Advice for Career Changers

By: Kandice Thorn

Most LL.M. students come to the program as the logical continuation of a career path that has been already well defined. However, we also have a number of students who pursue the LL.M. degree as a way to move their career in a new direction. For these students, the question of how to market themselves to employers can be tricky.

The first thing an employer will want to know when they see that you are making a big leap from litigation to transactional work or private sector to public sector is why. Red flags may start to go up. Were you not successful in your previous job? Is it because of your abilities/work ethic/personality, or was the work simply not a good fit? Is the new career something you are mindfully choosing, or is it an act of desperation?

In order to successfully make the transition to the new area of law, you need to be mindful of allaying these fears in your cover letters, resumes, and other interactions with potential employers.  Here are a few tips to help you make a good impression, and a successful transition:

• Focus on your narrative. Show a potential employer that, in fact, this move is your logical next step. For example, if you were moving from private sector to public sector work, you would emphasize the pro bono work you did as an attorney in the private sector, your volunteering experience, CLE classes you took along the way that furthered your interest in public sector work, etc. Think about ways to highlight these experiences in your resume, even if they did not actually consume the majority of your time.  For example, you might create a separate section of your resume called "Public Interest Experience" to draw attention to these experiences and show a long-standing interest.  If you don't have many such experiences to highlight, start racking them up now!
• Highlight your transferable skills. There are many skills that are applicable from one position to the next.  Look at what skills are required in the new position and highlight those skills in descriptions of your previous experience.
• Consider including a list of references with your application materials. A list of references that includes colleagues or (better yet) supervisors from your previous position will show a continued positive relationship with your last employer and can help dissolve any impression that the career change was prompted by a negative turn of events at your last employer.
• Focus on the positive. Always speak of your past experiences positively (even if they were not positive experiences). Do not dwell on negative aspects of the previous practice that made you want to move on; in fact, if possible, don't even mention them! Instead, focus on your passion for the new career and how your previous experience will help you get off to a great start there.