Crafting a Professional Biography for Your Profession

Happy Sunday,

I hope your week has been fulfilling and full of positive vibes. Today I will be discussing the importance of a professional biography. A professional biography is the first impression to potential clients in your business profession. The bio should allow the reader to get a clear idea of who you are, what are your beliefs, and your previous/current experience. The reader of your bio should feel they know a great deal about you when they finish reading and should feel confident that you are the right person for the job to get things done correctly. If you ever second guess yourself when writing your own professional bio, check out 7 of the Best Professional Bio Examples to get a better idea. 

Professional Bio Example

(Contributor, Guest. “13 Knockout Examples of How to Write an Agent Bio.” Inman, Inman, 19 Mar. 2018, www.inman.com/next/13-knockout-examples-of-how-to-write-an-agent-bio/.)

Why are Bio’s Important?

Professional bios are important because they tell a short story about a person that goes beyond the resume. A resume is a quick review of someone where you have to have the correct key terms to stand out to Human Resources. A bio is a resume in detail and can also be seen as a short story that has an introduction, a middle, and an end. The introduce of the bio tells the reviewer where you’ve come from and how you started. The middle includes your goals, accomplishments, aspirations, and beliefs. The ending includes what you offer and what you stand for. The best part about professional bios is that they can be displayed on your website, given out for job opportunities, and used for networking. 

What to Avoid in a Bio?

The most important thing to avoid when writing a bio for yourself is not to write more than you need to and only include the highlights in your life. Details a great to have, but too many details can bore the reader or make them lose interest. The person reading your professional bio is interested you ultimately knowing what you can bring to the table, not what you did in elementary school or what your favorite color is. Avoid any controversial content and remember your bio is selling you as a product would be sold. Get straight to the point to mention things in your bio that will have future/potential clients interested in working with you and confident that you are able to fulfill their needs/wants in a professional manner.

How Long Should Bio’s Be?

A bio should never exceed being longer than one page. If you find your bio being longer than one page, do your best to shorten it. A professional bio is longer than a page increases the chances of the reader losing interest. Look at your professional bio as a resume with details. Resumes are typically one page long, and so should a bio.  Always include your education, accomplishments, and goals to be the meat of the bio and this should allow you as the writer to get straight to the point and no have to exceed the expected one-page limit.

What Information Should Be Included in a Bio?

Include all of your accomplishments and highlights throughout your life in your professional bio. This is your time to shine in a professional manner. Yes, be humble, but also reflect on everything you’ve overcome in life and what you have accomplished that has to lead you into the direction you are in today. Mention any awards you have won, classes you took in undergrad and grad school, and volunteer work you have done that to your professional or that will stand out to the reader. 

Balancing Law School and Work

Good evening and happy Sunday,

Today I will be discussing how to balance out law school and work. Many law schools do not allow law students to work their first year of law school or only permit law students to work part-time. This leads me to my question: how are law students expected to make a living? Student loans? Working secretly? Help from family or parents? Unfortunately, everyone situation is different. But if becoming a lawyer is all you have ever dreamed of and you a genuine about perfecting your craft in practicing law the rest of your life, then balancing out law school and work will be worthwhile. Finding balance in our life is what helps us grow and helps us have a clear mind to avoid becoming overwhelmed with life's endeavors.

Schedule Your Law Classes Carefully:
Law school courses are filled with assigned readings and studying. It's a good idea to first find balance by taking some difficult courses mixed in with some electives that don't require as much work as the required courses do. Don't carry more than the can handle by attempting to take all your rigorous courses all at once. This can affect your grades and be extremely overwhelming. As if, law school isn't already overwhelming enough, group your courses together. This means, try to schedule your courses either all during the morning or all courses taken in the evening. Having some courses in the morning and some in the afternoon does not allow any free time in between. If you're a student taking all morning classes, you will have the entire afternoon/evening to study and finish assigned readings and go to work. If you have night classes, you have the entire day before class to get any final readings in or have the opportunity to stay up late the night before studying and can work evenings. This will allow you to get a fair amount of time in your day to be productive and not have many stops and go in between such as waiting for your next class that has a 3-hour gap, for example.

Pick Classes That Interest You:
You've probably heard it a million times, but law school is anything but easy, but it is not impossible to overcome. The least you can do for yourself while being in law school for 3 years is to take courses that interest you. If you have had a particular area of law that you have already planned to practice after graduating, take the courses that relate to that area of law and expand your knowledge. Being able to take courses you genuinely find interest in is important because not only does this benefit you in the long run and enhance your experience during law school, but it makes law school a more enjoyable experience to gain knowledge that you know will not go to waste. Also, this will better your chances in having more interest to complete coursework you know will benefit you when you start practicing that area of law.

