 Hi, my name is Sharon Nelson, HR manager responsible for talent acquisition for the City of Columbia. Talent in the City is our effort to highlight and showcase the departments with the City of Columbia, the department's impact players, as well as the talent who make the City run every single day. These impact players and departments oftentimes don't get the spotlight that they deserve, so without them the City of Columbia would not run as a beautifully oiled machine that it is. The Payment Center takes various payments, water payments, parking tickets, and also we maintain the bank drafts. So when customers sign up for bank drafts, they can sign up and we maintain their account. We have three different areas in our department. We have a counting clerk position and they take in the payments. They take in any payments that come through, whether it be at the window or the drive-thru. And then we have an electronic clerk that takes in any payments that come through electronically on files. And then also we have our deposit clerk that takes in all the payments that come into the City of Columbia. Any monies that come in, any department that makes deposits, they bring all their deposits here and our deposit clerks make the deposits. Well I started here at the City of Columbia in 2019. I've been with the City for five years. I started off as my counting clerk, taking payments in with the City of Columbia. And then in eight months I was elevated to electronic clerks and that's where we take payments in electronically. It's been a couple months since I got promoted again and I became the Deputy Payment Center Administrator. So that's my journey here with the City through the five years I've been working here so far. Working for the City is a great thing. Not only are the benefits great, but the growth path is great. It's always open to not only grow within your department, but you can move around in the City too. We have a lot of different departments within the City, so if you come in and you start off with one position, you might see another one in a different department say, hey, you know, I think I might want to try this out, you can move around. Me personally, I love where I'm at, so, you know, this suits me best. So I'm just going to continue on my growth path going up the ladder, but for others that, you know, might come in and say, hey, you know, I think I want to try something else. It's always open to move around because, again, it's so many different departments that you can go to. Coming back to the City of Columbia, it felt like home. So when I came back to the City of Columbia in 96, I started out in Municipal Court and still not knowing what I wanted to do with the City, I was able to move back to the Payment Center. At the Municipal Court, I moved in the Payment Center, and I worked in the Payment Center for a little while in the Eau Claire office. We had a separate office, and I worked there for a little while. Well, during that time period, the deposit clerks in our office decided to retire, so I was able to go and work. I was able to get that position for the deposit clerk. So I became a deposit clerk, and then later on, a deputy administrator position came open, and I was able to get that. I applied for that, and I was able to get that. And so by that time, we moved from my Laurel Street office to our Washington Street office. And later on, during that time period, our administrator, she retired, and so I applied for that position, and I've been in this position for 15 years now. We're all about cross-training. It's more of everybody gets a part in everybody's position. I think that's what helps, that needs to be across the city, is just cross-training. Because anything can happen, and in order to keep your business flowing, I think cross-training is very important, and so that's why we're real big on cross-training. I'm a very hands-on person, so the young lady who trained me was very detailed. When it came to training, she allowed me to take the wheel and sit in the back just to get my hands on things, and that's why I'm better at training with that. There was a lot of training here, and it was multiple training. I never felt rushed when training, so that was really good as far as my training experience. I really enjoyed my training experience, and it was fun. I got to learn new things, and they made it not so boring, because sometimes when training could be like a little draining, but my training was very good. So being able to share this building with customer care, it helps a lot. Customers is always saying, you know, I can't get through on the phone. I can't get through with the call center sometimes, but it's a great thing. When they come in, we're able to send them over there if they need adjustments with anything, their bill. We're able to, you know, get them to the person that they need to get to. It's just a big help. It helps us out a lot. Applying for the city, I would say go for it. I don't regret my decision coming from the city. I have grown with the job and just learning different things. So the city was a good look for me. No regrets. I love what I do. I love coming to work. I love meeting new people. So I would say from the pay, the benefits, just meeting people. It's coming to the city has definitely been a different journey for me, and I'm comfortable with, I can say, this is a place where I will retire from. I'm very confident in that. Yeah, I love the city. I love the city. Yeah. For more information about this position and its department, please visit www.columbiasc.gov.