System-Processes Support Specialist Beth Williams marks 30 years with the bank this month.
When she applied for a position as a teller in 1985, Beth Williams had no idea she’d still be at North Shore Bank three decades later. “I was surprised I made it to five years!” she says, laughing. Beth has held a number of titles here — personal banker, teller supervisor — and now does data analysis and reporting for the Customer Support Center. She was happy to share some of what she has learned with Shorelines. “I know,” she says, “that making it 30 years, in this day and age, is unusual.”
What part of your 30 years at North Shore Bank are you most proud of?
The fact that I was able to create a career. I wasn’t looking for one when I applied. Oh, heck — I was 25 years old, I was a single mom, and I needed a full-time job that had regular hours. I had previously managed a restaurant, and those hours are nights. I needed something with banker’s hours — even though they’re not really banker’s hours anymore. And I’d always been interested in banking. I felt lucky that I got hired when I did, and I’ve gotten to do a lot of different things.
What would you do differently if you could change anything?
I didn’t have the chance to get a college degree, although I’ve done a lot of training and taken college courses. That would have been nice, but regardless, North Shore has been good to me.
How have you balanced your career with your life outside of work?
I take time to do other things, and when I leave work, I leave work. Well, sort of. I work from home for the most part — that’s what I’ve been able to build for myself — so I’m not necessarily off. If they need me, I’m on call.
But we’ve just done the best we could to make sure there are other things in our life. my husband, Todd, and I both motorcycle, and our vacations are usually “action” vacations. The last five years, our trips have involved taking our motorcycles someplace and going whitewater rafting. We have been to North Carolina twice, Colorado, Maine, and West Virginia.
Who taught you something really important, and what was it?
Kathy Storck, who’s now retired, was the branch manager at the Burlington office when I transferred out there. She just led by wonderful example. She was North Shore. She always presented a positive image at work, and she expected the same from her employees, but she always led in a kind and encouraging way. She was a wonderful mentor; she was a great teacher. You wanted to work hard for her.
And Jude Lengell — I have to thank her for taking a chance on me back in 1999. Without her, I wouldn’t have the position I have today and the knowledge to do it.
What are you glad you didn’t know?
That technology was going to change so much. If I’d had any idea back then, it would have been scary! I remember being in the branch and getting excited about the first fax machine — it would go off, and we’d all stand around looking at it!