Almost every industry ebbs and flows. Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down.
In her 19 years in the mortgage industry, Sheila D. Boer saw it all. But then in 2008, she had seen enough.
As a wholesale mortgage lender, Boer saw the flood of prospectors come into the industry during California's real estate gold rush of the mid-2000s. She, too, rode that crest, earning close to $500,000 in 2004.
For a normal year, her salary hovered in the low six figures. Then as the boom went bust, she worked at eight failed mortgage companies in the span of a year before her last job in August 2008.
Her office shut down the day before her paycheck was due, and she has never received it.
"At that point, I had to take stock of the situation and realize the industry was turning," she said. "Even though I loved what I did, I had to sit down and realize the landscape was different."
Two years later she is working an unpaid internship at River Oak Pharmacy in Oakdale. The 42-year-old Oakdale woman decided to switch career tracks, going to pharmaceutical technician school. She ultimately hopes to combine her knowledge and work experience in pharmaceutical sales.
After she lost her last job, Boer subsisted on unemployment and some money made from home-based vitamin sales. The transition was a rough one. She lost her home, a 43-acre ranch in Oakdale. She lost her horses. She traded in her sport utility vehicle for a compact car. She returned to renting for the first time in more than two decades.
The single mother of five has tried to keep the impact on her children to a minimum. But her two oldest kids were midway through college when she lost her job and they've had to take out loans to pay for school. The others, ages 4 to 16, have adjusted, she said.
"We're being very creative with budgets," she said. "We don't do a lot of going out, we do more cooking at home. We cut out entertainment and extras."
Pharmacy work had been something Boer had researched since her father was diagnosed with cancer several years ago. He has since recovered, but her interest in the field remained.
So when she decided her career in the mortgage industry was over, she looked into pharmaceutical technician training.
"You have to enjoy what you do," she said. "I loved helping people obtain their first home. I figured this was another way of helping people."
She researched several trade schools in the area and online courses. Each program was a little different. But then her search stalled when the cost, $12,000 to $24,000, seemed insurmountable.
That's when she found help through Alliance Worknet, which offers free services to area job seekers, employers and small-business owners. It paid for her 10-month training and has helped her with job search resources.
Boer has continued to look for work. But she said sometimes her mortgage background works against her.
Employers assume she won't want to take lower-paying jobs. Others lump her in with the predatory lenders who helped give the industry a bad name.
But Boer said she tries not to let it get her down.
"I'm a positive person," she said. "I'm making lemonade, that is how I handle things in life. You just try to learn and grow."
Boer is on her third week of an externship with River Oak Pharmacy.
The locally owned, independent pharmacy has been accepting externs for four years. It is one of the few in the area that compounds its prescriptions.
Owner and chief pharmacist Ken Cosner, who has run the business for 20 years, said at least half of the externs who come through are changing careers. He said more people have looked to get into the field, which is growing, as other industries have shed jobs.
He said interest in jobs at the pharmacy has skyrocketed, too.
"In the last two to three years, we've seen a lot of interest with people calling if we have any openings," he said. "I think there is a good flow, but it makes it very competitive for the techs once they finally get licensed."
The pharmacy has seven employees and two externs now. He said almost all of his recent hires have been from within the group of former externs.
Boer has gotten valuable on-the-job training. She said the work takes advantage of her math skills, something she honed over years of figuring interest rates and lender fees.
But she said she already has been told she won't be able to be hired on.
When she finishes her externship in the next couple of weeks, she will receive her state license. She also plans to take her Pharmacy Technician Certification Board, which is a nationwide license.
She worries that the market has become flooded with techs in the past few years. More schools have popped up offering training and churned out workers. If she has to move to find work, she will.
"I accomplished so much in my previous career," she said. "I worked from the bottom to the top. I've done all this before, starting at entry level. But I feel ready to do it again. It doesn't matter what I used to make. I'm willing to start over."
Bee staff writer Marijke Rowland can be reached at mrowland@modbee.com or 578-2284.
Tuesday: Finding a job
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