By Bridget Clark, Vice President, Senior SBA Credit Manager, Core Bank Loan Production Office
My 8-year old son Nick has been looking forward to April 27th, 2017 for a very long time. Since Kindergarten to be exact. He’d heard stories from his older brother that there was one day a year, starting in third grade, where you could skip school and not get into trouble.
That very special day is commonly known as “Take Your Child to Work” day.
Nick didn’t even know that I work at Core Bank, he was just happy to skip school. He’d had visions of coming to work with me, hanging out at the break room, spending all of his piggy bank money at the vending machine on donuts, playing video games on his Nintendo DS for hours while sitting at my desk, and going out to eat for lunch. Doesn’t work sound awesome in an 8-year old’s mind?
As his mother, I was required to provide my son with some hard life lessons. These include the fact that you have to actually work when you are at work. The look of horror on his face was priceless. We put in a full eight hours of work that day.
As an SBA Credit Manager for the Core Bank Loan Production Office, I spend my time at work analyzing financial statements, determining correct loan structure, and preparing credit memorandums for approval of SBA-guaranteed loans. I’ve been known to get stuck in the weeds when I’m reviewing a new loan request.
I’m not used to explaining what I do and how I do it to an 8-year old. Nick patiently stared at me while I explained different banking terms to him (types of loans, interest rates, repayment terms, etc.)
I learned a great lesson that day. I realized that it’s always better to keep things simple.
It was hard at first for me to explain complex banking and financial analysis requirements to an 8-year old. But when I quizzed him periodically throughout the day, he was able to explain various loan terms back to me correctly. It was fun watching Nick learn a new concept, and it helped remind me to slow down and keep things simple.
Nick enjoyed his day at the office, including the donuts in the break room. He was ecstatic! We had lunch at Adrian’s Cafe, one of my local favorites.
It was interesting and fun to see the concepts of banking and loans through my son’s eyes. I think I might even have a future banker on my hands!