Dear Joyce: I'm a dot-com casualty who is uncertain about my next move -- old economy or new economy? I'm gun-shy about working at another dot-com, but after five interviews at traditional companies and no bites, I'm rethinking things. Going back to school for an MBA is not an option -- I already have one of those. Help? -- C.D.

Dear C.D.: Analyze your targeted presentation skills. Bricks (traditional old economy) employers might perceive you as one who expects a level of pay and a freewheeling environment that their companies cannot provide. They assume that you won't blend in and that you won't be satisfied.

If that's what's happening in your case -- and it's only a guess -- you're being hung with an albatross similar to that looped around the necks of former employees of government and big business.

Many private-sector employers, especially the smaller ones, retain the perception, often wildly erroneous, that bureaucrats are lazy and structure-bound. Bureaucrats are presumed not to be accustomed to hard work, meeting deadlines or holding realistic expectations of benefits.

Stereotyping: The possibility that you're being tagged with an all-cows-are-brown label crossed my mind during a professional panel discussion last week, "Dot-Coms vs. Bricks and Mortar Face-off."

The panel was moderated by recruiting guru Gerry Crispin at the 2001 ERExpo in San Diego, a trade show produced for the recruiting industry by the Electronic Recruiting Exchange, itself a dot-com headquartered in New York.

Two representatives of bricks companies and two representatives of dot-com companies traded viewpoints and good-natured jabs along a conservative-new millennium axis. For example, eyes rolled on the bricks' team of panelists when a dot-com representative said her company's receptionist is titled "director of first impressions." Laughter erupted on the dot-com side when a bricks representative described her company's rigid working arrangements.

Calm Anxieties: What can you do to overcome hurtful stereotyping? Try a neutralizing strategy, much as ex-bureaucrats do when they focus on examples of their hard-working history and their willingness to move nimbly in an entrepreneurial setting.

If you don't get an opening from the interviewer, bring up and knock down the unspoken issues. Use real-life examples of how you can work within a conventional environment without feeling fenced in. Say you're adept at scrambling, but you also appreciate structure.

Talk about how you've learned through your dot-com experience to work better, cheaper, faster -- and that you are appreciative that you've had the opportunity to hone technical, creative, risk-taking skills that you'll use to bring value to the bricks' table.

Use statements that convey your positive experience with the departed dot-com, what you've learned and how you plan to apply that knowledge. Just as you never slam a former boss, you don't badmouth the dead dot-com.

Select your best interview lines to brighten your cover letters.

Consider Staying: Although you speak of retreating to the bricks, maybe you should stick around in the online sector.

In the extraordinary economy of the last eight years, many workers found everything so easy in a job search that they moved without looking into the traffic of dot-dumb business plans that never really had a chance.

Don't let the specter of an economic downturn, which could prove to be short-lived, panic you into making a rash decision.

New start-ups are emerging, and new dot-com jobs are being created. Despite a surge of newly unemployed IT (information technology) specialists, the demand for online workers continues. Recruiters insist that despite hiring freezes, they still can't find all the people they need.

A new survey by the Association of Executive Search Consultants shows a surprising 78 percent of members believe that experienced dot-com executives, though cautious, are still motivated to pursue new Internet opportunities, demanding more cash compensation and fewer options. Only 17 percent say the dot-com sector is too risky.

Your Choice: You're at a fork in your career road. Now is the hour to hit the books, newspapers, trade magazines and online business research opportunities. Run toward, rather than away from, something.

Send career questions for possible use in this column to Joyce Lain Kennedy at Box 368, Cardiff, CA 92007, or e-mail her at jlk@sunfeatures.com. Sorry, the volume of mail makes personal replies impossible.

© 2000, Los Angeles Times Syndicate