On this week’s episode of the Building Interest Podcast, we are joined by Sheridan Orr, Chief Marketing Officer at BuiltIn, and Wes Perry, SVP and Chief Talent Officer at Leader Bank. We discuss how one ends up in a profession they never envisioned for themselves, the benefits of joining the tech industry, and hiring trends since COVID-19. 

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Episode Transcript

Greg Farber:
Welcome to The Building Interest Podcast presented by Leader Bank, a series of free flowing conversations on a wide range of banking and money related subjects. We are here to discuss all the issues that impact your financial future. Do you want to buy a home, start a small business or secure your financial future? Or maybe you want to maximize your savings ability, get your budget in order, we can help our talks with experts and influencers across the world of banking, we’ll set you in the right direction. I’m your host, Greg Farber. Let’s jump right in. Welcome back to the Building Interest Podcast. I’m your host, Greg Farber. And today I’m excited to be joined by two great folks, Wes Perry from our Leader Bank, HR team, and a special guest Sheridan Orr from BuiltIn. So BuiltIn is a startup and tech hub, I understand you have an office here in Boston, you pride yourselves on helping people learn connect, build futures at companies you believe in. Sheridan, can you start by just telling our listeners a little bit about BuiltIn as a company, how you came to be there and what your role there involves?

Sheridan Orr:
Perfect. Well, thank you so much. And I’m super excited to have this conversation with you and Wes, because you know, tech employment and tech recruiting is something we’re definitely passionate about. So you probably know us specifically from BuiltIn Boston. But we also have builtin.com. And that encompasses 72, other tech hubs in the United States. And really what we do is we help tech professionals learn about the industry and companies that can excite them and advance their careers, learn about, you know, new skills, what’s going on in technology, and then really advance themselves as professionals throughout their career. And so we do this in a couple of ways. We do this by content. So we have a pretty large news team that covers what’s going on in the industry. Then we have a platform or part of our platform called the Learning Lab. And that’s courses on what’s you know, new in Python or what’s going on in AI. And then we allow companies to really get in front of this audience. And so now we have almost 3 million people who visit the BuiltIn sites every month. And so we can start to glean some insights about what’s important to those tech professionals, and what companies are saying that’s really resonating with them. And that’s what I’m hoping we’re going to talk about today in our conversation. I know Wes, has a lot of experience with that to

Greg Farber:
No, I think that that’s super exciting. And it raises an interesting question, which I want to come back a little bit later. But I can’t help myself right now you keep saying Tech Tech Tech, we’re Leader, Bank, Bank Bank, and Wes, you know, is Chief talent officer at a bank. And yet we’re talking about tech. And so I’m really fascinated to see how we’re going to connect those dots. Can I just ask you, Sheridan, and while you were going, how did you end up at BuiltIn? And how did that happen? Were you always in tech? Or were you always in sort of a career platform position? How did you get to where you are?

Sheridan Orr:
Well, it’s really interesting, because I’m very passionate about tech. And I have an atypical background to kind of get into tech recruiting. So I have my undergraduate is in English literature. So if you want to talk about Chaucer, and Beowulf, I’m your girl. But my dad told me I was absolutely unemployable. At the point, he was like, You will never get a job with an English Lit degree. And he made me go work for one of his friends, which was a department of defense contractor. And they needed a technical writer. And so I was like, Okay, I could do this. And it turned out, I actually had a good aptitude for it. And so that made me passionate about that. Actually, Tech is a really open field, like we all think that you know, you have to be, you know, a coder or a data scientist to really be inside of a technology company. But it’s a you know, every company is eventually going to be a tech company. Because you know, you think about like, we’re all here on computers, and we’re all connecting through a network. And so you need those people inside your organization. And it’s a really fascinating way to kind of grow your career. But I also love that I can tell the story about how, you know why technology needs English literature, people, because we need somebody needs to write the manual so that we can understand what we’re doing. So that’s kind of how I evolved in you know, obviously, my career has taken me through different types of technology. I mean, I started at Cisco, so not working, and then I ended up going to Red Hat, which, you know, obviously is an open source technology. And you know, they, what people don’t know is they actually were the first SaaS company they actually started how you have a subscription and like those stories are really fascinating to me. And when I think about technology careers, like one of the things that we all get from our degrees is we learn to learn and you know, technology is constantly evolving, and I want to make sure that other people have that opportunity. And you know, BuiltIn just really was a great fit for me to, you know, tell those stories and get people excited about what we’re doing. And also get people excited about companies like what Leader Bank is doing.

