Being stuck at home forces you to reflect on the life you currently have and the life you want to have post pandemic. This might include your career in law.
While there has been a reduction in job postings due to the current situation, recruiters are still stockpiling CVs on Simply Law Jobs to prepare for what is sure to be a surge in hiring once normal activities resume. So if you are still interested in finding a new law job at the earliest convenience, it makes sense to upload your CV to our site, so it’s easier for potential employers to find you.
Here are a few tips to ensure your CV stands out from the crowd, and a short how-to-guide on uploading your CV to our site.
Make your personal summary shine
Your personal summary is the first piece of information an employer will read about you. It needs to pack a punch in all the right ways. Whichever role you’re applying for, ensure that your personal summary compliments this, highlighting skills relevant to the job you’ve applied for.
Pay attention to detail – remember, law firms will be assessing your written communication, an essential part of your career in law.
Hint: Review the job advert before you begin writing the personal summary. This will help you identify what skills and other areas are most important to the employer.
Target your application for individual law firms
You might prefer to upload separate CVs for each job you apply for, which we would recommend when applying for jobs in law. Targeting your CV to each law firm will benefit your application. Knowing now why you are applying to each law firm is a good head start on interview preparation too, since you’ll probably get asked this question. Thoroughly research the company, and check the news regularly to see what they’re doing. The more you know about them, the better.
There is no excuse to not do your homework – if you want to work at a particular law firm, your CV should be highly targeted and show a genuine interest. All of this will also help a law firm to determine whether your skills and career preferences are suited to the specialist work the firm undertakes.
Know which skills are essential
Your CV should showcase the skills you have, but they should also be ordered in a way that puts the skills most important to the employer at the top. This way they can easily identify that you have the skills they need.
Try to limit your skills section to 10 skills, so as not to waste valuable space on your CV. You can also tag more skills in your account once you’ve registered your CV with us. This will make it easier for recruiters to find you if they are searching by skill set.
Tip: Key skills law firms pay attention to include:
- Excellent written communication skills
- Excellent verbal communication skills
- Problem solving
- Team player
- Excellent level of client service
- Time management
- Analytical and logical reasoning
- Commercial awareness
- Detailed knowledge of law and legal procedure
- Organisational skills
Use relevant work experience
If you’ve been in work for a number of years, you might think that you need to detail every form of employment you’ve had. But you don’t need to expand on the roles that aren’t relevant. So if you had a job from when you were at university, or started off in a job completely unrelated to the role you’re applying for now, don’t feel the need to go into detail on your CV – just focus on the more recent and relevant roles that showcase the necessary skills you’ll need for this job.
Proof your CV before uploading
If you’re happy to upload your CV so recruiters can find it, it’s important that you proof it before it goes live on the site. A poorly proofed CV is a huge turn off for employers. Make your first impression count and ensure your CV is neat, tidy and checked over for any mistakes, whether this is just spelling, or wrong dates on your employment history. If you don’t make time to check your CV, you could be missing out on a number of opportunities due to recruiters passing over your CV for one that is well presented.
How do I upload my CV?
To upload your CV on Simply Law Jobs, simply find ‘Upload your CV’ on the homepage, and upload it here.
Once you’ve uploaded it, you can log in to your account and fill in more details about your career history and other areas that will help get your CV seen by recruiters.
Key tips:
- Keep on top of your profile. Amend it or add new skills, and new employment etc.
- You can set your profile/CV to private if you want to stop your employer from seeing your CV – this way you can simply apply for jobs of your own accord instead of risking your current employer seeing it
If you want more tips on how to upgrade your CV, click here for our top 20 CV tips for 2020. Alternatively, you can download our CV guide below!
