The Satisfaction Of It All - Visitor's Inspirational Story

by Cathy Dalton
(Chesapeake, VA, USA)

When I first started in banking, my hope was to be accepted into the Management Training Program. After four years of college, I wanted a career in banking. I did all the interviewing, job fairs, etc. There just wasn't a lot available at the time. The prime lending rate was double digit, home mortgage loans also double digit. YIKES! Can you imagine?

Although I was afraid of being a huge disappointment to my parents, I accepted a secretarial position at a downtown Norfolk bank to get my foot in the door of the banking arena. After all, I was a heck of a typist, had taken stenography in high school, and pretty good on those old electric typewriters. Computers? Oh heck no. All was very basic and very manual.

Within one year, I moved up to the Credit Department as a Credit Analyst in training, to learn how to analyze financial statements. Doesn't that sound exciting? Well, it was hard work! Today our analysts are fortunate to have electronic spread programs that will automatically calculate ratios, common-size the statements and enable elaborate projections. When I started to learn to analyze financial statements, I was armed with a calculator, a pad with lines and columns that could stretch across the desk and be folded to fit in a credit file, a mechanical pencil (big spender!) and one of those big rectangular erasers (for those few mistakes that would be made, ha!).

I was fortunate to have a magnificent mentor by the name of Mary Burk. When I started I was approximately 22 years old, recently married and ready to embark on the world of numbers. You would be amazed at how fascinating they can really be, especially when the number of digits is not limited to the few you normally have in your personal checkbook! The year was 1983 and I was feeling pretty good moving up from that $8,000/yr secretarial salary to the new $14,000 analyst salary. I was on the fast track! HA! Hey, don't laugh too loud. I improved my annual salary by 75% in a two year period. You see, analysis taught me that.

When you are in your early twenties and begin working with an associate in their sixties, it is very easier to consider them as old. While Mary Burk could certainly be considered old, she was one of THE sharpest minded individuals I have ever come across. To this day I credit Mary Burk for so much of what I have accomplished in my career. Had it not been for all the time she devoted to me in training me, I would not have excelled to my current level.

I was literally amazed at how quickly Mary Burk could take three consecutive years of numbers, spread them in those perfectly aligned columns, calculate ratios and then put the 'story' to words in an elaborate narrative. I think in those days the more pages of narrative a credit request had, the more time folks could drink coffee, eat doughnuts, and sit around a big board room table 'discussing' the deals. It's nothing like today when those in approving authority want it succinct as possible with enough facts and highlights so that discussion can be limited, approval quick, and the lender can move on to the next deal. I really enjoyed working with numbers. I enjoyed them even more when technology advanced and the world of statement spreading became electronic. Now it was really good to be the youngest in the area as I was darn good with computers and picked up on the new programs very quickly. Before long I, too, was preparing those ten to twenty page narratives with elaborate financial highlights section and the ability to highlight financial statements that included not only color graphs, bar and pie, but a variety of ways to say increase, decrease, rise, decline and the like. I was able to spread financial statements spread in foreign currency and convert them to the U S Dollar. I was becoming an analysis marvel!

Nonetheless, I inspired to be not only a Branch Manager, but the best darn Branch Manager that bank ever had. Whenever possible, I would inquire as to how one becomes a candidate for the Management Training Program. Ahhh, it was a dream! It was my goal! Finally, after two years of working with commercial lenders, spreading financial statements, attending those board meetings to ‘hear’ the credits I worked on discussed; I was invited to ‘apply’. Was there the possibility that I could move from the ‘gallery section’ of the board room to actually be able to have a chair right at the table? Oh the possibility, it was a tad closer to reality! All the ‘low level’ employees sat in the seats behind the boardroom table, set up similar to an auditorium style seating. The more senior low level employees sat in the front, while the more junior, low, lower-level employees sat in the back. Sometimes it was pretty dark back there. Those neat little lights they have now that affix to books to be able to read in the dark would have been PEFECT back then.

The day had finally come! I had an appointment to meet with the head of Human Resources. I dressed in my most business-like attire, had my hair perfectly groomed, make-up perfect, mouth-washed before heading ’upstairs’ and checked for runs in my pantyhose before approaching the door. I announced myself to his smartly dressed assistant. I had arrived. I was ready to just completely impress with my knowledge, my education, my sassiness and zest to succeed! After waiting for what seemed an eternity, I was summoned in. I approached the door, one deep breath to settle the nerves, and in I went. I extended my hand to greet Mr. Human Resources, looked him straight in the eye and inquired on his day. He immediately sat down, grabbed the manila folder, my Personnel File, twirled around in his chair to the window, but his feet up on the window sill and, I believe, pretended to review the file’s contents. He didn’t ask questions that would require eye contact or the verbal exchange of niceties. Oh heavens no. Instead he asked questions that would require a long response from the candidate. The “so, tell me about yourself”, the “where do you see yourself in five years”, and “why would you be a good candidate for our prestigious Management Trainee Program?”. I responded to the back of his chair, because not once did he turn around to engage in any conversation. He was the rudest man I do believe I have ever come across in my twenty-five years of business. When he finally did turnaround after asking questions that bounced off his window to me, he informed me “I’m sorry Mrs. Dalton, most of our candidates in the Management Trainee program come from families with close ties to the business community. You do not possess those ties and without those ties, I do not see you having a successful banking career. Thank you for coming to see me today and good luck to you”. What? That was it? I felt like Ralphie when his mother told him he couldn’t have the Red Rider BB Gun because he would “shoot his eye out”.

It is now some twenty plus years later and I have enjoyed a wonderful career in banking, despite Mr. Human Resources. I stayed for about another year at that particular bank and moved a couple blocks down to another bank for a three year period as a Senior Credit Analyst. Then, one day out of the blue, I received a call about a position with a small community bank that was looking for an individual with my talent and experience to start a Credit Department. I have now been with that small community bank management for twenty two years. Despite that small community bank being bought by a large bank, we eventually began our own bank and embarked on a whole new journey, a new chapter in all our lives. Another Note for another time. Over the years I have run into Mr. Human Resources on a number of occasions. Each time I made the distinct effort of ‘running into’ him at these business events. He would inquire as to where I was and what I was doing. I would gladly hand him my business card and speak to him, eye to eye, and engage him in conversation enough to let him know, in the most tactful way possible, but essentially said Dude! You really screwed up by not hiring me. It was all very similar to the Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman that went back to the boutique of commission paid saleswomen that would not give her the time of day when she was dressed in her 'street' clothes.

As for Mary Burk, she passed away several years ago. I remembered her kindly over the years before she died. With every new position I took that she would read in the local paper, I would receive a note from her congratulating me on my new position and new career and, without fail, she would tell me how proud she was of me. I will continue to do my best in all I do, but my true success will unfold when I can be Mary Burk to one of the many young people that I train. Each young person is different, but if I can make one impression on them it would be remember these times as the most important times in your career. The foundations laid in the training received from my staff and I will, no doubt, carry them through their career. And don’t let anyone ever tell you that you do not possess the qualities to succeed in this business. If they do, prove them wrong with everything you do. I am proud of so many of the young people I have trained and, to me that is all the satisfaction in the world and another reason “why the hell I do what I do”.