NORWICH – NBT Bank executives and college advisors shared their personal experiences with summer interns at the Canasawacta Country Club last Wednesday, offering advice to those about to begin their professional careers.
NBT Bancorp held its annual Student Intern Career Day on July 21 with the 46 student interns who work for the company attending. The students range from those entering their freshman year of college to those beginning work on postgraduate degrees. NBT has had a company-wide student intern program since 2005 which focuses on offering local opportunities to gain experience in the financial services industry.
“A critical part of our success model is creating an environment so the 1,640 employees we have can reach their potential. Our employees’ potential is our potential,” said NBT CEO Marty Dietrich.
Dietrich said good employees are so important because it’s up to them to create good customer service, the bank’s most competitive edge.
“The number one reason people choose a bank is service. Rates are like number seven on the list,” he said. “Getting that customer by offering a better rate is not a sustainable strategy because at some point, another bank will offer a lower rate.”
Dietrich said customers attracted to a company’s lower rates or offerings were also more likely to leave that bank if they could attain a better deal at a competitor. The CEO explained that NBT is in the secondary and tertiary market, meaning it targets many non-urban areas, similar to much of upstate New York.
“In the secondary and tertiary markets, the customers place the highest value on customer service,” said Dietrich. “As long as we keep employees motivated and help them grow and they take care of our customers, we will continue to distinguish ourselves from others.”
Dietrich said the Student Intern Career Program was just one example of the many steps the company is taking in creating a strong foundation of responsible, enthusiastic and successful employees.
“There are people who just come into the bank to work, but we want employees who think like an owner. Somebody who’ll see a piece of trash on the ground and choose to pick it up, where others might not notice it or care.”
Associate Director at the Career Center for Colgate University Barbara Roback urged students to find a career that could accommodate their values and skills, explaining that more money isn’t always the main goal but rather overall success.
“Don’t be afraid to fail. That’s something a lot of alumni come back and say. They wish they had gained more experience and gained additional personal growth. Don’t be afraid to try different things and get out of your comfort zone,” said Roback. “If it doesn’t meet your skills, values and interests, then you’re probably going to struggle with being successful, even if you want to be.”
For the second year, NBT announced it would be offering a $2,500 scholarship to an intern, based on their work performance and self motivation. This year the company selected two employees, Steven Spittler, a sophomore at Bentley University, and Todd Wilcox, a sophomore at Monroe Community College.
Currently NBT is the 94th largest bank in American and has 1,640 employees at 123 different branches, most of them in the New York and Pennsylvania area. The company continues to grow and currently has about $5.5 billion in assets, a more than 500 percent increase from what it was ten years ago.