Communicate With Work: 
If you have an upcoming test, study group meetings, or meetings with your law professors, please let your work know in advance. Be considerate and don't put your co-workers in a bind and catch them off guard by not showing up to work because of school. Hopefully, the job you have through out law school is already understanding that school is a priority, but you must also under that balancing both school and work is important and part of adulthood. Plan for anytime you need off in advance to prevent any miscommunication or issues. When you're able to communicate with your co-workers and manager, it shows that you are responsible and a good worker. If you're handling school and work, that already says you are dedicated, but remember communication in key in and out of work and school.


Don't Make Excuses: 
Working during law school will be hectic and you may have days where you feel like giving up. If you ever do feel like giving up, please remind yourself why you started. As a student in undergrad school, you are familiar with deadlines. Your law professor isn't going to feel bad for you because you were working late and didn't get to read the assigned case. Your boss at your job won't feel bad for you if you're falling asleep at work because you were up studying late. This is why balancing out school and work is important. Excuses will only allow you to fail. Only you can make excuses and excuses only hold you back from living to your full potential. You should know that before you committed to law school, that it was going to be an intense 3 years, but it is what you make it. Be consistent, stay dedicated, and remember that your hard work will payoff in the long-run. Carefully manage your time and make sure to also throw in some "me time" to take care of your well-being. Everything will fall into place and everything will be fine, I promise.

Professional Portfolios in your Career

Good evening readers,

I hope everyone had a great week! This evening I will be introducing the concept of professional portfolios and how professional portfolios are relevant in the legal field when being a lawyer. 

Professional portfolios are a collection of important documents of your work over the years. The work can include assignments done in college that relate to your career, or you can display work that has shown growth in a professional aspect and present your personal skills. Professional portfolios are also visuals of how much a person has grown throughout a professional career. Many portfolios are becoming e-portfolios, which means- they are found and accessed online. 

Why Make Professional Portfolio? 

A professional portfolio allows the creator to display their qualifications and should be a extension of their work/school resume. While creating a professional portfolio, it will help the creator learn more at themselves and look at previous work they have done over the years that they may have never paid attention to. A professional portfolio also allows the creator to realize what their goals are in life and how they wish to achieve them. It's also an easy way to keep track of your growth as a professional and an individual. You will find out more about yourself when you are able to visually see all of your accomplished in one portfolio. You may also find that you have achieved more than you thought you have and that your skill set is stronger than you believed. 

What Should be in a Professional Portfolio? 

When creating a professional portfolio, there are specific categories you must include for your portfolio to achieve its goal in impressing the company/business you are interested in working for. First, you must include an appealing cover page, the cover page is what the reviewers first see during the reviewing process. After, a table a context will be included after the cover page to help the reviewer navigate through the portfolio and see where specific sections are located. An introduction is to follow after the table of context. The introduction will introduce who you are, your goals, and what your professional interest include. First impressions are everything, so make sure your introduction has the "wow" effect to the reviewer and always include something about yourself that the viewer cannot forget! After concluding your introduction, add your personal credentials. Your personal credentials are your resume, references, and evaluations you may have from previous professors in college or an old job. Lastly, you include your best work yet. This includes related coursework to your desired career or projects you are proud of that you feel deserve to get shown off to the reviewer you are presenting to. Remember, it is important to categorize your coursework and projects so this will give the reviewer easy access to sort out your accomplishments, skills, and projects. 

What makes Professional Portfolios Important in the Legal Field? 

After recent research, I have found that a lawyers professional portfolio is their website page. Their website page is a way to display their client's testimony, tell a background story, and present viewers a list of accomplishments that push viewers to the way you should choose that specific attorney to represent you as a client. Having a website represent a professional portfolio in the legal world and is a way of selling yourself to not only clients based in your town, but clients from all over the nation. OVC is a website that has the best attorney websites that serve as a professional portfolio to the public. The lawyer's website is a reflection of who they are individually and as a law firm. Depending on what the attorneys decide to include on their website is up to them, but after viewing the most successful lawyer website that OVC has displayed, the most successful lawyer website provides an "about us" tab, a list of lawyers at the firm with a short "about me" description, areas of practice, and case victories. The website also includes stats, awards earned as a law firm, and how much money earned from cases won. In conclusion, a professional portfolio is important for lawyers because it sells their legal service and is not limited to viewers, and provides easy access. Lawyers must display their skills, areas of practice, and client testimonials to prove they are the best attorney to handle a clients case. Their portfolio must also persuade clients that they are dealing with experienced attorneys that care for their clients well being.