Greg Farber:
You know, I really resonate with with what you’re saying there, you might want to talk about Chaucer, I have an anthropology degree. So nobody wants to talk to me. And yet I ended up in finance at a bank doing audit work, and not when I went to school for either. So I really understand that that whole scope of it gives you a different point of view to have that background, and it can help you in unexpected ways. Wes, we’ve been ignoring you. I apologize. You are Senior Vice President and Chief Talent Officer here at Leader. So let’s set up a little bit of the same background for you. Maybe tell us what you do in your role. How do you end up coming to the Leader Bank team? sort of fill us in on what your role is?

Wes Perry:
Sure. No, no, I so So essentially, I’m in charge of human resources, which encompasses recruitment, training, developer, training and development, talent management, benefits, payroll, employee or team member relations, HR compliance and culture. And so anything that has to do with people kind of falls and falls under me as far as, as far as my responsibility and and I’ve been with Leader Bank, it will be three years in February, and I came about a month before the pandemic. And what how I joined Leader Bank is I actually live in the community. And I’ve been a client of leader bank for over 10 years. And actually, I knew Jay Tuli our President, from a mutual friend, and I’ve known so I’ve known him for a long time, maybe even longer than that. And one day, he called me up and said, Hey, I have this potential role you want. Let’s talk and I came in, I met with Jay met with his dad, Sushil and I met with John, who’s our retired COO, and kind of the rest is history. And it’s been it’s been an amazing journey so far, and I couldn’t be happier to be at to be a Leader Bank.

Greg Farber:
It has been and you know, just in the time that you’ve been here, but even in the time that I’ve been here, Leaders come a long ways in terms of HR really developing from something that at the beginning, was really just payroll administration. And now you guys are providing and being that resource and everything. How did you come to have that passion to to do that? And to really provide all these these new benefits and resources and things that we’re seeing come up?

Wes Perry:
Sure. So, funny, as we talk about majors, so I’m, again, someone that’s probably not working in the major that I had, I was a marketing major, so maybe was a little bit closer. And it’s funny, as I think about my career, I graduated college and thought they just sort of handed out jobs that you know, pretty much anyone just give you a job and found that out the hard way. That’s not how it works. And so I actually started as a temp for monster.com, when it was a big sort of tech, job board, and we were the job board and worked my way up from the very bottom, I took paper resumes and processed them and got uploaded into systems called applicant tracking systems and kind of worked my way up into recruiting roles and recruitment management roles, consulting roles, and then moved over to Especially Materials chemical company in the Boston area and had had a global recruitment and then moved my way into HR and just kept taking on new opportunities and learning and growing as I went along, and, and really gained a passion for helping people I think that really came back to what I was passionate about is how could I help people advance their lives, whether it was getting a new job, or being better in the job that they have, or moving into another opportunity or providing better benefits? And, and I’ve always, always had a love for technology. And so I think, yeah, how can we make technology make people’s lives better? And I’ve tried to hopefully bring some of that methodology into how I look at HR within Leader Bank is how can we automate things streamline things and utilize technology in in a different way? And it kind of comes full circle to this conversation? Because it does seem to your original point? Why are we talking about technology when we’re a bank? And you know, and, and really, you know, we need to find the technology talent to bring into the bank to help automate and streamline things for our our clients, but also our internal resources and, and that’s why sort of having a strong partner like BuiltIn is really helped us.

