he will tell you how despite numerous checks, certain mistakes will still creep in.

However, not all mistakes will spoil the entire piece of text. There is a huge difference between being lazy or not being thorough and between the stray typographical error (or typos) that pass even the most careful eye.

Check if it Reads Well

You wouldn’t really like reading several paragraphs of text written if they were written like Hester’s paragraph above. Is there a chance you’d think this person seems to be fairly confused in whatever else he does too?

How would it be if this person, Hester, wrote a letter to you asking for your help in some matter, any kind of help? Probably you’d hesitate. Which brings us to the point of this article: Details are highly important. If your resume is not done up perfectly, it will put off a prospective employer. It will not matter whether you attended a top-rated school or worked for a very well-known business house. Compounded with a competitive job market, any carelessness on your part in creating your resume could lead you into losing opportunities.