Mr. Cutter was a senior vice president at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., working in the leveraged finance group. After nine years with the firm, He was laid off in the spring of 2008. He holds an M.B.A. from UCLA and lives in New York with his wife and 20-month-old son.

The job market is always a bit of a minefield, but these days it seems like there is no Green Zone anywhere. With the onslaught of recent layoffs, I often look back and contemplate all of the places where I interviewed--many times I find myself relieved that...