Stephen Bredbenner
Location: St. Louis, Missouri |
The best part of working for Commerce Bank is realizing that this is a truly a career.
Actually, I always wanted to work in banking. Growing up, I was always counting my money, looking at my deposit slips and seeing how much interest I got, so I was always kind of interested in that.
The best part of working for Commerce Bank is realizing that this is a truly a career. A lot of my coworkers have been here 20, 30, 40 years. You don't really see that anymore, and the fact that I'm in my 15th year right now and really have no plans of going anywhere, I just think the longevity of folks that have worked here really shows what Commerce does and the culture they've created here as well.
When I started here in 2008, I wasn't married, didn't have kids. You fast forward 15 years, now I've been married 13 years and I have two kids, seven and four and a half. And so for me to be able to have that work-life balance is very important. Making sure I get to go to parent teacher conferences, making sure I get to go to baseball practice. If I have to go to a doctor's appointment, that's doable, right? We're not chained to our desk.
If someone's considering working at Commerce, I would say it goes by very fast and 25 years later you're still here and you're really happy that you made that decision to join the bank. Once you decide to work for Commerce Bank, your career might change. You might not be in the same role for the rest of your life, and I think the bank gives you that opportunity to explore what you think is interesting and what you think that is best for your career path, and they're more than happy to support you, make those changes as well. So you might start one day doing something, but that might not be ultimately what you end up doing for the rest of your career.
