Lake Sloan

I am Lake Sloan. I'm the supervisor of Talent Management Services, and I've been with Commerce Bank for five years.

My dad has actually always banked at Commerce. He got his first bank account at Commerce when he was 16, so he's like, "Well, I see that there are some personal banker positions open, which might push you toward the field of accounting." So I said, "Yeah, I think that might fall in line as far as my accounting degree." So I started as a Personal Banker, so I could learn the financial side of everything. And then the culture side came as a plus, as I learned the company and the company learned me.

As a Personal Banker, I was the first face that our customers saw when opening an account with us and starting the relationship. And now that I'm in talent management, I get to say that I am the first face that they see when they start their employment with us. In the five years that I've been here, I've had three different roles that I had never even anticipated were going to be in my progression at Commerce.

When I started out at Commerce, as a part-time Personal Banker, I thought, "Okay, this is what's going to help me get my degree, get some experience under my belt, and then I'll move to getting my CPA." But as that changed, Commerce said, "What can we do to get you to where you want to go? What can we do to help progress your development?"

No matter your age, I feel like you're going to find your place here.