Fabulous Plan B

Last week, my hiring partner called to tell me the firm was pushing my start date from October 1 to January 2 because of the economic downturn. And because of the disaster that is the Southern California real estate market.

Naturally, I had a cow.

The last time I had heard about "deferrals" was in 2001, my senior year of college, when several of my classmates had their shiny new job offers delayed, then rescinded, just months before graduation. (And history repeats itself.) My initial reaction was to ask the partner, as calmly as I could, whether I still had a job. He assured me that I did, and that "January 2" really did mean "January 2," not "never." I'm not entirely naive, however, so I fretted for a good several days about what I would do if "January 2" ultimately meant "never."

My prospects looked grim. I am registered for the CA bar, but I live in MA, so finding a new job in CA, now, would be nearly impossible. Plus, my T&E professor's opinion notwithstanding, my GPA is not the most alluring. Then there's the Captain, who himself is trying to navigate a cross-country job hunt. Was it up to him now to find a job that would support the both of us? In SoCal?

Apparently, he didn't think so. (Don't worry, we didn't break up.) He suggested that he should extend his job hunt beyond our agreed-upon region (CA, OR, WA, AZ, maybe CO) because I wasn't starting until January, anyway. Maybe we'd end up spending some time apart, but at least he'd have a job and another year's worth of experience. I fretted some more. But fast forward through more fretting, then some running, and finally some rejoicing as I attained enlightenment along banks of the Charles.

The Captain was right. He did need to extend his job hunt, but to a place where I still could use my admission to the California bar: Washington, D.C. I practically flew from my house to his as I told him my Fabulous Plan B: he follows up on a lead he has in the District (and ultimately lands the job), while I poke around at a bakery for a few months so I can send out feelers for permanent jobs later on. He'd get to coach, and I'd get to bake. Plus, I'd get to run the marathon that I didn't get to run before. He loved the Fabulous Plan. I loved the Fabulous Plan.

So we're Fabulous Planning it up. He's working his connections, and I'm working my running mileage. Do I expect to get another first-year associate job, should it come to that? No. But there are many ways to skin a JD, and Washington is just about the best place to show me. Should my firm come calling to let me know that January 2 still means January 2, I'll go. But if January 2 means never, well, that's fine, too.