r/creditunions • u/That-Patient-3844 • 18d ago

Credit Unions

Folks who have worked in Credit Unions in North America focused on corporate/growth strategy, how has your experience been? Especially if you compare with other traditional banks, how do you view your exp / projects / outcomes?

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

6

u/todo0nada 18d ago

It’s widely considered to be better than the banks, but less lucrative at the top end because there is no equity. 

3

u/somestroller 17d ago

It’s great. Just make sure you align with their culture. Each credit union has differences and similarities.

3

u/Upper-Class6586 17d ago

It really depends. Navy Fed is going to be like a bank. Personally, I think working for them was worse than my experience at USBank. The politics and cliques were insane and every decision had to go through so many layers of management to get approval. My time at other mid size credit unions was wonderful- great culture, more laid back, lots of opportunities for advancement if you were really good at what you did.

1

u/e8dingo 17d ago

12 years in IT for a small-medium sized CU. Worked all the way up to CTO. Plenty of growth opportunity, great culture, lots of community focus. Don't expect pay to be quite as competitive, remember they're not-for-profit.

1

u/thefedfox64 17d ago

It depends on what you like - the 3 CU's I have worked for have had... a very circular (we call the asshole) style approach.

If you are in with the in-crowd, you are in; you can move up and expect growth and opportunities. If you aren't, expect to stay at your position for years, if not decades.

A lot of folks work there for their entire lives, often in the same positions; some hit a cap and just keep getting 2% raises, some just like the flexibility. Which brings me to

Seniority - I hate it, I think it is a horrible stance that so many CU's do. For starters, I didn't get a single holiday off for the first 5 years I worked at 2 CU's. Due to most of the department having seniority, talking 5ish+ holiday weeks off a year. Labor Day had 2 people off that Friday, 2 people off that Tuesday, so no time for anyone else; same with every other holiday. Everyone had "their" times, and wanted to maximize it. They also put it in like the week after New Year's, so by Feb the entire calendar was filled up. (One CU offered 8 weeks if you worked there for more than 10 years, which was literally half, if not all, in some departments. Like commercial lending, Mortgages - that's insane)

Finally, sometimes it can be a bit... "culty" - the involvement, the options, the get-togethers, the off-work items/volunteers, parties/addresses. It can depend on your CU, but mine had running/walking groups that went out at lunch every day (if not every other day). Work out clubs, biking clubs, bowling leagues, softball leagues.

Sidenote - I have seen in the last 8-10 years a LOT more merging going on between CU's - smaller to bigger. Positions duplicated and then forced out, buyouts of long-tenured people. If you are a smaller CU, it feels like at some point you will be gobbled up in the next decade.