Job Search and Career Advice Resources

With the end of the school year almost upon us, you might want to check out some of the resources available in the library that are useful for job searching and that provide tips and advice on legal and nonlegal careers. Here are just a few:

  • Guerrilla Tactics for Getting the Legal Job of Your Dreams - this guide provides detailed tips for handling cover letters, resumes, and interviews; ways to find great jobs outside of on-campus interviews; killer answers to tough interview questions; a plan for negotiating for more money; information on alternative careers; and much more.
  • The Legal Career Guide: From Law Student to Lawyer - this, the 5th edition of one of the ABA’s best-selling career guidebooks, focuses on how to find satisfaction in a legal career. It is divided into four parts that address planning, assessment, searching, and the marketplace. You’ll learn how to honestly and effectively assess your personal and professional skills, how to successfully study and evaluate the market, and how to utilize a step-by-step guide for your job search.
  • Fifty Unique Legal Paths: How to Find the Right Job - ABA handbook that focuses on the diverse career choices available to law graduates, including non-practicing legal positions as well as some unique positions outside the legal field for which the JD degree is a natural fit. Also includes insight and advice from successful attorneys and law graduates, including how each person got their position through a series of career changes and decisions.
  • Nonlegal Careers for Lawyers - this ABA guidebook explains when and how to choose a nonlegal career, the specialized skills that legal training provides, and how to plan and conduct a job search. Includes information on careers in business and industry, government and public service, associations and institutions, and entrepreneurial ventures.
  • NALP Directory of Legal Employers (online at http://www.nalpdirectory.com/) - provides profiles of more than 1,700 law firms, public interest organizations, government agencies, and corporations throughout the U.S. Includes detailed information on starting salaries, primary practice areas, pro bono information, office and firm size, partnership data, work/life information, and more.

  • Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory (also online at http://www.martindale.com/) - provides brief profiles of U.S. and international law firms, along with biographical information on individual attorneys.

J. Fusaris