You Don't Look Like a Banker

The interviewer was an attractive, moderately built older man who appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties. He towered over me standing about a foot taller than my five feet. His Florida tan may have made him a shade darker than me although to most people we would have both been referred to as white. I was twenty-one years old and soon to be graduating from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a major in Finance, and was interviewing for a management associate position at Southeast Banking Corporation, a bank holding company based out of Miami, Florida.

It was the Spring of 1986 and on campus interviews were in full swing as soon to be UF Alumni met with corporate recruiters in hopes of securing promising jobs that would launch their careers. Southeast Banking Corporation was the largest bank in Florida, where I planned to stay, which fueled my desire and excitement to meet with the recruiter and interview there. The interview with Southeast Banking Corporation could have stopped me from pursuing my first career in banking because of what he said to me during our encounter: “You don’t look like a banker.” I recall politely asking “What does a banker look like?” for which I did not receive a response. I was wearing the requisite navy-blue pin striped skirt suit by Hart Schaffner Marx my parents bought me for interviewing. The white collared shirt, coordinating silk flower bow tie, nude panty hose and navy-blue closed toe pumps completed the corporate look. I looked like I was trying to fit a mold established by others who deemed that said mold made me look more like a banker but yet I did not look like a banker to this campus recruiter. Was it my petite five foot and 105-pound frame? Was it that I looked younger than my young age? Could it have been my Hispanic or to some people, Asian, appearance? Or, was it simply because I was female? Unfortunately, I will never know because he did not have the ability or courage to offer clarity to his completely inappropriate comment.

The encounter angered me enough to continue interviewing for management associate positions at more desirable banks. If someone tells me I don’t look like a banker, I will be a banker because of sheer determination and faith in God. Being raised with two older brothers and a US Army Sergeant father made me tough and nurtured a low tolerance level for mean spirited people. The recruiter’s comment was mean spirited and only he knew the exact meaning behind and intent of his words. It may not have been meant to tear me down and dash my hopes but it easily could have. A job offer from Southeast Banking Corporation did not materialize but even if it had, I would’ve never accepted it nor would I have chosen to be a customer there because the short encounter left an unfavorable impression of his employer. The bank met its demise during the savings and loan crisis when it failed and was seized by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday, September 19,1991. I wanted to believe it was karma but in reality, it was poor management and lending losses.

Discrimination is real and takes on many shapes and sizes. In this case, discrimination was based on visual observation and the recruiter’s low level of consciousness allowed him to verbalize a deeply ingrained personal or societal thought pattern. Discrimination is still happening today in subtle and not so subtle ways led by our thoughts. Bringing awareness to those thoughts and asking ourselves questions about them takes away their power and allows us to control our words and actions. In the end, I am grateful the recruiter told me that I didn’t look like a banker because his comment made me stronger and more determined to succeed. Sometimes, I wonder what became of the recruiter. Thirty-seven years later, he would be in his seventies now. Perhaps he was part of the silent generation like my parents or a baby boomer like me. I will never forget him and the words he spoke. It is a testament to the power of words to build up or tear down others.

“The most significant change in a person’s life is a change of attitude. Right attitudes produce right actions.” – William J. Johnston