If you went to a top law school or did well at a second-tier school, chances are you ended up with a "great job" as an associate at a top law firm. Major firms (and your career services office) made that easy.

Through an elaborate on-campus interviewing program, you had many potential employers from which to choose. Without giving much critical thought, you were able to drop your resume into a number of boxes and employers then came to meet with you.

Through on-campus interviewing, you may have landed a job that suits your temperament, career interests and values. But there is also a chance that your first job has proven to be a mismatch.

After a year or so, it is time to take stock in your experience. Whether you are working at a large or small firm, ask yourself some questions. Do you like the environment? Do you respect your colleagues? Are you getting work that you enjoy? Are you building the "right" skills?

In order to make this easier, I have created an online career audit. This tool will help you think critically about your law-firm experience. It is intended to help you identify whether you have issues in your current firm, and, if so, are these issues serious enough to merit a lateral job search. The audit can be found at http://www.bcgsearch.com/career_audit_tool.php.

Most career experts talk about the importance of setting career goals. Goals are like a destination on a map. If you do not know where you are going, it is hard to plot out a course to reach your destination.

Self-assessment is a way of evaluating whether you are on course to reach your destination. It is a way to see whether you have chosen the right route. But the first step must be knowing your destination.

Do you want to be general counsel to a technology start-up? What do you need to do to get there? Do you want to become a partner at a firm that places a premium on collegiality and work-life balance? Ask yourself whether your current firm provides that environment.

If you have not established any long-term career goals, the online career audit mentioned above can also help you to begin formulating goals. Even if you are having a positive experience at your firm, developing some goals will help you in the event that there are unexpected changes at your firm.

Firms continue to merge and partners continue to move. In addition, some very prominent firms have shut their doors in the last five years. The firm you like and enjoy today may be very different tomorrow. If you have a good sense of your preferences, you will be better prepared to weather any unexpected changes. If you wait until a crisis hits, you will be making career decisions under duress.

Building a happy and successful career is an ongoing process. As you move through life, your goals may change. Getting married and starting a family, for example, may elevate the importance of income in your life. By the same token, a serious illness may cause you to reevaluate your work-life balance. Perhaps you will find that, over time, your interests change.

The point is to make self-assessment a regular exercise. Have your goals changed in any way? Then look at what you are doing to achieve these new goals and measure whether you are on course.

If you find that your goals and your actions are not aligned, don't be afraid to change directions. The stigma of job-hopping is long gone from the legal profession.

Stephen E. Seckler is managing director of the Boston office of BCG Attorney Search, a national recruiting firm. He counsels associates and partners on lateral moves and maintains a blog at www.counseltocounsel.com. He can be reached at seckler@bcgsearch.com.

More Career Consult Articles by Stephen E. Seckler:

What The Recruiting Process Can Tell You About A Firm

How Legal Search Firms Get Paid For Their Services

Frequently Asked Questions About 'Going In-House'

Broken Promises in Lateral Hiring

What to do when the offer comes too soon

E-mail: Career Opportunities And Pitfalls

A Career Audit For Associates

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Learning NOT To Communicate Like A Lawyer

Inexpensive Ways To Build Business Relationships

Finding The Right Way To Explain A Negative

Is Anyone Out There Happy?

Overcoming Resistance To Change

Learning How To Close 'The Deal'

Lateral Hiring: Making The Most Of Your Investment

10 Ways To Reciprocate In Networking

Meditation, Mediation, Marketing And Medication

Survival Tips For Your Next Lateral Move

Finding A New Home For Your Practice

Ways To Leverage Your Network

Striving For 'Professional Mediocrity'

Teaching 'Soft Skills' Can Be Hard, Worthwhile Work

Some Tips For Job Hunting In A Recession

Responding To Criticism: Survival Strategies

Questions To Ask When It's Time To Listen

Dating — And Networking — Etiquette

Managing Your Career in a Declining Market

Lawyers See Benefit in Professional Coaching

Have You Gone For Your Annual Career Checkup?

In-House Salaries Are Not Always Evenhanded

Bush v. Gore: Career Lessons From Campaign 2000

In-House Salaries: Getting a Fair Deal

Marketing As A Career Development Strategy

Unplanned Problems When Changing Jobs

Help in Finding an Entry Level Job

In Search of Work/Life Balance

On Salary Inflation: Funds vs. Fulfillment

Evaluating A Job Offer--Non-Financial Issues

Offering Some Belated New Year's Resolutions

The Delicate Matter of Reducing Your Hours

Making a Practice-Area Switch