Just as the time changes twice a year, we generally change the batteries in the smoke alarms located throughout our homes. Unfortunately, people don’t update their resumes as often as they change those batteries. The new year is usually when most people – 60% of people, by some accounts – update their resumes. Ideally, though, it should at least be a bi-annual task.

Why Update?

Keeping your update current is empowering. It’s a reminder that you are the sole person responsible for how successful your career is. The dream legal career might be moments from knocking on your door and if your resume isn’t current, you’ll find yourself scrambling to bring it up to date. This, of course, leaves a lot of room for error. Your resume is by far your most vital marketing tool, besides yourself, of course. Your resume is an introduction, of sorts. And it’s far more important than you might think.

As important as our resumes are, too many of us dread it because we simply don’t know what to include and what to leave off. This results in procrastination and before long, we’ve forgotten dates of major accomplishments and other important and impressive goals we’ve met.

Tweet This Post

If you want to catch the eye of a legal employer, you should be armed with both a quality legal resume and a good legal cover letter. They are the most essential documents and can make a difference for you in the eye of the legal employer. If you wish to distinguish yourself from the rest, if you want to create a special identity for yourself, and above all, if you intend to leave your competitors miles behind, you must ensure that your legal resume and legal cover letter are impressive and outstanding.

They will help you create a favorable impression on the mind of your likely employer, feels A Harrison Barnes. It will ensure you that your legal resume will not reach a dustbin but will rather be kept at the employer’s desk and you will get an interview call. The employer will surely be interested, even tempted, to take your interview and try to know more about you. Creating a favorable first impression is very important for anyone who applies for the attorney’s post at a legal firm.

A Harrison Barnes is a proud owner of Legal Authority and its popular website – legalauthority.com. He has created them to help the legal job seekers get positions they desire. They provide you with every type of service that can help you find a good law job. Their services not only include law job search but also guidance and actual preparation of legal resumes and legal cover letters for their clients. They are prepared by expert legal resume consultants. They understand your requirements and then prepare your resume in the format that will best present your achievements, your experiences, your qualifications and your skills and talents. They make sure that the resume of their client is well noticed by the legal employer.

A Harrison Barnes says that you need to know some basic steps for writing a quality legal resume. Make sure that you follow all the necessary and expected steps. This will ensure success in achieving your goal. Always remember that the main aim of a resume is to introduce you to a potential legal employer. A resume includes educational and academic qualifications, personal information, experience gained till date and also honors and activities. The resume should be written and formatted in such a way that it informs the legal employer all and well about your skills and abilities that set you apart from others.

The employers hardly spend a minute to study these resumes. So ensure that your effort in creating the legal resume should be up to the mark or else it will be relegated to the rejection list. This way you will have a better chance of getting a call for an interview. If you have any special skill related to the legal field, you can design your resume accordingly. This will surely place you in a better position than your competitors.

Format of the Resume

The resume consists of three key sections – personal information, educational qualifications and employment experience. A Harrison Barnes suggests you to even add a section of your interests and honors. Make sure that the fonts used in all the sections remain same. You can use Arial or Garamond or Times New Roman for text fonts. Only use greater and bold size fonts for the names of the sections and different size of fonts for mentioning your name, current address, contact numbers and email address. You should not use more than 2-3 different sizes of fonts.

You can add plain bullets to present your educational qualifications and employment experience. Place them all in a reverse chronological order. Make sure that you maintain the order of the format throughout your legal resume.

Length of the Resume

An important rule of the resume writing is to finish it in one page. You should remember that you are not writing an essay but a legal resume. Include only the essential information. You need to stress on your accomplishments and strengths rather than filling it with nonessential information. A Harrison Barnes says that you are not allowed to use personal pronouns “I” or “My” in the resume. Avoid longer sentences; always prefer smaller ones.

Resume Appearance

The contents of your resume should be well and neatly placed, enabling the employer to understand them well. Appearance of the resume matters a lot. You may be a very qualified person, but if you are unable to convey it in a proper manner, your skills will come to nil. And yes, apply margins to make your content readable.

