Current Students

Alabama Law Career Services uses Symplicity, a web-based program, to facilitate On-Campus Interviews, Job Postings, Resume Collects, and other functions. All students are assigned a Symplicity account when they begin law school. Your username is your law school e-mail address (including the @law.ua.edu), and your password is the same as the password to your law school email. If you are having difficulties, please contact careers@law.ua.edu.

To begin using your Symplicity account, first enter your personal “Profile” data. To do this, click on the tab “Profile” in the row of choices at the top. You must enter your name, address, phone number, email address, year in law school, and graduation date. You are also required to answer the two questions under the privacy tab. In the “Academic Information” section of the Profile, make sure that your “Year in School” and anticipated “Graduation Date” are correct.

Next, update your resume. 1Ls will not be able to finalize resumes until mid-January because they will not have their GPA or ranking. However, 1Ls should update all other parts of their resume, and then add GPA and ranking as soon as they become available. Refer to the resume templates in the Symplicity Document Library for formatting ideas and suggestions about how to describe particular activities.

After your resume is completed, it needs to be uploaded to Symplicity. To do so, go to the “Documents” section, click on “Add New,” give the document a name (i.e., [Name]_Resume), choose the document type, and then browse your computer for your resume. To complete the upload, click “Submit.” After you’ve uploaded the resume, it can be viewed as either a PDF or in its original format. It is critical that you upload your resume. If you do not do so, you will not be able to bid for interviews or apply for jobs, and if an employer does not receive your resume, they cannot select you for an interview. Having your resume uploaded into Symplicity also permits us to print copies for you when requested.

Some employers will also want to see a cover letter, transcript, writing sample, and/or a list of references. You will need to create the documents requested by employers, and upload them into Symplicity in the “Documents” section.

• When adding a cover letter, be sure to name it for the employer you are sending it to so as to not get confused.
• There are several ways to upload your law school transcript. The easiest method is to do the following: 1) open your transcript in MyBama; 2) Print that page; 3) From the printer dialogue box, select “Save as PDF” then choose where on your computer you’d like it saved; 4) From the Symplicity Documents tab, upload the new PDF that you have created — be sure to select “unofficial law school transcript” as the document type.
• Your writing sample should be a legal draft or memo, approximately 12-15 pages maximum. Most times, excerpts are acceptable, but in that case, you will need to add a cover letter. See an example of an acceptable cover letter in the Symplicity Document Library.
• If the employer asks for a list of references, create a Word document with 3-4 professional references (law school professors are acceptable), their relationship to you and duration of the relationship, and their contact information.