Banking veteran kept herself busy until landing her next job

Cindy Ricketts knows she is one of the lucky ones.

The 51-year-old Modesto woman lost her job at Bank of America in May 2008 after 31 years. She had seen her department, support services, go from about a dozen employees to just three before she was let go. Jobs were consolidated or sent elsewhere.

According to the Employment Development Department, the financial sector in Stanislaus County has shed some 900 jobs in the past four years after peaking at 6,400 employees. Ricketts, like many others, saw her position eliminated.

So when she started to search for a job, she looked outside of banking. She had been out of work for 14 months when about a year ago a phone call out of the blue brought her back into banking.

"I got a call and they said can you apply for this position," she said. "I was like, 'OK, God, you opened the door.' So then you'd better respond."

Today she works as a new account representative at Rabobank in Modesto.

Rabobank Vice President Teddi Lowry, who was at the other end of that phone call in early July 2009, said it was Ricketts' customer service and enthusiasm that sold her.

"She was just the best candidate," Lowry said. "I was really surprised she was unemployed for so long. Why the heck didn't someone else grab her?"

Ricketts started at Bank of America as a credit checker, back when that job wasn't done by a series of computer codes. She worked her way up through the years to an administrative role in customer serv-ice for commercial banking.

When her job was eliminated, it was the first time in three decades that she had to start a job search.

"I had no idea. I obviously had been out of the job market for a long time," she said.

The world of online job applications and databases was a new one. But she went to the library and checked out books on everything from 10-key to the city and county assessment tests.

"Right away, I started to look outside of banking," she said. "I don't remember even seeing any open banking jobs, so I don't remember that being an option."

Keeping to a routine

Her days were regimented. Once on unemployment, she started every day, Monday through Friday, by getting up and going online to look for job openings. Then she would read the classified ads.

She said she was fortunate to have received a good severance package and didn't have to use her unemployment right away.

Still, her family cut back. Her two children were just finishing college, so that expense wasn't looming over them. And her husband works as a mail carrier.

But they still cut back. They gave up their water service and their premium TV service, and they canceled their newspaper — though a neighbor let her read the classified section after they were done. She even cut use of her car.

"I rode my bike everywhere through town," she said. "I quit driving my car and we saved gas. I said, 'I've got plenty of time. I don't need to be anywhere.' "

But days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. By the ninth month, she started to really worry. She went to a temporary agency and found a part-time job for several months with Frito-Lay in spring 2009.

"Luckily, I had a good prayer support group," she said. "And I got a little support group of other people who were unemployed in different fields. And we all helped each other search. But it was tough and it was frustrating."

She made it to a second interview for a job at the Turlock Irrigation District, only to lose out. More than 600 people applied for three available jobs then.