Hey Kids, What Are You Doing This Summer?

By Ben Glass, Esquire

Benjamin W. Glass and Associates

. https://www.benglasslaw.com/

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Hey Kids, What Are You Doing This Summer?

Get out there and do something. I don't mean just padding your rsum for the sake of padding your rsum. Get yourself a job, even if you have to work for free.

I'm serious about this. I've heard from too many young folks over the years that “no, I didn't go out and apply for a summer job becausewellI'm going on this trip and taking that class and no one would want to hire me for just a few weeks.” Worse, some have told me that “working will take up all my time.”

Here's my tip get off your butt and do something. Almost anything. It would do you a world of good just to hang out with someone in the real world, wouldn't it? You need to be proactive about this. No employer or business owner is going to come looking for you.

Way back in the dark ages (1984), I had finished my first year of law school at a very young “no one had heard much of” law school (George Mason). It was tough to find a summer job in law, so I went to a local practitioner and volunteered. I told him I'd do anything he wanted me to do if he would just let me listen in on meetings, pick his brain and follow him around.

I even extended that offer to every lawyer I met that summer. The result I got lots of research assignments; I watched trials; I even learned how to read land records something they weren't exactly teaching in my law school.

I took classes in my spare time and, yes, I had another part time job making some extra cash. The point is that I didn't sit around waiting for something to happen.

Contrast that with my recent search for an attorney for my office. I didn't run a typical “send me your rsum” ad. I told folks what type of attorney I was looking for; required them to do some moderate amount of research on the Internet; and to apply by sending me a package of their choosing in order to impress me.

I got a very low response rate. When I inquired of some, I was told that my application process was “too much work”. I guess most of the unemployed (according to every headline I read) attorneys in our area are unemployed for a reason.

All of life is a choice. What choice will you make this summer?