Presentation

Make sure that your resume is printed on a professional resume paper. Use matching envelopes that will go with your legal resume and legal cover letter.

A Harrison Barnes advices you to update your resume at regular intervals because you may require it at any moment.

Tweet This Post

The popularity of new television shows such as ABC’s The Deep End, includes interpersonal and romantic relationships. One couple is married and experiencing significant marital problems that are spilling over into their work days and another couple is just beginning to explore a new relationship that, of course, is spilling over into their work days as well. While this is all fine and good, it’s important to realize first, that it’s a television show and secondly, office romances aren’t neatly tidied up once a week and within a forty two minute time frame. A. Harrison Barnes, founder of LegalAuthority.com says it’s natural for some lawyers to find themselves treading those romantic waters. Partly because of the long hours sometimes required when preparing for a case; it’s human nature for a relationship – even a professional one – to progress into those murky waters. It might be human nature, but it can also be dangerous, Barnes points out.

Office romances have a powerful presence in some law firms. They can be distracting to co-workers who are devoting at least a portion of their work days to investigating whether or not there are fireworks going off between two people and if so, how hot are they burning. People begin to watch closely for any tell-tale signs that will not only give the two love birds away, but that might also be indicative of trouble in paradise. A. Harrison Barnes also points out there can be legal ramifications in those seriously flawed office romances. Sexual harassment cases are sometimes filed by vengeful exes, and if there are any adulterous behaviors involved, spouses can be lash out in any number of ways – including barreling into important client meetings. While no one would downplay the devastation of realizing a spouse is cheating, it can be disastrous for a law firm that employs two people involved in anything other than a professional relationship.

So what do you do when you find yourself attracted to a co-worker? Among other things, approach with caution. While we won’t definitely discourage it, you may want to check your own employer’s policies. It may be relationships such as these are not allowed. If you disregard the policy, you then run the risk of being outed and the very real possibility of jeopardizing your career with the law firm. While there are few, if any, reliable numbers, it’s not uncommon for one half of a potential love affair to change jobs.

Thinking it might be the best avenue for you to pursue, too? Consider LegalAuthority.com and the many career opportunities it presents from law firms across the country. Here, you can update your resume, change specialties and get a new start. This way, if the romance does blossom, you’re not in violation of company policy, says Barnes. The problem comes in when someone believes they shouldn’t have to sacrifice anything, despite company policies. This line of reasoning, of course, is exactly why so many legal firms discourage or prohibit romantic relationships at all.

Tweet This Post

Getting back into the swing of things can be very difficult to do if you have been on a vacation. Looking for work can be even more of a challenge. You may not feel up to it, but conducting a  job search is just part of the process of obtaining work after a break.

For some, returning back to work is pure torture. People do not want to feel like they are starting over. The good thing is that it doesn’t have to be that way. Returning back to work provides peace of mind about finances and gives people a place to put their hard earned skills to work.

One of the things you may have to do is to think about whether or not you still have all the right skills for the job you are interested in. If you possess a degree in a certain area of work, you may want to consider applying for jobs in that particular area before any other. Most employers base their decision to hire someone one on the amount of skills they have. In the employer’s eyes, it is much easier to hire someone who has all the necessary skills than to have to go through the entire training process with someone completely new to the job.

It is important not to limit yourself to one career area. If you have the skills to do more than one type of job, then you should apply to each and every one of those jobs. Finding available positions can easily be accomplished by checking in with some online classifieds websites like Careerbuilder, Hotjobs, and Monster. These sites alone should be enough to help you find what you are looking for. If you need more variety, then make sure to check your local newspaper’s classifieds section as well. Checking the job section as frequently as possible is recommended because listings change constantly. Jobs are literally here one minute and gone the next.

