Can I Be a Loan Officer Without Communication Skills?

 

Would you be comfortable to coordinate a credit with a loan officer who can’t understand you and you can’t understand him? Who has no communication skills? I doubt it! To be a loan officer the communication skills are really important. They are essentials to do efficient and professional labors as a loan officer. Therefore, as college students who want to work in the professional´s field, we need to start to develop our communication skills with all the tools that we can get now. Further, even to get a job as a professional have grammar mistakes can make the difference between getting or not. (Kyle Wines, 2012)

 

According to Susan Adams, writer from Forbes magazine, grammar mistakes are becoming more frequent in the workplace. She indicates the vernacular language used on Facebook, twitter, texting, etc., arrives to the work communication as well, and the way that we write and speak tells about who we are. She wrote in the Forbes magazine “When you speak, you project your level of intelligence and thoughtfulness” (Adams, 2014). This is a strong opinion, but interesting because when readers or listeners have good grammar, they will find all the errors in the writer or talking, and yes, they can create an opinion about that person based on those errors. And to be a loan officer, do we want to our clients or boss to have a bad opinion about us because our grammar mistakes? I don’t think so. Kyle Wiens, CFO from iFixt, has a stronger opinion about people with a bad grammar as well. He wrote in Harvard Business Review (2012) why he won’t hire people who use poor grammar. He has rational reasons like people with poor grammar don’t pay attention to the details in their jobs, (even if the activities are different from writing) and they will need too much time to learn new things.

 

We have to consider those points of view, not only because they are right. Grammar is important to anyone who wants to succeed in professional life, not only as a loan officer. We are in a very competitive work field, and with more skills, more opportunities we will get. And, with these two strong opinions, good grammar can be the difference to get a job between us and others who want it too. With good grammar, we have the communication skills like writing and speaking. But, are they all the communication skills that we need to be a loan officer? Well, not really.

 

To be a loan officer, it is important to have the communication skills like listening, speaking, writing, reading and professional terminology as well. With good grammar we have the speaking and writing skills already. But we need the rest as well. According to U.S. Bereau of Labor Statistic website (“Occupational outlook handbook”, 2014), not all loan officers have a bachelor´s degree in business or finance programs. Therefore, even if they do not, it is important to have professional communication skills anyway because the loan officer needs to able to have good communication with the clients. The listening skill is essential to understand what the client needs; the speaking skill will help to the client understand the loan officer indications and explications. The writing, grammar and editing skills are important because the loan officer will need to write reports or other kinds of information to the person who will make the decision about the client´s loan, and will have to send information to the client too. The reading skill is important to understand the documents that the clients will bring and to understand other information that help to the loan officer makes a good assessment about the loan, and affect the clients payments like industry, economy, politic, etc. This information will have professional terminology to have to be understood to make the loan analysis. Additionally, the loan officer normally uses special software to help with the analysis and uses other software like MS office to communicate with the clients and the coworkers too. Therefore, it is important to know how to use the computer and communication tools like telephone, and fax. With those reasons, I need to start to develop my communication skills if I want to be a successful loan officer.

 

To develop the communication skills I have to use all the tools that I can get. As a college student, I have interesting seminars talking about how to develop skills and other themes. Listening in those seminars will help me to be familiar with professional communications, develop listening skill, learning vocabulary, grammar and even speaking skill too. Be part of the English class, help me with specific problems with the grammar, like punctuation, commas, etc., and I will increase our professional vocabulary as well. And the most important, the English class will make me practice them. So I have some tools to help me in the college and in class, but that is not enough. I need to work by myself too. I can read professional magazines, websites, and books, and even play word games, or watch the news or documentaries; all of them will help me to develop my grammar, extend my vocabulary, reading, writing, and finally help me to communicate as professionals.

 

As professionals, the communication skills are important if I want to have success. Good grammar tells about how I am as a person and as professional and, especially if I want to be a loan officer, I will need communication skills, like writing, reading, speaking and listening. Only depend on me to develop them, to work to get them, to work to be successful. I am beginning my career, I am a student with the tools, now is the moment to use them.

 

Works Cited

 

Adams, Susan. "Why Grammar Counts At Work." Forbes. 20 July 2012. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2012/07/20/why-grammar-counts-at-work/>.

“Loan Officer" Occupational Outlook Handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. <http://www.bls.gov/ooh/home.htm>.

 

Wiens, Kyle. "I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here's Why." Harvard Business Review. 20 July 2012. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. <https://hbr.org/2012/07/i-wont-hire-people-who-use-poo>.