A former intern at Disney World, Vanessa Silveira has brought that Disney magic to her job as training manager at the state’s largest credit union.
Silveira grew up in Salem and graduated from UMass Dartmouth in 2006 with a degree in business management. At the time she was contemplating a career in hospitality, hence the Disney internship. But she made a U-turn a year later when she returned to Massachusetts and took a job as branch sales and service representative at Metro Credit Union’s main headquarters in Chelsea.
“I was not looking to land in banking or a credit union, but I was young and thought I’d give it a try. It’s been a really good fit,” Silveira said.
With her enthusiasm and skills, she rose quickly through the ranks, and in May 2009 became one of the youngest branch managers at Metro’s new location in Peabody. Silveira, who also lived in Peabody, soon became involved in every aspect of her work and community. She joined the Peabody Rotary Club, where she has held several officer positions, including president, and was twice awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship in recognition of her contributions to the Peabody community.
“Our motto is ‘Service Above Self,’” Silveira said of her Rotary work. “I’ve always felt the need to do more and give more than myself. We can’t live in a bubble. Our lives are not just about our own little world. Everything we do affects everybody around us.”
Silveira is also involved in several service projects for the Peabody Chamber of Commerce, has worked with the community’s food pantry and housing shelters and organizes Team Metro every year for the North Shore Cancer Walk in Salem.
As part of her job as branch manager, she also managed the credit union’s high school branch, mentoring several high school students, some of whom became summer interns – and a few permanent employees – in the Peabody branch. At the high school, she promotes financial literacy among young people through her work with the Massachusetts School Bankers Association. Her financial literacy team at Peabody High School won at least one award in each competition every year at the Annual Banker’s Bowl held at the Federal Reserve.
Silveira left the Peabody branch to become Metro’s first fulltime training manager in May 2016.
“The bank had grown so much we had a need for more training resources,” she explained.
Silveira now coordinates all staff training for Metro’s 300 employees, who are spread across 15 branches, including onboarding, orientation, systems training, project implementation training and more. She also does all the training at Metro’s two high school branches in Peabody and Chelsea.
“I’m still involved with the high school students, which I love,” Silveira said. “I’ve been very blessed to work for an organization that is the largest in Massachusetts, yet is still very small. We’re like a family, a community where everybody knows everybody. You can build deep relationships with your coworkers. It helps us accomplish good things.”
