My first IT job was in Y2K as IT Administrator for Guaranty National Bank in Tallahassee, Florida. Armed with my technical training, lab experience and volunteer work, I dove into the deep end of the pool. I knew nothing about banking, but there’s nothing like real-world on the job IT experience.
On my first day, my boss shared a comic strip that showed an employee saying, “I have time to do one of these two projects. Which one do you want me to do?” And, the boss in the comic replied, “Combine them and do the one.” How apropos that comic was. I was the network admin, windows admin, OFAC admin, banking core (Kirchman) admin and FedLine administrator. I was the entire IT Department, and I did whatever was needed.
There were five branches across Tallahassee, and I enjoyed traveling around to visit them. Some of the updates/fixes required me to be onsite and the staff would take the opportunity to ask the questions they could think of while I was there. I’d even help count vault cash when needed.
My first big lesson in banking was about the FedLine. I went to FedLine training in Atlanta so that I could be an administrator for the system. One of the points not covered in training, though, was that the FedLine could not be offline at all during business hours. One day, I moved the FedLine computer to make it more convenient for the operations staff. I asked them if it was okay to move it “now” and no one said it wasn’t. It was offline for a short time, and the CFO paid me a visit. He was VERY UNHAPPY.
My favorite assignment was when the bank’s president asked if I could figure out how to synchronize her Board of Directors slideshow presentation to the Olympic theme song. There were a lot of dynamic slides with content that would appear with specific trumpet fanfare and the slides automatically advanced at specific times too. Upon completion, that presentation was a thing of beauty. The bank president was very appreciative, and the Board was impressed.
Documentation is one of my strongpoints. It has served me well throughout my entire career. I've been told that I type like a court reporter. Guaranty brought in a consultant who advised that Operations needed to document/update their procedures urgently. After internal discussions, the COO (my manager) determined I was the best person to do it. She asked if, in addition to my IT duties, I was willing to write up the procedures. I agreed to do it and met with the various managers to document departmental procedures. I completed the procedural manual and greatly expanded my knowledge of banking.
The bank gave me a service award and a pin, and I carried my experiences on to the next adventure...