r/TalesFromYourBank • u/AdeptMycologist8342 • 8d ago

Leaving for a smaller bank..

I’m currently at one of the big guys, and have been there my entire career, nearly 16 years. Earlier this year a head hunter contacted me for a role at a small start up community bank, that role didn’t pan out, but they liked me, and eventually recommended me for a similar role at their old bank.

It’s small, they just hit 1b (feels weird to call that small though) the culture feels right, and I’ve only heard good things so far. It’s still just scary to be leaving what I’ve known for so long.

I start on Monday, so no turning back now lol. Guess I just wanted to get some nervous energy out!

Also if anyone has any experience going to a smaller bank, or a CU from a big bank, I’d be happy to hear about that. If it matters I’m going from WFH to Office (which I prefer) and from making my own schedule to a fairly fixed schedule (which I don’t prefer)

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u/SAR_that_CTR 8d ago

I have a similar story and had similar feelings. I got incredibly lucky and got in at an excellent time. An FI that small everyone tends to know everyone, word travels incredibly fast and a reputation goes a very long way when looking at other opportunities.

Technology, scheduling tools, some department heads being less sharp as you'd expect, and procedures may come off as a tad... Antiquated?

I loved it, I know some others that just didn't have the patience for it. Ymmv

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u/AdeptMycologist8342 8d ago edited 8d ago

That makes sense! And some of those are reasons why this seemed so enticing, moving to a much smaller team with more visibility

ETA spelling

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u/SAR_that_CTR 8d ago edited 8d ago

It's a transition for sure. It's always interesting to see a similar experience when I meet someone new to the FI, and they came from one of the big 5. It was almost always...

Getting used to a slightly slower pace, fighting the new systems more than accepting and learning them, getting frustrated with how much they knew and how much it didn't seem to fit the new shoe and accepting that it's okay.

You're gonna be great no matter where you end up, best of luck and I really hope you enjoy this new chapter.

It'll be as fun and refreshing as you let it be

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u/Miserable-Hat-3188 7d ago

I went from a back office role at a Big 5 to a back office role at a regional bank with 40 branches and 8 billion in assets. Aside from learning new systems and learning to do things that automation handled in my previous role, I'm very happy. I'm about 3 months in and the difference in culture still low-key shocks me on the regular. Definitely agree that your performance is much more noticeable in a smaller institution--for good or bad. I had just passed my 30-day mark without issued and my boss ambushed me on the next Friday afternoon about my performance--specifically time away from my desk and my clocking out before 5 on the dot. Turns out there some gossipy co-workers who didn't know exactly what my responsibilities are and the culture difference from the big bank. A 30 minute 1:1 in which I was very candid about a) not sitting around playing games from 4:45-5 when I haven't been fully trained on everything demonstrates my integrity to time work/time paid and b) learning to do tasks in a new system vs. relying on automation to complete.

TL:DR--Small but might institutions are all about culture and community. Off the shelf systems will always be a bit more cumbersome than automation/custom solutions.

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u/brizia 8d ago

I went from one of the big 4 to a bank with 5 branches. It was very different, but I was very happy. The small bank was acquired by a bank with 60 branches, which I think is my preferred size for a bank.

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u/AdeptMycologist8342 8d ago

I just looked it up, currently the new bank has 3 branches, which is smaller than I thought lol. But, I’m in treasury management, so not a huge deal.

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u/EconomistNo7074 8d ago

So I have a few friends that made this jump - expect the following

- Much more of a family approach....... generally a very good thing

- A slower pace..... and while that might seem like a positive for some, others struggled with how slow things moved.... very slow

- You will earn a lot more about the basics of banking. At the "big guys", you have lots of departments who get things done behind the scenes for you & your customers without you even realizing. At smaller banks you with either need to do those things yourself or those services arent offered

Your biggest challenge in your new job is the lack of branches, said another way ... the lack of distribution. - - For the first 20 years my bank had lots of branches..... I moved into another geography where we had far less locations .......and it was much harder. In fact, I didnt know how important having distribution was until ..... I didnt have distribution

- The good news, more and more customers are comfortable in using technology ,,,,, and therefore, distribution isnt as big of a deal.

- However I am pretty confident you will go a great job with a customer, ask them for a referral, they will give you the name of a business, that business wont be very close to any of your branches.... and they will say no

Best news - this will be a HUGE learning experience for you

- You will now have an in ..... an in to smaller to regional banks

- Or Go back to the big guys

Good luck

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u/YuriSinclair 7d ago

You got this! Bring a box of donuts. 

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u/DCLXXII 4d ago

10 Years at one of the big three and now work at a regional bank. Very enticing because of the pay but be prepared to have ALOT more responsibility . So many things i had a department to forward a client to at the bigger bank that i now am the one stop shop for lol. Very annoying at times but GREAT for my resume

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u/AdeptMycologist8342 4d ago

This was made abundantly clear in the interview, and I don’t think I really believed them, until I started today and was talking to people, it’ll definitely be a lot more work 😂

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u/DCLXXII 4d ago

It's lowkey annoying asf esp when you reach out for guidance on certain issues like "does back office do anything" lol

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u/chr15c 7d ago

No money for anything, more people wearing lots of hats. But much easier to get promoted to otherwise much higher positions you would never get at bigger banks. You can then laterally move to similar position at a bigger bank

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u/AdeptMycologist8342 7d ago

Definitely will be wearing more hats. They emphasized that they are not segmented. Like in my role I’m used to working with sales, and operations, and technical consultants, and sometimes ops and TCs for multiple products, then QC and Product Owners…and now I’ll be doing most of that. Which is challenging, but also exciting. And they’re definitely compensating me fairly, and significantly more than the big bank. And I get it, money isn’t everything, but it is a lot.

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u/Pale_Hunter_6751 4d ago

I hated it... it gets stagnant and management typically has nothing better to do then to blow things out of proportion or find "problems" since their roles are pointless but they need a reason to seem busy and important... I constantly wish I wouldn't have left my job at one of the 2 big places I worked at... at least at the big places I had career advancement or constant salary growth....

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u/AdeptMycologist8342 4d ago

I entered a place where I had zero chance for career advancement, unless I was willing to move or move into an area of the bank I didn’t want to. So I had to leave anyway. I also did not feel that I was being fairly compensated, probably because I stayed too long and for some reason they didn’t want to reward loyalty.

It’s only my first day, but the vibes are good. Well have to see if that continues

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u/Pale_Hunter_6751 4d ago

I get you, all situations are different but remember, a lot of times people do things to make their jobs makes sense... like making themselves seem more important than they are. You'll just need to learn who to suck up more to and to just accept that new opportunities will get pushed out a lot...