Mackenzie Cira

I would say my parents, probably. They always pushed me to do everything that I could, and they saw all the potential in me. Definitely them - they gave me every opportunity to do everything, and pushed me to it. They've always been my support system.

The best advice I've always been told is to use what you know. It's not so much fake it till you make it, but you know what you know, and that will always shine as you get into it. I can speak circles around everything that I know very well about. It's just, you know, be you, be the best you, and wear it proudly.

Don't let anybody say you can't do it. I know in my world, it's a man's world in banking, and there are a lot of men, and a lot of women think that it's something that we can't do, or it's maybe not the best avenue for us. But where I work, it's a lot of women, and we're all really good at what we do. So if you're passionate about it, and you want to do it, and it's scary, just do it. Just try it and do it, because you'll probably love it.

There's a lot of things that have never happened before that I have to get brought into that I've never experienced, so it's a lot of learning. Right now, we just bought a bank, so I am in the midst of that project. One of my projects is the first bank acquisition, so we're taking all of their bank and pulling it into ours. It's stuff I've never done before, and I've learned a whole slew of things I never thought I would learn. I'm working with a whole bunch of people I've never thought I would work with - I work all the way up with directors to executives. It can get really difficult just because it's always unknown. There's so much unknown.

I like honest companies and honest work. My team that I work with now is really much like a family, and it's great, because being at a corporation, you wouldn't think that you would get that kind of grouping. But my manager is the best ever - I can go to her with work stuff or non-work stuff, so I have great management, which is nice. You don't get that all the time. They're really good with our work-life balance, so I'm always - I value that a lot - that I have my work, but I also have my family and my life outside of work too, and they respect that. There's a very good level of respect as well, which is nice. And I grew through the company, so the growth and the learning - I've been able to learn so much. I would say those are the main ones.