A typical day varies depending on where you are in your career - and for some of you, there might never be a "typical" day, depending on how you choose to structure your career.
Taking the long-term view, you can assume that you will progress from being an "order taker" early in your career to the point where you are essentially a self-employed consultant serving your own client base and managing your own time. Taking a closer look, you will generally spend your first year learning, watching and being mentored.
First-year employees who want to "fast track" themselves often do their learning after hours. I often tell the story of how I spent my off-hours poring over every loan file in my office so I could learn as much as possible. Then when everyone else was in the office, I was available to provide value by delivering information on a moment's notice. The complexity of my assignments increased rapidly, so I learned faster.
Perhaps 25 percent of the first-year employee's time is spent getting out with customers, gathering information, learning about their needs, and doing the legwork that supports our more experienced staff.
Later, after you acquire a basic understanding of how our services match up to customer needs, you'll spend about half your time with customers, assuming greater responsibilities in customer relationships as you go along. You'll spend the rest of the time in the office, documenting customer discussions, writing loans, doing tax returns, servicing troubled credits, and so on.
Because we are a customer-oriented organization, you'll find that, as you acquire more experience, you will spend more time out in the field - literally and figuratively - marketing our services, identifying needs and enhancing relationships with your customers.
As I said at the beginning of my response, eventually you will evolve into a personal consultant for your own set of clients.
- Bill Lipinski, CEO
Farm Credit East