No matter how bad the economy gets or has been in the past, there will always be some very aggressive job hunters shopping in the job market, snatching the best jobs the country has to offer. When you create your resume, make certain that it is a surefire attention-getter. It needs to be neat, not too wordy, and to the point about how you can benefit the company you are applying to. Always include a cover letter especially tailored to fit your potential employer’s expectations. Give legitimate reasons and honest answers to all of your employer’s questions. If asked why you have a gap between employment times, be completely honest. Your employer will find you to be reliable and respectable, which will heighten your chances of being able to return to work at a job you actually want.

Although it may have been a while since you worked, not too much has changed in the world of work. If you feel as if you have lost some of your skills, you may need to take a training course or two at your local college in order to polish up. Other than that, confidence and honesty are everything. Just be straightforward, aggressive, and honest about everything and you will definitely be back in position in no time.

Tweet This Post

It feels like you have been in the same job forever. You have been doing the same old thing, day in and day out. Or maybe your job is quite varied, but you just don’t get any satisfaction out of it. Maybe you need to assess your current work situation and see just how suited you are for your career and vice versa. Is it time for a career change? If any of these situations apply to you, then it may be time to break out the help wanted ads.

You Feel Burned-out
Getting out of bed in the morning is a chore. You dread coming into work, you are tired all the time, and you feel as if you just can’t go on. Burnout is the number one indicator that it is time for a change.

This Job Was Not Your First Choice
When you took this job, it was not your first choice. You had your sights set on something else. Maybe your family pressed you into this career; maybe necessity dictated that you take the job. Whatever the case, if the fact that it wasn’t your first choice is starting to weigh on your mind, then make the move.

You are Uncomfortable at Work
If you are uncomfortable at work, whether it is about being physically uncomfortable with the environment or people at your workplace unsettling you, you can consider a work change. If you are uncomfortable to the point of illness, then it is time to make a career change.

The Passion is Gone
The honeymoon is over; you are no longer in love with your job. You are bored. Boredom leads to poor production and poor quality in your work. You don’t want to get to that point. Find something that you love and make the move now.

You Have Gone as Far as You Can
There is nowhere else for you to go. You have moved through the ranks and gone as far as you can go. You have capped out on your salary. You have gone as far as you can go in this job. If being stalled in your career is not your idea of success, then it is time to begin looking elsewhere.

Your Skills Exceed your Duties
You have honed your skills through the years that you have been on this job. Maybe you have even gone to school and learned new skill sets. Whatever the case, if the skills you possess exceed what you are doing on your job, then take the leap and move on to a new career.

You aren’t Happy
Bottom line, if you aren’t happy in your job then you need to find something else. Of course, work is work, but you should at least enjoy what you do. Enjoying your work makes it much easier to get up every day and studies show that people who love their jobs are more productive and successful than those who don’t. If you aren’t happy in your current job, find a job that does make you happy. It will make going to work much easier and make working much more pleasurable.

Tweet This Post

Out of work? Looking for new career? It’s okay to think about what you know. But also rely heavily on whom you know. You never who your next employer may be!

Imagine that you go to work one day, only to discover that your position has been abolished. Or may you decide that you can’t stand your boss any more and you decide to quit in haste. The result is still the same — you no longer have a job.

In some cases (and hopefully with more planning) you can transition to another job in the same or related field. But in these trying and changing times, the old jobs may not be the jobs you want.

The first step is to consider what you know (by education, training, or experience). Think outside the box and recognize that a skill in one career or Job Classification may translate into related or useable skills in another. For example, I learned how to write effectively only after my first boss sent me to a writing course. Back then I wrote bureaucratic memos, PR brochures, and training scripts. Now I write 100,000 word science books and freelance about topics I never would have dreamt about in that lifetime.

But just having great abilities won’t necessarily land you that job. You have to have a solid contact base. For this, you never know when or with whom the contact will have to be made.

For this reason, one has to fall back onto, “It’s whom you know that counts.” And I have been building contacts since I began college. Even though I may not see many of these people often, I find that I meet them periodically at conferences. In this Internet-based era, I find that I am meeting them online and via e-mail even more often.

