My Internship Experience with Stillwater National Bank
Student Name
Agricultural Economics
04/09/2009
Student name
AgEcon Internship
4/08/09
When I first came to OSU I was overwhelmed with the possibilities that I could experience. After my freshman year I decided I could handle taking all my classes while holding a job. I began my job search and later my roommate started working at Stillwater National Bank and told me I should apply to work there as well. I had never worked at a bank, but knew the experience would be well worth the time. I started as teller and was later moved to a commercial teller. After a year at the bank I decided to move positions to our corporate office as a personal banker. This is when I decided to see about making this change into an internship in order to learn more about the company and the procedures of my job. My advisor explained the internship process and all about the opportunities it offered to learn more about a company and to make useful connections with people that could help me in the future. After I learned you could also receive college credit hours for working for a company and learning more about them, I decided it was something I had to experience for myself.
After I started the bank I went through a week-long training program that taught me the basics of being a teller through a hands-on experience. I then went to the branch that I would be working at and continued my training with my supervisor. We had meetings every month to discuss new procedures and rules that would apply to how we process customers’ transactions. I then moved to a new position as a commercial teller. I then had a “crash course” of the differences of being a paying and receiving teller and being a commercial teller. I was able to ask questions and learn more about the position and become more proficient at handling customers’ requests. After a year at SNB I decided to change departments entirely and moved to customer accounting as a Personal Banker. There I learned to open accounts, CDs, and handle more in depth requests from customers regarding their accounts. I trained with another employee by watching and listening to her and later handle calls with her watching me and then eventually handled calls on my own and only asked questions when I needed to. Customer accounting also held meetings every month to introduce new products because as a personal banker it is now my job to sale these products to customers and potential customers. One program I especially enjoyed learning about was our UChoose Rewards program which allows our customers to receive points that can be redeemed for great products just for using their SNB debit card for purchases they are probably going to make regardless of receiving rewards from them. I learned a great deal of knowledge about the process of banking and the procedures that must be followed in order for the bank to stay in compliance with state and national bank laws. I completed my internship during the spring semester so I managed my job at the bank, my other classes as well as being a part of the OSU Rugby Club, an intramural softball team, and the SNB men’s softball team.
During my internship with SNB I had a few interesting experiences with customers. One recent experience was with a lady from the Tulsa area with a possible fraud case with an ATM card. She had called in one day and wanted to check a few charges on her account that she wasnot too sure about. After a quick questioning period, she went on to say that she had no recollection of the two charges from the ATM in Tulsa. I put her on hold and consulted our fraud specialist and ATM coordinator and we pulled some pictures from the ATM during the time of the transactions and found that a gentleman was using the card. I then called her back and let her know that we were able to pull some photos and that she could stop by one of our branches at her convenience. Another interesting experience that I had occurred when a customer called in demanded that we rebate the charges that she had incurred when her account went into the negative. She then went on to say that the “bank was out to rip-off the customers” by charging them when they spent money that they didnot have. She then asked to speak with my supervisor and he happened to be in a meeting at another branch. She then said that she was certain that the meeting was about “how to rip-off” our customers even more. After she hung up she attempted to call back to the bank in an attempt to talk to another associate, but was again put through to me, she then realized she was not going to get anywhere and never called back again.
The internship program that I had with SNB was great and rewarding experience. It allowed me to stay in my current position as a personal banker yet allowed me to learn a great amount about the bank. During my internship, the department that I am a member of held a meeting for the entire customer accounting department and helped us expand our knowledge of the bank and of our department. We also had meetings throughout the year with our marketing department and let us know of any new and upcoming products that we are offering. The only change to the program that I would recommend would be that more students learn about the internship program and get involved in it so that they too can gain the knowledge and skills I have learned through my internship.