“Best Practices” for Candidates

As we all know, Lawcruiters and hiring managers alike salivate profusely at the sight of a mid-level Cravath M&A associate who is willing to move firms quickly – and thus are often tempted to overlook failings that will sink the candidacy of lesser mortals. For those of us who do not prompt such Pavlovian reactions in hiring managers, here are some “best practices” (besides that niggly bit about credentials and experience quality) that guarantees that a candidate will be given serious consideration.

1. Carefully Prepared Resumes: A resume has one basic narrow function: it informs the reader as to why its author is an appropriate candidate for a job opportunity. To this end, the reader wants to know: does the candidate have relevant experience (and what is it) AND does the candidate have appropriate academic credentials and law firm training. In almost all cases, this information can be reduced to a one page resume to which is attached a transaction summary describing specifically, and in a detailed and carefully structured way, what the candidate can do, and at what level of accomplishment. Besides foreign language skills (fluent only), all other information, in most cases, is irrelevant. The sole exception to this is credible evidence that the candidate has the character or abilities of someone who can be expected to generate business for the firm. A minority of lawyers have these abilities. This means, for the remainder, that a “just the facts” resume will be greeted gratefully by eyestrain-plagued, resume-swamped hiring managers who will surely note, approvingly, the writer’s self-confident refusal to “pad” the resume with extraneous information.

2. Carefully Prepared Interviews: Just like the resume gives a candidate a limited space to make a good first impression – the interview affords that candidate a limited window of opportunity to prove her qualified for the role being sought. To this end, the candidate will need to read firm biographies, understand firm practice structures, prepare summary presentations of her transactional experience, and thoughtful answers to the “Why do you want to work for us” question. Most importantly, the preparation must be designed to meet the needs of that particular search. Thus, someone being interviewed for a senior associate role will want to reassure the interviewers about her maturity and experience level. Someone being interviewed for a mid-level transaction completion role will want to show energy and a desire to advance in his career.

3. People Skills and Good Manners: Given studies about how people rely on first impressions, we know that the candidate actually needs to do very little in order to confirm a favorable predisposition in her favor. The converse is equally true. This best practice recognizes the reality that lawyers spend more time with their professional colleagues than with virtually anyone else. It reasonable that firms will want to hire people who “fit” – meaning that they have the social graces, character attributes, enthusiasm and other people skills needed to make that person a pleasure to work with. At the same time, all of us (the writer included) can benefit from regular refresher readings from a book of business etiquette - particularly at interview time.

4. A Business or Career Plan: Every lawyer needs a business plan. This is not just for those of us who are growing our own businesses, but for anyone who wants to map out how she will be taking her career from Point A to Point B. Business/career plans force careful thinking, clarity of purpose, and realistic objectives. Once written and internalized – these plans bring order, integrity, and greater effectiveness into everything a candidate does to advance her career. A candidate with a plan understands precisely why she is interviewing at a given firm, and exactly what information she needs to convey to her interviewers. For that person, everything makes sense – and it shows.