5.10 AM
An early start this morning: my usual morning would start around 6:20 am with a nice morning walk before getting ready for the day, however today the Credit and Lending team from Rural Bank in Brisbane have been invited to attend the Herron Todd White Rural breakfast.
6.00 AM
Time to leave my house and take the short five-minute walk to my bus station. Luckily for me I live just outside of the city so it’s only a short ten-minute bus trip into work each day.
6.40 AM
Time to leave the office and head over to the Herron Todd White Rural Breakfast.
The breakfast aims to provide several businesses with key market updates across various areas such as property prices and cattle prices. The information presented at the breakfast was by several industry professionals and was both engaging and informative.
7.00 AM
We have all signed in and are seated at our table eagerly awaiting to hear about current market trends and the predictions for the future. I found this breakfast to be very insightful, as it gave me an insight into not only what the current key markets are doing and how this may affect our clients, but also why.
9.00 AM
After the breakfast, my rotation leader (Greg Brown, Regional Head of Credit – Eastern Australia) gave me a series of questions that related back to the breakfast presentation and included questions that credit managers ask themselves when they are assessing applications.
After I had thought about and developed answers to Greg’s questions, Greg, Terry (a Credit and Lending Manager) and myself went into a meeting room to discuss my answers and how I would use the knowledge gained from the breakfast when making decisions in a credit and lending role. We also discussed the importance of this knowledge when making decisions.
Attending the breakfast and then having the follow-up questions and discussions with Greg and Terry allowed me to understand that there is a lot more to consider when assessing an application than just the current financial figures that are presented before you. Lending managers need to be up to date with activity across their clients’ markets in order to make accurate decisions.
10.30 AM
Normally around 10:15 am Greg will stop the team and we all leave our computers and go and have morning tea together. This is a time for us all to connect with each other and discuss non-work-related topics and most importantly it is time for coffee. However, due to the breakfast this morning we only had a quick morning tea.
After morning tea it’s back to work. This morning I am busy entering in financials that have been sent through by an Agribusiness Relationship Manager, to an Agribusiness Relationship Assistant who is based in the Brisbane office. Today’s set of financials were a little more complicated than usual as there were several different entities that were involved. Luckily, I have Paul (Agribusiness Relationship Assistant) sitting right beside me, available to lend a helping hand whenever I need it.
12.30 PM
Lunchtime! I usually bring a packed lunch, but on Fridays, I like to pop to the food court next door and pick something different to try each week.
1.30 PM
The remainder of the afternoon was business as usual, updating and entering financials and assessing applications. I am incredibly fortunate that in my current rotation I have access to several roles throughout Rural Bank, this exposure allows me to see and experience what occurs across various stages of the business. If I am not entering in financials by myself or with Paul, I am working alongside the people in the credit and lending team and working through applications with them.
5.00 PM
Home time! After a massive week of interacting with clients, attending meetings and learning new skills its finally time for a relaxing weekend.