The Ohio State University Alumna. Chicago-land Native. Associate Project Manager.

Name: Katie P.
Job Title: Associate Project Manager – Card Operations and Decision Management

The road to Discover
At OSU, I graduated with my degree in Finance from Fisher College of Business. During my senior year I accepted a position in the Operations Leadership Program (OLP) here at Discover. The OLP is a 2 year rotational program. My first year was in Customer Service, as a Team Leader, before rotating to Customer Protection Services. Currently, I am doing project work and will be completing the program this summer and just celebrated my 2 year anniversary this past May.

Embracing Change
I had the incredible opportunity to work in collaboration with our Talent Acquisitions team in recruiting our most recent OLP cohort. Like many of my fondest experiences at Discover, it was one that pushed me out of my comfort zone. Representing the other members of the program and the supporting Senior Management was a new leadership experience for me. We really dug into the current process to understand improvement opportunities for both the business and candidate experience. Co-leading these improvements with the recruiter (who had phone screened me just 2 years prior) was a blast, and I was fortunate to gain a much better understanding of their side of business. This particular experience was a milestone in defining goals for the early stages of my career.

I learned quickly when I started that I wasn’t great with change. Since then, I’ve since focused a lot of my personal growth on embracing it. Change is constant at Discover; and while it only seeks to be positive, it often can do the opposite on people’s emotions, thus impacting their outlook on their work. Understanding the “why” behind a new direction has not only helped me, but has allowed me to be effective in helping others manage change.

Develop Yourself through Developing Others
Since starting at Discover I’ve always really enjoyed learning about and discussing people’s career aspirations; so meeting and interviewing the candidates was extremely rewarding. My unchallenged top priority as a leader is to make those on my team, as well as outside of it, happy at work. I work towards that goal by remaining open myself. I encourage openness and positivity with the customer-facing staff I lead; which only stands to foster the most genuinely positive experience for our customers.

There are countless opportunities and benefits open to everyone at the company to further their growth and development. The leadership around me has always taken high interest in my goals and aspirations. They’ve also aligned me with opportunities I never imagined I’d have at this point in my career. In short, I feel incredibly fortunate for the way I’ve continuously been challenged in both my work and personal growth.

Advice for Discover and Beyond
At Discover or not, my advice is to build your career at a company where you truly believe in their mission. My first credit card was a Discover card well before I began working here. Whenever I needed to call Discover Customer Service, I always loved the way that I was treated. Fast forward, I am sitting on the other side with the opportunity to lead those same wonderful individuals talking to customers, just like me. With your job and career being such a large portion of your life, I think it’s necessary to work somewhere that you fundamentally believe in what you’re doing. At Discover, that’s been seamless for me.