Tips for Interviewing During Cold and Flu Season

By  Rich Janney

I am coming down with something. I can’t yet discern what virus has come to visit, but it feels powerful. Right now I really don’t want to interact with strangers or with anyone I need to impress. But there are plenty of you out there who are in my situation (or will be soon) and you have an interview on tap right in the middle of the worst part of the cold. Here are some tips on how to survive this process without catastrophic failure.

1. In some cases you will need cold medicine to make it through the interview without leaving a mucous slime trail behind you. Do not ever take untested cold medicine on the day of your interview. Give it a whirl a day or two before. See what happens. Otherwise it’s an episode of Three’s Company just waiting to happen.
2. You know that ad they have recently been running for Tamiflu, the one where the guy is sick and he is giant compared to his surroundings? Try not to look like that.
3. Bring lozenges in case you have a cough. If you’re worried about sick breath, you can bring mints or those Listerine strips. A pack of those mini grandma Kleenexes isn’t a bad idea either. Maybe you should also bring a thermos of chicken noodle soup. If you can’t find a place to store all this on your person, consider wearing a fanny pack.
4. If you are lucky enough to have a cold that has given you ‘sexy voice’, run with it. Say sultry things during your conversation.
5. If you have to cough, try to mask it with some other ambient noise, like an air horn.
6. Hide swollen neck glands with a turtle neck sweater or ascot.
7. Under no circumstances should you look in a mirror before walking into your interview.

I truly feel for you if you have to motor though an interview while you are sick. If it’s the flu or something that really has you knocked down on your back, you might just have to reschedule the meeting though it pains me to tell you this. However, as much as we want to persevere and tough it out, no potential employer will look favorably on you if you were the carrier monkey that got the whole office sick. But hopefully you will have a nice holiday break to get over your sniffles (and maybe get a flu shot) so that when January hits, you are rested and ready for any interviews coming your way. And maybe wear a biohazard suit to any holiday parties--just a thought!

Customize Your Resume AND Your Interview Responses

By  Sabrina C. Spitznagle

Most people know that they should customize their resume for a particular position. A great way to do that is to mirror your resume to the job description or posting for the position to which you are applying. What candidates often forget, however, is to go through that process again when preparing for an interview. It is important to carefully review the job description and posting prior to any interview. If you are able to explain in an interview how your experience matches the skills the potential employer is seeking (ideally using specific examples and buzz words from the job posting), you absolutely will set yourself apart from and above the other candidates. The article "3 Ways to Tailor Your Resume For the Position", written by Gerald Buck for Vault Blogs, provides specific tips for customizing your resume, which are also helpful at the interview stage.

Interesting Article About 2015 Associate Salaries

At McCormack Schreiber, we have found 2014 to be an extremely busy year for associate hiring at large law firms, and we expect 2015 to follow suit. Of course a concern for all of our associate candidates and law firm clients is market compensation, and we thought that the article "Will Law Firms Increase Salaries in 2015?", based on NALP's 2014 Associate Salary Survey, was particularly interesting.

PICKING THE HOT PRACTICE AREA

By Rich Janney

You are a law student.  Maybe you are close to graduating. Maybe you’ve been out for a bit. Whatever.  You must figure out which practice area to pick.  You think: “I need to figure out the ‘hot’ area of law and do that.  That will make me in demand and I will have more job security and more money and will have a nice car.”

Maybe.  Or you might just look sad and lonely in a couple of years. 

Does anyone remember Y2K?  I do.  Around 1998 or 99, a lot of doomsayers were predicting all kinds of havoc being wreaked when the clocks and calendars were forced to roll into the year 2000.  Apparently, most computers hadn’t been set up to handle a new millennium (they only tracked the year with two digits and not four) and were going to revert back to January 1, 1900.  And that was going to cause banks to implode, missiles to accidentally launch, financial markets to collapse, and it would cause a dystopian future not unlike Mad Max.  Fires would burn.  Friends would turn on each other.  And the sun would cease to shine.

The lawyers got ready.  They called themselves Y2K attorneys, and they were ready for the onslaught of litigation resulting in the ripping of our social fabric as we pushed into a new frontier of lawlessness and cannibalism. 

But then nothing happened and they all looked kind of stupid.

Okay, that’s an extreme example of a ‘hot’ area of law that didn’t pan out.  But there are plenty of others that came and went.  I remember when I was graduating law school, everyone was talking about biotechnology being the hot new thing.  We were going to need bioethicists and patent attorneys to handle all this human cloning and to help protect the technology that would allow us to grow a house from a seed.  Don’t get me wrong, there was (and still is) plenty of demand for patent attorneys who could handle life science-related technology, but I would hardly say that we entered a brave new world of genetically modified friends.  It may still be coming, but my point is that it never really materialized the way people predicted 14 years ago so all the people who rushed into this ‘hot’ area of law may not have seen the tidal wave of work they were expecting.

