{"id":8137,"date":"2018-12-31T20:08:09","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T20:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsletters.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ilp\/?p=8137"},"modified":"2019-03-19T17:48:32","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T17:48:32","slug":"alum-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsletters.asucollegeoflaw.com\/ilp\/2018\/12\/31\/alum-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"Alum Advice: Ken Truitt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>ILP Alum Ken Truitt has had experience in various legal positions since he graduated from ASU Law in 1992. Now working as the chief operating officer of Tribal Operations for the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska, he oversees most of the Tribe’s programs. The ILP asked Ken to share some advice to current students as an insight into what helped lead him on his journey after graduation.<\/p>\n


Q: What is your advice for current students?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> “Several things come to mind.\u00a0 First, and not necessarily legally related but it could really help you map out your career after school:\u00a0 The Gallup organization has done decades worth of deep research into what makes good leaders good<\/strong>.\u00a0 The research has led to several books, perhaps the best known is \u201cStrengths Based Leadership.\u201d\u00a0 Along with the book is an online assessment tool that you get access to for buying the book.\u00a0 The tool is a leadership strength diagnostic survey and is remarkably accurate at assessing your particular leadership and vocational strengths.\u00a0 I wished I had come across this as a young professional starting out.\u00a0 It would have helped me understand why some courses and areas in the law seem to come easy to me and why some did not.\u00a0 Having a keen sense of your unique strengths early will help you in every job interview you get called for<\/strong> and it will help you analyze job announcements and see that some of them are not for you.<\/p>\n

Second, recognize that law school primarily teaches you to be a life-long learner<\/strong>.\u00a0 The law changes every day and when you are out practicing it will not be the same as it was when you were in school.\u00a0 Again, this is a strategic advantage because not all other professional disciplines teach life-long learning as a component of the pedagogy.\u00a0 This absolute need to staying fresh and sharp is a competitive advantage lawyers have over other professionals especially if you find yourself transitioning into non-legal executive roles.<\/p>\n

Third, learn how to transition<\/strong>.\u00a0 I mentioned life-long learning, here\u2019s another way it can really help you throughout your career.\u00a0 Sometimes when you get into other non-legal roles, like management, what makes you a good lawyer is not automatically going to make you great in your new non-legal role.\u00a0 You will need to have an awareness of this, analyze the new role\u2019s demands and commit to learning the new required skills<\/strong> and learning what parts of being a lawyer will hamper your performance there (here\u2019s a hint, nobody likes being cross-examined, not on the stand and especially not in the workplace, ever).<\/p>\n

Finally, learn how to network and network relentlessly<\/strong>.\u00a0 Some of the bumps I mentioned earlier could have been much more smooth had I recognized the need to network.\u00a0 Networking used to seem to me a smarmy exercise that overly ambitious and insincere people did to put themselves first in all circumstances. And as an introvert by nature I recoiled from it as well.\u00a0 But networking is as simple as taking an interest in people, and then staying in touch and connected with them.\u00a0 Sadly, I came to this realization late and I am working on improving in this area.”<\/p>\n\n\n