Student Guide to Symplicity

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Video tutorials for Symplicity are available. Click on the ‘Continue Reading…’ link on

the Welcome Announcement for links to the videos. Find out how to get started on

Symplicity, upload documents, bid for recruiting employers, search job postings, enter

employment information, search summer job surveys, and view the PCD employer

database.

I. LOGGING IN

Symplicity is the web-based recruitment management system used by PCD. Symplicity’s

Career Services Manager (CSM) allows you to request career counseling appointments,

search job postings, research employers, participate in recruitment programs (apply to

organizations and sign-up for interview times), research judicial clerkships, and see

announcements and a list of programs/events from PCD.

Launch your web browser and go to https://law-suffolk-csm.symplicity.com/students.

Enter your Username (your email address as entered in your Symplicity profile) and

Password. If you forget your password, you can click on the ‘Forgot my password’ tab to

have a new password generated and sent to your email address. You may also see a

member of the PCD staff if you need your login information. It is recommended that all

students use their Suffolk email address for Symplicity.

II. HOME PAGE, REQUESTING COUNSELING APPOINTMENTS, RESOURCES,

AND FACEBOOK/LINKEDIN

A. HOME PAGE

Once you log in, you will see the Symplicity student Home page. Read the NEWS FEED

section for important announcements from PCD and notifications from Symplicity.

Several tabs are located across the top of the page to direct you to other sections of the

site which are explained further in this handout: ‘Home,’ ‘Profile,’ ‘Documents,’

‘Resources,’ ‘Jobs,’ ‘Employers,’ ‘Clerkships,’ ‘Surveys,’ ‘OCI,’ ‘Events,’ and ‘Calendar.’

You can get back to the Home page from anywhere in the system by clicking on the

‘Home’ tab.

B. COUNSELING APPOINTMENTS

You can request an appointment with a PCD counselor using Symplicity. Click on the

‘Request An Appointment’ link on the right hand SHORTCUTS menu on the Home

page, or click on ‘Calendar’ then ‘Counseling Appointment’ and the ‘New Appointment’

button. You will then see the appointment request page where you can select the type of

appointment requested, preferred counselor, date, and time. Click on the ‘Submit

Request’ button once your choices have been made. The appointment request will

appear under your ‘Counseling Appointment’ tab with a status of ‘Pending’. Once the

appointment date and time have been approved, you will receive a confirmation email

from Symplicity.

Clicking on a specific date

on the calendar above will

display a list of available

appointment times for that

date. Click on your

preferred appointment time

under your preferred PCD

Career Counselor.

C. RESOURCES

To view handouts and guides from PCD, click on the ‘Resources’ tab and then

‘Document Library.’

D. FACEBOOK/LINKEDIN

Symplicity allows you to connect your Symplicity profile to your Facebook and/or

LinkedIn accounts so you can receive announcements, alerts and program/interview

reminders right to your Facebook wall or LinkedIn feed. To turn on the

Facebook/LinkedIn integration, click on the Facebook or LinkedIn icons on the top

right of the Home page. You will then be prompted to enter your Facebook/LinkedIn

information, post to your wall, and post while offline. Once the steps are complete, your

Symplicity and Facebook/LinkedIn profiles will be connected and you will be able to

review/change your preferences under the ‘Social Media’ subtab under ‘Profile’.

III. PROFILE

The profile section must be completed by all students before being able to view job

postings or bid for interviewing employers. It is to your advantage to fill out your profile

section as completely and accurately as possible. If you do, PCD will be able to contact

you about jobs or career-related panels that might interest you, and will be able to keep

you updated on the many recruitment programs being held throughout the year.

Click on the ‘Profile’ tab to complete your information. Click on the ‘switch to tab view’

link to see a new group of subtabs, which will take you to the different areas of the

profile section.

You will first be brought to the ‘Personal ’ page where you can enter data such as your

email address, phone numbers, gender, birth date, ethnicity, and address. Required

fields are marked by a red asterisk. Be sure to hit ‘Save Changes’ or ‘Save Changes And

Continue’ at the top or bottom of the page to save your information. ‘Save Changes’ will

save the data and keep you on the same page; ‘Save Changes And Continue’ will save

your information and bring you to the next page of the profile section. Please note, if

you change your email address, you will receive an email at the new address asking you

to confirm the change. When you log on to Symplicity in the future, you will have to use

your new email address as your Username.

