Laser Printer? wtf?

[Jumboshrimps]

Buy a laser printer. While you're at it, get a fax machine. I you don't use these in the next couple of years, you need to get your ass moving on this law thing.

[thorc954]

hahah, 2L Man, we can blame it on that (or your work experience and connections and my lack of interest during interviews)  they asked me all these hard questions (what do you want to practice? do you think law school is hard?) umm... how the hell am i supposed to answer that crap? 

[1LMan]

hahah, 2L Man, we can blame it on that (or your work experience and connections and my lack of interest during interviews)  they asked me all these hard questions (what do you want to practice? do you think law school is hard?) umm... how the hell am i supposed to answer that crap? 

Answer it with confident bull.  At the end of the day, I think confidence is what sells you to an interviewer.  Obviously there is no right or wrong answer to "do you think law school is hard" and they know damn well the majority of law students have no idea what practicing law is even about so they don't know what they want.  You can't go wrong with "I want to litigate," lol.  Keep it broad.

[thorc954]

hahaha, my answers were: "i think its a joke, they make it seem hard," and "i want to litigate, and i decided I want to be a lawyer because of judge judy"

[thorc954]

oh, and im never doing oci again.

[smujd2007]

Yes, there's a reason that they call it resume paper.  Use it for its intended purpose.  I'm sure there's something that you're spending money on that you don't need, that you could do without to buy some paper.
 

Yeah, I have always used university printers and am not about to load 'resume paper' into those bad boys.  If someone wants to throw me out because I didn't use the heavy paper, do I want to work for such an uptight jerkass anyway? 

N.B. I do use PDF instead of .doc though. It's just nicer and it also prevents them from going "I'm going to write all over this dude's resume" on their own screen for their selfish fun.  (At least without extra software).

It's not that people are being jerks by requiring resume paper--it's that it's basic business etiquette 101.  You're being unprofessional by not following a practice that is about as standard as wearing a tie to your interview...

[yykm]

You really dont need much resume paper.  The only time you want it is for the in=person interviews (oci or callback).  For the screening stuff, you will send out emails with attachments unless the firm is one of those smaller places that wants you to mail the crap to them.

[olive]

I sent my first mass-mailings out with resume paper and matching envelopes, printed on a laser printer (which I already had). The envelopes are a total waste because they are thrown out before they reach the attys desk, and the paper can go either way. Sometimes they just photocopy it anyway and pass them out to the committee so they won't know the difference. A laser printed page might photocopy a tiny bit better?

I saved a lot of money and time e-mailing subsequent resumes/cover letters as pdfs, which many firms say they prefer. This lets you avoid the whole printer/paper issue and speeds up the process.

However, for in-person encounters it's nice to have resume paper. Probably not necessary but makes a good impression.