This is in the old days, with the big floppy disks.Īndrea: She said, “No, no, you can do it.

We’d like you to be a programmer.” I said, “What, a computer programmer?” Because I’ve only had one computer class in college, and it was the basics. Your job has been eliminated.”Īndrea: I said, “Excuse me? I’m on time, what’s happening?” She said, “Well, actually, we were eliminating that entire department. I showed up in one of those blue suits with a high collar, with the woman’s tie around the neck, and my boss came out and I said, “Hi, I’m Andrea Bradley reporting for my new job.” She said, “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here. But the job I took was at the big bank at the time called First Republic, and I had accepted a job as a project analyst. When I say small, I’m talking less than 25 total employees, so I had the opportunity to do every single job there.

So, I worked at a small bank all through college and got an offer from this small bank. Why were you not expecting it?Īndrea: The reason I wasn’t expecting it is because it wasn’t the job I accepted. It’s shocking and at the same time very gratifying.

The first job I had was not what I was expecting and I thought I would just do it for a year or two, and get some experience under my belt. This summer, the initiative, known as the Envision Program, expanded to more than 50 students.Andrea Smith: I started right out of college when I was 21. Last summer, for instance, she worked with the local police chief to provide a leadership training program to 30 high school students with records of minor criminal offenses. Smith has also continued to make community service in Charlotte a priority. Most notably, Smith revamped its regional leadership, eliminating a layer of middle management and appointing on-the-ground market managers across the country. Her current responsibilities include overseeing B of A’s annual stress tests, as well as global corporate security, real estate and procurement, among other areas.Ī big focus over the past year has been assisting with B of A’s goal of improving its efficiency. In fact, Smith’s current role as chief administrative officer was created for her in 2015 because she had tackled so many disparate assignments. Smith’s willingness to take risks - and tough roles - has been a defining trait of her more than three-decade tenure at B of A.

Night Moves by Andrea Smith