How Can a Paralegal Job Candidate Get Prior Experience?

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It’s the age old question. You’ve gone to school to improve your career opportunities but you can’t find a job in your new field without previous experience. What happens now? Becoming a paralegal isn’t a small feat, so you will certainly want to find a way to land that first paralegal job opportunity to use your skills and be of service to a law firm. But how do you get started when every job opening requires years of experience that you don’t have? Here is a career path that can help you get the experience you need and advance your paralegal career.

Find a position as a legal secretary.

The first step is to find a position within a law firm working as a legal secretary. This might not be what you went to school for, but it can get you the foot in the door. The important part is to avoid impatience. Don’t assume that you can climb through the ranks immediately just because you have an education. Take the entry level position and work with it to give yourself the skills that you need in the future.

Learn as much as you can about working with a law firm.

Specifically, use this as an opportunity to learn the skills you need when working within a law environment. Becoming a legal secretary, and eventually a paralegal, is very different than working within any other office environment. This is the time for you to learn as much as possible so you can find the right paralegal job in the future.

Be ready to hit the ground running.

Finally, you want to be sure that you are as prepared as possible to hit the ground running when you start your legal support position. A busy law off doesn’t want to, and can’t afford to, hold a new employees hand throughout their orientation period. They want someone who is a self-starter who is willing to discover the right information and ask the right questions in the right way. Use this when you enter a legal secretary position and allow it to carry over as you advance to a paralegal career.

Work With a Top Legal Staffing Agency in Washington DC

Are you looking for a paralegal job in Washington DC? Contact NRI Staffing, now hiring for legal jobs in DC.

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