Cyndi Serrano

I say it definitely takes a village. I have a village of friends and family, extended family, and people who I never thought would become my family, who have been there to support me and encourage me along the way. You know, I do a lot of different things as a caregiver and at work, and sometimes I do tend to get down and have my moments. Making sure that I have that support system in place is a huge component of my success. I think learning for myself, because I tend to take on a lot, was learning to ask for help. I used to just be like, I gotta do it myself, but it was learning to ask for help and being able to say it's okay for me to take a break today. It's funny, everybody thinks I have a ton of sisters, but actually my friends are my sisters, because I can call them anytime, day or night, and just tell them I need to talk or can we meet, and they're there.

I've had quite a few tidbits from different managers, and some of the best advice that has taken me so far is, one, you bring the weather. It's how you set the tone for the day, how you come in. You have to come in, regardless of what's going on, and choose to be positive. Choose to see things on the brighter side of things, and it changes your perspective and your mindset going into your workday. And you have to be adaptable to change. In my industry, anything can happen that can change from one moment to the next. We deal with customers face-to-face, so things are always happening, and you just have to be able to adapt to change and be quick on your feet.

I would definitely tell them, know your value, know your worth, and don't be afraid to ask for that respect. It's okay to be vocal, to have a voice, and to speak up for yourself. I think for many years, that was something that was really looked down upon for a long time. Through challenges and looking through my career, there are moments where I go back and I say, man, I wish I was braver. I always tell the young girls in my office, I said, it's okay, be brave, ask for what you want. What's the worst they're gonna tell you? No. But at least you know that you tried. And I don't want them to ever make themselves small. Embrace who you are. Don't ever make yourself small, you know, embrace who you are.

I think being in the industry that I've been in, it has primarily always been considered a male-dominated industry for the most part, and the bumps along the way that I've had have been managers trying to stunt my growth and stunt my career for their own personal agendas and reasons. They knew the value that I brought, but they didn't want me to bring that value to another department or go someplace else. Really navigating those interpersonal relationships between yourself and your peers has been challenging. In a retail bank setting, there's typically about 5 or 6 of us who work with each other every single day, 8 or 9 hours a day. Sometimes we see each other more than we see our own families at home, and you're gonna bump heads. Some personalities are definitely a lot more challenging to navigate versus others. In my current role, I am always coaching and teaching my team. I let them know I want to invest in them and in their career, because it's no benefit to me to hold them back. I know what kind of effect it has on you, mentally and emotionally, when you have a manager who wants to keep you back or who's stunting your growth or who doesn't want to invest that time in you. As for opportunities, with banking, you could either stay in the retail setting and navigate your way up to branch manager, or there's always opportunities to grow and go into different areas. Banking has so many different departments within a company. You could go anywhere to wealth management, fraud department, risk, human resources, or becoming a district manager or regional manager, growing in the retail community banking field and managing a larger team. There's a lot of different avenues you could go, and I think that's what's always been my draw to the field, that it's something that I can grow and change roles in according to how I feel like the direction I want to take my career.

I think values for me, a lot of it's about your character and integrity. I think integrity is such a huge part of who you are, the type of person that you are. It tells a lot, it tells others that when you do things with integrity, you're honest, you're trustworthy. And there's no need for you to pretend or to be something different or to act a different way. You are who you are, right? And as long as you do things with honesty and with intent, that's something that I've always done and led and lived my life. It's something my mom has always told me. She's like, people are gonna either like you or they're not gonna like you, but the person who doesn't like you, they're not gonna be the first, and they're not gonna be the last. So just knowing that you don't have to have everybody like you, but you have to respect one another.