Getting your resume in the right hands of the right person with the right job for you is unlikely if you imitate the common fungus and just send out spores until the air is saturated. Such a strategy indeed works for simplistic animals; spiders lay eggs by the thousands. But as the fable of the fox and the lion makes clear – when the fox boasted of a big litter, but the lion said her one cub was in fact a lion – quality matters. You don’t need a copy of your resume in every office in America. What you need is your name recommended to a hirer by a trusted lawyer.

How to get such a thing? Simple: befriend lawyers. Go to ABA events, join the ABA, and introduce yourself in an ingratiating manner to those who seem interested. Gaining a mentor, or a lawyer who knows the territory, can help you orient yourself in the legal field, get you the name, the reputation – any reputation at all – that will land you the job by which you build your experience.

That means dressing the part. Start dressing like a lawyer, not a law student, and start taking the time to know how to look successful – because the old cliches about dressing the part and knowing a man by his clothes are true in the business world, just as the old saw is true that it's not what you know but who you know.

The legal profession is a people profession, it’s all about relationships; getting into the game early, getting to know people and be known by them, which means socializing yourself and networking with others. Make it your full time job, therefore, to meet those key figures who will make you not just some fungus spreading his resumes, but the choice seed for the law firm garden.