Anca Finger

I attribute my success partly to one of my earlier managers when I became a relationship manager at Wells Fargo. She really took me under her wing and showed me a lot that opened my eyes to a different, higher level of doing business. As a salesperson, you have to talk to clients a lot and also understand their financials, so you're doing both. I learned so much from her, and I still do things the way she showed me, and they still work even after almost 15 years. Beyond what I owe to her, I've always been determined to grow and to keep learning. I'm not content with just what I know because there are always moving parts and constantly changing information, especially with how technology changes and the way people do business. So constantly learning is always something that I'm striving to do.

The best career advice I received is that when you're new at your company or even in the industry, you need to do your best in constantly learning. If your manager is asking you to do something and you're not sure how, or something comes up, you need to raise your hand, explain your situation, and get help rather than assume or procrastinate. In general, the best advice is communicating any issues that you may have with being able to complete the tasks that have been assigned to you, for whatever reason that may be. Maybe you don't understand, or maybe you don't have the tools, or there's something else wrong. By communicating that, you can actually solve a problem that maybe other people are having, and then you actually look good. That's also a way of learning and growing.

This is still a male-dominated industry, and a lot of times the males are in the leadership positions and the women are in the support positions. I've always liked companies where you have women in the leadership positions. So I would say if you see mostly males in the leadership position, don't let that stop you. Don't let that deter you from growing. Also, be strong and non-emotional about your job. I think you'll be respected a lot more that way. I've noticed in meetings or conferences where you have to go up and shake somebody's hand, for men they shake their hands, but for the women they hug them. I don't like that. I want to shake your hand. Set your standards, set your boundaries, and they will respect you for it. Everybody will respect you for it.

The challenges in my field are the instability in layoffs. There's been a pattern of hiring one year and laying off the next year. That happens a lot in banking, and also buyouts where one bank will be bought by another bank and then they lay people off. That has happened a lot. I was laid off once, though it wasn't from an acquisition, it was just a budget cut. But I had only worked there for a year, so I wish they had figured that out before and didn't hire me in the first place.

Communication and transparency are the most important values to me. I believe in just being open and honest, and allowing people to be human. If they make a mistake, as long as they learn from it, that's what matters. That's how you learn. I've made mistakes, and I learned from them, and I never want to do them again.