Hello everyone,

 This is my first post on this site.  I am currently a student at Kaplan University purusing my BS in paralegal studies.  I earned my AAS in paralegal studies from Kaplan in 07 and are scheduled to graduate with my BS this July.  I currently have a 4.0 GPA. I plan to take a year off from school and then enroll in the online MBA program at Thunderbird.

 I have started applying to several law firms, but have not heard back from a single one.  I have no idea why this is.  It could be because I am still in school.  Maybe they are overwhelmed with resumes.  OR maybe they don't want me because I have an online degree?

Basically, I wanted to know what kind of job prospects those who have online degree have had.  Have you found jobs easily, or do employers not like your degree?

As you say, there's no way to know why the response hasn't been what you hoped, but given the unemployment rates, I think it's best to keep expectations realistic.  How long have you been actively searching for a position?  For how many jobs have you applied?

Another question I have is whether you've contacted Kaplan and asked what sort of career services that can offer you.  In particular, they may be able to advise you on fine tuning your resume, and how to write a tailor made cover letter for each position for which you apply.

Good luck,

-=Steve=-

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B.S., Info Sys, Charter Oak State College
M.A., Educational Tech Leadership, George Washington University
Doctor of Health Education, A.T. Still University, in progress

Jobs are hard to come by these days, no matter where you went to school.  There are people with years of experience who have lots of education who have been out of work for months.  Don't let it get you down.  Be persistent, and you will eventually find something. 

 The longest stretch of unemployment I ever had was six months, and it was rough.  Try to see if you can intern at a law office, or possibly work on a part-time basis.  These opportunities can often lead to full-time jobs.

Another thing you can do is get involved in volunteer activities, especially those which will allow you to demonstrate your skills.  This is a great way to network sometimes.  I think given the totality of the market there are too many other factors at play to think it somehow has to do with the fact that you earned your degree online.  Other considerations aside from the economy are:

What does your experience look like?

How does your resume read and look?

Who is your competition?

What market are you in and are there a lot of law firms, etc?

Is there a demand for paralegals in that market?

How are you submitting your resume?

Are you a member of any professional organizations?

etc.  You get the idea.

Thanks for the replies everyone.  I'm only 21 so I have no work experience at all.  But that shouldn't be a problem because all of the paralegal jobs I applied to (I'm in NYC) are entry level jobs.  I applied to them directly from Monster Trak.  As far as what the job market for paralegals is like, I really don't know.  But I'm not really interested in staying a paralegal for long.  I just want to get 1 year of work experience so that I can enroll in a strong MBA program.

donald11:

Thanks for the replies everyone.  I'm only 21 so I have no work experience at all.  But that shouldn't be a problem because all of the paralegal jobs I applied to (I'm in NYC) are entry level jobs.  I applied to them directly from Monster Trak.  As far as what the job market for paralegals is like, I really don't know.  But I'm not really interested in staying a paralegal for long.  I just want to get 1 year of work experience so that I can enroll in a strong MBA program.

In a recession, you're definitely competing against experience people even for entry level jobs.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/06/news/economy/job_fairs/index.htm?postversion=2009030611

What's your long term goal?  What do you plan to do with your MBA once you have it?

-=Steve=-

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B.S., Info Sys, Charter Oak State College
M.A., Educational Tech Leadership, George Washington University
Doctor of Health Education, A.T. Still University, in progress

Once I get an MBA, my goal was to work for the federal government, particularly in something related to international affirs, like at the State Department or as a civilian in the Defense department.

By the time you find a job listed at Monster.com, it has usually already been filled.  Don't depend entirely on sites like Monster, HotJobs, etc. to find your jobs.  Also try the web site of the state bar association, network with people already in the profession, check out sites like Indeed.com, etc.  During the recession of 1991, I lost my job and was out of work for six months.  My unemployment benefits were about ready to expire, and I had a family to support.  Out of desperation, I picked up the Yellow Pages and just started calling businesses within my career field and just asked if they had any openings.  When I got to the very last business listed, the person on the other end of the line said "as a matter of fact, we do have an opening."  This job wasn't listed anywhere yet.  I told them I was available to come in and interview right away.  Because I took the initiative, I got the job.  After working there for a couple of years, I found a higher-paying job and moved on.  By that time, the recession was over and businesses were hiring again. 

