"Tailor the Resume" - What's This Mean?

by Jan Nussbaum
Assistant Director for Professional Development

I am coming up on my one-year anniversary of working at LCS and supporting you on your job search and professional development. During this time, one thing that I have consistently observed on resumes is the lack of detail in fully describing work performed to provide potential employers with a compelling picture of how an applicant's qualifications may fit with a position or be of benefit to the employer.

Now I can hear you exclaiming out loud that, "How am I supposed to do this when I've been told to keep the resume to one page and to be concise, especially when I'm told employers only allow a few seconds to review the resume!"

Here are a few pointers:

Eliminate or put in summary form any work experience that's not on point to what the employer is looking for in a candidate. You have only seconds to say to the reader that you're worth talking to so let them focus on applicable information. You don't have to account for every time period in your school and work career. You can explain later gaps and additional experience if asked. Personal interests are not essential to have listed if space is an issue.

Dissect the job description. Print it out and highlight any areas where you have experience or can correlate other experience to what they are looking for in a candidate. Use this as a guide to add detail to the resume accordingly, being careful to use the same jargon found in the job description or any other employer materials.

Tell a Story. With or without a job description, provide the reader with a clear picture of your skills and capabilities. For example, let's say that the potential employer's clients are mostly newly arrived immigrants, and that the motions and briefs have to do with halting deportation. Many law students will simply list on their resume that they have interviewed clients, drafted motions and briefs, and assisted in trial. But that doesn't paint a picture for the reader about the types of clients and cases you worked on so they can easily determine whether there is some synergy with their practice. The reader doesn't have time to connect the dots. Using the above example, maybe your work experience dealt with asbestos litigation. If you describe your clients' backgrounds and the complexity of the litigation, the employer can get a much better picture on whether your experience can transfer to his or her immigration practice and make your stand out as someone he or she will want to talk to further.

Give it a try, and those of us in LCS are happy to give you input and direction.