In a strategic effort to cultivate a knowledgeable workforce while supporting its local community, $1.8 billion-asset First Citizens Bank in Mason City, Iowa, launched a college internship program.
This program, which gives students real-world industry experience, officially started in 2016, says Dan McGuire, chief human resources officer at the community bank. “In previous years, we employed high school and college students for the summer,” he explains, “but in 2016, we began to seek out students from specific college majors to connect with a new generation of potential employees. We recognized that we had to begin to develop our own potential employees and teach them our banking systems and culture.”
Forging connections
Over the past several years, First Citizens Bank has had college students intern in its accounting, credit management, IT, retail and wealth management departments, offering them work experience throughout the summer months. In a few cases, the students have continued to work a reduced schedule when returning to college. Other students have returned to the bank in subsequent summers in either the same or different departments.
While the focus is on college interns, the bank also offers opportunities for high school students.
“In particular, our retail department has done a tremendous job welcoming high school and college students into its department and training them in customer service roles,” says McGuire. “This has been a great way for us to stay connected with the next generation of both potential customers and potential employees.”
Typically, the bank has two to three interns each summer—even during the COVID-19 years—for a total of about 20 interns since the program started.
Building a lifelong career
While the bank has not had as much success hiring interns directly into full-time employment as McGuire wishes, he thinks that is only one measurement of success.
First Citizens Bank has also had the opportunity to be connected to other current and potential employees and customers through its interns.
“For example, we have an employee who started with us seven years ago as a credit analyst and is now a lending officer,” he says. “We became connected to her through her sister, who was an intern for us in 2016.”
That employee is Melissa Moretz, vice president and lending officer. “I have enjoyed working for First Citizens Bank for the past seven years for several reasons,” she says. “I have had the opportunity to grow in my career by gaining knowledge over time to be an asset to my customers.”
According to Moretz, much of that learning process was completed by adding one responsibility at a time, starting with underwriting and analyzing financials and then moving into direct customer relationships.
“The process that I went through wouldn’t have been as successful without the help of some very experienced mentors within our organization,” she says. “As my father always told me, it’s not necessarily what you do for work but who you do it with that makes it enjoyable, and the people here at First Citizens have really made the early part of my career a very enjoyable one.”
The interns get a lot out of the experience, says McGuire. “The biggest benefits I see are developing people skills, understanding the work environment, learning how their performance is evaluated and building their work experience and resumes.”
He notes that even his own kids have worked as part-time employees while in high school and college. “They started by helping to clean the building in the early morning hours of the day,” he says, “and this helped them learn responsibility and accountability.”
Cultivating a mutual advantage
The program also offers several benefits to First Citizens Bank itself. “There is a certain enthusiasm that comes from all new employees, and certainly student employees and interns bring that to our culture, which is great,” he says. “We also benefit from new social connections with the students and their circles of influence.”
The community bank is actively considering changes, improvements or modifications to the program in the near future. “We regularly talk about what could improve for the students’ and interns’ experience with us to make it both fun and valuable to them,” says McGuire.
“As I have talked to students over the years, I have consistently heard that a ‘bad internship’ is one where they are bored,” he says.
“It is a commitment from the organization and managers to take on interns who you know will leave you soon after starting,” he adds, “but we have to look at the value these short‑term employees bring and how it can help us learn and grow at the same time.”