Greg Farber:
Yeah, that’s really you know, banks are not thought of as tech companies, but we live it you said it, you know, we really do rely on an awful lot technology to, to hire to grow to exist to to be more efficient and everything else. So we’ve kind of talked about who you both are. And I think we want to recognize in this episode, right that the real magic happens when we work together. And so I kind of want to hear from you guys. How did this partnership come about? How did Leader and BuiltIn Boston start working together? And what does that really bring to us? Like, like, what are the benefits of having this partnership?

Wes Perry:
Sure, I so I could, I could jump in there. So I’ll be I’ll be honest, I, the partnership actually came through Christine Paradise, who is our Talent Acquisition Manager who joined Leader Bank in January. And so she had worked for a I say startup, but it was really it was a UK company that was starting their presence in the United States in hiring in Boston and San Francisco. And so she had used BuiltIn and was really successful with BuiltIn to hire, not only tech talent, but even some financial services talent through BuiltIn. And so she came to me and said, Hey, this is a great opportunity, because we’re always looking for different ways to find talent, find the best talent we possibly can out there. And and so we talked to the BuiltIn team I’d heard of BuiltIn, you know, from from other colleagues, but really Christine, that talked about having used it in the past and she had about it, we met with the team at BuiltIn and really, what we get out of it in what we’re looking for is partly recruitment, advertising, recruitment, branding. So we’re able to build the company profile, have our jobs listed on there through BuiltIn who has who have really strong SEO features, and are able to really get the word out about Leader Bank and the tech roles that we have, and generally all our roles, because all our roles go on there. But it’s really about the exposure that they can bring back to Leader Bank and the types of candidates and the quality of candidates. And I actually have a really great stat, because part of like I said, part of our strategy initially was just how can we get people to learn who is Leader Bank? Because sometimes that’s the challenge, right? Who is, especially if you’re in the tech space, why would I go to a bank? And so we have a company profile. And the average time that someone spends on a BuiltIn company profile is five minutes. And our company profile, the average time someone spends on is 39.8 minutes, which is unbelievable stat way exceeds my expectations. So it means that people are getting to our company profile, we have some of our podcasts on there, they’re listening to podcasts, they’re they’re reading our reviews, they’re they’re reading about some of the quotes and the team members and really digging in.

Greg Farber:
So it provides a place for for applicants or potential applicants to engage and really have an interactive experience rather than just seeing as listed on the job board.

Wes Perry:
Completely. Exactly. And so it gives us that opportunity. And it’s another place that they can engage learn about Leader Bank, and then and then I’d say also, our application rates sort of outpaced the Boston market, by a little, you know, as well. And it’s a we’re seeing a lot of success, especially in some of those niche and harder, harder roles where again, someone might not even think about Leader Bank as being an employer of choice for a tech role or serve certain roles that we might have on there.

Sheridan Orr:
Well, I love that. And I think that’s to Leader Bank’s credit, you do such a good job of telling the story of who you are. So I’m not surprised to hear that you are a marketer by training. Because, you know, that’s really kind of how we designed BuiltIn is to help companies tell the story of who they are, to potential talent in ways that are meaningful to them. Like, you know, I know that when you see a job view, it’s like, these are the requirements that what you want and excetera job posting, but what we really want to say is, what would life be like at this company? Why is this a unique opportunity for you? And how do you make sure that your own purpose and passion align with what this company is trying to achieve? And get a glimpse into the people who work there? And like, you know, I guess the old adage, you know, to show rather than to tell, is really something that we try to incorporate into those experiences that we create for tech workers. And, you know, I think you guys do just an amazing job. And anybody who is looking to recruit talent in the technology sector, that isn’t a typical tech employer, like could look at your site and say, Okay, this is best practices on what to do. And, you know, I’m so glad you’re having that kind of success. But you know, we don’t try to think in terms of impressions at BuiltIn because, you know, a lot of times you see, oh, we had 10 million impressions, but those are one one millisecond on an eighth of a page and what We will really want to do is engage and create experiences that, you know, a person can see themselves maybe working at that company, or at least and long enough to investigate are these jobs good fits for them?