Personally, I think that instead of finding the ‘hot’ area of law, you should pick something that interests you or one in which you have a unique skill set that will give you an advantage—within reason.  I mean, if you live in Chicago, specializing in oil exploration law might make you a hard sell on the market.  Or, if you like, just let the market pick for you.  When you graduate from law school, you are basically a stem cell—capable of growing into any kind of attorney.  If you go to work at a big firm, they may put you where they have a need and voila—you are now a real estate attorney.  You have big rolls of paper all over your office and blueprints taped to your wall.

I guess what I am trying to say is, just avoid the hype when you are deciding where you would like to specialize.  I really don’t think Y3K is going to be as big as they say.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU (AND YOUR BRAINS)

By Rich Janney

Interviews are interesting, to say the least.  You spend a few hours with some people to determine if you are going to spend most of your waking life with them for the next several years—up to the rest of your career.  Each company has a different approach to this high-stakes get together.  Some companies just want to have an old fashioned chat.  However, more and more, employers are taking a non-standard approach to getting to know you and how you work.  Like what—what kind of things will they do? 

I’m glad you asked…

Writing Test

Some law firms have determined that since lawyers mostly write stuff, they should probably see how well you do on a writing project from start to finish.  They will give you a file with some cases, a fact sheet, and some instructions on what they want you to do (write a memo analyzing the law for a client, most likely).  Then they will hermetically seal you in a conference room (with an air supply) and see what you have produced when they let you out.  Does this measure your ability to write an analysis of three cases in two hours?  Yes.  Will it likely make you feel funny, but you can’t quite put your finger on why?  Possibly.  But you should know that it exists.  My advice?  Don’t freak out if this happens.  Just go into the writing chamber and avoid getting distracted and making doodles all over the paper they gave you.

Personality Test

Employers are increasingly administering personality tests.  You sit down—maybe with a Scantron™ sheet and a number two pencil—and the test asks you all kinds of questions that seem totally unrelated, but, thanks to certain algorithms*, a computer will be able to sort you out into a few general categories of human being (e.g., Hufflepuff or Gryffindor).  From this, the employer will be able to tell if you are in the club or not.  Frustrating?  Not if you make it into the correct personality quadrant.  My advice?  You can’t ‘steer’ these exams into saying what a great person you are.  You just have to answer the questions as best you can and hope the sorting hat likes you.

*I am getting incredibly sick of this word

Brainteasers

This has received a lot of attention lately thanks to companies like Google making news that they are no longer going to ask interviewees mind puzzles.  However, Google notwithstanding, many companies still do it.  The philosophy behind brain benders is that they supposedly reveal how you think.  Here’s how it could all go down: You arrive for your interview and exchange some pleasantries.  Then, without warning, your interviewer may ask you this: “A windowless room has 3 light bulbs. You are outside the room with 3 switches, each controlling one of the light bulbs. If you can only enter the room one time, how can you determine which switch controls which light bulb?”  My advice?  Say this: “Just watch which light bulbs turn on and off through the open door.  Idiot.”  Then flip the table over, kick the door open, and leave.  I’m just kidding.  Don’t say “idiot.” 

HEADSHOT

By Rich Janney

 

Your LinkedIn photo is very important. People want to know what you look like, so let them know and don’t leave it blank. But please be smart about it. You really only need a shot that shows off your head. Why just your head? Because professional humans like to look at the heads of other professional humans. Dogs like to sniff butts, professionals like to size up heads. It’s how the universe works. So, long story short, there is no need to provide your LinkedIn bio with anything other than a professional headshot. And yet day in and day out I see all kinds of bizarre photos used on LinkedIn. Here is a rough list of things you should not use for a LinkedIn photo:

1. No low-cut sexy-time photos.

2. Nobody cares that you caught a salmon on that fishing trip that one time.

3. Don’t use a picture of you and the girls on a night out where you just cut out all the other girls.

4. No pets.

5. Don’t just pick up your phone and take a selfie and be all like, “Fine, LinkedIn! Here’s a picture of my head! Happy now?!” Yes, technically this is a headshot, but it’s a depressing headshot.

6. No children.

7. There is no need for a head-to-toe shot of you standing in a non-descript field (I am confused as to why I see this as often as I do).

8. No pictures from your vacation where you are very sunburned and wearing sunglasses and look a little buzzed.

9. No golf clubs.

10. No lovey-dovey marriage/couple photos.

11. No pictures of you dressed up for the renaissance fair. 

I understand that people desperately want to communicate to the world that “there’s so much more to me than just my job!” I get that, I really do. But on LinkedIn, you only want to communicate that you think of nothing more than your job—it’s a professional network. Don’t subliminally telegraph that you can’t wait to kick off work and get back to your real life. To that end, if you moonlight as a magician, for the love of God, do not use a photo of you flourishing a silk scarf while a dove sits on your tuxedoed shoulder. If you do that, your moonlighting hobby might have to become your day job.

