Your resume is your one chance to make a great first impression. It tells recruiters and hiring managers who you are, what your best work looks like, and how you’ve obtained the skills and experience you need to succeed in a particular legal support position.
Since your resume is your first point of contact with those who could offer you a job, it’s crucial that your resume stands out for all the right reasons – and none of the wrong ones. Here are three “red flags” to eliminate from your resume:
Sending a generic document.
It’s tempting to create a single resume highlighting your legal support experience and send it to every job posting you encounter – but you do so at your peril. Even when legal support positions seem substantially similar, every law firm and legal department is looking for specific strengths, abilities, and personalities.
By taking the time to read the job description thoroughly, research the organization, and tailor your resume to this information, you create a document that catches the attention of hiring managers more quickly. You become more likely to receive the phone call that will lead to your first interview.
Leaving unexplained gaps in the timeline.
Few, if any, hiring managers require a legal support professional to possess a seamless career history from the end of college until the present. Even gaps of a couple months may go unnoticed. But gaps of a year or more that come with no explanation whatsoever may give a hiring manager pause.
It is important to be entirely truthful on your resume – even if that means leaving in a gap. Instead, think about what you did accomplish during the time you were away from the profession. Did you strengthen your organization skills by raising children, or get better at negotiation every time you attended a sick relative on a doctor’s visit? What volunteer activities did you perform, and what skills did they contribute to your strengths?
Grammar and spelling errors.
Legal support professionals are hired for their outstanding skills in writing, communication, and document preparation. Any mistake on your resume stands out to hiring managers as unequivocal evidence that your basic skills in these areas are lacking. Demonstrate the same professional care with your resume as you would with any document you prepared for an employer’s client.
At Kent Legal, our experienced Toronto recruiters help legal support professionals ensure their applications highlight their skills and experience. Contact us today to learn more.