In my opinion, the best way to make contacts is the old-fashioned way. Nothing beats face-to-face interactions. It’s a great way to learn about each other and, sometimes, it is only through chance conversation that key information surfaces. You can make these contacts at training sessions, attendance at formal conferences, and yes, even on the golf course. I also have contacts I have made in everyday dealings and even people who live nearby. Anyone and everyone can be a prospective employer or a prospective referrer.

I’m very assertive when I’m in new settings. I will search out people who appear to have interesting things to say or share. I am also often willing to present at scientific and technical conferences. This often brings people to me who may become future employees or interns.

But I am always listening and learning about the people I meet, their business and their needs. Then my mind can figure out how I can fit into that particular setting (or maybe one that is similar). Maybe I can even help someone I know get a jobs.

Finally, go back through your Rolodex or professional Facebook or LinkedIn pages. You do have such web pages set up, don’t you? Do you know someone who could provide an opportunity or referral? Did someone tell you to give them a call because they were interested in you for a potential position? The job you are looking for is probably NOT in your local newspaper’s help wanted ads. It may just be where you least expect it.

Tweet This Post

Today, competition is very high to get success in one’s career and personal life. And this is why you have to prove your worth at your job every day. When at work, one of the most important things in your mind is to impress your boss in every possible way. If he is impressed with your performance, you don’t have to look back. Every individual understands the importance of a job and tries their level best to stand up to the expectations of his or her senior. But the main question is how to impress your supervisor? Is performance the only way to place yourself at a Better Position in the eyes of your boss?

A. Harrison Barnes, the owner of Employment Crossing job site does not believe that carrying out your tasks with efficiency alone can help. Apart from giving in performance, you have to know about the other ways to get desired results. There are various other methods to bring advancement in your career by grabbing the attention of your superior.
Take Pleasure in Performing Your Work

This is the most important thing you are required to do. Unless you do not enjoy performing a given task, you will never be able to perform well. Lack in performance will create a negative impression about you at workplace. Working hard will bring results only if you like doing what you do. Even if you don’t like your job, try and make some conscious efforts to like it and gradually you will see the difference. Don’t forget that it is because of your job that you get a pay check that helps you keep going. Once you start valuing your job, you will like it. The efforts you put in will only be noticed if you have a smile on your face. Your positive attitude will change the way you perform the given tasks believes A. Harrison Barnes.

Have a Polite Attitude towards Your seniors

Respect and politeness are what matters at work. Employees who are very rough to talk to are not preferred by the superiors. This doesn’t mean that A. Harrison Barnes asks you to bow before the seniors but interact with them in the most polite and respectable manner. You should never forget that they are after all power holders who can change your career the way they want. Any misbehavior towards them can cause problems in your job life. There are many things you may not like about your boss, but you can convey your message in a polite way but only if it really required else just avoid it. Also, you need to be equally respectful to your colleagues as you are with your seniors. The people in charge notice every behavior of their employees, thus make sure that you are good to your coworkers too.

Don’t Limit Your Skills

You have to take a step ahead and work towards enhancing your knowledge and skills. Think about the various ways you can improve the skills you possess. If any of your plans has not worked as expected to complete an assignment, accept your fault. Realize your mistakes and find out other ways to handle the project and be successful the next time. If you require help from an experienced person in your field, go ahead and take it. But even if you have been doing well, A. Harrison Barnes suggests that there is no harm in taking a training that can help polish your strengths. This way, you can be more helpful in contributing to the success of the company’s business. The efforts will be noticed and appreciated by your superiors. They will understand that you have the willingness for learning more and more and are eager to make a progress in life. You can join an online course or week end classes to enhance exiting knowledge and learn new skills.

Take a Step Further

Prove your capabilities in every possible way. Perform more than what is expected of you. For this, you need to take the step further and provide your boss help in executing other tasks. Take up new challenges and prove that you can carry out them better than any one else. You should even contribute in important decisions that your superior takes or help him with solutions to solve a very serious issue. This will definitely impress your boss, for he will remember that you have offered help beyond your job profile.

