A Banker Goes to the Zoo
Let's look at the experience of Frank Reilly and his unusual career switch. "They made me an offer I couldn't refuse" is Reilly's explanation for his sudden transition from senior vice-president in the corporate corridors of the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City to assistant director of the Baltimore Zoo. "It was something I never expected," says Reilly.
Fate intervened recently when the bank offered a number of employees the option of voluntary retirement and said, "Look, this is it. You have until the end of November to make your decision, and one week to revoke that decision, and it's effective December 31."
Reilly says, "I had no plans to do this. I was extremely happy and pleased with my career. It was a circumstance, not something I had been anticipating, or planning. The bank never had, based on my 30-year career, a voluntary retirement program."
Reilly decided to take the money and run. He had been working for Chase Manhattan for 30 years. "I was basically for two-thirds of the time a domestic officer, and one-third international. Most of my career revolved around lending as a credit officer or as a manager of credit officers."
Reilly, a thoughtful man, had no specific job in mind. But about that time the board of trustees of the Baltimore Zoo commissioned an executive recruiter to find candidates for the job of assistant director. The recruiter happened to call the Chase Manhattan human resources department at the time the bank announced its early retirement program. "By fortunate happenstance," says Reilly, "the recruiter spoke to a friend of mine in human resources who knew I was retiring. My friend called me and my first reaction was one of great mirth, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was something to look into."
Reilly left the bank at the end of December and was interviewed for the job at the end of January. "I went quietly mad for that one month I wasn't working," says Reilly. "I dismantled my snowblower and put it back together again. I cleaned the cellar. I took walks. I read books, I tried cross-country skiing. There's a certain franticness to show you are truly happy with your leisure."
Define Your Objectives
When Reilly decided to leave the bank, he had four basic objectives for a new job. In his words:
- I wanted to do something I enjoy.
- I wanted to do something I was good at, administering, and developing.
- I wanted to get paid for it. By pay I mean had I elected to go to school, I would have gone for credits as opposed to audit.
- Lastly, and this is the one I had the most difficulty with, I wanted to grow at whatever I was going to do.
The zoo is run by the Maryland Zoological Society, Basically it is 160 acres in the city of Baltimore, with about 45 acres under exhibit. Reilly is responsible for all aspects of administration.
"Reporting to me," he says, "are the bird department, the mammal department, veterinarian-we have a large hospital - horticulture, finance, and construction. We're the third oldest zoo in the United States. We have a staff of approximately 120 people, and we have an annual budget of about $5 million."
Reilly likes his new job and claims it's challenging. "Zoo people are dramatically different," he says. "They have more common sense than they have a right to have. They are very pragmatic. They couldn't care less where you come from as opposed to what you can do to make the zoo, or their jobs, function smoothly. It's very much 'prove yourself and you are accepted.' The work is such and the staffing so thin that people have to have a camaraderie and common interest to make the place work. It doesn't lend itself to any sort of pulling or tugging."
Reflecting on his past, Reilly says, "One of the questions I wanted answered was as a senior vice-president had I become such a specialist that I required a sophisticated infrastructure to support me? Or could I operate in a minimum infrastructure and be a generalist?
"I was intrigued by that, and whether or not I had been such a unique specialist at Chase. Whether or not I could adapt to a more rough-and-tumble environment that had none of the cultural accoutrements that I had been working with for more than 30 years. It was a sense of whether or not you can make it in a different league.
"The essence of staying young is the ability to change. That's the key. If you want to take your experience of 30 years, you really have to adapt it to today. It is not something that comes without change.
"You are going to do something. Do something that is pleasant and fulfilling. You've got to stay active. I don't think you can make a total career change to one of leisure after going to New York every day. It would not be a satisfying change.
"I learned more about biology and zoology than I ever thought existed. It's a whole new world that I was exposed to, having been in finance. I'm intrigued by these people who do so well, devote their time to the care of animals and conservation, which I am appalled I never had a sense of before coming here. You have to do something that permits you to grow, which makes you expand, makes you feel valuable."
