Whether you’re interested in pursuing a paralegal career or looking to stand out in the field, a paralegal certificate can help you to advance your knowledge and walk into an industry with a steadily growing job market.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment in the paralegal field is projected to grow 12% by 2030—faster than the average for all occupations. Salaries in the field are also getting stronger by the year, with the top 10% being over $85,190. We recently met with George Zombakis, director of the Rice University Paralegal Graduate Certificate Program, to learn more about the growth of this field, who is an ideal candidate to become a paralegal and how to accelerate your legal career.

Is a Paralegal Certificate Right for You?

Without prior experience, it is not uncommon to believe that a career in the legal field can be difficult to obtain. Not uncommon, but also not true. Don’t let a lack of experience in law scare you away from a fulfilling future. One of the most enticing factors of becoming a paralegal is that you can use what you’ve learned from nearly any previous career or education to create success in the field.

Zombakis said that he has seen those of all professional backgrounds, such as “oil and gas, nursing, real estate, even pharmacy work,” be able to parlay their experience into new careers as paralegals. “It’s actually pretty easy to advance yourself,” Zombakis quoted his graduates as saying, “once you get a little bit of experience under your belt and you become more and more marketable.”

If you’re already working as a paralegal, the certificate can greatly enhance your marketability. Showcasing the Rice University name will help you to stand out to employers. Many of Zombakis’ students had already been working as paralegals for years, but decided to get a certificate to strengthen their resumes and Linkedin profiles.

The certificate program is also useful if you're considering a career in law but would like to get some experience before pursuing a full law degree. It can be a great choice, “because behind every great lawyer is going to be an even better paralegal; so, you're going to know the business from the ground up,” Zombakis said.

One factor that can sometimes cause students to hesitate is age—but Zombakis stressed that there is no age cutoff to becoming a paralegal.

He shared a story of an older student who was wondering if the program would be right for her. “I was so glad that she went through with the program,” Zombakis said, “and two weeks ago, she reached out to me and said, ‘Guess what? I got a job at a very prominent law firm in Houston.’ She proved herself, so stories like that make me so happy.”

What Can You Do with a Paralegal Certificate?

Finding a path that interests you is not difficult in a field that encompasses such a wide range of concentrations, and salaries for these positions can be lucrative. The BLS reported that the top 10% of paralegals make more than $85,190 annually, and it isn’t uncommon to find senior positions in the six-figure range. Zombakis shared that one student of his recently reached out after graduation “to say that she just got her first paralegal job, and it was paying $11,000 more than what she made in her previous profession.”

Here are just a handful of different types of law you can focus on as a paralegal:

• Corporate
• Immigration
• Government
• Intellectual Property
• Litigation

Having a paralegal certificate will prepare you for any field you decide to go into, making it easy to change routes if you decide that your interests lie in another specialization. "Some people might want to start out working with immigration law and they find out later that they want to do elder law; so, there's a lot of moving around,” Zombakis said. He noted that changing direction could help you “get the experience that you need to start marketing yourself for the more senior positions.”

Having the ability to build relationships while getting your certificate also helps with the prospective job search. Rice University’s paralegal certificate program boasts a full staff of practicing attorneys, which gives you the chance to learn from real court cases and also gives you the opportunity to connect with professors who may be able to suggest post-graduate options. Zombakis mentioned that many of these professors “have written letters of recommendation for people who are applying for jobs or those people who want to go into law school, so they really care about their students.”

The personal connections you can make through the certificate program extend even to the companies that the school has worked with previously. Rice has “certain law firms that love [Rice’s] students so much that they come back to us over and over again, whenever they need a new paralegal, because they know they're going to get a really high caliber student that knows their stuff,” Zombakis said.

Finding a job as a paralegal doesn’t have to be stressful. Rice ensures that the transition is seamless, giving you the tools to succeed in your career. “The program has a session entirely devoted to job hunting and resume crafting, and all participants are invited to opt into a job list to receive all postings that we receive from law firms” Zombakis said. The online paralegal certificate program focuses on hands on learning so that you're able to familiarize yourself with the exact software and research tools that law companies use. They also make sure that you walk away with plenty of proof that you’re skilled in your prospective profession.

“You are going to be expected to write and upload all kinds of different writing assignments,” Zombakis explained. “’This is how you write a motion,’ ‘this is how you do a brief.’ So, when the course is over, you are going to have an actual portfolio of writing examples that you can take on job interviews and say, ‘Look, see, this is what I can do; this is what Rice University taught me.’”

If you’re considering a career as a paralegal, or looking to expand your horizons in an already established profession, contact an advisor who can help you figure out if Rice is the right next step for you, or attend an online information session.