New York Lawyer
August 21, 2001

Q:
I have just completed an eight-year political appointment with the Clinton Administration, in which I was responsible for the government�s policy in a particular area. I want to return to the private sector. How do I go about selling myself?

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A:
As you contemplate a sector shift, it is important to mind the distinction between expertise and experience.

Expertise is subject-matter knowledge, the things you brag about by saying, �I know them.� As in �I know Russian,� or �I know the regulations that govern the interstate transportation of chickens.� Expertise � often called credentials � is taught in courses, books, degree programs and technical seminars. Generally, expertise both defines and is defined by the setting in which it is used. If you say, �I know the FDA regulations governing Phase III clinical trials of respiratory pharmaceuticals,� then either you�re employed by the regulator or the company that is being regulated. That body of knowledge has no utility on, say, a canoe trip. But in does define you as �an expert� � in something.

So here�s one bind: by leaving government, you may well have to walk away from some area of your expertise -- unless you�re going to work in government relations for some regulated company or help create a business whose activity is pinned to the area in which you have unique expertise. And, once you actually leave the government, you automatically become an �ex-expert.�

And your litigation and transactional expertise is not strong enough or recent enough to be a validating credential � or to serve as your primary �product identity.� You present law firms with the classic �age-and-stage� problem, and they won�t hire you unless they have a burgeoning practice area in your existing area of technical expertise and want to hire you as a pair of hands. This is unlikely at this stage in your career.

At this point, therefore, you may want to stop describing yourself as a lawyer (an expertise-based label that generally does not place a huge premium on �creative thinking�) and describe yourself as �legally-educated,� or as having a �background in law.� If you must hold on to the legal moniker, consider private-sector �law-related� roles geared to your communication skills or ability to assess and control risk � say, corporate compliance, government relations, employee relations, public information, or risk management. But remember � when you decided to go into government, other folks decided to go directly into these areas, so they may have a leg up on you unless you are prepared to take a step back in seniority or pay.

However, you have a lot of experience. Experience embraces the things we brag about by saying, �I�ve done that,� rather than �I know that.� Other ways to describe the same idea are: judgment, street smarts, been there-done that, maturity. By its very nature, experience is transferable; if you have trouble-shooting ability or project management ability in one setting, you�ll have it in another (although they may give it a different name; litigators, for example, are by nature project managers because each piece of litigation is a discrete project).

You also have a lot of policy experience. �Policy� is the process of defining alternatives and priorities and explaining them persuasively to others. If you have experience in the general process of assessing needs, diagnosing situations, weighting variables, envisioning desired outcomes, and then synthesizing all this activity into a desirable, workable set of priorities and standards � then you have an ability that is needed in all sectors and all types of enterprises.

To profile your marketable �features and benefits,� therefore, you should revisit your past accomplishments in the executive agency and translate them into generic equivalents comprehensible to a potential employer in the private sector. This is not that hard to do. Think of the acronym �SAR:� What was the Situation? What was your Activity? What was the Result? Particularly if you managed, organized, coordinated, allied with or negotiated with other people . . . you do have transferable abilities!

If you�re getting a lukewarm response from the private sector, it may actually be due to the issue of motivation, not skills and abilities. There is a widely-held perception in the private sector that people enter � and stay in � government service primarily because it is stable and � sorry about this -- relatively unchallenging. While this is a hogwash myth, it also is an operative myth. This means that, without appearing testy or defensive, you have the burden of persuasion of convincing employers that your eight years were ambitious, goal-oriented, challenging and stimulating. Expect the inference that the only reason you�re leaving government is because your party lost and you got pushed out. To convey strong and attractive motivation, you have to convince people you�re moving toward something � not that you have to find something new in order to survive.

There are tens of thousands options open to intellectually-oriented, strategically grounded, policy-focused articulate �quick studies.� Even with the death of the New Economy, the New-New Economy already is taking shape � and it needs persuasive communicators who can say with authority (and content): �This is what we should do first, this is what we should do second . . . and let me explain why.� In sum, go sell your abilities: communication abilities, situation assessment ability, writing ability, persuasive ability, tactical thinking ability. In such roles, your legal background may not be the defining factor, but � given what people think we�re taught in law school � may be a real plus in employers� eyes.

Sincerely,
Douglas B. Richardson
President, The Richardson Group