Amy McCormack Quoted in Chicago Daily Law Bulletin Article

January 18, 2013

A recent article (subscription required) published in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin heavily quoted McCormack Schreiber's Amy McCormack regarding current attorney recruiting trends.  Below are some excerpts:

McCormack said the time needed to complete a lateral partner move is often "much longer in duration."

This was more pronounced in the second half of 2012, she said.

In the second half, "clients who were not able to move a search more quickly often lost top candidates to clients who were more nimble," McCormack said.

Also, McCormack said, portable business is not the sole qualification for a lateral lawyer anymore.  Today, firms examine a candidate's "practice area and expertise, client synergies" and a candidate's effect on other practices before they even talk to the candidate.  She said this scrutiny was always done, but today is more far reaching.

Regarding in-house recruiting, McCormack said experienced temporary lawyers - as opposed to permanent hires or outside counsel  - are oten sought for general corporate work and to counsel a company's sales force.

For 2013, McCormack predicted for recruiters that there would be "a lot of activity in the first two quarters, and hopefully for the entire year.  We were very busy in November and December. "

BE READY FOR THE VIDEO CONFERENCE

By Rich Janney

If you are searching for a new job, it will happen sooner or later—you will be selected to have a screening interview via video conference.  Here are some tips to make sure you have the best video conference possible:

1.      Yes, wear a suit.  And wear pants, too. I know it’s funny to tell people that you didn’t wear pants for your interview, but if you have a leather chair, your bare legs might make a funny sticking sound and people will wonder what’s going on down there.

2.      Make sure you have an appropriate background for the call.  If your office is a desk in your bedroom, move the computer elsewhere.  No one wants to see a bed over your shoulder, even if there are a million pillows on it.

3.      Look at the webcam instead of being fascinated with your image on the screen.  Put a sticky note over your face if you have to.  No, no--on the screen.  Put the sticky note over your face which is on the screen.

4.      Experiment with the lighting to make sure you don’t look dead on camera. 

5.      Don’t sit too close.  Webcams are ‘fisheye’ lenses and the closer you get, the bigger your nose will look.  I may be projecting my own feelings here, as I have a prominent nose and hate webcams.

6.      Think about all the times you’ve Skyped with your parents in Florida, then avoid doing all the things they do during their calls.

7.      Give other family members the heads up that you will be having this video conference.  A nude spouse in the background is thrilling, but ultimately unprofessional.

Handle the call with as few distractions as possible and you will have accomplished your mission.  Video conferencing has a long way to go before it truly is a suitable way to communicate professionally, but ready or not, here it comes.

Success in 21st Century Private Practice: Retooling for an Enterprise Culture

Preface: This article, originally published in the Fall 2009 edition of the University of Virginia Law School magazine, UVA Lawyer, discusses how attorneys can make themselves more marketable and successful in the years ahead.  While it was published over three years ago, its message is perhaps even more applicable today.

by Martha Ann Sisson and Amy Leafe McCormack

A tangible but elusive era of change is emerging in how private sector lawyers provide services and receive compensation. The very definition of success — what it will look like, how it will be measured, and the feasibility of annually replicating it — are in flux.

This article is written from the perspectives of two former practicing attorneys who are now legal recruiters. Our goal is to identify the qualities necessary to achieve success in 21st century private practice. We believe, at a minimum, these qualities will include the initiative, innovation, and responsibility required by an “enterprise culture.”

Until 20 years ago, it was easy to measure success: attend a prestigious law school, get a clerkship that leads to employment at one or two AmLaw 200 firms, and become a partner or member of a Fortune 500 legal department. You used your legal skills to get work from (and develop relationships with) the firm’s longstanding institutional clients. In the corporate world, the guarantee of uninterrupted employment with a stable and growing company fostered avenues of career diversification. This was the path for many UVA Law alumni.

The paradigm changed in the early 1990s when the onset of vibrant economic growth and greater financial transparency in law firm economics caused a major upheaval. The American Lawyer’s annual publication of the AmLaw 200 and its analysis of profits per partner awoke a sleeping giant. Grumbles arose from the ranks of law firm attorneys who wanted to share in the wealth they helped create in emerging growth companies. In-house attorneys questioned whether the trade-off in lower pay for more predictability in schedule and job security seemed naïve in the aftermath of corporate failures, relocations, and industry consolidations.

In the 1990s and continuing until the last few years, law firms and corporate entities grew through lateral hiring at the associate and partner levels. Successful partners began to operate as free agents. If the needs of their practice, their personal economic shares, or their management goals were being stymied in their present firms, they could enter a hiring environment that rewarded movement and change. Firms accepted the premise that someone who had not thrived in one firm could succeed in a different environment. And, if things did not work out in the new firm, profitability really was not affected, and the attorney would simply move on.

