On the rebound: Dayna Wilkinson's bounce back after downsizing.

When you've got a Yale B.A. and an M.B.A. from Harvard, you might think that being downsized could be only a remote possibility. Think again. Dayna Wilkinson knows personally that it can happen.

But more importantly, Wilkinson, who has these Ivy credentials, learned how to bounce back. What about that job-hunting rule of thumb, that it takes one month to find a job for every thousand dollars you make? Wilkinson broke that rule. Using a disciplined strategy, she got a new job in only three months--even before the benefits from her previous job ran out.

Formerly with American Express in New York, Wilkinson, worked in Travel Related Services. As director of business development, Wilkinson created laptop-based marketing programs. Then in 1994, her team was disbanded. "AMEX had been reengineering, so it wasn't a complete surprise," says Wilkinson, who'd been there four years. Undaunted, the native New Yorker, who appears to be in her 30s, saw her job loss as a call to action. Having heard of the Five O'clock Club, a national organization for job hunters and career changers, she gave them a call.

The Five O'clock Club became the engine that drove Wilkinson's search. Their proven philosophy is that job hunting is a learned skill like any other. Researching, networking, and following up, which make up the job-hunting task, aren't three separate components but a kind of trinity in that they flow into each other. With 15 affiliates across the country, the Five O'clock Club's two-hour weekly meetings cost $40 per session; annual membership is $35. "Usually there's a lecture on, say, handling interview questions," says Wilkinson. "Then the audience breaks up into groups of 10. Each group is led by a professional career counselor."

It's not a support group. "I was really kept accountable," Wilkinson says. "Every week I had to report what I had done to move me toward my job target."

Wilkinson focused her job search according to industry, and each of her target companies were involved in interactive media. Her first choice was entertainment concerns like Time Warner; her second, telecommunications companies such as AT&T and NYNEX and her third, financial organizations.

Wilkinson took seriously the counsel that job hunting must be treated like a job. "If you do it part time, try to put in 20 hours a week. If full time, then eight hours a day--and I did." Meeting people in her targeted industries, working with search firms, reading and researching library databases was all par for the course. Wilkinson also kept logs of her correspondence and contacts.

"I had three notebooks. One was for my target companies in which I kept correspondence and newspaper articles." Another held info from non-industry contacts, and the third, classified ads and letters from search firms.

After three months of full-time effort, fortune did seem to lend a hand. Wilkinson-whose background is in product development and positioning, and market assessment and strategic selling support--was working on a project for several partners, one of whom was an executive search consultant. He sent her resume to a contact at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, who called Wilkinson to schedule an interview.

Wilkinson, who knew little about global custody or securities processing services, headed straight to the library and accessed the AbI/Inform database to learn everything she could about the company and the industry. She was later offered the job as vice president of global market development and sales support in the global securities services division. This new job leverages her past experience and gives her the opportunity to learn new skills--a high point on her personal agenda.

"Job hunting is a disciplined process," says Wilkinson. "Yet, it's important to leave room for serendipity. You must be open to opportunities because you never know what's going to lead you to the job."