Greg Farber:
You know, you mentioned a couple of kind of key words that resonate with what we’re trying to do here at leader two. And really it started, I want to say it started during COVID, predominantly because not only did working go remote, but started hiring, and so became much harder to identify the right people for the right fit. And we’ve had a real push at leader to focus on not just our brand, but also our internal culture. And so you talk about, you know, we find good talent, but we also want to build good culture, how do you see this partnership working to, you know, on the one hand attract really good talent, but on the other hand, also make sure that they’re seeing whether they’re the right fit for us, and for us to see that they’re the right, the right fit, so that if we move forward with a candidate or an applicant, we’re building that culture, we’re not just hiring someone who’s the best and the smartest, but they’re not going to work out because they’re not a fit for who we are.

Wes Perry:
And so I, so yeah, you hit the nail on the head on a few things is that the culture started to change and how we how we looked at things started to change with COVID, as we expanded our, our footprint from a recruiting perspective, and we went from, from being in three states, you know, may have, most of our team members were in Massachusetts, one or two in Connecticut, and a few in Florida, to now being in 26 states, and they’ve added a net 190 New team members, and to your point, we were looking for top talent, but we were looking for top talent, that that fit into our culture, and how and how needed that and would be successful in our culture. And so part part of it is is talking about what our culture is, and in advertising, what the culture is, and I think having these podcasts on there, in hearing from the, the CEO and the story, you know, in his in his story of your founding the company and the values behind that it to have Jay and and all the other people that you’ve had on these podcasts, I think one helped explain who we are. And then And then also, you know, we’ve added processes into our even recruiting process. And Greg, you’re you’re part of it with our talent assessors. So we have a team of, of talent assessors who are part of the interview team that the idea is, is that they’re independent, so they’re not part of the department or their group. That’s actually you know, hiring so they can show so they can come at it from a different angle, hey, is this person the right fit for the organization? You know, you might have a hiring manager who has urgency bias, this role has been open for three months, I need to fill it, I’m just drowning, and I’ll find whoever where you this, this talent assessor is really looking at is this person, the right cultural fit this person, the right fit for the bank, you know, not not just now but in the future. So I think that’s one way that we really have tweaked our recruiting processes over the last two years and really looked at how can we make it more successful. And then also, I’ve had many conversations with, with candidates and just being transparent, like, Hey, this is what you’re walking into this is, you know, we don’t have processes here, we don’t have teams of 40 people, and you might be a team of one. So just so that we’re being open and honest about what the role is, so that you you as a candidate, or a new hire, know what you’re walking into.

Sheridan Orr:
That’s so interesting that I love that your process is kind of continuous of the experience that, you know, we’re trying to create for the BuiltIn user. Because what we found and it’s been really interesting, and I’ve noticed a big change, actually since COVID, is that there, there are a couple of things that we’re seeing from candidates that they care a lot more about than they ever have. And mission, vision and values. Really our where our a lot of our candidates or tech talent are spending time on our site is really investigating, you know, are these companies aligned with what I want to do or what I believe in and my personal mission. That’s been really interesting to see. And the other thing is they’re looking and I won’t call these, you know, I want to work life balance if I want things that fit with the life that I’m trying to build for myself. And so like we’re starting to see a lot of different benefits that matter to tech employees. Like for instance, volunteerism, like people want to not only work in a place that aligns with their passion, they want a work environment that supports their other passions too. And so it’s really interesting that you are, you know, just to have that same through line all the way through your hiring process.

Greg Farber:
Is this something you’re seeing more of? You mentioned? Obviously COVID Specifically you think because people are remote hiring a remote interviewing? Or is this kind of just something that was on the horizon anyway? And we stumbled into it?

Sheridan Orr:
On the mission piece?

Greg Farber:
yeah, well, yeah. You mentioned mission, vision and values. I think that people are focused on those specifics, and not just, oh, I want a desk and a paycheck.

