1. What do you do?
I'm the pricing manager for the Home Equity group at Trust Bank, so I'm responsible for setting the interest rates for home equity lines of credit and other loans and lines of credit.
Loan applications are assigned an interest rate based on factors we set, such as credit score, loan to value, line amount, and location. I also drive product and pricing initiatives with a cross-functional group across the bank, including finance, treasury, credit risk, product, marketing, and analytics.
2. What's the coolest part of your job?
The coolest part of my job is having a direct impact and shared responsibility for the business's profit and loss and financial performance. Interest rate is the primary revenue driver for lending businesses. How you use that lever to trade off volume and profitability will ultimately determine how successful the company is financially.
3. Why are you passionate about it?
I've always been passionate about searching for and leading others to optimal outcomes. Pricing discrimination is about capturing the area under the demand curve to grow a firm's profit, and usually, this comes down to optimization. Searching for meaningful analytics and combining them with business experience helps me make recommendations to achieve our group's goals.
4. Which skills from your IAC degree have helped you be successful in this career?
A strong background in statistics and analytics has set me up well in my career in pricing and economics. Even if you're not the one doing the modeling, being able to interpret the results and understand the limits of data and analytics will take you a long way in finding actionable insights.
Understanding some basic coding languages has helped as well. In a large organization, there are often people dedicated to querying data and modeling. Still, even as a manager, if you know a little SQL, SAS, or Python, it may help you take some shortcuts and get the data you need yourself.
5. What's your #1 tip for students and alumni interested in your field?
Build and then flex your network. In my career, every opportunity or interview I've gotten is through a personal reference, and most coworkers I've known have also known someone. Open roles are competitive and there are so many strong resumes out there, but a personal reference can often move you to the top of the stack.
Reach out to friends, family, teammates, professors, former colleagues, or anyone else you can think of. People are often enthusiastic about helping or at least giving you valuable information that may help you in your job search. And don't be afraid of rejection!
Meet more students, faculty, and alumni in the School of Economics, and explore more IAC alumni careers around the world!
