by Camtu Vo, Manager of Product Development at DLL, and Sharon McGarvey, Business Development Manager at Odessa. This resource is part of the Career Development series developed by the ELFA Emerging Talent Advisory Council. Learn more at www.elfaonline.org/industry-topics/emerging-talent.
The most common answer you’ll hear when asking someone how they started in this industry is, “I just landed in equipment finance.” The $1 trillion equipment finance industry is not an obvious career path for young professionals entering the workforce. Leasing is not a subject taught at universities despite it being a critical capital solution to 80% of businesses that finance their acquisition of plant, equipment and software each year. Knowing the number of different careers paths that are available—credit, operations, sales, legal or syndications (to name a few)—is also a challenge.
The professionals in our industry have built their careers in different ways, traveling different paths to get to where they are today. Ask two people in the same position and you will get two very different paths for how they got there. Our industry provides endless opportunities to experiment in different roles, develop strong transferable skills and advance throughout your career—both an exciting and daunting reality.
ELFA recently launched the Career Pathways program to provide resources designed to guide you as you progress through each phase of your career. In conjunction, the Emerging Talent Advisory Council (ETAC) is starting a Career Maps Series that shares the varying professional journeys taken by a diverse cast of industry professionals. For each segment in the series, we’ll showcase a few industry leaders and the route they took to get where they are today—from where they got their start and the challenges, learnings and motivators they encountered throughout the process, to where they are today. You’ll be able to zoom into the career map for or personal insights, zoom out to view a holistic path, and wander around to see what else these industry leaders shared with their background and experiences.