I finished my Bachelor's Degree in Paralegal Studies and Litigation Technology in July of 2019. I stayed on at Bryan University as an Academic Specialist, which is a part-time position helping students with any questions or struggles they have, but I decided it was also time to find a paralegal job.
I started with creating a resume. I thought I had done a pretty thorough job. I got in touch with my program director (who better to ask than an attorney that has hired paralegals?) and asked if she would go over it and give me some pointers from an attorney's point of view. I had listed all my previous employment that skills could be applied to the job I was seeking. What I didn't list was my self-employment (how can creating pretty things be applied to a paralegal job?). She asked me why I hadn't included this and I told her. She started asking me about what else I do for my business to make it run. Well I started listing things like keeping track of inventory in Excel, accounting, managing my website, marketing, and SEO for all of that.She pointed out that all of those skills could be applied to a paralegal position. She said that attorneys pay firms to do all that marketing and website management big bucks and they would be interested in keeping the cost down by having someone in house, familiar with their firm doing it instead. Talk about an ah-ha moment. So I revamped my resume and was ready to get busy finding a job.
There were very few listings looking for a paralegal so I went through looking for Family Law firms. I printed out about 6 resumes and created cover letters detailed to each of those firms and I went and dropped them off at each firm. I got a call the next week for an interview. I went to that interview having done my homework on the firm and prepared to ask questions. I left that interview feeling that it went well. I got a call for a second interview and was asked to bring some of my legal writing with me. I left feeling good about this interview as well. I really liked both of the attorneys and really wanted THIS job. I got the call a few days later asking if I could start on Monday. This was the end of July 2019.
I have been with them for several months now and I can honestly say I love it. We have a great rapport with each other and have started making some effective changes. One of the changes is to start managing the website and blog in house (thank you Nola!). I wrote my first blog post for them in December and will be working on another one in the next couple of days. You can check out Zettersten and Hammond's web page and blog if you wish to read it. They have some good informational blogs on there about divorce, co-parenting, and how grandparents are an enrichment to the children.
I will be sharing some of my paralegal adventures on here as time goes on.
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