Resume - Please help!

[Lorelai Gilmore]

I'm not sure if this is the right part of the forum, for resume questions, but if not if you could answer them/redirect me, that would be great!  I have had A LOT of jobs through out college and summers.  I want to put them all to show I am always working (often 2 jobs), but it is definately over a page, along with ec, awards, that kind of stuff.  Recommendations?

[pikey]

I'm not sure if this is the right part of the forum, for resume questions, but if not if you could answer them/redirect me, that would be great!  I have had A LOT of jobs through out college and summers.  I want to put them all to show I am always working (often 2 jobs), but it is definately over a page, along with ec, awards, that kind of stuff.  Recommendations?

LS resume isn't like a business resume.  You're allowed to go to 2 pages, unless the school specifically forbids it.  That said, you might want to consider cutting some of those jobs.  Most schools have a section on the apps where you fill in all your jobs, so you might consider putting all of them there and only some in the resume.  Another option is to write on your resume that you worked # hours per semester.  I forget which section it would go in, but the Ivey Guide is really helpful in formatting your resume for law school.

[Chandler Bing]

I called each school to which I'm applying and asked if they would prefer a business (one page) resume, or a longer one. Most said shorter, but a few said they'd prefer the longer resume. If I were you, I'd take the 15 minutes to do this, format your resume both ways (or one way, depending on your schools) then see a career counselor, prelaw counselor, or someone who is experienced with resumes and have them proofread it/them.

[FossilJ]

It's hilarious.  I've NEVER followed the whole "business resume has to be one page" rule, and I've gotten call-backs (and jobs) from almost every place I applied to.

That said, I have no idea how long the resume should be for your law school application.  If anyone figures it out, please post in the thread linked in my signature.

[queencruella]

If you're an older student who has been out of school for a while, I think that a school is going to wonder WTF you've been doing all this time if you just put in the last few jobs. Many applications specifically ask you to list any jobs you've held for more than 6 months, and if you can't fit it in the 4 little blanks they seem to give on on the application, you might as well put it on the resume. You can, however, put ECs and awards on a separate sheet to get the length down.

[Lorelai Gilmore]

Thanks for all the help.  Just to add to the info, I'm applying straight out of UG.

[juliemccoy]

I'm in the same boat. I held the same position, basically, with a bunch of different companies, so I just put the current job, the one previous, and how many hours I generally worked through undergrad. If you developed different skills at each job, list them all, if they are all in the same line of work, I'd just say how many hours you usually worked. Just my two cents..

What you want to do is create a functional, rather than chronological, resume. List out your job duties since they were all so similiar, then list the dates and titles/companies of your employment.

[FossilJ]

BUMP for this baby.

[UVaOK]

LS resume isn't like a business resume.  You're allowed to go to 2 pages, unless the school specifically forbids it.  That said, you might want to consider cutting some of those jobs.  Most schools have a section on the apps where you fill in all your jobs, so you might consider putting all of them there and only some in the resume.  Another option is to write on your resume that you worked # hours per semester.  I forget which section it would go in, but the Ivey Guide is really helpful in formatting your resume for law school.

I seem to remember the Ivey guide strongly advocating staying on one page unless you have either extensive WE (10+ years) or a glut of published work.  Based on my experiences as a resume reader in the business world, this seems valid.  While law school IS different from the world of business, I cannot help but think that a self-imposed, Ivey-recommended one-page limit can only aid you.  Readers aren't going to spend more than 30 seconds on the resume, and you really need to drill down to what you feel a reader would most benefit from learning in that short span of time.

[juliemccoy]

Agreed. You don't need to list membership in every single club you signed up for. List out the most meaningful. And if you're Greek, put this at the very bottom, even if you've had siginificant Greek leadership experience. Academics and business people don't read your fraternity philanthropy chair position as a meaningful experience, unless you take the word "fraternity" and make it Circle K Service Club, National Honor Society or Student Gov't. Or unless they themselves were Greek (which you don't know).