How often does your professional life make you better as a person? When your job positively impacts your own personal growth, you know you’ve got a great job!
My employer, Notre Dame Federal Credit Union has banking relationships with many non-profits. throughout the country. One of my favorites is Christ in the City, a homeless outreach based in Philadelphia and Denver. We are committed to making sure our relationships with our non-profits are personal, not merely transactional. This isn’t always perfectly possible, but we make the attempt. So with Christ in the City, we have visited their facilities, met their staff and volunteers, and learned about what they do. I’ve personally had the opportunity to ask questions and receive guidance from some of the top experts in the United States when it comes to visiting and consoling people who live on the streets. One thing I’ve come to understand is that loneliness just might be the greatest poverty in the world today. Because of this, I have changed my approach to how I interact with people with cardboard signs. I’ve learned that one of the best gifts you can give to a “beggar” is to simply treat them with kindness and respect.
As a Christian, I understand that a main criterion of how I will ultimately be judged by God is how I treat the least fortunate among us (cf Mt 25:31-46), so I’ve tried to implement this in my own life. Today, when I encounter a hurting or lonely person on the street, my exposure to Christ in the City has given me the courage and confidence to stop, take some time, and have a conversation. Maybe even sit down for a minute. My goal is always to make the person feel seen, respected, and then to laugh and smile. It’s actually quite easy to do this, but I never knew! Thanks to my job in finance, I do now. Ha. That sounds weird to say, but it’s true.
Have you ever learned something through your work that positively impacts your personal life? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
Thoughts from the Side of the House... 
March 6, 2026 at 10:38 am
I was blessed to have a 35 year career in college admissions. Learning and remembering the names of the applicants and their parents was of utmost importance. I carried this lesson into my everyday life, greeting people and asking their names as it immediately forms a connection when you say their name back to them. Many folks say that it is difficult to remember people’s names. I learned many years ago from Dale Carnegie, that if you can repeat a person‘s name three times within a minute or so after meeting them, their name will stay with you! It works!!
Christ knows each of us by name, let’s try to do the same with everyone we encounter.
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March 3, 2026 at 9:40 pm
I work in a sort of “sales” job. Well, it’s fundraising but it’s still sales. My product is mission. I sell the mission of Mercy School For Special Learning in Allentown PA. The key to this job is sharing the mission constantly with everyone you meet, and to do it with unambiguous enthisiasm. Not in a weird way or obnoxious way. But in a way that leaves the “buyer” very convinced you believe in your product. So whether they buy or not, it won’t affect my next conversation, because eventually someone will share my enthusiasm. I think it’s the same way in sharing the Faith. I don’t need to win an argument. They don’t need to buy what I’m selling. I just owe it to the other person to share what I have the same way I do my job at work – with unambiguous conviction and a joy, without being weird. That’s the lesson I’ve learned at work that had affected my personal life.
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