As a prospective law student with a few years of work experience, far and away the easiest parts of my cycle have been compiling the so-called “soft” components of my applications. From before I left my full-time job to spend a couple months preparing for the LSAT, I had written my personal statement, received my letters of recommendation and already had a resume ready to go.

The ability to include these elements in an application — regardless of how much weight they’re given by admissions committees — seemed like a simple supplement to my academic credentials, so it struck me as a surprise that so many applicants find them (especially the personal statement) so challenging. While I’ll be the first to admit that writing about yourself isn’t easy, the problems seem to lie in the ability to answer one primary question: Why do you want to be a lawyer?

Job Hunt Comparison

My background is in journalism and editorial, which in terms of job stability and security is next door to many other creative professions. Much like acting or musical performance, journalism is not a particularly lucrative craft for well over 99.9 percent of those working within it.

The fact of the matter, though, is that at some point I made a conscious decision that I wanted to be a writer and later an editor. Those dreams became more specific once I tried different specialties, but I could always respond convincingly that I actively chose to pursue a writing career because I believed in the things I had to say and my ability to convey them.

The standard process when applying for a writing job is to supply a resume, samples of your published work and a cover letter. While the first two are self-explanatory, cover letters are as much an area of consternation for job hunters as personal statements are for law school applicants. Typically, in one page (rather than two), you’re required to highlight your experience and skills, and explain what makes you a perfect fit for the job in a manner that differentiates you from dozens of other identically qualified candidates.

In law school admissions parlance, this is the equivalent of a thousand candidates with 173/3.9-type credentials being asked to condense their personal statements into a paragraph or two. In many respects, job hunting is more difficult and competitive. Even Yale offering admission to a scant 8.4% of applicants is overwhelmingly generous in comparison to the average job opening, where hiring managers make offers to far less than one out of every 12 candidates they review.

Strengthening Your Softs

So how do you develop the type of soft factors that will successfully distinguish you from other law school candidates? There are many schools of thought about the value of professional experience or the heft that extensive volunteerism and philanthropic work can add to your application.

Let’s assume for a moment, however, that you’re a K-JD. Perhaps you had an internship or two in undergrad, you’ve worked in retail since you were 16 and you’ve only served dinner in a homeless shelter once. If you don’t feel the need to retake the LSAT, there’s nothing disqualifying about not having the most sparkling resume. Very few of your K-JD peers are going to show you up.

As far as letters of recommendation, you waive your right to see those. You want to exercise good judgment in choosing your writers, but you’re generally at the mercy of how many superlatives your particular professors tend to pack into letters of this kind that they write. The place for you to take full control is in the personal statement.

Remember, prospective lawyers have a high bar (pun intended) to clear when it comes to explaining why the law interests them as a career choice. This is not an entry-level job in sales. You do not need to become a lawyer to earn a paycheck. In fact, the process of becoming a lawyer will almost certainly require of you the opportunity costs of years of your time and five to six-figures of debt. You will borrow against your future earnings (in the form of loan repayments) for the prospect of possibly becoming a licensed practitioner and working in a profession with an unemployment and underemployment rate higher than the average across all professions in the United States.

In response to all of this, your personal statement is a golden opportunity to explain who you are and why you want to be a lawyer. What is it about the prospect of being an attorney that motivates you and makes you believe that all these considerable sacrifices are worthwhile? How will you leave the places you work better than you found them? Whose lives and circumstances do you aspire to benefit by joining this profession?

Set aside the platitudes about hard work and put down on paper all the reasons why you have a passion for the law and want to pursue it as your career path. Amidst a few thousand clichés, quotes and anecdotes that sound vaguely similar, an applicant with a brief but cogent statement of purpose will invariably stand out.