Tyler Steinke’s move back to his hometown of Hibbing after college was a bit of an unknown. Post-graduation, there weren’t a great number of jobs for someone with a degree in mathematics, which prompted the move home. Tyler managed to land entry-level employment at U.S. Bank’s Hibbing office, but he kept scouring help-wanted ads in the area. When he had a chance to apply for the position of credit analyst at Grand Rapids State Bank, he was all in.
“Since I had little experience as an analyst, my first assignment was to learn as much as I could from Steph Gambill, who was a credit analyst and is now Vice President-Business Banking,” Tyler explained. “I was her right-hand man, assisting wherever I could and absorbing as much on-the-job learning as I could.”
Tyler’s primary role as credit analyst is to gather and analyze financial data to assess a new or existing loan applicant’s creditworthiness. In that capacity he works with Steph Gambill and Nate Lloyd in evaluating business loans. Another aspect of his job is managing the process of securing appraisals for home mortgages, a role that requires working with the bank’s personal lenders, Dale Rosier and Cory Colter.
“The bank is obliged to keep an arms-length relationship with appraisers,” Tyler said. “The regulators don’t want lenders developing cozy relationships with appraisers who might skew their evaluations, so my role is to keep the appraisal process operating smoothly and without interference.”
Tyler knew he’d feel at home working with numbers in the credit analyst role, but he discovered that what he truly likes about the work is having an opportunity to help small business owners meet their objectives.
Tyler explained: “I find it especially satisfying, as I review the commercial credits annually, to help answer the question: did our bank help that customer do what they wanted to do?”
One aspect of the job Tyler finds challenging is not having a great deal of personal contact with those same customers. Even though he spends lots of time understanding the details of each customer’s loan, he’s not usually in personal contact with those folks.
“One of my career goals is to follow the path to becoming a lender,” said Tyler. “The work I’m doing is a great foundation for that possibility; the job is really built to show you the ropes when it comes to lending to businesses, and I look forward to the time when I’ll have an opportunity to grow.”
When he’s not working, Tyler confesses that he “spends way too much time at the Itasca County Family YMCA.”
“I really like to stay active, and working out at the Y on a near-daily basis, especially during these winter months, helps me keep some balance to my life,” he said. “And when I’m not working out, I like to watch all kinds of sports.”
He also spends time hanging out with his girlfriend who, for the time being, works in Duluth.
Tyler believes that the local economy seems to be in a good spot, and that people are adjusting to interest rates that aren’t at all-time lows as they were during the COVID years.
“People seem more comfortable starting projects now; they’re not waiting to see if there is another shoe to drop,” he explained. “Those COVID days really tested us. There were so many unknowns, we just pitched in and worked. I can honestly say the busiest days of my career were the several months of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), when Grand Rapids State Bank was one of the first banks in the region to mobilize to process the flood of loan applications and follow-up paperwork.”
Now that he’s more established in his banking career, Tyler credits his colleagues in the lending department with his success.
“We genuinely enjoy one another’s company,” he added, “and we even get along outside of the bank. Most of the team has been in place throughout all my seven years here, and we’re a cohesive work group.”