Experts & Views
Pre-sript- The links in this post will take you to some invaluable articles. Please do click on them. I have spent quite some time researching for this piece. Links at point 3 and 15 are specially brilliant. Some of you might like to move straight over to point 11, from where the advanced tips start.
Anyone can make a good CV provided you are ready to work for it. Paths are made by walking, not waiting. Touche.
1.) Learn Great English. Learn to speak english, write english. Learn how English eat, blow their noses and clean their bottoms. But to remain cultured, stick to the Indian culture. It is better, politer and more suave (Poets tend to be chauvinists).
However just to pin- prick your pride here is Wikipedia's article on 'Hin'glish. Don't make the silly mistakes pointed here. BTW as I said, poets are chauvinistic; if you prick my pride with a pin. Ouch! It swells!
2.) Intern in every possible break. Intern after college hours, if possible. There are also online internships possible.
The online internships offered by the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal and the Volintern program of Nishith Desai Associates are doable.
3.) Research. Write papers. Write professional blogs. If you want to get into a corporate firm write on corporate law. If you IP is your field get cracking on IP topics. Look for call for papers here. (In your comments you may thank me for this link).
4.) In summers do summer courses. In winters do winter courses. With all this workload you will not remain a SPRING CHICKEN. But still, try doing a SPRING course.
Soon from a chicken you will turn into a hen. An egg laying hen actually. If you do not change, you still will be a productive chick. In your CV you can be really cocky about this.
WIPO has summer courses on IP law. ISIL has a course on international law every year. CCS has short courses for the socially inclined too.
5.) Get great CGPAs. Be in the good books of your faculty members. Bootlick them, if necessary. Or ask them "Sir/Ma'am, can I be your research assistant".
This will sufficiently ego massage them. Scratching their heads, they are bound to ponder, "Have I turned into such a BIGSHOT, that I need a research assistant"?
6.) Moot. TOM should moot. HARRY should moot. DICK should moot. JOHNY with his mouth full of sugar should moot. ALICES in wonderlands should moot. Even if you are bad at it, moot. The drunk PIPO was brave enough to moot. What keeps you at bay?
7.) Get into the College's Law Journal board. Everybody can't be the editor. At least be a member.
8.) Present papers. Go to seminars and make contacts there. You will do well to read this book I am planning to read. It is called 'How to work a room' by Susan RoAne.
9.) Make best buddies with the best seniors at your college. When you meet them say a loud 'Wassup!'. Show some teeth with the lips curved upwards. They might soon employ you.
10.) Do online courses. Attend webinars. Be a sponge. Take in good from everywhere. WIPO, Asian School of Cyber laws etc. have good courses. (Readers, please come up with some more).
ADVANCED TIPS
11.) Intern once. Intern twice. The third time you go there as an associate. Pick a firm whose practice area you will like to immerse yourself in. Follow this advice. Impress. The elusive PPO will be yours.
12.) Make sure 'googling' your name gives great results. We will soon burn our telephone directories. The smarter ones among us will save them as 'antiques' for diverser investment options. However, Google will be your buddy for some more time at least.
If you are on google you are a stud. If you are not you are a dud. Duh!
13.) Attend events. Attend seminars. Be a people's person. If you don't want to get in a pee-pool, get to know people.
I accompanied Mr. Basheer for the NUJS diversity project to Sikkim. He had spent a month there earlier and we were well received. His friends included two, grade 11 kids: Suku Singh and Palzor; the most respected monk of the area, the hotel attendant, the school teachers and the bakery owner, among others. Get the point?
The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell tells us about three kinds of people: The connectors, the mavens and the salesmen. Atleast be one of these.
14.) Develop a good LinkedIn profile. Study what like minded people are doing and shadow them. Do read this article on how law students should use LinkedIn.
15.) Tie shoe laces with the other hand. It improves left brain-right brain coordination. If you are a computer engineer, get to know cyber law. If you are a lawyer learn java and website designing.
Shake things around a little bit. Freshness is good for your lungs and your life. See how creative people can get with CV making.
PS- Or maybe, you could enjoy your life. Do what you like to do. Don't be a fake.
Work in an NGO. Paint.
Write poetry. See how life unfolds naturally.
Naturally. That is how buds flower and cocoons make butterflies.