Sheridan Orr:
Yeah, I, it really started to emerge more post COVID. And I think, you know, when you think about most people being under quarantine, you had time to reflect on who you were and what you believed, and, you know, re kind of set your own personal values, and, you know, people working remotely decided, hey, I care a lot about my fitness. And I want to make sure that I have time to continue to work out in the morning, or I really have enjoyed this time with my children, and I want to make sure I work in an environment that is going to be conducive to that. So I think we all had, you know, some self reflection. And then we also went through kind of the great resignation. And I think that was a kind of reckoning with people deciding, hey, what’s really important to me, and the role that I had before either didn’t fulfill me. And there were companies that did not handle COVID. Well, and you know, they treated their employees, not the way that I think the employees hoped. And that made people reevaluate, like, when I’m looking for another company, what do I want? And I think the days of, I just want a paycheck, and I’m going to, like, stick around for whatever are kinda over.

Greg Farber:
You don’t want to repeat of that past performance where you had an unsatisfying experience that ended with COVID.

Sheridan Orr:
Yeah, you totally don’t. And, you know, look, we all had things that we were grappling with those first, like, think about those first three weeks, where we were like, is this going to be a permanent thing?

Greg Farber:
It was a free for all. At first, we started from nowhere,

Sheridan Orr:
No clue. And, and so I think that, you know, a lot of people just had had an opportunity to go, what is it that I really want? And the other thing is, you know, the generations that are coming up behind us, I mean, I’m sure, like, pretty squarely Gen X, like, they just have different expectations for the role that work is going to play in their life. And we’re seeing that very much so. And, Wes, I know that you deal with that kind of all day long from like, the minute you’re trying to hire them all the way through their development.

Wes Perry:
Sure. And exactly, we’ve had to, you know, we’ve kind of had to tweak the way that we’ve done things. And, you know, Greg, you’ve probably can attest having been here for a while. And again, I think some of what we’re seeing was on the horizon, it just COVID fast forwarded, especially the remote work by a good 10 years, maybe five to 10 years. And I think the companies that saw this to to your point and jumped on it and captured it are going to come out ahead. And I think to the same point that we went with the philosophy that we’re going to find the best talent that fits in with our culture, no matter where you live, and bring them into the organization that has gone to our advantage. And one example that I’ll use is our Security Based Lending Team, not one person in the Security Based Bending Department, it’s a brand new department, brand new organization, something that we hadn’t done in the past at Leader Bank and not one person lives in Massachusetts, I think the closest person lives in New Jersey. And I think trying to find that talent in Massachusetts would have been next to impossible, and we would have probably had to relocate people and it wouldn’t have been as seamless and I think we have an amazing team that’s been put together and but that that was an that came out of hey, we’re gonna find the best talent no matter where they sit, make sure that they need to fit into our culture, and we need to make sure that we’re also fitting into their needs as well. And and, and balancing, balancing that so and also listening and understanding what what are the needs of these new team members. I think that’s an important piece.

Greg Farber:
So I wanted to go back to a word I think it was shared and use it a couple of times. And that word is purpose that you mentioned, mission vision values. We kind of touched on that before you guys have a quote on your website that talks about being having a vision to connect the world through a shared passion for tech, which we’ve definitely talked about the tech part of it and the human need for purpose. Can you break that down for us a little bit what is that need for purpose and how does that what does that mean to BuiltIn and and how does a company like Leader find that and cultivate it. Where do we where do we get people with purpose? And then how do we keep them?

