Sarah Cottrell: Hi, and welcome to The Former Lawyer podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Cottrell. I've practiced law for 10 years, and now I help unhappy lawyers ditch their soul-sucking jobs. On this show, I share advice and strategies for aspiring former lawyers and interviews with former lawyers, who have left the law behind, to find careers and lives that they love.

Today we're going to talk about one of the things that people worry about the most, when they're thinking about leaving the law for something else and that is translating your legal skills for a non-legal job. So the very first thing that many lawyers think about doing, when they're thinking about doing something else, leaving the law and doing something non-legal, is that they think about revising their resume. And I know I've talked about this in the podcast before, but truly that is like the absolute worst place to start for multiple reasons.

The main one, the reason that I don't like people to start there is that it's extremely hard to do and that's the first thing that you're doing in the process. And generally what happens is people try to do it. It's really hard. It's really confusing. They feel like they're not getting anywhere. They feel like they don't have any transferable skills and it makes them feel like they should just quit and stay in the law forever. And, you know, given what I do as my work, that is not an outcome that I want for you. That is one of the many reasons why, with the people, who I work with, whether we're working one-on-one or whether you're someone who's in the collab, revising your resume is basically the last step of the process. People often find that confusing. And I think part of it is that for all of us as lawyers, having like a clear work product feels like, okay, I'm really getting somewhere. And so the fact that you can't produce what feels like a clear work product sort of early on, that's almost like making the case for you being able to move into something else, ends up feeling extremely discouraging.

But here's the thing, in my professional opinion, that's just not how you should approach revising your resume at all. I actually have a couple videos on my YouTube channel, which we'll link in the show notes, where I go through a job listing on LinkedIn and talk about how… for a non-legal job and talk about how I might revise a resume of someone, who's a lawyer, to gear it towards that job. And one of the most important things that I think you will see, if you watch those videos, is that part of what makes revising your resume easy, is knowing what you're gearing your resume to. So, in other words, I don't even think it's enough to have some general sense of like, oh, maybe I want to do something in this or that other industry. I think you really need to have a very specific idea of what you want, if not the actual jobs that you're applying to, at least the types of roles that you're going to apply to, so that you can look at job listings, see how the things that are wanted for those roles are described. And then take the information about your work experience that you have as a lawyer, which is extensive and is translatable and translate for that specific type of role. It is infinitely easier.

Here's the thing though, I think for a lot of us, as lawyers, sitting down to revise the resume feels way less daunting than like figuring out what it is that we want to do, which I totally get. I mean, literally, my whole job outside of the podcast is working with people to help them figure out what it is that they want to do that is not practicing law. So I'm certainly not someone who's going to be like and that's such a breeze. So like, I don't understand why people want to start with a resume. However, it's just indisputable that what you need to be doing, is first figuring out what it is that you actually want to be targeting. Because what you don't want to be doing is trying to write 27 different resumes for 27 possible types of roles that you're not even really sure about, that you don't know what the day-to-day is like, that you don't know if it's a good match. That is not a good use of your time. It's not efficient. And I know many lawyers love efficiency. It's also, it can be very discouraging, again, which is very important in this process. Because as you know, if you're someone who's ever applied for a job, or thought about applying for a job, the whole process of applying for jobs can be quite exhausting and demoralizing. So the last thing that I want for you, the listener who's thinking about doing something else that is not practicing law, is to start somewhere that's going to be exhausting and demoralizing and make you feel like you should not continue.

Just to return to what I was saying, again, if you are a lawyer, it is very likely that when you think about leaving, one of the very first things you think about is revising your resume. If you sit down to try to revise your resume, it's going to feel like I don't know what I'm doing, I don't have transferable skills. I'm just staring at the things I've already written, which are very legalese-ish and I don't know how to convert it into something else. What works and what I've seen work many times for clients, is identifying the things that you're wanting to target and then figuring out how to craft a resume that is geared towards that specific thing. And again, as I mentioned, if you're curious about what this looks like in practice, I do have some videos on my YouTube channel, where I go through, like I put a job posting from LinkedIn on the screen. I think it's for a nonprofit, a job at a nonprofit and I talk about how I would recommend someone revise their resume, if they were a lawyer to target that particular type of job. And obviously, it's going to be different, based on the types of jobs that you're targeting. But that will give you a sense of a lot of things. But most importantly, why you don't want to start with a revised new resume and why what you want to start with is figuring out what you want to do next.

Now, I'm sure for many of you, the next question is like, okay, cool, Sarah, that's great. I get it. I maybe have already tried to do the revising of my resume and it did suck. And I did basically throw up my hands and like walk away, because it felt impossible. So you're telling me, Sarah, that what I need to do is figure out what I want to do next. Cool. But that's sort of the whole deal, right? That's sort of the whole problem. Where do I start? Well, as you know, if you've listened to the podcast at all, one of the things that I think is most important about figuring out what's next for you is identifying what your values are. That's why it's the first part of the framework inside of the collab. That's why it's one of the very first things I have people do, when I work with them one-on-one. And if you're someone who isn't working with me, but you listen to this podcast and you're going through this process, I highly recommend that you start with values as well.

Because for many lawyers, our strengths and personality, sometimes, not always, are relatively well correlated with being lawyers and yet it's still a huge mismatch. Why? It's a mismatch, because your values most likely are being violated by the way that your job functions. The things that are most important to you, are not able to hold a place of importance in your life, because of the nature of your job. Until you are clear on what your specific values are and they are different for everyone, side note, people often will be like, well, doesn't everyone have these values when I'm working with people one-on-one. And like, are these the top values for everyone? And the answer is no. Everyone has their own set and you need to know what yours are. And that is where you start, in terms of figuring out what it is, that is going to be a better fit for you, that is not legal practice. If you want support with that process, of course, you're always welcome to enroll in the collab.

You can go to formerlawyer.com/collab. If you want to work with me one-on-one, the information is on my website about how to do that. If you're wanting to work with me one-on-one, the first step is to book a free consult so we can talk about where you are, what your situation is, what you're thinking about what's next and whether we're going to be a good fit. I never, and I repeat, I never recommend someone work with me if I do not think it's going to be a good fit or if I think there is something else that would be better for you to do, whether it's therapy, whether it's working with a different kind of career coach, whether it's fill in the blank. That is why I always do consults with people, before I work with them one-on-one, to make sure that it's a good fit, going both directions. And also so that I can help you get connected with the kinds of resources that you might need, if working with me is not the right fit for you.

That's it for me this week. Don't start with your resume and if you did and you're like in despair, because you're like I can't change jobs, because there's no way to revise this, because I have no idea. Like first of all, that was a completely normal response, that's how everyone feels when they start with their resume. That doesn't mean all is lost and it just means you need to go about it a different way. And again, if you would like help with that, of course, you can always join us in the collab, or book a consult with me, or just work on it yourself. And values and therapy are the two places that I recommend you start.

Okay, thanks so much for listening. Have a great week.

Thanks so much for listening. I absolutely love getting to share this podcast with you. If you haven't yet, I invite you to download my free guide, First Steps to Leaving the Law at formerlawyer.com/first.

Until next time, have a great week.