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Good Read...enjoyable :)
Thanks for the comment. And nice analogy you have worked out
@Susan RoAne
OMG! Is that really you? Thank you for the kind words on my post.
@ 4...thank you
Great resource for students I must say...
And well, there are a lot of people who would send Bloodhounds and Dobermanns after me. I am on the run. And I can't be caught! Ha!
@Jeet
I don't think WIPO has a partner univ in India. Anyone can enroll for its summer course...if you can prove your interest in IP ie...some courses/internships/publications/moots etc should be enough to convince them.
nice post this. i LOLed so loud that my tummy hurts. and the tabs on my comp...will take some time to go through them. comprhensive research ...i must say!
@15...you are the second guy to compare me the PG Woodhouse...thank you...am honoured...haven't read any of this author...will read soon.
thnks dude..
BTW...I would really appreciate if people could come up with other useful resources/ tips/ links?
wel,doin ny othr dgree course alngside law would b helpful? Lyk cmpny secretary etc,,i heard hvin dual degree cary mre mre value than atcle publishion,moots etc in ur CV,
Cment plz whu knws d mrket policies,hw n wht al a law firm would lyk to c a persn's CV
wel,doin ny othr dgree course alngside law would b helpful? Lyk cmpny secretary etc,,i heard hvin dual degree cary mre mre value than atcle publishion,moots etc in ur CV,
Cment plz whu knws d mrket policies,hw n wht al a law firm would lyk to c a persn's CV ,,
@20...thank you for the flattery.
@21
I would rather remain a poet...a legal poet. And as one hindi poet said:
kavi ki apni seemayeen hain
kahata jitna kah pata hai
jitna bhi kah dalae laekin
unkaha adhik raha jata hai
a poet has his own limitations
he writes what he possibly can
howsoever amply he may write
he will subscribe to a bigger void!
I also hope to be able to do a round-up of blogging action so far, elaborate on some more criteria, and outline new prize categories.
Unfortunately I have been travelling for the past three weeks so have fallen a little behind but will get to it ASAP.
Happy blogging,
Kian
lyk LL.B+C.S
is it worth to go for ny degree course alongside law?
[Can you please write future comments in full English rather than sms speak? Thanks, Ed]
@25..yes dual qualifications came in handy for many a 5th year students last year...when recession hit...it was a savior for many.
btw...this post seems to have reached the tipping point...didn't know Malcolm Gladwell will be such a lucky charm for me...last 5 hours have seen 100 hits...thank you readers (he bows and exits)
Maybe some others...
But be creative if you really want to use smileys in good old fashioned text-only - they look much prettier anyway, IMHO.
Although in blogging (or in any writing), if something is well written there should not be a need for smileys to clarify the meaning or intent. Just my old-fashioned two-cents.
:)
Kian
impressed...more respect for you..
hey but i do have one query..we do not get any certificate for attending webinars,then what can it make difference to our CV?
@ Jeet...No! I am not. I am legal poet and I am from Zimbabwe. BTW...I don't know who I am...bulla ki jana main kaun!
Bulla...I know not who I am
Nor am I in the intoxicants
Nor am I in the carefree deviant
Nor am I union nor grief
Nor am I in the pure/impure
Nor am I of the water nor of the land
Nor am I fire nor air
Bulla, I know not who I am
..............courtesy Rabbi Shergill
Beginning or end I know just the self
Do not recognise ’’the other one’’
There’s none wiser than I
Who is this Bulla Shah
Bulla, I know not who I am
translation from www.mouthshut.com/review/Bulla_Ki_Jaana_Main_Kaun_-_Rabbi-69144-1.html
Umm...yes, you don't get certificates but you gain knowledge. And thats how you impress people at internships/interviews which translate into PPOs/ jobs.
Let us assume you attend a webinar on 'patent trolls'. You like it and do some of your own research too on patent trolls. You know the subject now.
Then in a 2 months time you find yourself interning at some firm; an IP case comes up. The case says that some patent troll has screwed the firms client. You hear that. You come up with a kickass solution. You impress them.
They give you more work, better work. You impress them further. They are impressed. It leaves an impression. You get a job. Phew. :)
The same might happen in an interview.
@58 Oh! Really?
@59 Thankyou
Best wishes,
Kian
Best wishes,
Kian
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