Job Responsibilities
Branch Manger - Maintain extremely high quotas, by motivating
and training account exect. to sell more consumer loans to our
customer base. Branch managers are also required to keep up on
all audit functions of the branch office. We also schedule and
hire/fire the staff of the branch office. Branch managers are
ALMOST in complete control of all functions of that branch. A
branch managers supervisor (District Mgr) might been in your
branch office 3-5 times the whole year for a one to 3 day
visit.
Personally I was handed a 32 million dollar branch office with
over 3200 accounts, was installed by my supervisor in 2 days and
was told "Good luck" I was very capable of doing the sales part
of the job, its the managing employees, and audit functions
which are the "tricky" part.
Branch managers spend 60%-70% of their day/week generating sales
(loans) by helping guiding and demonstrating the art of
selling "Money" A major part of this is getting all the pieces
together in the "loan process puzzel" (getting payoff amounts
from lenders who don't want to lose their business to you,
clearing real estate title issues along with getting appraisal
questions/disputes solved with underwriting)
Audit functions (cash counts for counter payments, check
auditing, compliance issues for all Federal, State and local
guidelines make up about 20%-25% of your day/week
5%-10 of the rest of the time is for employee scheduling,
conference calls, training for branch employees, and keeping the
branch maintanied.
|
Job Requirements
Branch managers, Account Exect. require very little formal
training-- ie college degree. SALES experience or the ability
to be coached or trained is the MOST IMPORTANT. It is really
difficult to teach sales to a person who has no comunication
skills, or no DRIVE to make LARGE commission checks.
Our company likes people who have NO -- YES no prior experience
in the finance industry. WE want to teach you OUR WAY not some
other way by some other substandard finance company. Sales
experience is VERY GOOD, just not perferablly with another
finance company.
90% of the training is done "In branch" by the branch manager
(when they can find the time!) 10% is from classes held in the
nearest city. Like most jobs you learn the art of
selling "money" by just doing it, and learning your mistakes and
fine tuning your skills.
The first 3 months of the job as an account exect is EXTREMELY
overwhelming for 80% of the people I have hired. There is just
SO much information to learn. (Computer system, product
knowledge, many Federal, State and local laws, and the never
ending list of corporate polices, and lets not forget
underwriting guidelines, while trying to dial the phone and
persuading people to take "our" loan
|
Uppers
Branch managers have almost complete control of all operations. Who they hire,
who they want to get rid of. Scheduling employees times to work and vacations.
The branch office is your "baby" as a brnach manager -- like most children they
require lots of time to develop. The average branch manager spends 10-12 hours
a
day 4-5 days a week.
I liked not being bothered by a boss overhead, I saw my boss every 2-3 months.
This is GREAT!
I liked having the control of most functions, who I wanted to hire, who I
weanted to get rid of. and what hours they will work.
I enjoyed training my staff and seeing them succeed! and make US both some
serious CASH!
I enjoyed the responsiblity even though sometimes VERY VERY overwhelming. I was
in control of a $32 million dollar branch, I cut checks to other lenders for
$5,000 - $200,000.
Did I mention the CASH, and the 401k program (6% match) 100% insurance! (yes
100% insurance goto hospital might cost you $25-$50 for a SURGERY!!! I had an
bleeding ulcer 1 year ago, due to the stress! Has being a 26-30 yr old I
AVERAGE
$70,000 in a rural southern part of Indiana (this is a LOT of CASH here)
|
Downers
Hours -- just like a child it takes lots of time. Mainting
branch goals, training employees, doing daily and monthly audits
is about a 55hr work week, and maybe a Sat (to catch up with
audits) SALES/GROWTH and PROFIT MARGIN is always 1st --
everything else can wait (at least a little while)
Turnover of employees -- They get "burned out" from the extreme
stress, hours away from family and friends. AVERAGE turnover of
an account exect is 18-24 months (HR data as well as my own
estimate)
|
Lifestyle
Be ready to "eat nails" BUT the NAILS PAY awesome! Consumer
finance is NOT for everyone but if you can the sky could be the
limit and the promotions.
60%+ of the American population LIVE paycheck to paycheck - and
on average have $10,000++ in credit card debt, and most people
owe 85-90 LTV (loan to value) on their home.
Consumer finance will not EVER be going anywhere! Watch TV look
at all the competition for mortgages, and loans! Look at all
the BANKS!
|
Compensation
Branch manager salary is about $40,000 plus bonuses! Employee
stock purchase program, 401k AWESOME a 6% match! Insurance is
2nd to none, spoke with Bluecross rep and they said "I work for
Bluecross/Blueshield and we don't have insurance like you do!"
18 days total vacation/sick whatever your first full year on the
job! (good luck trying to use it though) If your not there
sales don't make themselves :(
Company trips for the "best of the best" AWESOME have been on
about 5 major trips, Airfare, Limo from the airport, 5 star
hotel ($400/$500 a night) meals several hundred dollars for a
party of 4 maybe a $1000 with wine beer.... I was in the top
10% of the company and the trip was to Vancouver B.C. and the 4
day trip was well into the $6000,7000 mark total just for me and
my guest!
|
Advice to Jobseekers
Be ready to "eat nails" BUT the NAILS PAY awesome! Consumer
finance is NOT for everyone but if you can the sky could be the
limit and the promotions.
60%+ of the American population LIVE paycheck to paycheck - and
on average have $10,000++ in credit card debt, and most people
owe 85-90 LTV (loan to value) on their home.
Consumer finance will not EVER be going anywhere! Watch TV look
at all the competition for mortgages, and loans! Look at all
the BANKS!
|
|
