It Is Never Too Early For You To Start Marketing Yourself
By: IAN SCOTT
A Few Good Marketing Ideas for Law Students
A simple Google search is one of the first things that a prospective employer does when they are considering hiring a law student. While a student cannot control everything that is on the Internet, he/she can perform a number of simple tasks to improve his/her profile and market strengths. In my new book, Law School Lowdown: Secrets of Success from the Application Process to Landing the First Job, I describe just how important it is to find everything at your disposal to ensure you can find employment, and given the competition and difficulty surrounding finding a legal job, it is never too early to start marketing yourself. Here are three simple marketing ideas for both pre-law and law students.
- Set up A Student Webpage and Claim the Website Domain Associated With Your Name
I received an email from a first year law student, and he posed a very interesting question. His email read;
“What is your personal opinion of law students having their own resume-styled website? I tried to do some research and could not find many that existed. Having an undergrad degree in Graphic Design, I’ve built my own. What do you think?”
Setting up a personal webpage to market yourself is an excellent idea! This idea extends far beyond law students and is an excellent thing to do for anyone including students in other disciplines, lawyers, and also any other professionals. This is a great idea for anyone that is or will be looking for a job and/or anyone that could benefit from positive marketing. Here is the student’s site: www.justinhwalters.com
Justin is exactly the type of innovative law student that our profession needs and the idea of creating your own website to showcase yourself is something that I wish I had thought of. Also, it is always a good idea to use part of your prior life (in Justin’s case marketing and graphic design) to make some money or compliment a new legal or professional life.
There are several reasons why setting up a Website A Good Idea.
I started to write this section myself but then remembered that Justin had already done an excellent job summarizing on his website why setting up your own website is a good idea. As such, I will quote Justin and his words echo my exact thoughts;
“I believe there is a need for students to have their own websites with their resumes, portfolios, and contact information. I believe it is beneficial for professional students, especially those studying law, to be able to place a personal website address on their business card or in the signature of their email. Having a website can be appealing to prospective employers because it shows you are independent, creative and ready to advance into a more professional role.”
I will only add one additional point and that is that the webpage puts all of the relevant information that an employer wants (short bio, resume, writing sample, skills) in one place and makes it all easily accessible. Given that employers spend very little time assessing candidates you want to make your information as easy to access as possible and a simple webpage accomplishes this.
I am not a web designer but am confident that with a bit of determination I could create a page like the page that Justin has created. Wordpress is the web design tool of choice but if you do not want to use that there are many other options available with templates that will get you started. In terms of hosting the website, that costs around $5 a month (a more complex website would be maybe $8 a month because it has more space) and you will pay around $10 a year for domain name. (You should try and nab your own name — just think of where Barack Obama would be if he had not purchased his domain name www.barackobama.com years ago).
- Set up a LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is a professional network social media website and every law and pre-law student should join. LinkedIn is NOT Facebook and your “connections” are business connections rather than “friends.” As such, it is not unusual to connect with someone just because you have some business aspect in common. When you develop a profile, the site lists all of your relevant educational and professional credentials and this site is a key tool used by employers to find candidates. I am interviewing someone this week for a position with my law firm and I “met” her on LinkedIn. Also, my law firm, Scott Legal Services, P.C., recently signed a large client and I met the contact on Linkedin.
- Watch What you Post on Social Media
I have a friend who owns a company that attempts to repair damaged internet reputations. Everything that you allow to be associated with you on the internet can and will come back to either help or haunt you. When something you regret hits the internet, the best that my friend’s company can do is attempt to get the “bad” things associated with a person moved to a lower Google page. Regrettably, it is NOT possible to eliminate negative things posted about you or by you on the internet.
The Lowdown for Law Students
In this economy you cannot afford to be at a disadvantage and it is important to ensure that you are constantly improving, marketing and selling your brand. This should start early in your career and creating a website is a great networking and marketing tool. Creating your own personal website and properly using social media also forces you to give some thought to what important things you want to showcase to the world and may encourage you to constantly reevaluate key aspects to showcase.
Here is an excellent example that demonstrates that proper networking and marketing goes a long way. In this case, Justin sent me his website and as a direct result of his marketing and networking efforts, I hired him to work on my law firm website. I also referred him to a number of my friends and they paid him to work on their websites. How is that for marketing efforts quickly finding a job! This is only one example of how innovation and marketing yourself in the new cyber world can increase your chances of success and put money in your pocket.
This summary is one of many law school admission helpful tips in the new book Law School Lowdown: Secrets of Success from the Application Process to Landing the First Job — (Barron’s Publishing) — Author Ian E. Scott. You can order Law School Lowdown on Amazon.
