PenBank - A private development bank
Before I decided to transfer to Penbank, i actually did a thorough research about the company and its operations. I am very well aware of the fact that when transferring to a new company, you should consider a lot of things and not only the salary but the company's reputation and stability as well. I did my research just to make sure that I won't regret any decisions that I will be making.
Let me share with you briefly what I found out..
Penbank was founded in 1980 as a rural bank which started in the town of Tupi and it was previously known as the Rural bank of Tupi. Geographically speaking, the town of Tupi is seated just beside my hometown, Polomolok. Penbank is already more than 30 years in business and already has 32 branches in Mindanao and Visayas. It is also a member of the RD Group of companies which consist of more than 40 companies and subsidiaries operating in different business sectors like fishing, real estate, hotels and resorts, agriculture, credit and gemology, and pawnshop operations. The chairman of the board and the owner of the RD group of companies is Mr. Rodrigo E. Rivera, Sr..
As I saw it, the company is quite stable and has a good reputation and so i decided to sign the employment papers...
Penbank offered me a senior assistant manager position in their computer systems department with the primary job role as a systems and network administrator. The job description was actually fit with my skills and qualifications. At that time, penbank was getting ready for the online conversion of all their standalone branches.
I was very excited about my new job as I will be meeting a lot of new people and will be exposed to a new environment. It always feels good when you know that there is a bigger room for you to grow. When i was with my previous employer, my primary exposure was on merchandising. When I was employed to penbank, I was introduced to the world of financials and accounting and I was hoping to learn a lot about the banking business as a whole.
Pile of manuals. Photo Credits.
I remembered during my first few days, I was given very thick manuals about the policies, guidelines, and operating procedures about the banks operations. To tell you honestly, I found it very boring. Worse, I cannot even understand most of the terms used in the financial world. I actually sought the help of my accounting books way back in college to understand what was written in those manuals.
I belonged to the MIS/Computer Systems Department. I was very happy to finally have a permanent chair and table and I was even given a new high-end laptop to use. But what made me even happier was the people in our department who were very friendly and cheerful including our boss Mike. It seemed to me that these guys do not have any problems and that I can get along with them easily.
Penbank MIS Team.
By the way, my good friend Wilbert, who also works in Penbank, was the one who referred me to their HR department. I have known this hard-core programmer for quite some time. He is also a senior assistant manager and if it were not for him, I wouldn't be here. Also, I met Ramil, the assistant manager for our technical team and his technical staff - Jhames, Johven, and Orville. These guys are very good with computers, electronics, and troubleshooting.
As I was adjusting with the new environment that I was in, my attention was focused more on my professional career. I was looking forward to have a good future with my corporate life. Sometimes, I would even find myself looking at the corporate organizational chart wishing that someday I would reach the top-level management position as a CIO.
One day, I went to our backup data center to fix some computer related problems. At that time, the backup data center was not yet transferred to its permanent location and so it was temporarily located at RD Corp.(Our mother company) building. It took me around a couple of hours to fix the problem and when I was finished, it was already past the time for lunch. As I was getting out of the server room to look for a place to eat, I saw a tall and dark man standing in front of the door talking to someone over the phone. His face was very familiar and after a few seconds of thinking where I saw him, I was able to recognize the man. It was GM, Mr. Rodrigo E. Rivera, Sr., himself.
My heart began to beat very fast and I became very nervous maybe because it was actually my first time seeing him in person. I was about ten meters away from the door and I tried to walk faster and lowering my head for him not to notice me. I really did not know where my confidence went that time. As I was just a couple of meters a way from the door, i took a glance at him again. To my surprise, he was actually staring at me and the first thing I did was to greet him a pleasant afternoon. He responded and asked my name and where I was working.
Handshake. Photo Credits
"I'm Ivan Jude and I work at PenBank Sir", I answered.
And before he could ask another question, I continued saying..."I'm the newly hired systems and network administrator".
"Oh so you are the guy that we've been looking for quite some time now", Mr. Rivera replied and he shook my hand.
Right after that, he asked me another question... "Did you already ate your lunch?"
I answered, "Yes sir!"
"Okay! I'll go ahead."..and Mr. Rivera went inside his car and left the building.
Because I got very nervous, I answered "YES" to his question if i already had my lunch. I have so much respect for the man and it was very unlikely for me to have a conversation with him. After all, he is the owner of more than 40 companies to which my company is also included and he is also one of the richest man here in the Philippines.
Before I even started working with Penbank, I already heard a lot of stories from my friends on how he became very rich. Most of them are different from each other and I really don't know which one was true. When I stated working in Penbank, I heard a story from a very credible source about him and since then that was the story I opted to believe in.
Do you want to know how to become very rich? Stay tuned for my next post...
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