Resume Do’s and Don’ts apply to everyone. But, like the law, there are rules and standards and consequences. For example, if you skip to the bottom of this post to find the link to the 5 Do’s and Don’ts you’ll miss a few additional rules. You wouldn’t skip the instructions on your exam would you!? Is this you: OH NO, I didn’t know it was open book!!!!! Keep reading…

PS. Yes, I have no apostrophe in the DOs in the title of the post because the “s” in that case makes the word plural. There are multiple, 5 actually, DOs. However, in the text of the post an apostrophe is necessary otherwise Do’s becomes the Spanish word for two, Dos, and we’ve already talked about the fact that there are FIVE Do’s (disgree with my potentially made-up grammer? Comment away!). As my dos-year-old would say, Get it? Got it? Good! Wonder where she heard that….

Wanted to point that out because it is something I would have noticed and it probably would have cost a candidate an interview. Hopefully, if you follow these do’s and don’ts (see, that word already comes with an apostrophe) you will have every interview opportunity, at which time you can explain all of your own made-up grammar rules.

Moving on, the rules and standards of resume review can be found easily online.  Legal resumes follow the standards of most other industries but most law students and recent law graduates have specific types of experience to include and information potential employers need to know. Ask yourself these questions:

• Did you have legal experience prior to law school?
• Did you have a career before entering law school?
• Did you participate in any clinics during your 3-4 years of law school?
• Are you admitted to the Bar or is admission pending?

The rules law students and recent graduates must follow are fairly basic:

• NO typos,
• NO color,
• NO objective, and
• Only put class rank or GPA if you graduated within the past year and have over 3.5GPA or were ranked in the top 10% of your class, otherwise you are a member of a much larger pool and it is not a distinguishing factor.

The consequences of not following the rules are not prison time or a lengthy trial. However, a job search can certainly feel like both.

Read these 5 Resume Do’s and Don’ts and let me know which you think are rules and which are standards.