Sheridan Orr:
Well, I think, you know, one of the ways is telling the story of who you really are, and that transparency and like, what is the company trying to do. And you know, like, ultimately everybody wants to use their talents in some productive way, whether that’s changed the world. I mean, it really I know, that sounds a little high faluting, I’m sorry, I’m from the south. That’s something we use in common vernacular down here. But I mean, it does sound kind of, you know, atmospheric of like, hey, I want to have this purpose. And I want to contribute and change the world with it, but be a part of something bigger when you do want, I mean, we all want to be part of something bigger. And I do think also COVID shined a light on that, because we were all all of a sudden alone, a lot more than we had, and you just did not realize how much you missed that human interaction and that collective experience. And I think the first show that I went to, I’m a kind of a theater geek. I mean, I felt teary eyed to be around people having a common experience when it had just been me and Tiger king for a while. And so I think, you know, that’s really the purpose is how do I connect my talents with this greater thing for good. And that’s where culture becomes so important, because culture is really the ties that bind you inside of that organization, in and I think, you know, that is going to be a really important part of work going forward. And I’m reading this book about the Industrial Revolution, because I also am a nerd on many other levels. But it’s so interesting, because, you know, we knew how to work in factories, we knew how to work and, you know, desk jobs for 150 years, we’ve only two years really, of having a large group of people being remote. And there’s a lot to learn. But I think it opens up, as Wes was saying a lot of opportunity for talent, and you know, at a broader horizon, certainly, it allows, you know, places that had not had much diversity to tap into diverse talent and other locations. So I think it’s really important. And purpose is really that thing that holds us all together is I want to use my gifts to contribute to something bigger than I am. And I want to see the results of that.

Greg Farber:
I know you’re gonna say yes, yes. But would you say that this need for purpose is something that resonates with your approach to culture at Leader as well?

Wes Perry:
Exactly. 100%?

Greg Farber:
I told you you’d say yes. I kinda wanted to hear your thoughts on that.

Wes Perry:
Sure. And I think it is, I think it’s part of, you know, how can we how can we be part of something broader? How can we help our clients? How can we, you know, feel fulfilled or fill your own cup every day. And so it’s interesting, and I have this great stat, because we recently had gone through the Boston Globe, Best Places to Work survey, and we get data, and we have data year over year. And one of the one of our big jumpers from, you know, from 2021, to 2022. Data was, my job makes me feel like I’m part of something meaningful. And it jumped over 15%. And it was already a high score. And, and the woman that I was working with, on the survey group said, wow, like, that’s a big jump, like, you guys must be doing something like what are you doing to make it jump that high? It was this is honestly, honestly, it was interesting, because she really didn’t call out a ton of other data as we’re going over. But she’s like, wow, that’s an interesting jump in and so you guys must be doing something. And I started to think back. And one thing that came to mind that’s new over the past year is we did we have this it’s called our LOOP leadership out of office program. And so essentially, what it is, is we have seven senior leaders that lead a cohort. And this cohort is comprised of, of people that aren’t in that in that leaders department, and none of their direct reports are there. So it’s so it’s a real cross section of team members across the Bank. And they get a chance to engage with a different leader than they normally engage with. But it’s a mix of professional and, and personal development. And it gives an opportunity at the very beginning to give some some bank wide updates. And you know, last loop, we had an updates on technology. And then what we usually have is we’ll have team members listen to either a podcast, read an article or watch a video or take a training, like one one LOOP we did. We did our subject was around time management. And because that was from survey data, what people wanted us to focus on. So we send surveys out after every LOOP session in which we do on a quarterly basis. And it then Then we take this topic and we have we break out the team members into small breakout rooms and they get each time they get in with a new group and they discuss the topic, they answer some questions, and then we come back as a larger group and, and discuss and it just gives an opportunity to learn more about each other to engage in a different way. And I feel like it gives that sense of belonging to an organization, it gives, you know, we hear about what other we hear about the different groups and and you meet a different leader or different topics or things that are going on during the update with with with the with the Bank, and so you feel like you’re connected to it. And then also, I feel like Jay, our President, he does a great job of sending out videos around, hey, this is what’s going on at the Bank. And so you really feel like you understand it, and you feel like you’re part of something, which is so again, that quote, for sure resonates with me, because I also think about it. When I explain a bank, I say we’re always tech forward. So I think it really resonates that we’re tech forward. And that we do it with that with that purpose.