Apart from this, A. Harrison Barnes asks you to help your coworkers at their work. This will definitely get noticed by your superiors. A person who is trying his or her level best to help the company progress can never go unnoticed. Your boss will either notice your work himself or will get to know from some other sources. This way you can create an ever lasting impression in the mind of your senior which will help you get good appraisals and also in career advancement.

Tweet This Post

Everyone has a Dream Job but not everyone is working in his or her dream job. What makes something a dream job for one person may not be what makes a job a dream job for another. Employment is something that everyone has to have during a good portion of his or her lives. We need it to survive and to be able to enjoy certain things in life. Everything seems to cost a lot of money and that is not something that appears to be changing anytime in the near future.

So, if you are stuck having to work, why not go for an employment situation that you can enjoy and truly put your heart and soul into? When you enjoy your work, you perform better which leads to promotions and better pay. When you are promoted in a line of work that you love and you are paid more, you become even happier and the cycle continues.

If you do not have your Dream Job yet, do not worry, many people do not. However, it is not because they cannot make it a reality for themselves but rather that they do not go after their dream. This is where you will handle things differently. You need to realize what your dream job is and then set a plan in place. Go after what you want and make no excuses and eventually you will have that job that you have always wanted.

Going after your dream job sometimes means that you have to make sacrifices. This typically means time and in some cases, money. The time aspect could be additional schooling or training that you need, Sending Out Resumes and interviewing. The money is the cost of all of this. In some cases, a little bit of time is taken away from the Current Employment while looking for something better and this in itself can cost someone a little bit of money.

Even if there are some sacrifices that you have to make for your career, you will find that it is well wroth it. It may take a few months or maybe even a year to pay off, but you will find yourself to be much happier in the end. You want to make sure that you are not allowing yourself to remain in a dead end job that does not pay enough or provide you with the respect and attention that you deserve. Not only do you deserve better, but also so does your family.

Also, make sure that you are not limiting yourself, if at all possible. Finding your ideal job may include relocating. While relocating can be a stressful thing in itself, it is important to remember that staying in a bad job will cause a lot more damage in the long run. You need to think about not just the current moment you are in but many years ahead of you as well.

With a little effort, time and faith in yourself, you will find that you finally have the dream job that you have always wanted. You do not just have to be the person that dreams about it but you can be the person that actually makes it.

Tweet This Post

The first step in developing a legal resume is to introduce you to a potential employer. The objective of your CV should be to identify yourself personally, mention your educational background, specify your achievements and activities, academic qualification as well as work experience. The ideal resume should be crisp and exact and should be of interest to the employer, informing them about your unique skills and abilities. A Harrison Barnes, who owns Legalauthority.com, mentions several strategies and approaches you must take for pursuing legal jobs.

Build an Appropriate Resume

A Harrison Barnes of Legal Authority is of the opinion that his resume tips will put you back on track for an ideal legal job. Employers generally spend less than a minute going through your resume. This initial scan is often the basis on which rejection decisions are taken and hence you must contribute serious time and energy to build your resume. Go for a general format. The CV generally has 3 sections like personal information, education and work experience. Personal information comprises your name in a bold and large font than the rest of the entries. You also need to include your present address, a contact number and an e-mail id. You also mention your schools and corresponding activities or achievements.

The length of your resume should ideally be limited to a single page, although references may be listed on page 2. Mature students with pre law experience generally have a CV that spans 2 pages. A Harrison Barnes requires students to even touch upon their non legal experience or evaluate it under other heads in the CV. Make sure that this does not weaken the market value of your resume as they relate to your employment outlook.

Appearance

A legal resume must be easy to scan along the left hand margin with absolutely no typo errors. The cover letter should be printed on matching stationery generally in white or off white in 100% cotton bond paper. Keep an eye on maintaining appropriate margin, with consistent usage of tabs for placing similar information under each head. There must be no muddling up the fonts. Avoid too much graphic usage as it may look inconsistent.

