I have a weird and eclectic background that confuses recruiters and hiring managers. Specifically, they ask “why would an attorney want this job?” The answer being that the attorney doesn’t have much legal experience and therefore can’t get hired as an attorney. (I obviously can’t be that honest.) I don’t know what to do with my career so I thought I’d yell into the void. When I talk to people they’re vaguely impressed with my background and think it should be easy to get a job … almost nobody says “I know a hiring manager that has been looking for your skill set, check out this posting…”. The legal profession is crowded and not particularly interested in non traditional backgrounds/lateral career changes. The technology industry only wants privacy/ compliance/ governance people with 6-10 years of experience. That leaves being a Project Manager or a Business Analysts. 2007 - BS in Comp Engineering & Comp Sci, from midwestern state flagship university 2011 - JD / Law from a T2 in Chicago with not great marks 2012-14 - Legal-ish job underwriting bespoke insurance products, drafting and negotiating NDAs and contracts of insurance 2014-21 - IT Project Manager then Lead Business Analyst for a large healthcare payer. Projects implemented new technology, onboarded more areas to newly implemented platforms, and involved a lot of integration work. Core teams of 7-10 with extended dev teams… ie the scrum masters reported to me but I didn’t manager their teams. 2021 - I quit with a plan to make my side business (online resale) an entrepreneurial experiment. I learned a lot about Amazon FBA and had some fun. It doesn’t pay the bills. 2021 - I worked for a fintech startup for 2.5 months 2022 - Infosys recruited me to a consulting role related to a platform i previously worked with as a PM. What should I do? Student Loans: 330k TC: 121k YOE: 11ish #lawyer #attorney #hiring #recruiting #career #legal
Your actual exp is as a PM. Just go with that. People can be intrigued but they are still hiring for a specific role. Only solid exp is your PM work it appears. Don’t clutter your resume with other things that don’t belong there and are distracting
I think legal training bears on my advocacy and negotiation skills … essential aspects of being an effective PM
You know who also has advocacy and negotiation skills? Bartenders. You listing this non-related JD is a signal that you’re either a failed lawyer or not serious about tech. Neither are a good story. It’s harsh, but you need to pick a lane.
What are you wanting to do as a career? Are you wanting to go towards legal or the PM route? Which ever direction, your resume should reflect that direction. As a hiring manager in tech, if you were to go down the PM route, I really don’t care if you have a legal degree. If anything, that potentially causes more confusion and may be hurting your potential chances.
It seems like there’s got to be a project management role where legal domain experience is a plus … right?
@infosys: try to apply and work in a tech company with legal domain. The main problem is you should find the thing you enjoy doing (even a little bit): project management, tech consultancy, code or legal related public servant etc. When you enjoy the work, things will change around you as well
Maybe try for tech roles in legal firms
I actually got pretty far along in an IT PM role for big law last summer but had a bad hair day during the second round of group interviews
Bad hair day? But this is the route I vote you pursue with other similar big law firms. IT role at a law firm.
But divorce lawyers are making bank right now given the high percentage of divorce rates.
You might be confused about what your resume should contain. It’s not an autobiography, it’s a list of things that make you qualified for a job. Does the job description suggest in any way that a JD would be relevant at all? If not, then don’t put it on the resume you’re using to apply for that job.
Funny you should mention that … my resume wasn’t getting much traction so I hired a consultant to help me rewrite it. Sure enough my refactored resume gets me a a lot farther in the process…
Patent Attorney or Patent Examiner will combine the legal and technical background
Legal engineer. Solution engineer for a legal technology company.
Sounds interesting
DM me and I'll help you dig yourself out of your hole.
DM dispatched
don't put your JD on the resume that you send to tech companies
How should I paper over that 3 year gap I spent on grad school?
Don't put your graduation year