 Get creative.  Don't rely only on job boards to find openings.  You'll have to actually go out and search for those openings.  Make obtaining a job your new full time job.  You will get out of your job search what  you put into it.

donald, if you are not counting on this job to make ends meet (IE eat and keep a roof over your head) there are easier ways to get work experience to qualify for an MBA, these include:

Volunteer, you can do all sorts of cool and exciting things as long as you're willing to do them for free.  You never know, this may turn into a real career.

Try working food service.  Before you shut me down hear me out, getting into an MBA program is the key right?  If you could become say an Assistant Manager at a McDonald's or something you will not only learn applied business skills, but you will gain experience in that most lucrative and undervalued of all business topics, people skills.  You will be forced into a leadership role by motivating employees who are likely underpaid, undervalued and see you as a means to a paycheck.  If you can motivate these people you're doing well.  Secondly you will learn how to handle a customer on the line level.  You'll see first hand the concepts you'll cover in any good MBA program:

Organizational psychology = remember the employees I mentioned above?  Next time you go to a fast food joint look at the people working there, see if you can tell something about them, their lives, etc. in how they work.  Notice how they work as a team, or don't work as a team.  Do they gel?  Do they mesh?  Maybe their one thing in common is they don't like each other or being there...  Who knows, but try it.  Be observant.

Accounting = balancing registers, counting inventory, placing orders, etc.  All in accounting.

Economics = how much food do you need next week on hand?  How much have you used in the past?  Are there any special events which will impact demand for food ie baseball season approaching, etc? 

Human Resources = Tommy won't quit hitting on Amy, what are you going to do about it?  You just fired Tommy and now need to hire someone new...  How many HR issues are going on there?

Business Law = Amy decided you didn't act quickly enough and is hiring a lawyer to sue your store.  Did you follow your company policies on sexual harrasment? 

you get the point...

donald11:

Once I get an MBA, my goal was to work for the federal government, particularly in something related to international affirs, like at the State Department or as a civilian in the Defense department.

It's not that an MBA wouldn't help you with this, but have you also considered Master's programs in foreign relations and the like?

-=Steve=-

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B.S., Info Sys, Charter Oak State College
M.A., Educational Tech Leadership, George Washington University
Doctor of Health Education, A.T. Still University, in progress

In my experience, when it comes to government jobs the more specific hard to find skills sets are best.  For instance a computer information security degree AND you can speak Farsi and Arabic.  Or how about an accounting degree and you can speak and read Russian.  That type of thing.  Learning languages can be a huge boon to your effort and I don't mean Spanish and French, the government has plenty of that.

Hello,

 I thought you might find this website helpful:

http://www.resuwe.com

This website is run by recruiters, and it will have a lot of information to help job seekers. It will also have a free resume optimizing tool. They have a blog as well that gives some tips for writing resumes and cover letters. I personally thought it was extremely useful. Here is part of one of their articles:

How can I build a boring/content rich resume?

1. MS Word doc only! MS Word doc files are the standard and easiest for Applicant Tracking Systems to upload and parse.
2. List your resume reverse chronologically - Most recent positions on top
3. One font throughout your resume - Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, and Garamond are best
4. Black font color only
5. 10pt, 11pt, or 12pt font size only. Stick with one font size throughout your entire resume.
6. Let your resume flow to 2-3 pages if you have the experience (usually 10+ years or more)
7. List all start and end dates for your positions in the Month, Year format (ex. January, 2006 to June, 2009)
8. Optimize your resume content by including as many keywords relating to your skills, experiences, technologies, or activities you have worked with.
9. Proofread. Every text editor, MS Word, and Google Docs all have built in Spell Checkers. There are no excuses for typos!
10. Links to your professional blog or Twitter page to promote your personal brand. Only if you are 100% sure the content is professional.
11. Optimize your resume (coming soon) with ResuWe at http://www.resuwe.com


Hope this helps in your job search!

Out of curiosity, have you found a job yet, donald11?

None of the places I applied to online called me.  They were a total waste.  However, I have some family members who might have some contacts that can help me...

They're only a total waste if you didn't learn something from the experience.  Try reading your resume critically, think about some changes you can make which will garner interest, play with the wording a bit and get some outside advice.  Sometimes even a change in font can help.  You'd be surprised how hard it is to get a resume to stick out in a stack.