The Search

Over the past 5 months, I have sent out 12 letters and resumes to job postings on the web. From those mailings, I have received three phone calls, and from those phone calls, I scored two interviews. One interview was for a paralegal position. The other interview was for a recruiter/head hunter type position. I did not get either of the jobs. Actually, I never heard back from the people about the paralegal position. They actually tried to convince me through the entire interview that I did not want the job. The final phone call was from a law firm out of town that is just now beginning its search. I can't even imagine the logistics of that one if they call back. I have not heard anything about the status of my 9 other applications. I have contacts at two of the 12 companies with postings, but contacting them has not proven to lead to any advantage.

Interestingly, I did not find the job/project that I am doing now through a posting. It was through a friend of a friend. This may prove the general belief that most people do not have success in their job search through web postings.

Responding to only 12 postings might not seem like a lot, but I can assure you that I have applied for everything I can find that seems to match my skill set, and more than a few that I am way overqualified for. There have simply been very few attorney positions open in this town this summer. In fact, the big firms haven't had any jobs posted for months.

I know that I need to start networking. So far I have taken three people out to lunch. Two of those people are other attorney friends that work at firms with practices in my area of the law. The other lunch was with an accountant that wants me to write an article with him. Any in-person networking beyond that is going to be cold calling, which is not something I particularly enjoy.

Only 5 days left for the early bird discount for my seminar. People signed up = 0. White chocolate Reese's peanut butter cups consumed = 2.