On the ‘Academic’ page you must include information such as graduation date, year in

school, preferred practice and geographic areas, and other degree data. Be sure to verify

your >Graduation Date= and >Year in school= to ensure that those employers interviewing

your year will appear to you for selection during bidding. (Joint degree students should

speak with PCD staff about selecting the appropriate graduation year.) Much of the

information you enter, such as ‘Practice Area(s),’ will consist of selecting options from a

drop-down menu. To choose more than one category, you must click on your first

choice and then hit the ‘Ctrl’ key and click on any additional choices. Make sure you

save your information after making any changes.

Under the ‘Privacy’ tab, click ‘yes’ to make sure that you receive important messages

from PCD. Also, on occasion, we may generate resume books of students who meet

specific criteria for employers. For example, at an employer’s request we can use

Symplicity to search for students who have a background in science or engineering and

group their resumes together in an online resume book for the employer. If you would

like to have your resume included in these resume books, be sure to click ‘yes’ under

‘Promote My Resume to Employers.’ You also have the option of receiving Symplicity

alerts as text messages, or job blasts with current job opportunities from PCD if you

choose.

You can use the ‘Placements’ and ‘Evaluations’ tabs to include information and

evaluations about any summer and/or academic-year positions you may have held.

Click on the ‘+Add New’ button on each of these screens to include data about a new

employer. Be sure to hit the ‘Submit’ button to save your information. You will be

required to complete the summer survey questionnaire (under the ‘Evaluations’ tab)

before you can bid for any employers participating in the summer/fall recruiting

programs. You can search summer survey questionnaires completed by other students

by clicking on the ‘Profile’ tab, then ‘Evaluations’, and then ‘Search’ (see next

screenshot). Enter your search criteria on the next screen and hit the ‘Submit’ button. A

list of employers matching your criteria will appear. To read the evaluation on a

particular employer, click on the icon in front of the employer’s name.

Use the ‘Password/Preferences’ tab under ‘Profile’ if you would like to change your

password. Hit the ‘Save’ button to confirm the change. You may also enable the

Accessible Mode under this tab to improve compatibility with screen reader software.

The ‘Activity Summary’ tab will show you all the actions and activity you have

performed on the site.

IV. DOCUMENTS

The documents section of the site allows you to view and upload your resume, cover

letters, unofficial transcript, writing samples, and references. Symplicity allows you to

submit all required materials online to employers participating in the recruitment

programs and to apply online for certain job postings.

Click on ‘documents’ to view your existing uploaded documents. To upload new

documents, click on the ‘+Add New’ button at the bottom of the list. Enter a title (Label)

for your document and select the document type (Resume, Cover Letter, Unofficial

Transcript, Writing Sample, or Other Documents; ‘Other Documents’ can be used for

references or application forms). Click on the ‘Browse’ button, find the file you wish to

upload from the saved documents on your computer, and double click on the document

file. Once the file appears in the box next to ‘Browse’, click the ‘Submit’ button. The

system will convert the document into pdf format and direct you to your document list

when it is ready. You can then view the original version of your document or a pdf

version by clicking on the appropriate icon to the left of the document name. Be sure to

view the pdf version of your document to make sure it uploaded and converted correctly.

The pdf versions of your documents will be sent to employers.

If you make changes to your resume after it has been uploaded on Symplicity, you will

have to reload the new version. Delete your old resume and repeat the above steps to

upload the new version. If you have already submitted applications to employers and

the bidding for that session is still open, make sure the new version of your resume

replaced the old. After the bidding deadline, though, all resume submissions are final

for that session. You will not be able to make changes to your submitted resume.

