Open Days in CV/LinkedIn?

FutureCity

Legendary Member
Future Trainee
Dec 23, 2018
281
311
Hey,

So I have been to a few open days at different and wanted to ask if there is any benefit as to including them in my CV / LinkedIn. I have a bit of a work experience at a few firms so I want to know if adding open days (especially on linkedin where there is no clear distinction) dilutes that.

Same question (but very different context) for work experiences on applications. Do I include everything? Categorize them all under “Open Days? Just add the one related to the firm (or maybe it’s competitors)?

Would love your insight.

Thanks
 

Jessica Booker

Legendary Member
TCLA Moderator
Gold Member
Graduate Recruitment
Premium Member
Forum Team
Aug 1, 2019
13,342
19,157
It doesn't dilute your other work experience if you include them.

It's your decision, but take the following into consideration:

1) You don't really need to detail anything about the open day apart from the firm, the title of the event and the date. At best a sentence about the key thing you learnt from it/how it shaped your career motivation is the maximum of what is needed. Don't tell me what you did on an open day

2) You can group them together if you think it detracts from other legal work experience and other jobs/internships etc. I'd much prefer you to include more detail on a part-time job in Tescos that you did for a year than waste word count on open days.

3) If you haven't got as much experience with directly comparable firms (e.g. all your work experience is with regional firms in Bristol and you are applying to US firms in London), then an open day with a directly comparable firm becomes far more interesting and important to include.

above applies to both LinkedIn and CVs/online application forms.
 
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FutureCity

Legendary Member
Future Trainee
Dec 23, 2018
281
311
It doesn't dilute your other work experience if you include them.

It's your decision, but take the following into consideration:

1) You don't really need to detail anything about the open day apart from the firm, the title of the event and the date. At best a sentence about the key thing you learnt from it/how it shaped your career motivation is the maximum of what is needed. Don't tell me what you did on an open day

2) You can group them together if you think it detracts from other legal work experience and other jobs/internships etc. I'd much prefer you to include more detail on a part-time job in Tescos that you did for a year than waste word count on open days.

3) If you haven't got as much experience with directly comparable firms (e.g. all your work experience is with regional firms in Bristol and you are applying to US firms in London), then an open day with a directly comparable firm becomes far more interesting and important to include.

above applies to both LinkedIn and CVs/online application forms.

This is really helpful. Thank you!
 

tractor12

Legendary Member
Junior Lawyer
Oct 6, 2019
384
587
It doesn't dilute your other work experience if you include them.

It's your decision, but take the following into consideration:

1) You don't really need to detail anything about the open day apart from the firm, the title of the event and the date. At best a sentence about the key thing you learnt from it/how it shaped your career motivation is the maximum of what is needed. Don't tell me what you did on an open day

2) You can group them together if you think it detracts from other legal work experience and other jobs/internships etc. I'd much prefer you to include more detail on a part-time job in Tescos that you did for a year than waste word count on open days.

3) If you haven't got as much experience with directly comparable firms (e.g. all your work experience is with regional firms in Bristol and you are applying to US firms in London), then an open day with a directly comparable firm becomes far more interesting and important to include.

above applies to both LinkedIn and CVs/online application forms.
At what stage (if at all) would you search up the candidate on LinkedIn/other social media, and does that influence your decision?
 

Jessica Booker

Legendary Member
TCLA Moderator
Gold Member
Graduate Recruitment
Premium Member
Forum Team
Aug 1, 2019
13,342
19,157
At what stage (if at all) would you search up the candidate on LinkedIn/other social media, and does that influence your decision?

I might look at their LinkedIn if they put a link on their CV or application. But even then it’s unlikely. Definitely won’t look at anything unless they provide a link to it, because

1) I haven’t got the time

2) you can’t find people accurately

3) it’s got nothing to do with their ability to do the job.

When you get to interview stage, individual interviewers might google search you or your accomplishments you’ve suggested you have achieved, just to see what comes up more so to verify what you said.

Remember one girl had some pretty impressive sporting achievements on her CV and the partner just put her name, uni and the sport name into google to see if they could find any news stories to verify the achievements. First search result that came up was her Twitter account where her latest post referenced the fact she had “made” one of her parents write an assignment for her :confused:

That’s an extreme example though and one that’s will influence someone’s view of you because of the nature of the content (and it’s contrast against integrity which is vital to the profession).

With most people’s social media content, no one will give a damn about even if they did stumble across it.
 
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