Southern California Job Market : Transitions : Some Expert Advice for Those at Risk : In the Banking Business, Flexibility Pays

For Thelma McLaughlin, unemployment has often loomed but never conquered.

With a bachelor’s degree in business from Alcorn State University in Mississippi, she moved to California and found work six weeks later. She had to: As the second of six children, four younger siblings were relying on her to help put them through school.

When McLaughlin’s job as assistant vice president at Wells Fargo Bank was eliminated, she found another position in two weeks, arriving for the interview in a U-Haul truck she had driven 400 miles.

And when the recession clamped down on real estate lending, leaving McLaughlin and hundreds of other bankers jobless, the Laguna Niguel resident again found work. Now she evaluates loan applications for banks on temporary assignments through an agency called Lenders Overload.

An ebullient woman in her 30s, McLaughlin describes her life and career as an exercise in adjustment.

She grew up in a large family on 40 acres of land in Mississippi. Hearing there were more opportunities for minorities in California, she boarded a bus for the Golden State, alighting in Compton, where she found “nothing but concrete.”

The transition was slow and difficult. “I didn’t have any idea of the elements of the inner city. On the farm, everything was settled with a handshake. You come with certain standards and values, and you don’t find the same.”

McLaughlin soon found her way to Orange County and built an impressive resume in real estate lending, logging more than eight years with Security Pacific Bank, five with Wells Fargo and two with Boston Co.

Professional success couldn’t always blunt the impact of personal challenges. In 1986, McLaughlin was hit by a drunk driver and spent 14 months recovering from a broken neck. A divorce left her alone with her daughter, now 15.

When she was well enough, McLaughlin used the tools she has always relied on to find work: her connections and her forthrightness.

She carried her resume in her car and announced her search to anyone who would listen. But even her extensive network had little to offer when the bottom fell out of real estate. McLaughlin found herself among hundreds applying for a shrinking pool of middle-management jobs. Again, she adjusted.

Eventually, McLaughlin says, she hopes to expand her possibilities by going to law school at night.

What the Experts Say

DIAGNOSIS: McLaughlin has strong skills, but her industry is undergoing a severe pruning.

PRESCRIPTION: Networking is the right approach for this market, but the South or Midwest might prove more fertile. If she stays here, McLaughlin should use the skills she’s acquired in real estate banking in another field. “Refinancing is very popular right now, and she may wish to consider mortgage banking firms,” says Keith Askin of Networking Experience Unlimited, a job club run by the state Employment Development Department.

PROGNOSIS: McLaughlin is nothing if not adaptable. “If she redefines her market, there’s a better chance for opportunities,” Askin says.

Banking and Finance Outlook

A wave of mergers and sonsolidations has trimmed the nujmber of jobs in the financial sector from a 1990 peak of 408,000 to an estimated 375,000 today. An additional 10,000 jobs are expected to disappear in the year ahead. Source: UCLA Business Forecasting Project