You may store multiple versions of your resume if you wish, but will have to select one

as your ‘Default’ resume. The default resume is the resume that employers will see in

resume books and will be highlighted at the top of your resume list every time you

submit your resume to interviewing employers, although other resumes will also be

available for submission. You may change your default resume at any time by clicking

on the ‘Make Default’ button under the document name. After the bidding deadline, all

resume submissions are final for that session. Changing a default resume only affects

future resume submissions. You may also store multiple cover letters and writing

samples. You will have the option of choosing which cover letter or writing sample to

submit to an employer during the bidding process. You may store up to 20 documents

on Symplicity at one time. You will receive an on-screen message once you have reached

the maximum and will have to delete one document to be able to upload another.

To upload your transcript, you can scan the transcript and upload the document as

described above. You can also log on to Campus Cruiser and copy and paste your

transcript details into a Word document to upload to Symplicity. To access your

transcript on Campus Cruiser click on ‘Grades’ on the top menu, then select ‘My Law

Transcript’ from the Academic Profile links on the left. When your transcript

information appears; copy and paste the details into a Word document which you can

then upload to Symplicity.

V. OCI

The OCI (On-Campus Interview) section of Symplicity contains information on all

employers participating in the recruitment programs Suffolk sponsors. It allows you to

review information on employers, apply or Abid@ for employers, and sign-up for an

interview time. Employers are assigned a Asession@ name depending on in which

program they are participating (e.g., on-campus interviews, off-campus programs,

collection only, apply direct). Each session name has a different bidding due date.

To access this section of the site, click on the ‘OCI’ tab on the top horizontal menu. You

will be directed to the ‘Employers/Bidding’ page of the OCI section. Be sure to read all

notices and make sure that the correct resume is set as your default resume. Be aware of

the important dates for each session. You can check the dates by choosing the

appropriate session from the ‘Session’ dropdown list under the ‘Search Filters’ section,

and reviewing the dates under the ‘Important Dates’ column on the right. Bidding

closes at 10:00am on each due date; if you miss the deadline, we will not be able to make

individual application accommodations. During the summer/fall recruitment period, it

is important that you check your email regularly and log on to the Symplicity CSM

system at least once a day to check all current announcements and deadlines.

A. SEARCHING EMPLOYERS

A list of employers participating in the various recruitment programs is available on the

PCD website under the ‘On-Campus Interviews’ link. You can conduct your research

online through Symplicity and the ‘OCI’ tab to select the firms with which you are

interested in meeting. Keep in mind that this limited online information is not intended

to take the place of reviewing an employer=s website or other employer-generated

materials.

View employers who are participating in the various recruitment programs by clicking

on the ‘Employers/Bidding’ tab under ‘OCI’ and selecting the appropriate session from

the ‘Session’ dropdown list. You can refine your search by clicking on ‘Additional

Employer Filters’ and entering data on employer size, type, state, interview date, or

practice area. Click the ‘Search’ button once your criteria has been entered and a list of

matching employers will appear below. You will have to perform a separate search for

each program or session. NOTE: Only the employers in each session accepting resumes

from your class year will be visible to you.

Click on the ‘Review’ button to the left of each employer to review their recruiting

information. Under the ‘OCI Schedule’ section on the top left of the page you will see a

link to the employer’s website, their interview length, the name of the interviewer (if

available), the class years of the students they are recruiting, and their interview

location. Under the ‘Employer’s Schedules’ section on the bottom left of the page you

will find information on their interview date, the offices for which they are recruiting,

any additional application materials required and how to submit them, and their hiring

criteria or notes. Check the ‘Bid Details’ section on the top right of the page to see your

bid status and the required application materials. You can also click on the link after

‘Office’ to see a profile for the employer. Contact information for the organization is

displayed on the lower right section of the page under ‘Contact Information.’ This is

where you would find the person to whom to address a cover letter if one is requested.

B. BIDDING FOR EMPLOYERS

After you have researched the employers that are interviewing, you can easily bid for the

employers with whom you would like to interview. ABidding@ means selecting employers

to whom you want to submit your resume. Choose the appropriate session from the

‘Session’ dropdown menu under the ‘Employers/Bidding’ tab of the OCI section of the

site. You can click on the ‘Review’ button to the left of the organization name or the

‘Apply’ button in the ‘Bidding’ column after the organization name. Under ‘Bid Details’

on the next page, you will see dropdown menus for each document required in the

application packet for that employer. You will need to choose which of your uploaded

resumes to submit, and if required, which cover letter, transcript, writing sample, or

other document to include. If the employer is interviewing for more than one office (see

the note under the ‘Interviewing For’ column under ‘Employer’s Schedules’ on the

bottom left side of the page), you can specify your office preference in the ‘Preferred

Location(s)’ box. Click the ‘Apply’ or ‘Update’ (if you are editing a bid) button to submit

your bid.

