Dear Joyce: After working very hard for seven years, first as a secretary, then as an administrative assistant, I will receive my bachelor's degree at age 26 this year -- later I might seek an MBA. Now I want to work in a supervisory or managerial position. How do I shake off a clerical image? Must I change jobs? -- B.T.

Dear B.T.: Only the Lord knows what's in your mind; everyone else judges you by appearance and behavior. If you don't look like a boss, you won't get a chance to act like a boss. Would a makeover help?

You ask if you should stay or change jobs? To transplant yourself from one career level to another, look homeward first. Your current crowd should appreciate the quality of your work and recognize your ambition. But if typecasting hangs on, you'll have to scoot out of there.

Job-Market Mysteries Anticipate a volatile job market. An apt description is offered by Fortune magazine "Ask Annie" careers columnist Anne Fisher in her gold-medal book, "If my Career's on the Fast Track, Where Do I Get a Road Map?":

"(The job market is like) a vast video game, say Quake III: frenetic, unpredictable, played in a murky, quirky, perennially shifting landscape where nothing is ever quite what it looks like, and there is never enough light to see by."

Right now, this minute, gird yourself for a longer looking-around period than you've grown accustomed to. Unlike a few months ago, mere signs of life are no longer enough to land a job, no matter how young you are.

Slob and Slower Between hiring freezes and layoffs, the recent bull job market is looking more grizzly by the week. An uncomfortable number of indicators suggest that job talent is, at least temporarily, flipping from a shortage to a surplus -- for white-collar managers, marketing talent and info-tech specialists, as well as blue-collar manufacturing workers.

The Conference Board's Help Wanted Advertising Index has dipped 20 points since last year, to its lowest level since 1993; for the past 30 years, whenever the index has slipped by 15 points, bad economic news followed.

Newspaper and magazine financial pages increasingly report that hiring prospects are overcast. Recruiters now gripe online about their bread-and-butter employment orders drying up -- was it really only a year ago when they were saying they wouldn't recruit at funerals but they would at weddings?

Ask Annie Annie can help in your quest to move into management. Her book www.AskAnnie.com tackles countless adrenaline-producing questions, including a couple of queries similar to yours from stressed-out readers who also expect advanced education to propel them into fresh career territory but aren't quiet sure how to manage their relaunch.

Responding, Annie advocates the merits of finding ways to overlay your portable skills on new levels of work; for instance, your years of closely observing high-performing managers have given you a head start on superior budgeting ability. Among her bountiful tips: Think transferable skills and volunteer for interdepartmental task forces.

MBA Lure You mentioned possible advanced study in business. Recognizing that many aspiring managers have heard about MBAs getting the big money, Annie notes that some take the path of least resistance, enrolling in second- and third-tier B-schools, to their later regret. In MBA circles, the "brand name" of the school you choose is immensely important, the columnist reports.

"Further, most of the top B-schools require you to go full time. Assuming you can get in, you not only have to cough up $70,000 or more in tuition, but forego your salary for up to two years."

Executive MBA If you need to keep those paychecks coming in, consider the executive MBA credential or study online.

The executive MBA (EMBA), Annie explains, "is a condensed and intensified version of the traditional MBA that is designed to prepare managers for more and broader responsibilities while they're still doing their jobs." To locate EMBA programs, she suggests you visit the Executive MBA Council Web site.

Periodically, a book appears that is a natural for graduation gifts. Annie's guidance begins with college graduation and continues to managerial status. "If My Career's on the Fast Track, Where Do I Get a Road Map?" is this year's pick.

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