According to A Harrison Barnes, the style of your resume should be to use the bold face print to highlight your name, educational institution and organization. Awards and honors are best italicized with minimal underlines. Pause listings with semicolons, and commas. No matter what stylistic devices you are using, make sure to incorporate the dual elements of uniformity and moderation in your resume. Make it a point not to include a section on Employment Objective in your resume as this must be present in the cover letter.

Work Experience

This is the section that is most difficult to write as it provides descriptive details regarding volunteering or unpaid efforts along with the paid ones. A Harrison Barnes mentions here that it is important to focus on this section as it captures the scope of your experience as well as accomplishments. It is important to club the type of work you have done with the extent of responsibilities you have shouldered without exaggerated them. Accentuate details of your critical tasks in short phrases and action verbs without embellishments.

Mentioning non legal experiences also helps as you need to emphasize relevant jobs that contributed to professional advancement and growth and these include: writing, research, time management, communication etc.

What about the employment gaps? A Harrison Barnes believes that it is best to mention the weak points with care and explain chronological gaps in your education and work experience during the interviews.

List your Bar Membership

Admittance and licensure to the Bar may be listed in a separate section with the same title in your legal resume. It is best kept at the bottom and in case you have made an effort to admit yourself to a federal court in your jurisdiction, list each of the levels carefully. For example: A Harrison Barnes and Legal Authority would suggest something like “Licensure Admitted to Virginia State Bar, October 2002″, or “Mar Memberships Virginia, Oregon, Federal District Court for the District of Oregon, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals” etc.

Legal Authority offers you helpful tips in preparing the ideal legal resume. A Harrison Barnes guarantees that proven results are achieved by providing more legal jobs for law students and graduates who surf his exhaustive legal job database . Often these attorneys earn in millions a year by landing on appropriate jobs through Legalauthority.com.

Tweet This Post

We’ve all been there; we know that a raise is long overdue. We also know we have more than paid our dues with long hours, weekends and vacations cut too short — all in the name of flawless work. Still, we find ourselves wondering if we’re ever going to that salary increase. Did you think to consider your resume might be a powerful tool? That’s right — the same resume that got you hired can also help with that overdue raise or promotion, says A. Harrison Barnes, career coach and founder of Hound.com

Why not consider Hound.com to provide all the help with your resume you need? It’s amazing what a new set of eyes can catch. Eliminate the cover letter and you’re left with a professional “company highlights” document that puts those strengths in front of your boss once again. Request a meeting with the boss, carefully choose your words, take a deep breath and jump in.

First Things First Be sure to start the meeting with a statement that lets him know you’re aware of the current economy; however, you’d like to point out a few things and remind him of your role in the company’s overall dynamics. Be sure you tell him how giving you a raise is in the best interest of the company as a whole. Point out the ways you’ve already reduced spending, streamlined shipping processes or increased profits the past two years. Whatever your contributions were, this is what you want to ensure gets heard. Presenting your resume again reminds him of the Accounting degree you have or even allowing him to see your accomplishments before you came on board. Make it a winning combination for both of you.

Be sure to remind him the continued growth of the company is your top priority. After all, you’re the one who sacrificed countless weekends during negotiations last year. You’re the one who clients want to speak to and you’re the voice of reason in many instances. Odds are, the right presentation will serve your purposes nicely.

That said, if you don’t get the answer you’re hoping for during this meeting, the good news is you’ve already updated your resume. You may not want to consider changing jobs right now and in those cases, the ball is still in your court. You can always wait and see how the economy does over the next six months. A. Harrison Barnes agrees, “You always have choices — even when you can’t see them until you take a step back; you always have those choices.” One of those choices is the Hound.com job board. Available nursing jobs, government jobs, accounting jobs and thousands more are updated in real time. If you see the job, it’s available. If it has been filled, you can be sure the Hound.com team is quick to remove it. We know how valuable your time is.

Regardless of what you decide, the most important thing is ensuring it’s a decision you’re comfortable with. After all, it’s up to you if the morning commute delivers you to a job you resent or one you can’t wait to get to.

Tweet This Post