Constantly presented with new opportunities to add value
My career at Linedata has never failed to provide me with new opportunities. During my 12 years with the company beginning in 2010, I started as a SME for commercial and small business lending based on my 27 years as a banker. This afforded me the opportunity to provide input into the products and services Linedata was developing and bringing to market while leading consulting engagements with existing clients. Having some additional capacity and being familiar with our products and services, I began to answer Requests for Proposal (RFP) and Requests for Information (RFI) about Linedata products and services and also learned a great deal about the company as a whole. Transitioning from the SME role, I began to support our sales teams performing research on prospects, gathering information about our clients, the industry and competition. To archive this, I created a knowledge database and provided training to sales staff on the use of the database. Today, I am still involved in sales support, but I also find time to prospect for new clients (time permitting). In addition, I have been a committee member of the Equipment Lease and Finance Association's Operations and Technology board for the past 5+ years due to Linedata's long tenure with this organization. I also attend industry conferences and perform speaking engagements on various industry topics from regulation, to best practices, to North American banking strategies. I cover a very wide range of content. This involves the creation of presentations, blogs, thought leadership articles and speaking engagements. .
Partnership, prospect and deal evaluation
Its my responsibility to know our products/services, industry drivers/trends, what our competitors are up to and what they offer. Its also important for me to interact with our clients and gather information on how they use our solutions/services. I also manage several strategic relationships for Linedata and I am frequently involved in the evaluation of other FinTech organizations with which Linedata may choose to partner with or even purchase a stake in on a global basis. Retaining a sales support role which I previously eluded to, I also assess whether a prospect for one of our products and services is a good opportunity to pursue. I base this on industry knowledge, financial analysis, what I gather from public repositories and what the prospect is communicating to the larger investor community. Its a truly unique role at Linedata but one I enjoy very much because of the many assigned and varying duties.
Self-direction and the ability to share knowledge with others
I can't say that every day follows the same course and that is a good thing. Some days there is a focus on a certain activity which needs to be completed while other days there are opportunities to increase personal knowledge or share it. I enjoy meeting and sharing my ideas with other Linedata team members and when you see those ideas turned into reality, its quite an enjoyable experience. As an example, I frequently meet with Linedata's Product Management teams and describe a newer feature I would like to see added to our solutions. I am also actively involved in the prioritization of feature enhancements which means I have an active role in the solutions functional and technical roadmap.
Demonstrate your competency and commitment to the organization
While there is a pervasive attitude in the labor markets that employers do not adequately provide for their employees, I find at Linedata, if you demonstrate your commitment, good things will come of it. There are many opportunities for advancing your career and there are a wide variations of jobs that are performed here. If your a valued employee, show competency and commitment, your likely going to recognized and promoted to newer roles of greater responsibility in your career. The one thing I have learned during the course of my career is the following: If you choose to move forward in any direction and at some point your realize its probably not optimal or going to produce the benefits you originally projected, have the courage to admit maybe it wasn't such a good idea and seek out other alternatives.
I reinvented my career when I joined Linedata
Coming from a background where all I was exposed to was bank lending for 27 years, I never thought someday I would be working for a provider of products and services to the financial services industry and that I would enjoy it so much. Having the open mindset to adopt to something completely new and be a successful contributor is probably what I am most proud of. However, I can also say that I am a creative person and the organization promotes these types of activities which adds to the job satisfaction.
