Cote Klinefelter: Office of Career Services

Career Services

Assistant Dean of Career Services, Marianne Deagle, meeting with a fellow student.

A few weeks back I wrote about why I chose Loyola to pursue my legal education. With my first semester in the books, I could not be happier with my decision. Loyola’s countless resources and various forms of support played a vital role in making my first semester such a positive experience. One of those resources is the Office of Career Services.
Early in the semester, the Career Services’ staff gave a presentation to each 1L section. I learned about the various resources they offer throughout our legal education and continuing even after graduation. Searching for jobs, internships, and externships can be a complicated, even overwhelming, process. Career Services assigns each student a career counselor to help us learn where and how to begin navigating the legal job market. We were each given a copy of Career Planning 101, a guide that covered various aspects of the process. The guide includes vast amount of information: the basics of how to write a resume and cover letter, appropriate methods of networking, interview guidelines, and online job searching. I enjoyed the different perspective from the panel of 2L’s and 3L’s that joined the presentation to share their 1L summer job experience as well as their own successful job search strategies. The presentation was extremely helpful and I was excited to get started.

Over Winter break, I met with my career counselor, Associate Director Sheila Simhan. She was extremely helpful, guiding me through creating my own personalized timeline and provided various ideas for networking opportunities as well as forums to gain further legal experience, including the Illinois Pro Bono organization and Chicago Bar Foundation. We reviewed my resume and brainstormed ways to translate non-legal work experience into skills valued in the legal community. I left our meeting with a number of ideas and strategies to benefit my summer job search. I am looking forward to taking advantage of the Office’s countless other resources, such as mock interviews and future presentations.

As I mentioned in my previous post, pursuing a legal career is a commitment of hard work, time, and financial resources. The Office of Career Services shows Loyola’s own commitment to each student’s success, a commitment that gives me confidence that I made the right decision and will be provided with all the tools I need to be successful.

Cote Klinefelter, 1L Ambassador
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