The cell phones and PDAs of headhunters all over Wall Street are going off like crazy as Bear Stearns’ employees try to find out what their jobs prospects might be.

The troubled investment bank, which was bailed out by the government yesterday, says its employees’ jobs are safe for now and paychecks will keep coming, but you can’t blame workers there for being nervous. Who knows if another big banking crisis is looming. There are rumors about Lehman Brothers, and others may be on the hot seat as well.

It’s hard to believe a stalwart of Wall Street like Bear Stearns could be in the mess it’s in now. Employees are literally shocked at the events of the last few days. Many of them had their life savings wrapped up in the company stock, and many of them are having to sell homes and cars to help make ends meet in light of the bargain basement price J.P. Morgan was able to snatch Bear Stearns up for, $2 a share. No one could believe the price, and how the value of employee stock plummeted.

Soon, thousands of financial services employees could be hitting the pavement with resumes in hand. What will that mean to you all out there that are working in the sector; had planned to switch your present career and go into finance; or for you college kids out there so near to getting your finance degree?

You all better think long and hard at what the future holds. Make an intense assessment of your present employer, how the company is doing now and what the prospects for five and ten years down the line may be.

Jeff Rosenfeld, vice president at consulting firm CBIZ, thinks the financial sector is at the bottom of a cyclical market and will rise again just as it always does. But, if he had a kid deciding on whether to get into the segment he’d advise him or her not to right now.

So, for recent grads and individuals in the field, it may be time to think of industries that are more recession proof, he advises, such as consumer products, technology and healthcare.

I can’t imagine what workers at Bear Stearns are going through today. You commit yourself to a company, as many of these employees did and then one day, whammo. What was unique about Bear Stearns’ culture is all the workers, from the top down, saw themselves as part of a family, part of an organization that they all believed in. That’s why so many workers pumped so much of their money into the firm.

But folks, a company is just a company. And as it turns out in this case, the company was a house of cards.

When workers reflect on the time and effort they put into their careers there, many must wonder whether it was all worth it.

There was a telling quote in today’s Wall Street Journal in a story about the employees.

One broker who had been with the firm since 1974 said:

“I have a lot of good friends here, from mail clerks to senior people I’ve spent more time at Bear Stearns that I have with my own family.”

Was it all worth it? It’s hard to say. But the lesson learned is money and career has to be put in check. Work hard. Kick butt. Make money. But in the end, realize it may indeed all be fleeting.

Bear Sterns realizes the gravity of what’s happening and has told employees that grief counselors were standing by. My intern Katherine Guiney, passed along these quotes from the New York Times today:

“The stability of your world is shattered,” said Ari Kiev, a psychiatrist who counsels financial execs. “You are angry at the firm for failing you. But it’s more than money. It’s the shame and embarrassment. Now the question is, can you pay for the house and do you give up the second car.”

For many workers, it looks grim. One worker put it this way:

“My life has been flushed down the drain.”