What Should be Included in my Resume?

By: Kandice Thorn

One of the most frequent questions I get from international students regarding their resumes is whether it really needs to be limited to one page.  European-style CVs typically span at least two pages, and the idea of shifting to a one-page resume can be daunting.  But it is very important to limit yourself to one page, at least until you amass enough experience to warrant a second page.  The difficult part is figuring out what to include in order to prune your accomplishments to fit onto one page.

Maintain Relationships with Professors, Colleagues, and Supervisors After Graduation

By: Sindy Ding-Voorhees

This week we are pleased to present the third of three posts by guest blogger, Sindy Ding-Voorhees.  Sindy graduated from Fordham's LL.M. program in Intellectual Property and Information Technology in 2013 and has since been working as an Intellectual Property attorney in New York and Washington D.C.  She wrote this series of three articles to share her experiences and advice with our incoming LL.M. students.  This week, she addresses the importance of building and maintaining relationships throughout your LL.M. year.  We are grateful for her contribution!

After graduating, what stays with you from your LL.M. year is not just the knowledge you have gained, but also the relationships you have built with your professors, peers, colleagues and bosses, which is far more precious.

Externship/Internship Performance: Be Curious and "Loud"

By: Sindy Ding-Voorhees

This week we are pleased to present the second of three posts by guest blogger, Sindy Ding-Voorhees.  Sindy graduated from Fordham's LL.M. program in Intellectual Property and Information Technology in 2013 and has since been working as an Intellectual Property attorney in New York and Washington D.C.  She wrote this series of three articles to share her experiences and advice with our incoming LL.M. students.  This week, she addresses how to succeed in an internship/externship.  We are grateful for her contribution!

A primary goal in any internship is to complete your part of the job, diligently and actively. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you do it all by yourself, sit quietly in front of your computer throughout all your hours. You can be a hard worker as well as a great team player who is able to optimize workload, think outside the box and ASK QUESTIONS (don’t be afraid!). A smart intern will not only complete what s/he is supposed to do, but will also be CURIOUS about the other parts of the work.

                                                                                                                                          

Here is my real experience when I worked at Coach, Inc. during the first semester of my LL.M. year. Each intern was assigned a certain amount of work doing online intellectual property monitoring and enforcement. It was actually a pretty sweet position because we worked closely with the senior counsels and the General Counsel. 

Speak Up During the Year of Your LL.M.

By: Sindy Ding-Voorhees

This week we have a guest blogger, Sindy Ding-Voorhees.  Sindy graduated from Fordham's LL.M. program in Intellectual Property and Information Technology in 2013 and has since been working as an Intellectual Property attorney in New York and Washington D.C.  She wrote this blog post to share her experiences and advice with our incoming LL.M. students.  We are grateful for her contribution!

An LL.M. program for most non-U.S. candidates is something with multiple purposes. First and foremost, it is an intensive one-year long program of study covering various American substantive legal subjects. It also provides an almost exclusively English-speaking environment, which is a first for many people. Most importantly, an open, mingle-cultured (both legally and socially) society is right there, waiting to embrace you, whether or not you are prepared for it. 

I am a foreign-trained lawyer who recently graduated from the LL.M. program at Fordham Law, which is located in midtown Manhattan near Columbus Circle—not a very quiet place! In this article, I will share my experience and give you some tips on what you, as an international student, need to do to make your year the most rewarding.

Passing the Bar Exam

By: Kandice Thorn

We have reached the end of the semester and finals are rapidly approaching.  But for many students, beyond finals looms an even bigger challenge: the bar exam. 

If you have done any research at all, you know that the pass rate for foreign-qualified bar takers in NY is quite low, hovering consistently around 40%.  What can you do to improve your chances?  Below are a few tips that can help you beat the odds. 

Procrastination and the Job Search

By: Kandice Thorn

The year has flown by and we are already fast approaching spring semester finals.  Around this time of year, as many of our students prepare to graduate, I start getting queries from people who previously hadn't thought much about the job search but suddenly are realizing that the entire year has passed them by.  The far off haze of post-graduation employment is suddenly coming sharply into focus.

"How do I start looking for a job?" they ask. "Should I start networking now?"

Obviously, you're much better off if you began preparing your resume, networking, etc. early on.  But if you didn't do this, are you without hope?  No!  It's never too late to start.  Here are some tips to help the procrastinators among us make up for lost time.

How Formal Should My Email Correspondence Be?

By: Kandice Thorn

Not so long ago, in my first office job working at a travel agency in Tigard, Oregon, I sat at a large desk with a very clunky computer.  I used the computer primarily for searching for and booking flights and hotel reservations (Expedia did not yet exist).  We also had a large printer that was only used for printing airline tickets, which we would deliver to our clients all over Portland (paperless tickets also did not yet exist).  And before delivering those tickets, I would frequently turn to another machine on my desk to produce a cover letter: a typewriter.