You can check your bids for each session by picking the session from the ‘Session’

dropdown list and selecting ‘With Bids’ from the ‘Employers’ dropdown list. The list of

employers that you have bid for within that particular session will display in the lower

portion of the screen. Once you bid for an employer, the ‘Apply’ button on the employer

list for each session will be changed to ‘Withdraw.’ If you change your mind about a

particular employer and wish to delete your bid or application, click on the ‘Withdraw’

button.

You can make changes to your bids and application materials for each session up until

10:00am on the bidding deadline. Once a session closes, all applications are final and

cannot be changed. If you miss an application deadline, we will not be able to make

individual application accommodations.

C. NOTIFICATION AND SCHEDULING OF INTERVIEWS

We will send all submitted application materials to employers once bidding closes

(about two to three weeks before their interview date). The employer will then contact

PCD (usually about a week before their interview date) and give us the names of the

students to be interviewed during their visit. If you have been selected for an interview,

you will be notified by email at the email address you entered in your profile contact

information on Symplicity. During the summer/fall interview season you should check

your email often.

To schedule an interview, click on ‘OCI’ and make sure you are on the

‘Employers/Bidding’ section. Select the appropriate session from the ‘Session’

dropdown list and check the list of employers that appears below. Under the

‘Invitations’ column you will see the response to your bid. If you were selected for an

interview, an ‘Accept Preselect’ button will appear (otherwise your status will read ‘Not

Invited’ or ‘Pending’ if selections have not yet been received for that employer).

Click the ‘Accept Preselect’ button and a list of available interview times will appear;

select the time you wish to interview and hit the ‘Signup’ button (see next screenshot).

You may change your interview time to another available time slot as long as the pre-

select sign-up period is still open for the session.

If you wish to decline an interview, you must contact PCD. Please review the PCD

policies in the Recruitment Programs: Policies and Procedures for Students handout,

though, which state that you may not withdraw from more than two on- or off-campus

interviews per recruiting season.

You can review the information for your scheduled interviews by clicking on the

‘Scheduled Interviews’ tab under ‘OCI’ and selecting the appropriate session under the

‘Session’ dropdown list. It is very important that you check the interview location of

each employer; not all employers are interviewing at Suffolk.

D. COLLECTION ONLY AND APPLY DIRECT EMPLOYERS

Some employers listed on the OCI section of Symplicity are not conducting interviews

either on-campus or at a scheduled off-campus recruitment program. Many

organizations have requested that we collect resumes from interested students and send

the resumes to them in one packet or wish students to apply to them directly; they will

contact students directly about interviews.

Employers requesting a resume collection are included in the ‘Collection Only’ sessions.

You should bid for ‘Collection Only’ employers in the same manner for which you bid for

interviewing employers, keeping in mind that all future communication regarding

possible interviews will come directly from the employer.

Organizations requesting that students contact them directly are listed in the ‘Apply

Direct’ session. You will be able to review the application requirements for these

organizations on Symplicity, but all application materials must be submitted directly to

the employer. If they have an application deadline, it will be listed in the ‘Additional

Requests’ column under the ‘Employer’s Schedules’ section of the employer review page.

All future communication regarding possible interviews will come directly from the

employer.

E. MASSACHUSETTS LAW SCHOOL CONSORTIUM PROGRAMS

The Massachusetts Law School Consortium sponsors several recruiting programs

throughout the year. There is a National Recruitment Program (which includes the

Northern New England Job Fair) that is held every fall and two Government/Public

Interest Interview Programs, one in October at Boston College Law School and another

in January at Suffolk. The application process is the same for these programs, but

bidding is done through a different Symplicity site: https://law-massconsortia-

csm.symplicity.com/students. See a member of the PCD staff for your login

information.

