Adams & Bernstein adds 13 associates to body count - That severance goes fast

The 13 associates laid off at North Carolina-based Adams & Bernstein will receive up to three months severance, reports THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL [Subscription required but clip available at Law.com.] 

Warning: That severance will go fast.  So will any bonus they receive on their way out.  So will their nest egg, already depleted by the financial-markets implosion.

All shrewd job coaches tell the newly unemployed not to rush out and network or send resumes.  They need time to absorb the shock.  Then they are able to deal with this trauma strategically.

When That Then arrives, laid-off attorneys at all levels - associate, partner, equity partner - will have to figure out a way to keep money coming in.  One victim of a Reduction-in-Force [RIF] rented out his finished basement, which has a private entrance, to a retired person.  Another began coaching students for the LSAT.  A third got a clerk's job in a college bookstore.

Guaranteed cash flow is a must because the hunt for a job, within or outside the legal profession, will be long.  In the "Laid Off and Looking" column in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Brian Murphy describes his eight-month search.   That precious job came through the back door, not the result of his own efforts. 

Time is not on the hunter's side.  As we all know, in the glutted fields of just about every professional service, competition for everything is stiff.  In addition, employers have turned cautious.  Where an offer might have come in a few weeks, now it probably will take a few months or more for the employer to choose. 

This has also been the situation in contract assignments.  After four months of proposals, I just got the nod.  But before the deal is closed, I have to submit one more proposal bringing up-to-date my first.  Incidentally, the middleman on this project informed me I won out because I went way beyond what was expected in applying.  For example, I submitted at no charge a sample opinion-editorial on an controversial issue in biotechnology.

At this point it has to occur to the unemployed, be they lawyers, investment bankers or management consultants, that they might not ever get a comparable job.  The next one might not be in their profession.  It may not pay as much.  This is so typical that the clergy in Darien, Connecticut, where about a fourth of the residents had made their living in work related to Wall Street, asked a public relations leader to "help them reinvent themselves, using new media skills."  That leader is Bob Dilenschneider and he's writing a book on just that subject.  It will be published by the American Management Association.

Reinvention demands an inventory of skills and experience.  How we discover what skills and experience we do have and might not realize is to retrieve help-wanted in many fields on the Internet.  Deconstruct what a public affairs mid-level employee or a law-book marketing representative does.  Can we do what they do to make a living? 

If so, then we have to create promotional materials that provide evidence of that.  Those include resumes, cover letters, social media listings, blogs, and Tweets.  For resumes and cover letters I refer the unemployed, underemployed, and new entrants to the job market to Mint Resumes.  It's operated by Silicon Valley marketing pro Marsha Keeffer. She was born into a culture which had to constantly be reborn.

This overhaul requires plenty of trial and error.  The hardest part is learning to feel at home with our new narrative.  In professional life, we are our stories.  That's why the more interviews we get, even if they're through email or the phone, the more adept we will become telling our new stories.  Here are some tips on changing personas Download Savingsoulsonparkavenuekstreet.

During this ordeal, and it is just that, reach out of ourselves and help others.  We will notice that we aren't the only ones in pain and, more importantly, that we can make a difference.  When I was down-and-out in 2003, I helped Hispanics learn the computer.  Even to apply for jobs at Home Depot, they had to be digital-literate.  I felt like a million bucks when they all were able to become employed.

Through trial and error, I got a job, then a better job, then a comparable job.  Eventually, I opened a communications boutique which is currently cooking on all burners.  Here's what I learned about dealing with people Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg.  I wouldn't be doing as well as I'm doing had I not learned plenty.