Assistant Director of Professional Development
Recently I got together with a friend to celebrate my new position here at Golden Gate. While I knew that my friend works for a large law firm, I didn’t realize until our get together that she used to be on the firm’s hiring committee. She shared with me four of the most common (yet easily avoidable) mistakes that applicants made. While those candidates never realized how they had inadvertently sabotaged their prospects with her firm, you can benefit from their mistakes by following her simple advice.
- Be prepared to talk about everything mentioned in your resume and cover letter. If you list an article you wrote, be ready to discuss it in detail. If you wrote the article awhile ago, go back and reread it. You need to be fully conversant on everything listed in all of your application materials.
- If you list your personal interests, think twice about how they may be interpreted. Personal interests are listed to provide talking points and to reveal aspects of your personality, but you are not required to provide them. If you choose to include them, only list two or three interests that are truly interesting. Sometimes, sharing your interests can backfire. Make sure that they can not be viewed as offensive, inappropriate, or bragging. One applicant listed “snakes” as an interest. While this is interesting, it may strike some people as quite odd. If you include interests that are extremely time-consuming, employers may wonder whether you’ll want to spend more time out of the office than in it. It can be helpful to list a few of your interests, just be careful. Some safe bets are musical instruments that you play, community or public service, and reading – just be prepared to talk about what type of books you like to read and some examples.
- Do not assume that you have caught all typos, misspellings and grammatical errors. Have a trusted friend proofread your documents. Don’t let such mistakes disqualify you from consideration.
- Address thank you notes to the right person and reference the correct conversation. Good lawyers are detail oriented; when mistakes happen with even thank you cards, the interviewing attorneys take note. (No pun intended.) My friend said this happens frequently, and the applicants are never aware of how much this hurt their chances. Common mistakes include: (a) referring to an interviewer by the wrong name; (b) using the wrong honorific (e.g., Mr. instead of Ms.); and (c) mentioning a conversation in the note to one attorney that actually occurred with one of the other interviewers. Her advice: immediately after you leave a series of interviews, jot down the names of everyone you met with and which conversations corresponded to which people. Double check contact information, including the spelling of names, on the firm’s website. Last, try to recall the names of receptionists and administrative assistants that you interacted with to send them thank you notes as well, being careful not to mix up who was who. It will make a world of difference.
