Career Strategies

"SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO MOVE TO MOVE"
by Dionne Greene*

For sometime we have been at the same company with the same job title and level of responsibility. Although upward mobility seems in the distant future, we have made the conscientious decision to wait things out. And, optimistically, we believe the day will come when the company will reward us for our hard work and dedication by giving us that BIG promotion. Right? Time passes, opportunities pass, and our glimmering hope remains a dream deferred.

The problem with lawyers is that we oftentimes limit our opportunities by staying confined to a small pond. The bottom line is that in order to move, you have to be able and willing to move. In translation, this means that lawyers should be open to the idea of moving to a new state or another country to get into position for transition to something bigger and better.

As a model, lawyers should take a page from their business counterparts and learn how to relocate for career success. From the start, MBAs know that their first job is not their last job, and that in order to move up, they will most likely need to move away for an opportunity. In fact, according to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business' website, the average MBA stays on their first job approximately 2 years and moves approximately every 3-4 years thereafter. By way of illustration, most of my MBA friends often start their careers in an entry level business position in some remote locale that is undesirable to most cosmopolitan people (example East Bubba, South Dakota). This initial job leads to three or four other different jobs in different parts of the country. It is worth noting that over the course of these six to eight years, each new job is a step up. And, ultimately, my friends arrive at their destination (New York City) as the CEO of a company or in some other high level capacity.

By contrast, lawyers are prone to remain in the same state where they started their career and even though they may have moved to two or three companies during that time period, they typically continue to have the same job title/level of responsibility.

Indeed, there was a time when a law degree guaranteed lifetime gainful employment in the state of one's choosing. The only hurdle to overcome was passing the bar exam and, once that was surmounted, a new lawyer could comfortably settle into a home and a job with regular promotion and advancement without ever having to change one's address again. Those days are over!

Today, as lawyers, we must realize that our arduously earned bar admission is not the end all of our professional careers. Anyone who has looked for a corporate in-house position in the last few years can relate that the market is flooded with resumes from very talented attorneys who, due to either corporate restructuring, downsizing, dissolution, or plain bad luck, have found themselves in the unenviable position of pounding the pavement in search of work.

The problem is, everyone is pounding the SAME PAVEMENT, along the same street, in the same town/city within the same state as a bunch of other equally qualified (or better qualified) attorneys looking for the exact same in-house opportunity, all stubbornly refusing to consider the same or better opportunities outside of their town, city, state or country because of FEAR:

(1) The fear of taking another bar exam and failing it;
(2) The fear of moving to a new location where there are no friends, family, or other formal networks;
(3) The fear of a leaving a known and comfortable lifestyle;
(4) The fear of failing and hence having no place to return; and
(5) The fear of success and hence actually liking the new place.

Not one of these fears is insurmountable. And, not one of the fears should be used as a crutch to keep us from achieving new goals and heights in our lives.

If moving to a new location translates into a promotion, new skills, new responsibilities, and adding substantially to our resume then it is more than professionally reasonable for us to pack our bags and go. REMEMBER: In two to three years, we can always leave East Bubba, South Dakota to move back to the big city. Most importantly, when we return, our new experiences will make us a more competitive candidate and help to catapult our careers and take us to whole new levels. Either way, 'moving to move up' is a viable option that any underutilized, non-employed or under-employed attorney should seriously consider during his/her career.

*Dionne Greene is Counsel the Vice President of Commerce Development at MasterCard Worldwide in Purchase, New York.