Dear Joyce: I got some news today from my almost former employer that has my head spinning. I currently hold a middle-management accounting position with a government contractor. Ten days ago I was offered a wonderful job with a publicly held company. The following Monday I gave my current employer of 14 years a two-week notice. He feels, given my management level of responsibilities, that it was inappropriate of me to give only a two-week notice. Of course, my new employer wanted me to start as soon as I could. Is a two-week notice still standard, or should I have given a longer notice? -- S.S.

Dear S.S.: Where you stand on this convention depends upon where you sit. Surveys of employers and employees would likely yield quite different results.

Two weeks' notice is still a reasonable standard. It would have been gracious to offer a month's notice and to train a successor. But if you had reason to believe you might have lost the new offer by delaying your start, you had little choice. Moreover, I've had boatloads of letters from readers who say that the day they gave notice was the day they were shown the door.

Any worker who receives an offer too good to refuse has to look out for "number one." Isn't management looking out for investors when it terminates employees to improve shareholder positions?

If your former boss is in a real bind, perhaps you can see your way to offering to come in on a few weekends to get your successor started on the right foot. You'd be buying reference insurance if something goes wrong at your new job.

Dear Joyce: I am a graduate student about to graduate with an MBA degree, and have more than five years of business experience. The problem is that I am a computer contract worker and I cannot get into the XYZ insurance company as a business analyst. What is the problem? -- C.C.

Dear C.C.: Do you have a business background or are you changing careers from computer work? If you spent the five years in computer work, the insurance company probably doesn't perceive that technical experience as being a match for recent relevant analytical business experience.

There are many roads to Rome that can solve your difficulty, but your first resort is your university's career center. The professionals there are employed to help you make the transition from school to work. Call on them! Your professors should be able to open some doors for you as well.

MBAs are not created equal. Graduates from mediocre or obscure business schools often have trouble getting started in the careers they want. And when you don't have a high GPA (grade point average) of 3.0 or more, your troubles are compounded.

If none of your school connections and other overtures to find employment as an insurance business analyst succeeds, are you willing to enter the insurance company a level down from the business analyst position and work up or to get hired as a computer specialist and work up? No? Then put aside the insurance company position and look for employment elsewhere.

If you do broaden your horizons, take a look at an useful new book by Peggy Simonsen, "Career Compass'' at www.cpp-db.com. The book is really prep for your rethinking; a theme Simonsen espouses is "Jobs are a thing of the past, making way for rules that can be defined, changed and then redefined as time progresses.''

Later, don't miss reading "Haldane's Best Answers to Tough Interview Questions'' www.impactpublications.com. -- a terrific book based on the job-search principles by Dr. Bernard Haldane.

The lesson when contemplating MBA study is this: Enroll in the best graduate business school you can -- if not a nationally recognized school, then a top regional school -- and spare no effort to rake in top grades.

Send career questions for possible use in this column to Joyce Lain Kennedy at Box 368, Cardiff, CA 92007, or e-mail her (jlk@sunfeatures.com). Sorry, no personal replies.

© 2000, Los Angeles Times Syndicate