Resume Question (Non-traditional student without much 'professional' work history)

[suspicious_carrot]

Some background: I’m a non-traditional applicant who went to college in my mid-late 20s (I’m now early 30s). I finished undergrad in 2019 and I’m planning to apply to law school in the next cycle, for 2023. My GPA at my degree school was good, but my cumulative GPA is pretty low because of a first attempt at college years ago, which… didn’t go very well. I’m working on bringing up my LSAT score to compensate. I also have a LOT of work history, mainly in customer service and hospitality roles. Mostly part time, sometimes 2-3 at once, and I’ve never had any supervisory responsibilities in any of those jobs. I also did a couple internships and a pretty significant project at my undergrad in a completely different (non-legal) field than I’m working in now.

I’ve been in my first “professional” job since 2020, in a temporary position that’s been extended much longer than expected due to COVID (it’s healthcare-adjacent), but it’s looking like that’s going to be ending soon, so I’m on the job hunt again. The problem is, I don’t want to take a job that’s expected to be longer-term knowing I’m planning to leave within a year, so unless I can find another long-term temp position, I might end up back in customer service for a while.

I know LSAT/GPA and personal statement, etc. are going to be more important than my resume for admissions, but I’m worried it won’t look great to law schools if my next job looks like a “step down,” especially being a little bit older and not really having any kind of career progression. How much does work history really matter to law schools, and is it likely to be more or less important for someone in my position, being older but still only three years out of undergrad? I’m not sure if it varies much between T14/25/50 and so on, but I’m only planning to apply in one geographic area, so I’m targeting a pretty wide spread as far as rankings.

I know I might be completely overthinking this, but I worry a lot about anything else potentially hurting my chances, especially with the GPA issue, so any insight would be much appreciated!

[Dave Killoran]

Some background: I’m a non-traditional applicant who went to college in my mid-late 20s (I’m now early 30s). I finished undergrad in 2019 and I’m planning to apply to law school in the next cycle, for 2023. My GPA at my degree school was good, but my cumulative GPA is pretty low because of a first attempt at college years ago, which… didn’t go very well. I’m working on bringing up my LSAT score to compensate. I also have a LOT of work history, mainly in customer service and hospitality roles. Mostly part time, sometimes 2-3 at once, and I’ve never had any supervisory responsibilities in any of those jobs. I also did a couple internships and a pretty significant project at my undergrad in a completely different (non-legal) field than I’m working in now.

I’ve been in my first “professional” job since 2020, in a temporary position that’s been extended much longer than expected due to COVID (it’s healthcare-adjacent), but it’s looking like that’s going to be ending soon, so I’m on the job hunt again. The problem is, I don’t want to take a job that’s expected to be longer-term knowing I’m planning to leave within a year, so unless I can find another long-term temp position, I might end up back in customer service for a while.

I know LSAT/GPA and personal statement, etc. are going to be more important than my resume for admissions, but I’m worried it won’t look great to law schools if my next job looks like a “step down,” especially being a little bit older and not really having any kind of career progression. How much does work history really matter to law schools, and is it likely to be more or less important for someone in my position, being older but still only three years out of undergrad? I’m not sure if it varies much between T14/25/50 and so on, but I’m only planning to apply in one geographic area, so I’m targeting a pretty wide spread as far as rankings.

I know I might be completely overthinking this, but I worry a lot about anything else potentially hurting my chances, especially with the GPA issue, so any insight would be much appreciated!

Hi Carrot,

Thanks for the question! I have a few thoughts here that might help:

1. Yes, they do care and will look at it. Schools want achievers, and work history helps give them evidence you can bring that to the table in life and law school. Is it the biggest deal in the world? No, but it will be reviewed.

2. I'm not sure I'm following your logic here on settling for a step down back to a temp job. A year is a long time, and no one knows what will happen--why not look for what would be a traditionally longer term job? Workers these days move around a lot, and you should do what is best for you. Especially in this hiring environment it would seem you would be just fine in seeking a comparable or better job than your current one. And doing so would eliminate the concern in point 1 above

Thanks!