Category Archives: Carol

Personal branding: it’s not just for athletes.

Posted on by
Reply

Companies are no longer only perusing through resumes, some are after more – they want to see the person beyond the carefully formulated cover letter and resume.  How do they find that person?  According to Dan Schwabel, a leading personal branding expert and creator of StudentBranding.com, 45% of companies conduct background checks on social networks.  Schwabel argues that a person brand can sometimes make or break an opportunity with a potential employer.

You are probably asking yourself, “A personal brand?  Why would I want that?”  Well, clearly it seems to work pretty well for celebrities and star athletes.  Sure athletes have superb physical skills on their side, but without branding, they are just like everyone else.  By capitalizing on talents, athletes, with the help of marketing experts, build a name and a reputation for themselves. Continue reading →

Shhh. I have a secret.

Posted on by
2

My name is Carol and I am addicted… to LSAT logic games.  I secretly love the LSAT logic games.  Call me crazy, but I would be the happiest person if the LSAT exam only had logic games.   I even think they are fun.  Weird, I know.

I am a highly visual person, which is probably why I do not mind and actually enjoy the logic games section.  Drawing diagrams really helps me understand and anticipate different scenarios.  I love plugging in letters into my diagrams and quickly making the necessary connections to answer the questions.  By far my favorite questions are the “if” questions: “if Center 3 recycles glass, then which one of the following kinds of material must Center 2 recycle?”  For these questions, all I have to do is plug in G into my diagram under Center 3 and use the conditions they have given me to figure out the answer.  Unlike the logical reasoning section, I do not have to make any assumptions because everything I need is right there in front of me. Continue reading →

My LinkedIn Makeover

Posted on by
Reply

After deciding that LinkedIn would be the best way to brand myself, I knew I had some research and thinking to do.

While I am nowhere near becoming a lawyer, I try to keep up with the Lawyerist Blog, which is the “lawyering survival guide.”  One of their career posts is dedicated to how law students should use LinkedIn.  I figured I would get a head start, and give my LinkedIn profile a makeover.

Lawyerist suggests following the five B’s to mastering LinkedIn: the Basics; Beefing up your profile; Building your network; Branding yourself; and Best practices for job searching.  The five B’s were a lot to absorb in one sitting, so I only focused on the basics of LinkedIn.

After reading the five B’s, I looked over my profile and pinpointed all of the areas that could use a little bit of love.  It is important here to be critical, examine the profile from the lens of a recruiter, and even ask a friend for some feedback.

I noticed the following flaws with my profile:

Professional Headline:

My “professional ‘headline’” was rather bland: Student at Scripps College.  Really?  Was I sleep deprived when I wrote that?  I must have not realized people could get that impression from my “Education” section.  I transformed my “headline” to something short and sweet, communicating a tiny piece of my interests and me.

Summary:

What summary?  I had none.  How am I supposed to brand myself when I do not even give people a summary of who I am?  For this section, I wrote about the kind of person I am, what I am currently doing, and what I would like to do in the future.

Continue reading →

Not another cover letter.

Posted on by
2

Perhaps I’m a little too ambitious or maybe I just really want the summer internship of my dreams.  This semester, I will be applying to as many sports internships available within a 50-mile radius of my reasonable summer locations, i.e. Miami, Florida or Seattle, Washington.  With so many applications, I am bound to get in somewhere, despite not fitting the ideal candidate profile for most of these internships.  Without a doubt, my least favorite question in the applications is, Are you pursuing a bachelor’s degree in marketing or administration?  In which case, I must answer, “No, unfortunately, I am not pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Marketing nor in Sports Administration; however, I have acquired comparable skills with my education and work experience.”

This is where my cover letter comes in and hits a home run.  I have to dispel their misconceptions of non-marketing/administration majors – I need to show the recruiters that I possess the same if not better skills than their preferred degree-seeking candidates.  Last week, I met with Valinda Lee at CP&R and went over cover letter techniques and suggestions.  After submitting my first cover letter and resume, I was utterly exhausted.  A week later, the thought of writing at least seven more cover letters and changing my resume to fit different descriptions literally darkened the skies as I ran to the library, trying to avoid the looming rain.

Consequently, I embarked on a mission to find an easier and more efficient way to write a cover letter without wasting time, mulling over examples time after time.  Eureka!  On Thursday, I attended a CP&R workshop – “Making the Best of your On Campus Job” and Valinda enlightened the attendees with what CP&R refers to as an idea bank for interview questions.  While I am not at that stage yet, I can adapt the basic idea bank concept for cover letter/resume purposes.  I have set up a two-column table: Column 1 lists desirable skills employers seek and Column 2 lists brief examples where I have demonstrated to have those skills.  Note: I am listing the examples by previous jobs so that it helps me construct the accompanying resume quicker.

Desirable Skills Examples of skills
detail oriented – TF650: running accounting audits; running delinquency reports; reconciling accounts;

– FITS: marketing items;

– HOM: reviewing grant proposals;

– 5CA: coding & designing website
listening and organization skills – TF650: addressing resident complaints; maintaining lease/re-sale files;

– FITS: faculty websites; phone/in-office support;

– R&S: fundraisers;

– HOM: processing applications;

– RT: creating curriculum; managing weekly tutoring sessions;

A few words should do the trick, making it easier to write compelling examples – all I have to do is look at my list and pull out examples. The painstaking application process has suddenly transformed into something less tedious and a lot more manageable.

There’s no instant-replay in law school applications.

Posted on by
Reply

After perusing through my copy of Anna Ivey’s The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, I realized that I need to realign my priorities in order to pay close attention to the critical aspects of my law school applications.  Ivey, who was the dean of admissions at the University of Chicago Law School, provides straightforward answers on the admissions process and does not sugarcoat anything.  While some books say that law school admissions isn’t a numbers game, Ivey explains exactly why numbers are so important for law schools.  Clearly, the whole admissions process is a lot like playing a sport (with the exception of golf): I want to score as many points by the end of the game; in law school admissions terms, I want to have as many points by the time the admissions officers are through reviewing my application.

According to Ivey, officers spend on average 5 minutes per application. You mean to tell me that I’m probably going to spend hours filling out papers and hunting people down for recommendation letters so that an admissions officer can look at it for 5 minutes?  I guess that’s why I’m starting so early – I definitely don’t want to be writing thesis and working on personal statements/resumes.

So what exactly are admissions officers looking at? Well in the first quarter they review GPA and LSAT scores, and in the remaining 3 quarters they review the essay, recommendations, resume and addendum.  Wait is there overtime or instant replay?  No, I only get one chance for victory (per school).

Right now, with the exception of Super Bowl XLIV, focusing on what will get me into a decent law school is my top priority.  Over the summer I began working on LSAT, hoping that I would continue the training throughout my fall semester; but with school and work, I neglected my workouts.  Although this was not my “get fit” New Year’s resolution, I think it’s time to start training for my big marathon, the LSAT in June or September.  This Friday, I will have my first intensive LSAT training session at CMC. I really do hope this LSAT practice exam will not be as hard as their CATZ class with coach Calichman. I’m still in pain from last Wednesday!