I began working at First National in 2014 as an Assistant Manager in Training. I was brought on to help coach new trainers on facilitation and design for a third party project that was already in progress. My transition to Manager is fairly recent. With this role, I now manage the design, development and implementation of e-learning and training.

How I grew:

To me, learning is the key to growth. I’ve pursued a lot of additional education to sharpen my knowledge about the mortgage industry including courses (Mortgage Agent, Internal Consulting and Info Mapping) and project management seminars. I have also leveraged the experience and wisdom of my team, learning a significant amount about the industry and the company. That insight has been invaluable to me as I oversee the development of e-learning and in-class modules.

The support I received:

The senior management team, specifically my Senior Director Wendy, has been a constant source of support and encouragement. For every goal that I set for myself, I received coaching and guidance on the learning that I would need to achieve it. Wendy was instrumental in helping me to understand the context of our department and the history of the third party project. Coming in right before implementation could have been intimidating, but Wendy made sure that I had all of the information that I needed to jump right in and contribute productively.

My advice and perspective:

A desire to learn goes a long way in moving your career forward, as does a willingness to take on tasks that others may not want to do. When you step outside of your comfort zone open to all opportunities, you get to work with and learn from people whose paths you may not normally cross. The more you expose yourself to different people, ways of working and problem solving, the more you can discover about what’s efficient and take that back into your regular work. My philosophies are simple: no job is above or below me and try everything twice. Embracing every task without judgment allows me to constantly learn and develop as a professional.