5 Ways to Find a Paralegal Job
Paralegal graduates don’t just search endlessly on different websites for jobs with the title “paralegal” or “legal assistant.” There are several ingenious ways to snag a job with employers who appreciate a legal education.
Here are five ways that our Paralegal program students and graduates find jobs:
- Get referrals. They know people who know people, and the people they know tell their people that they are reliable and honest. Employers want employees like that. A personal reference is golden.
- Chase leads. People leading our paralegal program are known in the community. Legal employers, graduates, and students contact them for graduates who have demonstrated their competency by making good grades. Those contacted then contact graduates and students who meet criteria from those leads. The students who respond quickly to those job leads, interview well, and are professional in-person and online, have a clear advantage.
- Be open-minded. The program administrator and Career Services Representatives for our program are on the daily lookout for advertised job leads, for not only those with the obvious titles, but for those which require writing, research, communication, investigation, interviewing, and/or analytical skills that are certainly developed in our program. So, it may be a position in human resources, managing contracts, or with a bank where legal issues arise daily, where there is a need for someone with the understanding that our graduates have. Our graduates will certainly excel beyond someone who is generally trained in administrative duties.
- Transfer skills. The candidates recognize that they bring a lot to the table with their on-the-job skills and interests. We had a graduate who had a passion for learning new software who was employed by the IT department of a company that is #4 on the Fortune 500 list. Needless to say, her Paralegal degree is what got her in the door. Her career is soaring now. Take what you have, improve upon it, and happily apply your transferable skills.
- Have a persistent presence. These brave, persistent souls aren’t afraid to have a strong LinkedIn profile; follow relevant professional groups on LinkedIn such as McAfee & Taft, a law firm in Tulsa that employs the most paralegals statewide; put their resumes out there; take the time to compose creative, personalized cover emails; come up with a refreshing, no-pressure follow-up; accept rejection; and repeat. They recognize that it may take applying for ten jobs a month to get one interview, and that they may have to go on ten interviews to get the right job offer.
If you know someone who wants the education and skills that will land them a job in a lifetime career with almost endless possibilities, and not just a paralegal job, please send them to us at Community Care College.