The emerging world of private practice since mid-decade provides a sharp contrast to those days. Law firms now define success by economic contributions made by members in much the same manner as their commercial clients examine sales figures. In short, “What have you done for me this quarter?”

The current obsession with immediate return has crowded out long-term planning. In time, the need for immediate returns and investment in the future will balance; individuals and institutions will be more agile, able to respond to economic challenges and opportunities in a manner more reflective of successful businesses. Achieving and maintaining success in 2010 and beyond requires a new approach.

Creating an “Enterprise Culture”

Historically, firm affiliation branded the quality and nature of work performed by its lawyers. With increased lateral hiring and firm mergers, however, this quality-by-association branding has been diluted, resulting in the current client trend of hiring individual lawyers based on their professional reputations rather than their law firm affiliations. We believe that specialized expertise will continue to be in demand, but that individual lawyers must now identify and market to clients the transferability and relevance of their experience rather than rest on the accomplishments of their firms. This means that attorneys need to approach their career development as a special enterprise, an effort nurtured by their law firms but created and directed by each attorney individually.

Indeed, although experience has always been recycled or expanded for new engagements, creating an “enterprise culture” within a firm or practice group is one of the most promising ways an attorney can obtain specialized skills, practice diversification, and client exposure. This “enterprise culture” describes an environment that encourages and rewards the initiative and commitment that are critical to every lawyer’s professional growth and success.

To create an enterprise culture, attorneys need to become more self-reliant by seeking out new skill-building assignments and client interactions. Such singular focus does not necessarily eliminate a collaborative or teaching culture, but requires active initiative in mastering necessary skills and taking control of one’s own professional development. While a firm may try to be all things to all clients, the “enterprise” lawyer and her team will proactively identify and offer a skill set tailored to fit each client’s individual needs. We are unable to predict whether these skills will appeal more to mid-market, regional, global, or boutique firms, but the trend toward customized skills is clear.

Personal and professional accountability to clients and one’s professional growth needs to take the place of passive acceptance of the law firm’s traditional way of training attorneys and bringing them into the client fold. A successful personal enterprise culture will yield happy clients, happy law firms, and satisfying personal professional paths.

On Thinking — and Acting — Like the Client

An enterprise culture embraces market principles— one assumes responsibility for one’s professional welfare, share of overhead, and contribution to profits. Over the years, we have heard many lawyers muse that they would have attended business school if they were not math-phobic. Achieving success, however, requires overcoming old fears and perceived deficiencies. Law firms are businesses, and lawyers must understand that the current economic distress and instability have brought renewed focus on “the numbers.” Weak demand for legal services, overcapacity in head count, unpredictable and often declining rate structures, lowered profitability, and personal productivity measured against cost have all affected the bottom line, and firms are focusing on managing costs as clients request lower or outcome-based fee structures.

Businesses routinely face competitive pressures and disadvantages and react according to normal business principles; they dust themselves off, cut where they can, and make do with what they have while positioning themselves for what lies ahead. Lawyers and law firms must mimic their successful clients’ nimbleness. Those who do will reclaim or expand market share. Clients face these daily pressures themselves, and if you seek the role of valued advisor and business partner, you need to walk the walk.

Conclusion

An in-house practice offers an attorney the opportunity to benefit from the efforts of a larger enterprise. Internal counsel understand (more than their highly compensated outside counsel) that it is a good thing to be viewed by the company as a business resource capable of adding strategic value, reducing costs, and generating revenue.

The same holds true within a law firm. In this current economic environment, developing an enterprise culture and the skills that encourage success requires going beyond what is comfortable and safe. Law firms must foster the elements of entrepreneurship and individual “enterprise zones” within a practice. Providing legal advice is merely one component of the value attorneys contribute. They cannot remain above the mundane practicalities of price structures and competitive economic positions and still partner with clients as strategic advisors. To remain vibrant, law firms and legal departments must understand their clients’ unrelenting business pressures and respond in kind. Lawyers, firms, and corporate counsel who demonstrate flexibility and innovation will be the ones considered “successful” in the 21st century.

Am Law Article: Law Firm Lateral Hiring Boom Goes On

In an article in today's Am Law Daily, author Victor Li discusses a new report released by the publication along with LexisNexis which projects continued strong lateral hiring by law firms.  A particularly interesting excerpt:

"On the talent front, a whopping 96 percent of survey respondents indicated that their firms plan to hire laterals over the next two years as a means of growing, while nearly three out of four said their firms expect the increase in lateral hiring to extend over the next five years. " 

This is certainly good news for experience attorneys looking to make a move.