-: You know it's funny when I was in high school
I used to always want to be a banker.
Of course I didn't really know that much
about banking, at the time.
I really didn't.
I didn't realize how broad of a statement that was,
'cause I didn't realize all the parts that go into banking.
I thought I just wanted to manage a branch.
So I come to Ball State, learn about things, get a job
and you know, now I've been in banking for about 30 years
and over that 30 years I've probably only spent
about six months as actually managing a branch.
The rest of it's spent in other parts of the bank,
mainly the credit side, which is the analysis side.
Then also the lending side, which is more of a sales side.
So, what do I like about it?
You know I like about, in my current position,
is I get to be a sales person, go out and help people
and help my teammates but I also scratch the analysis itch
that I have, 'cause I'm kind of a numbers guy sometimes.
So I like looking at financial statements
and trying to figurre things out and things like that,
but I also like the interaction with people too.
So I think I'm really in a great spot for me.
The biggest challenge would be, right now, is
finding qualified people to join my team.
I have a couple of openings I'd love to hire a couple of
commercial bankers but it's just a tight market for them.
There's a lot of demand for them and there's not as many
good bankers as we would like.
So that's a challenge that I deal with every day.
So not just trying to find people to add to my team,
but making sure the ones that I have are happy and satisfied
and successful, right?
Then the other big challenge is finding new clients,
I mean, the economy's been good for five years,
a lot of banks that had pulled back are back in the market.
We have new banks coming in the market,
so you have you know, it's that old supply and demand thing.
There's a ton of banks going after the same people,
so it gets pretty competitive.
It's good to be a borrower right now.