Notes of a Résumé Writer – Critique Two - Legal Secretary

Dear Sam: I would really appreciate your help with revising my resume to obtain job interviews. The majority of my experience is as a legal secretary or administrative assistant; however, much of it is dated. I have also worked as a handicap aid in a high school classroom, and most recently, as a customer service rep. for an international logistics company. How can I arrange my resume to highlight my experience without looking like a job-jumper? Since my last job, from which I was laid off, I have worked for a temporary agency at a law firm downtown, and have been taking care of my elderly father. I need a full-time job, ASAP, but have had little response from prospective employers. Any advice and assistance would be greatly appreciated! Thank you. – Diana in Columbus

Dear Diane: I see on page two of your résumé (not shown here) you included your recent experience with the logistics company. I also notice that you have not included your temporary assignment with a law firm. Both are important to include in the professional experience section, in reverse chronological order, in order to show that you have been employed more recently than 2002.

Just as important, is removing your objective statement and replacing it with a qualifications summary. This is key in positioning you as a legal secretary or administrative assistant, minimizing the impact of having been out of a full-time legal role for some time, and ensuring focus is paid to the skills you possess that relate to your current objective. I’d also suggest that you create two versions of this summary, one targeting the legal market and another general administrative roles. This will ensure you are capturing the interest of the hiring manager in each field.

In the professional experience section, minimize the impact of your dates of employment by placing them to the right of your title, instead of surrounded by white space, which attracts much more attention. Also, engage the reader a little more by presenting your experience in bullet points. I’d also be very careful about how much experience you include. Currently your résumé dates back to 1972, which is never typically a good idea unless you are a senior executive. In your case, if you want to incorporate aspects from earlier experiences, include those within your qualifications summary, a career highlights section, and in your cover letter. On your résumé, if there are certain employers you would like to keep on your résumé, consider presenting these in a “Prior Experience” section and not dating those engagements. By doing this you will avoid unnecessarily aging your candidacy and generating a possibly false assumption of desired compensation levels.

With a strong qualifications summary, your temporary, logistics, and two most recent law firm positions, should fall on page one of your résumé, minimizing the impact of your 1994-1997 handicap aid position which was outside of the field, and your time out of the workforce between 1986 and 1991 (as these items won’t be seen until page two). Through strategic positioning, you can minimize the appearance of the industry hops and employment gaps. You also never need to note the reason for an absence from the workforce or for leaving a position as this only highlights potentially disqualifying factors. The last point I will make is regarding your education. Never include your high school diploma on your résumé unless you have just graduated, and be sure to highlight your legal assistant certificate in the qualifications summary, as your education section will not appear until the end of your résumé.

I have included a sample résumé I wrote for a legal secretary to give you some guidance on creating the qualifications summary. For this client, I created a complete employment search portfolio, including business cards and mailing labels, to brand her as a legal secretary (a second version was created for general administrative roles as this was also her objective), thereby overcoming disqualifying factors such as her return to the workforce situation. I hope this helps you in identifying ways you can increase the effectiveness of your search.

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Samantha is a Certified Professional Résumé Writer with a graduate degree in Marketing and Communication, and owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service résumé writing and interview coaching firm.