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Assistant manager: Sarah

This Case Study belongs to Corporate treasurer.

I work in the treasury department of a bank, made up of approximately 1800 people across 20 locations. Anglo Irish Bank is the third largest quoted bank listed on the Irish stock exchange, and one of the best performing banks globally. We focus on three core markets: commercial lending, treasury and wealth management. The primary function of my job is to fund our loan book by offering tailored products and a flexible specialised service to our customers. It involves interacting with new people, and interfacing with a diverse client base. It’s great to build relationships with customers and continue to deal with them for years to come.

Upon leaving university, I wanted to move into the financial sector but felt that I might not have enough experience, so I made a conscious decision to work on my transferable skills. I studied business and theatre at university, so although my studies weren’t directly specific to my job now, I gained experience in presenting, communication skills, teamwork, research and problem solving, which have all helped me. I also had focused business modules that were useful for a general grounding in this sector.

I got a job working for a legal publisher for a year, during which I gained greater sales experience, before getting an interview at Anglo Irish Bank. The interview process took some time given that there wasn’t a specific role available at the time, but the company recognised an "Anglo person" in me, and as a result when a job became available a couple of months later I was hired.

My role has developed significantly since I started. I began work in the corporate treasury team, gaining experience and operating client accounts on a daily basis before progressing to manage my own accounts and work as part of the Institutional Treasury team in a sales role.

My duties now include contacting potential customers and promoting the bank to them, explaining our business model and hoping to attract funding to the business. The main focus is to listen to our customers and build a bespoke treasury service to meet their requirements. You need to be personable, keen to learn and essentially demonstrate a good understanding of your customers' needs so as to be able to meet them accordingly. There’s a lot of interaction with colleagues, and many opportunities to learn from more experienced co-workers or just bounce ideas off one another. I also sometimes sit with colleagues in different teams to gain further experience in other Treasury areas.

I love the team I work with and enjoy continuously dealing with new customers to develop relationships. I also like the exciting atmosphere of being based in Treasury and on the ‘front line’. It’s great to be in a fast-paced environment which is continuously challenging. Of course, working in a target-orientated environment can be particularly challenging and difficult at times, but this is endemic of a sales-related role like this. The hours can be long in this job – you have to be prepared to work hard and start early in the day.

I genuinely feel that this role could lead me to anywhere. In the medium term, I am keen to continue to further my knowledge of the various markets and products available, and eventually strive to manage my own team. The skills learnt in my job could be transferred to any role externally, but given the type of bank Anglo Irish is I may well look to progress into a different area of the bank. This is something which is encouraged within the company, as well as opportunities to work in other offices internationally.

Case Study sourced by Lucy Burrows of London School of Economics and Political Science, 09 June 2008.