Greg Farber:
So I think you’re right. I mean, and I obviously have participated in these kinds of LOOP calls and things as well and other meetings where we’ve brought different departments together. And it really, yeah, it allows you to understand that you aren’t just one person in one department, but you’re part of a bigger organization that has a certain feel and a certain culture. So no, that’s, that’s great. And I love that quote, and I love your guy’s insight on it. What, Sheridan maybe just kind of to start wrapping things up here a little bit. What advice might you give to new talent entering the industry? Obviously, you see a lot of people maybe not you personally, but your company sees a lot of people come across the site, some get hired, some don’t. Some companies hire people, some people are not able to maintain that great talent. what’s some advice that you might give? If you’re new talent, and you’re out looking to enter the tech industry, or specifically, perhaps even just the banking sector on the tech side?

Sheridan Orr:
I think the biggest advice I would give is to remain curious, like to continuously be trying to learn, explore, and at the end of the day, I mean, most people are really nice and welcoming. Like if you want to know something more about a role, or you know, hey, I don’t know anything about auditing. I’d love to just Greg, do you have 10 minutes to catch up with me

Greg Farber:
No one says that…

Sheridan Orr:
Wes and I were talking earlier about the scariness of auditing titles. So if you’re listening to this podcast, send us notes on what an auditor could be rebranded as because I feel like we need to do that for Greg, because he’s very nice person.

Greg Farber:
Thank you.

Sheridan Orr:
But I do think that it is, you know, reach out, like learn about the companies, I mean, obviously BuiltIn, we build those profiles for you to find out what they’re looking for, what skills they need. But, you know, obviously, the world is changing really, really rapidly. And so you’re gonna have to commit to continuing to learn, I mean, I’ve had to learn so much between my MBA and now that just to keep pace with the times. And so I think that’s it and the other is reach out for help and ask people because they want to, and I get quite a few pings from students saying, hey, I really, you know, I’m an English person, how do you as an English Lit person, how do you go from, you know, where I am to where you are, and I will take those calls every single day. And I feel committed to helping people grow as humans and professionals. And so I think that’s the biggest important thing and if you can go from, you know, studying Chaucer to writing manuals for rocket systems, and I certainly am no genius. That means everybody can kind of stretch outside of their comfort zone. And so I would challenge you all to do that, because that’s what makes life fun too.

Greg Farber:
That is great advice. Wes any any thoughts from you or your side?

Wes Perry:
A lot of the same is I always say to to be open to something new or something that you didn’t think you would you would do or I’ll so I’ll give myself an example. If you had said five years ago, I would be in banking, I would say not a chance. You know, I would just wouldn’t have thought about myself in a banking role and it’s nothing against the banking industry. I just I had worked for a tech company I’d worked for Material Science pharma a company that you know, we’re we made it we manufactured something and so I you know, I always just sort of said hey, that was kind of where I’m going to stay and and so I so again, I think it’s being open to new opportunities and and seeing where else you can stretch yourself even new functions that maybe you might not have, you know, I said, Well, you know, and Greg, like, your perfect example, you made the switch from being underwriting to auditing, you know, just being open to whatever opportunities come your way and capitalizing on them. And I just, and I think she had a great, great point is ask someone, you know, what’s that? Like? What’s that? What’s a career? Like? What’s your day to day look like? How’d you get into it? And you always, always want to ask them how they got into it. It’s really kind of interesting.

Greg Farber:
So, I got learning, I got research and whatever, I got asking for help. And I think the number one thing I got is just being open to new things. And the three of us on this call today, none of us went to school for what we do. None of us are working in the job where we saw ourselves working it and yet we’re all loving it and enjoying where we are today. And we didn’t get there by not following our same advice that you just gave. So I really want to thank you both for being here today. This was a lot of fun. I had a great time chatting. I look forward to hearing more great results coming out of this partnership and have a great afternoon.

Wes Perry:
Thank you so much.

Sheridan Orr:
Thank you.

Greg Farber:
BuiltIn is not affiliated with or owned by Leader Bank, N.A. and all opinions expressed for Sheridan Orr are her own and not the opinions of Leader Bank. In addition to past episodes, you can also find our corresponding blog entries on our website at leader bank.com. This podcast is a production of Leader Bank equal housing lender. Member FDIC. NMLS number 449250.