By Elvedina Halimic, Savings Operations Manager
I’m a person who’s never happy not doing anything. I love to keep busy and thrive on having lots of things to do. This mindset and approach is how I’ve taken to my studies and more recently, my roles and responsibilities at OakNorth Bank.
In 2016, I graduated with a degree in Accounting and Finance from Manchester Metropolitan University, before deciding to stay on for a further year to study towards a Master’s degree in International Finance and Management.
It was at this same time that I was lucky enough to secure an internship with OakNorth Bank as part of its award-winning deposits team. I was attracted to the challenge of studying and interning at the same time and I’m thrilled that I took up this challenge.
From my first few days working as an intern, I realised that every member of the team had such a strong work ethic, that no one was comfortable standing still, and that there was always more we could be doing to make our product offering better and the lives of customers easier.
When I completed my Master’s degree the following year and was offered a permanent position as an Operations Associate, it was a no brainer to accept. I’m hugely grateful OakNorth Bank recognised my drive, determination and the skills gained from my studies and internship, that have no doubt moulded me into a stronger practitioner who adds value to the operations and deposits teams.
Looking at my time at OakNorth Bank so far, I can honestly say it is genuinely a great place to work. This is largely down to the vast number of different aspects that you get to be involved in and have full exposure to, from customer service and account management, to working closely with other teams to launch new products and account features.
As a result of having the opportunity to be involved in all these different areas of the business, it also means you’re in a perfect position to have your say in improving them, with OakNorth Bank always giving you the freedom to suggest new ideas and concepts that can make real positive change for our customers. A great example of this is around our ISA product offering, which we launched in 2019. The entire process was initially very manual, so the team took it upon ourselves to come up with ideas and solutions around how we could automate the service. This led to us working closely together and having daily discussions with other departments throughout the entire process, to ensure our goal was reached.
This has to be one of the highlights of working at OakNorth Bank – working alongside other highly talented and selfless individuals who mirror your own work ethic to drive standards and go above and beyond for each and every one of our customers.
I can’t put into words how much of a valuable thing it is to be able to learn from my colleagues in other areas of the bank and it makes such a difference knowing and seeing that your work and new ideas have a real impact on OakNorth Bank’s journey to date.
My first four years have been a whirlwind and I’m looking forward to what the future has in store.
