Dana Laidhold explains why building a strong peer network matters more than you might think in treasury work. She covers hiring strategies, career growth, and how to find happiness in the job.
Building a network of peers was, you know, invaluable to me as a resource. And I had a woman who was a consultant that we worked with as we were standing up a lot of our infrastructure, who I was very fortunate was involved in the AFP and told me about it right at the very beginning of my taking over the position. So I started by going to some of the local roundtables and doing some of the virtual roundtables and listening to some of the, you know, training programs that were out there on specific topics. And it was through that I was able to ask a lot of questions, I was able to listen a lot, and I was able to develop a network of peers that I could call and ask things to on a more one, on one basis. And so that benchmarking was really valuable to me. I really love to bring senior analysts into my group. I love to bring people in where I can just look for someone who just has raw smarts, raw talent, very energetic, very enthusiastic, and an eagerness to learn and then to work with those people to give them more of the treasury specific information and bring them through the organization. That, to me, is the most exciting area to hire into. But I do think also as you. You move up and you need to bring people in at a more senior level, you know, you. Not every person on the team comes in as a staff or senior person and, you know, moves up the ranks. Sometimes you have to airdrop someone in higher level. And as you get to those higher levels, that's when I do think specific treasury experience, specific skill set. You know, involvement through the afp, you know, knowledge of treasury systems becomes a more important piece of the overall resume. I do think life is about finding your happiness. And I think that means very different things at very. At different points for everybody. And, you know, I had a lot of tremendous energy and enthusiasm in all the years that I was in Car Lyle and building that department was just an incredible experience for me and something that just. I had a continuous sense of pride about. But then I had been there for 16 years, and that was a really long time to be in one place. And I had reached a point of stability and complacency. And for me, that's not where I find my happiness that I like, that I like the chaos. Someone had said to me, someone had said to me, it's really important to be able to play in traffic. And those words sort of echoes through my head constantly as I think about what I'm doing now. And so I did. I sort of took the puzzle of my life, and I threw it up in the air, and all the pieces have kind of rained down in different spots.