F. IMPORTANT NOTES

1. Be sure to check Symplicity each day during the recruiting season, as PCD will post

announcements of employer additions and cancelations. You may also receive email

notification of these changes.

2. Bidding for each session is always due by 10:00 am on the deadline dates indicated.

3. Check your email often during the recruiting season so you do not miss notices about

signing up for an interview time.

VI. JOB POSTINGS

All job postings received by PCD are listed on Symplicity. To access the postings, click

on the ‘jobs’ tab in the top navigation menu and the ‘PCD Job Postings’ link in the lower

menu. (NOTE: You can also click on the ‘Law Job Web’ link to see other non-PCD job

listings.) All current job postings will be displayed by posting date with the most recent

postings first. You can narrow the list by selecting a specific practice area or position

type and clicking the ‘Search’ button. You can also enter an organization name or city in

the ‘Keywords’ box. It is not recommended that you search by practice area, since many

employers do not have this information entered on their posting and a complete listing

may not be returned.

The ‘Advanced Search’ tab provides additional search criteria and also allows you to

save a ‘Search Agent.’ To create a Search Agent, enter your search criteria, check the

small box under ‘Search Agents,’ and give your agent a name. Search Agents can be

programmed to run automatically according to a pre-determined schedule and notify

you of new job postings that meet your criteria. You can enable the Search Agent by

clicking on the ‘Search Agents’ tab, selecting the appropriate agent name under the

‘Label’ column, clicking ‘yes’ on the next page, and specifying the Period and Multiple

settings. For example, to run a search every two weeks, select ‘Week’ under ‘Period’ and

‘2’ under ‘Multiple.’ Any enabled Search Agents will run automatically and Symplicity

will email the results to you.

To review specific job posting details, click on the job title for each position in the ‘Jobs’

list. On the left of the next page you will see information on the job including title,

description, location, position type, practice areas, and desired class levels. There is also

a link to view the employer’s profile. On the top right of the page you will see

information on ‘How To Apply.’ Listed below that are ‘Important Dates.’ Most positions

will remain open for three months unless the employer specifies another application

deadline. You should apply for positions as soon as possible and not wait until the

application deadlines, as many hires are done on a rolling basis.

Some employers will accept online applications through Symplicity. If this is the case,

you will be able to choose which of your uploaded documents to submit under

‘Application Status’ on the job posting page (this would be the ‘How To Apply’ box on

other postings). You can see your applications under the ‘Applications’ tab on the Jobs

section of Symplicity.

You have the ability to mark any posting as a “favorite” to be reviewed again later. You

can do this by clicking the star icon in front of the job posting title on the ‘Jobs’ list page.

To view your saved favorites, click on the ‘My Favorites’ tab.

VII. EMPLOYERS/RESEARCH

You can use the Symplicity CSM to search and view information on all employers in our

database, not just those participating in the recruitment programs. The Symplicity

database, however, is not an exhaustive one and should be used in conjunction with

other databases such as Martindale-Hubbell, NALP Directory of Legal Employers, and

others.

Click the ‘Employers’ tab to see a list of all organizations in the PCD database. You can

find information on each organization such as address, hiring contacts, website link,

office size, and profile details (if included). You can also quickly access any open job

postings or recruitment program information listed by the employer. Note that you are

able to search by ‘Employer Type,’ ‘Practice Area,’ or ‘Keywords.’ A list of employers

that match your criteria will be returned. It is best to start with a broad search and then

narrow your results, if needed. Keep in mind that not all employers may have practice

areas listed on their profile.

To view information on an employer, click on the organization name. On the employer

page you will see information on the employer type, their practice areas, address, a link

to their website, organization size, and contact information if available.

You have the ability to mark any employer as a “favorite” to be reviewed again later.

You can do this by clicking on the star icon on the far left of the organization list under

the ‘Employers’ tab, or by clicking the ‘Add To Favorites’ link under the ‘Actions’ section

of the specific employer page. To view your saved favorites, click on the ‘Favorite

Employers’ tab.

