One of my supporters was recently asked about my background in banking. With the recent bailout of the financial industry, people aren’t happy with bankers. I can’t blame them. What they instinctively see is why I left banking.
It was an accident that I became a banker in the first place. When I went away to college, I had every intention of becoming a psychiatrist. But life happens. Instead I got married my sophomore year, and had to drop out of college and get a job. A want ad for a psychologist’s assistant in the Chicago paper peaked my interest. But when I went in for an interview, the agency sent me out to interview as a bank teller. The Oak Brook Bank hired me in 1969.
At that bank, we were indoctrinated that the customer was always right. We couldn’t leave to go home until our cash drawer balanced to the penny. Stay focused on the customer. Don’t make any mistakes.
As it turns out, that job made it pretty easy to for me to find jobs in other cities. There were always banks, and there was always a need for an experienced teller. When my husband came home from Vietnam, and was stationed at Fort Hood, TX, I found a job in near-by Lampassas. When we moved to Gunnison so that he could use his GI-bill benefits to complete his education at Western State College, I supported us by working at the Gunnison Bank and Trust. When we moved to Denver, I found a job at Republic National Bank. Then I found a job at American National Bank that paid more, but was downtown on 17th Street.
Not long after I went to work at American National Bank, people became concerned with Affirmative Action. The banking industry had a work force of 95% women, but only 5% of executives were female. Our bank was instructed by regulators to give women a chance to be promoted. I took advantage of that environment, and asked for support in completing my education. The bank agreed to pay 100% of my books and tuition at the University of Colorado, if I went to night school, and if I majored in business. So I got a degree in finance instead of a medical field.
Once I graduated from CU-Denver, I started climbing the career ladder. To do it quickly often meant moving to a new bank. I worked for American National Bank, which became First Interstate Bank. Then I worked for United Bank of Denver, which became Norwest Bank. Then I worked for Canadian Commercial Bank as an oil and gas lender—it failed because of bad oil and gas loans. Then I worked for First Interstate Bank, on loan to First National Bank of Denver, which was being acquired by First Interstate Bank, and which eventually was spun off to Norwest as a condition of a merger. (Are you getting dizzy yet?)
I followed the woman who hired me at First National Bank of Denver down the street to Central Bank Holding Company when they needed a problem loan specialist for a huge portfolio of troubled loans. The loans I managed included many oil and gas companies who were suffering the impact of the last boom and bust cycle.
Central Bank was acquired by First Interstate Bank, which became US Bank. Then US Bank bought Colorado National Bank. By this time, I was part of the due diligence team. We went into acquisition target banks, prior to acquisition, to determine the value of the assets we were buying. Then once the target was acquired, I was involved in the turn-around. Turn-around meant get rid of as many people as possible, minimize expenses, and maximize profits. I previously blogged about how we didn’t care about accuracy any more. If a transaction was less than 5% of our assets, and by then we were the biggest bank in town, we didn’t worry about it. The culture in banking had changed from keep the customer happy to sell the customer as many products as we possibly can so that we can charge more and more fees and make more and more money. I called it Merger Madness. With every merger I had more responsibility and fewer staff with which to do the job.
When another merger came along, I decided to call in well. I left banking, and went to Mexico for most of 1993, trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. The only thing I knew for sure was that I never, ever wanted to work for a bank again. I was completely burned out on the greed that I saw all around me. I knew for sure that I didn’t belong there anymore.
It was an accident that I became a banker in the first place. When I went away to college, I had every intention of becoming a psychiatrist. But life happens. Instead I got married my sophomore year, and had to drop out of college and get a job. A want ad for a psychologist’s assistant in the Chicago paper peaked my interest. But when I went in for an interview, the agency sent me out to interview as a bank teller. The Oak Brook Bank hired me in 1969.
At that bank, we were indoctrinated that the customer was always right. We couldn’t leave to go home until our cash drawer balanced to the penny. Stay focused on the customer. Don’t make any mistakes.
As it turns out, that job made it pretty easy to for me to find jobs in other cities. There were always banks, and there was always a need for an experienced teller. When my husband came home from Vietnam, and was stationed at Fort Hood, TX, I found a job in near-by Lampassas. When we moved to Gunnison so that he could use his GI-bill benefits to complete his education at Western State College, I supported us by working at the Gunnison Bank and Trust. When we moved to Denver, I found a job at Republic National Bank. Then I found a job at American National Bank that paid more, but was downtown on 17th Street.
Not long after I went to work at American National Bank, people became concerned with Affirmative Action. The banking industry had a work force of 95% women, but only 5% of executives were female. Our bank was instructed by regulators to give women a chance to be promoted. I took advantage of that environment, and asked for support in completing my education. The bank agreed to pay 100% of my books and tuition at the University of Colorado, if I went to night school, and if I majored in business. So I got a degree in finance instead of a medical field.
Once I graduated from CU-Denver, I started climbing the career ladder. To do it quickly often meant moving to a new bank. I worked for American National Bank, which became First Interstate Bank. Then I worked for United Bank of Denver, which became Norwest Bank. Then I worked for Canadian Commercial Bank as an oil and gas lender—it failed because of bad oil and gas loans. Then I worked for First Interstate Bank, on loan to First National Bank of Denver, which was being acquired by First Interstate Bank, and which eventually was spun off to Norwest as a condition of a merger. (Are you getting dizzy yet?)
I followed the woman who hired me at First National Bank of Denver down the street to Central Bank Holding Company when they needed a problem loan specialist for a huge portfolio of troubled loans. The loans I managed included many oil and gas companies who were suffering the impact of the last boom and bust cycle.
Central Bank was acquired by First Interstate Bank, which became US Bank. Then US Bank bought Colorado National Bank. By this time, I was part of the due diligence team. We went into acquisition target banks, prior to acquisition, to determine the value of the assets we were buying. Then once the target was acquired, I was involved in the turn-around. Turn-around meant get rid of as many people as possible, minimize expenses, and maximize profits. I previously blogged about how we didn’t care about accuracy any more. If a transaction was less than 5% of our assets, and by then we were the biggest bank in town, we didn’t worry about it. The culture in banking had changed from keep the customer happy to sell the customer as many products as we possibly can so that we can charge more and more fees and make more and more money. I called it Merger Madness. With every merger I had more responsibility and fewer staff with which to do the job.
When another merger came along, I decided to call in well. I left banking, and went to Mexico for most of 1993, trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. The only thing I knew for sure was that I never, ever wanted to work for a bank again. I was completely burned out on the greed that I saw all around me. I knew for sure that I didn’t belong there anymore.
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