Resume and Interview Tips

Members of our committee have conducted hundreds of interviews and we’ve noticed a few things that consistently make (or break) an application.

Some of the tips that we think are key to a successful application to our firm:

• Distinguish yourself as a candidate! If you have a unique skill or interest, let us know about it. Your distinguishing characteristics will pique our interest, and will make for a more relaxed, interesting and memorable interview.
  

• Short is sweet. Keep your cover letter to one page, and your resume under two pages. Use bullets, bolding or other formatting tricks to make it easy for us to skim your resume. But, don’t over-format – presenting your information in a clean and clear manner is best.
  

• Highlight your most valuable skills and characteristics. Include examples of how you have demonstrated excellence or achievement, leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, or community involvement. We are looking for well-rounded individuals who have achieved success, not just in academics, but in other areas as well.
  

• Proof read. Spelling mistakes and awkward grammar can really detract from the positive information in your resume and cover letter. If you are not a great proof reader yourself, enlist a friend to proof read for you.
  

• Show us that you are genuinely interested. Take the time to learn about Clark Wilson before your interview. Take the opportunities to meet us at recruitment events at your university. Explore our website. If you know people who work here, talk to them about their experience. If you want to work here, tell us why (odds are, we’ll ask you)!
  

• Practice makes perfect. Your resume is the starting point for our interview questions. Think about the questions that your resume might generate, and practice answering them.
  

• Interviews are a 2-way process. If you want to talk about specific accomplishments, highlight them for us. If you have particular questions that are important to you, ask us (but beware of asking a lot of questions that are covered on our website. See tip #6 above!)
  

• Be yourself. Most importantly, we are not just interviewing you … you are interviewing us. Try to be relaxed and confident, but most importantly, be yourself, and we’ll both be in the best position to determine whether we are a good fit for each other.