PARIS -- Fast bucks. Fame. Failure. On the evidence so far, you'd be nuts, wouldn't you, to want a senior management Internet job in Europe?

Actually, you might be crazy not to.

Sure, burned executives are stampeding back whence they came, prompting more than a few jokes about what B-to-B and B-to-C really mean. (Instead of business-to-business commerce, the joke goes, B-to-B now means back-to-banking. B-to-C? Back-to-consulting, rather than business-to-consumer companies.)

But the long-term potential for growth in e-commerce is still huge over the next 10 years. And nobody has suggested that the Internet is going to close down.

"Saying the Internet is dead is like saying after the Wright Brothers have their first crash that that is the end of aviation," says Peter Breen, a London-based senior partner in the international technology practice of the Heidrick & Struggles executive recruitment firm.

He and other recruiters say the shakeout is stripping out the junk jobs and leaving behind some plums that are worth fighting for, especially at Old Economy companies that are co-opting much of the online world.

In the meantime, Internet salaries in Europe are on the up and up, even amid the industry downturn. In fact, cash compensation at European Internet companies is catching up with those at traditional employers as well as with those at U.S. Internet businesses, according to survey results released last month. That provides executives some security by reducing their vulnerability to compensation overloaded with stock options that aren't worth much more than the paper they're printed on.

The median cash compensation of a nonfounder chief executive at a publicly traded Internet venture in Britain, for example, rose 13% to 266,000 euros ($243,230) last year, according to the survey conducted by the London offices of SCA Consulting and FutureStep, Korn/Ferry International's online recruiting service (operated in conjunction with The Wall Street Journal). The survey also finds that participants said they expected another 10% increase this year.

That United Kingdom salary is only 10% below such salaries at traditional businesses in Europe and at U.S. Internet companies, compared with differences of 20% and 40%, respectively, in early 2000.

Headhunters say the original reasons for going into the New Economy -- regaining excitement in your career, being your own boss, getting a slice of the company -- are still valid despite the burst of the dot-com bubble.

The trick, however, is to do some serious soul-searching first to ask if this is really right for you. And then go looking in the right places. Good bets are ventures that have enough funding to get through to next year, and Old Economy companies getting in on the act.

The fallout is focusing people's minds much more sharply on the pros and cons, and that can be a positive thing for careers. "It can be a wonderful experience," says Ken Brotherston, London-based president of FutureStep Europe. "Or it can be hell on earth."

During the Internet euphoria, a lot of people discovered that it's cold and lonely out there. It's young. It's fast-moving. It's very hard work. And it all has turned out to be a lot riskier than people thought.

The evidence? Those managers who have found this out first-hand and are fleeing back to regular jobs, generating those jokes about B-to-B and B-to-C.

"People are coming to us and saying 'Please, can you get me back into the bank?' " says Robin Roberts, a partner in the global technology practice of Egon Zehnder International in London.

Senior managers have gotten so scared that Egon Zehnder, which 12 months ago was getting 300 resumes a month from top executives at big companies looking for Internet and start-up ventures to jump into, is now receiving hardly any at all.

But, hey, this still might be the thing for you, and the good news is that the consolidation hasn't been as dramatic in Europe as in the U.S., largely because Europeans hadn't been as euphoric to start with, and because of the Old Economy companies wanting in.

The current troubles in the start-up market are "a spurt of rain" says Mr. Roberts, who describes himself and his colleagues as very bullish that the relatively new European enthusiasm for such ventures will continue to grow.

Right now the plum post-shakeout jobs worth fighting for -- and you'll have to fight for them -- will be at the bricks-and-mortar companies that need the expertise to match their competition in e-commerce, and to run the online businesses they are picking up in the distress sales of the current consolidation wave, says Mr. Breen of Heidrick & Struggles.

Job seekers will have to fight, he says, because the new mantra in the business is "due diligence" and investors in, and founders of, Internet companies are much more discerning about who they hire as senior managers.

It's a good idea to approach the traditional businesses that are recognizing the potential of doing business on the Internet because they -- unlike a lot of online businesses -- have proved they can make profits, are cash-rich and own well-known brand names, the recruiters say. Many dot-coms have run out of money before being able to establish brand names strong enough to generate healthy sales.

But if you still want a brand new company unencumbered by a bricks-and-mortar past, what is a right place to look?

Obviously, a company that interests you, but not just because it is an Internet venture. And a company whose founder has made the leap for the right reason: passion. Wrong reasons? Those fast bucks and fame.

Closely examine the target company's funding. Does it have enough cash to keep going at least through 2001?

Egon Zehnder's Mr. Roberts says fine job opportunities also exist at start-ups that are providing patented products -- either software, telecommunications equipment or devices -- that are clearly in demand to continue building the Internet's infrastructure.

He also suggests knocking on the doors of the incubators -- where ideas are hatched into viable commercial ventures -- at the top universities, rather than at those of companies. In the academic world, real scientists are feverishly trying to invent and patent real products in such areas as silicon chip engineering and telecommunications networks, he says.