Sample Searches

As mentioned, you can search the PCD employer database by ‘Employer Type,’ ‘Practice

Area,’ or ‘Keywords.’ For example, to generate a list of employers who practice

environmental law, click on the ‘Practice Area’ drop down menu and then select

‘Environmental’ from the list. Then click on the ‘Search’ button and a list of employers

meeting your criteria will appear. Click on the employer’s name to view the details for

each organization.

You can also conduct searches based on employer type. For instance, to generate a list

of public defenders listed in the PCD Symplicity database, you would click on the

‘Employer Type’ drop down menu and then select ‘Public/Federal Defender’ from the

list. Next, click on the ‘Search’ button to generate the list of employers.

The ‘Keywords’ box can be used to search for keywords in the employer name, city or

profile. You can use the keywords box to find details on a specific employer. For

example, to find information on the Boston office of Ropes & Gray, you would type

‘ropes’ or ‘ropes gray’ into the box and then click on the ‘Search’ button. A list of

employers with those keywords would appear. You would then click on the ‘Ropes &

Gray, LLP (Boston, MA)’ employer name to find the information specific to that office.

You can also conduct searches by city. If you were looking for employers in Providence,

you would type ‘providence’ in the keywords box and then click the ‘Search’ button to

generate an employer list. You should only use keywords to search geographic locations

by city and not state. If you tried to search for employers in Maine by entering ‘me’ into

the box, you would generate a list of all employers in Maine, as well as any employer

with the ‘me’ combination appearing in their organization name.

The employer type, practice area and keywords searches can be used together to further

narrow your search results. For example, you could search the PCD database for law

firms practicing intellectual property law in Boston. To do so, you would select ‘Law

Firm’ from the ‘Employer Type’ drop down menu, then ‘Intellectual Property’ from the

‘Practice Area’ menu, and type ‘boston’ in the keywords box. Click the ‘Search’ button to

generate your list.

Remember, it’s best to start with a broad search and then narrow your criteria if needed.

Also, if you are conducting multiple searches, be sure to clear your previous criteria by

clicking on the ‘Clear’ button before entering new search terms.

Saving Your Search Results

You have the option of saving employer information in an Excel spreadsheet to use for

mail merges or other purposes. To do so, you must first save the employers as

“favorites.” Once you generate a list of employers that meet your search criteria, click on

the star icon in front of the employer name. This will add the employer to your

Favorites folder. To access the folder, click on the ‘Favorite Employers’ tab. All of the

employers that you have selected as favorites will appear in the list. You can keep these

employers in your favorites folder and easily refer back to them from time to time, as

well as use the list to create an Excel spreadsheet.

To create an Excel spreadsheet, you must first select the employers you would like to

appear in the spreadsheet. To do so, click on the box in front of each organization’s

name. Once your selections are made, click on the ‘Save as Excel’ button. You will then

be able to save the employer information to your computer as an Excel spreadsheet to

use for mail merges.

VIII. JUDICIAL CLERKSHIPS

Students interested in judicial clerkships can use Symplicity to search judges and courts,

and track their application status. You must first complete a registration page under the

‘Clerkships’ tab with details on your class year, undergraduate school, clerkship

preferences, recommendation information, writing sample information, and other

qualifications. You can then search judges and create your Excel spreadsheets for

recommendations under the ‘Clerkships’ tab, and track your applications using the

‘Application Status Info’ tab. Detailed judicial clerkship application instructions are

available on the PCD website in the Judicial Clerkship Guide handout, and the News

Feed section of your Symplicity Home page. Students interested in judicial clerkships

should also make an appointment with Margaret Talmers, Associate Director for

Judicial Clerkships and Internships, as soon as possible.

IX. EVENTS/CALENDAR

Information on all PCD programs, workshops, events, and recruitment deadlines can be

found on Symplicity. You can access this information through the ‘Events’ or ‘Calendar’

tabs.

Click on the ‘Events’ tab to see a listing of all programs and workshops being held by

PCD (information on recruitment deadlines is not displayed). Click on any event to see

its details and to submit an ‘RSVP.’ Symplicity will then send automatic reminders

about the program.

Last updated: June 2013