If you ask a young kid what they want to be when they grow up, the answers can vary. Some will give big dreams such as becoming an astronaut, the president, a lawyer or a doctor. Others will want to be who they view as their heroes, a policeman, a firefighter or a basketball player. Very, very rarely will you ever hear a kid proclaim that when they grow up they want to be a credit manager.
Most people don’t even realize that this position exists until they have had experience working for a company or with business classes in college. This can be kind of shocking, considering 40 percent of small businesses get their financing in the form of trade credit and half of the U.S. GDP is made up of small businesses. In all reality, half of the U.S. economy is driven by trade credit, but credit managers seem to be the unsung hero.
In order to continue to hire the best of the best in the credit management profession, we need to be able to hire from a large pool of candidates. Therefore, those in the credit industry need to start promoting it to gain a larger interest from students starting in college. There are a few ways that this can be achieved.
- Credit professionals should start attending job fairs, so college students have knowledge of these job opportunities before they have graduated.
- If you know any college professors or administrators, advertise job openings or internships.
- Set up time to talk with a college class with the available opportunities in credit.
- Get some exposure by using Linkedin to find interested students and talk about the profession.
The credit profession is extremely important for businesses and the entire country’s economy. Managing trade credit and, ultimately, collecting that cash is what continues business throughout the world. Being a part of that process is an important role, even if it doesn’t have the glamorous title that many kids think about when they are choosing what they want to be when they want to grow up. But that can change with some help from those in the profession.
