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Hello! Welcome to the Careers for Kids podcast for kids learn careers. This is Maxwell Valencia.

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And this is Henry Morrison. And today we have Benjamin Oliva, a president of City Bank Savings

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and a financial advisor. Hello Mr. Oliva. Thank you for spending your time to be on Careers for

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Kids. Yep, you have a great interview. Now let's get started! Tell us what you currently do right now.

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Well good morning and good evening to you. And thanks for having me. I'm actually a financial

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advisor to several companies right now. Getting them access to funding and raising equities for

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them to expand their business. That's really cool. So tell us more about your career and

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how do you get to this position? Well ever since I started my career, maybe more than 50 years ago,

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I was involved in financing, consumer mortgages, corporate business, business lending,

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personal finance. So in the process I met a lot of people and these people when I retired approached

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me for help. That's how I got into this business. That's really cool. And I know you've heard a lot

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about your job. What part of your job do you enjoy the most and dislike the most? The part of my job

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that I enjoy the most is like it's helping people. Helping people build up their business,

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make them more profitable and in the process when they expand their business,

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it provides a lot more employment opportunities for other people. So it helps

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a jump start or it helps the economy. That's really cool. In general. I like that. But what part of your

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job do you dislike the most? What part of my job do I dislike the most? Actually not much.

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Except you know there are some maybe some disappointments. Oh. Because for example if

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let's say 10 people approach me and I'm only able to help eight of them then I'm you know I'm kind

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of disappointed not to help the other two. Oh I kind of get that. Yeah was this the dream job

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you imagined yourself doing as a kid? Actually no because when I was studying

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my dream job was to become a lawyer because my cousin was a very good lawyer. He was a top-notch

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lawyer and I thought that I would become a lawyer someday. You did? No I became an accountant.

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Oh. It was totally different. Yeah. So you know. Yeah were you happy with your choice instead of

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choosing a lawyer and going to accountant? Yeah it was looking back it was really a very productive

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career. Oh. Yeah. Isn't that lawyer also really good? What? Isn't that lawyer also a productive

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career? Yeah he is. He's a corporate lawyer. A big-time lawyer. He gets paid so highly and yeah he

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was involved in so many high profile cases which was you know published in the most

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most uh in the newspapers here in the Philippines. Oh. He was a graduate of Yale University. Oh that's

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crazy. Yeah you know Yale right? Yeah it's kind of hard like for a Filipino to get in such a college.

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He was a scholar in Yale. That's insane. Yeah and he was a graduate of cum laude in the in University

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of the Philippines. Incidentally Maxwell I also graduated cum laude with honors. That's really

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cool. Delasalle University with a degree of BSc commerce in accounting. Oh that's actually pretty

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cool like you kind of follow the footsteps of your grandpa. Yeah. Yeah like family.

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So um Maxwell's another question for you. Yes. Who were your main idols when you were very young?

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Doesn't necessarily have to be a lawyer or an accountant. It can be anyone. When I was

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still young very young at age my idol was one of your presidents John F Kennedy. Oh yeah. He was

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a great president. He managed successfully the Cuban crisis which prevented the nuclear holocaust

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which are down to the benefit of all future generations including you Maxwell and Henry.

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Yeah so um what what were the biggest uh sorry why did you pick this job? Like what made you do this?

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Like what made you go like switch from like not doing your job like your dream job as a lawyer

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to being an accountant? Yes I'm also kind of interested like well uh it was accidental actually

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uh well because uh when I graduated from commerce in Lasalle University

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uh I thought of you know just working for a year or two before I get into

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to studying law but uh I never got to do it. I met your nana Lynn Oliva. Oh yeah she introduced her.

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And he she was working in the same department as I am or company. So that's how you met?

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So we met and we got married so I had to pursue a different career to to support my family

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because we were not rich then. Yeah and what was your most biggest highlight of your career?

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Like if you looked at all your career what do you think was like your biggest highlight?

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Well uh I used to be the managing director of the credit card business of Citibank here in the Philippines

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and it was the biggest credit card business in all of the Philippines beating all local banks.

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That's really cool. And right after that I was promoted to become president of Citibank savings

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and that really was the highlight of my career. I would get that. Being a president of a banking

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institution. I like that. Being a president of a banking institution. That's crazy. How did you

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like feel about having all that power? Yes. Well it's really not having too much power. It's actually

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also aside from being you know productive for the for the business it's also helping

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a lot of people under me to build their careers while they're building their family,

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provide opportunities for others and that gave me some sort of you know good satisfaction.

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A lot of satisfaction helping people. Helping people yeah. So you like you love helping people?

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Sure because I come from a very poor family Maxwell. You did? Wasn't your dad rich?

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My dad wasn't rich he was just a government employee so you know as much as possible if I

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can help people in their careers find good jobs find good career opportunities. That's the way I

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give back to people. That's a really good like message like give back to the people. Yes yes.

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Yeah so what are some of the biggest challenges that you think can be solved by our generation

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Gen Z that you would want us to solve for you? You know that's a very good question. You know

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I never thought and experienced the effect of climate change in my generation. You know

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right now tornadoes and hurricanes are quite strong floods are you know everywhere not just

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in the U.S. but Asia or Europe. The Colorado River has lost 10 trillion cubic meters so your water

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is fast running out. The tremendous heat is triggering wildfires. Yeah so I think people

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of your generation has to be more serious and more passionate about you know addressing the

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climate change. Yeah adding on to that. What's this podcast? Like not just with climate change but

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with like careers and like problems around the world currently this is what our podcast is trying

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to like highlight so kids will be more serious and passionate like you said. Yeah and about you

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adding on to your thing I it's not very fair for the poor countries because the big countries

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are like the USA they're like contributing the most to climate change but the poor countries

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are suffering the most that they contribute the least that's very unfair. Well they don't have the

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money yeah and big countries like China are not I don't know if they're that serious of climate

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in addressing the climate change issue. Yeah and the poor countries like in Africa. You know

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when you know Maxwell when I went to Beijing yeah it was so hazy you know it's I thought it was just

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cloudy but I it was it was the you know it was the bad air that was causing the haziness in the

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in the weather. It's crazy like I don't think it's very did you get my point that's not fair

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for the other countries. Yes yeah I mean it like it's not just it's not just like the fact that

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the fact that it affects the poor countries it affects everybody around the globe. Yes. Like um

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I mean yeah I can't speak right now but basically it like I know as you said like USA and like the

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larger more populated countries are contributing more to it but it's affecting everybody too.

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Yes and yeah and if someone wants to follow in your footsteps in your careers what would you tell

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him or her like as an accountant or a financier. Well uh there's only two words that can uh

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that would describe it. It's it's work hard you know work hard if you want to do good

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good get a good education. When I say working hard it's not just working hard on your studies

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it's starting you know simple things in your daily life like doing errands for your mom

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doing household chores start something that would give you money you know even selling

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even selling lemonades that's good that's good that's a good start you know Warren Buffet.

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Warren Buffet? Buffet or Buffet? Buffet. Buffet sorry. He started he's I think he started selling

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newspapers when he was young. Yeah and that and that's that he's supposed to do that because it

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helps he helps you with having a business mind. Because when you start doing that you also

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realize the value of money you know. Yes. And when you try when you realize the value of money you

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don't spend it so you spend it smart you don't just spend for things that you don't need. Yeah

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I agree um I feel like money like just like to you is like worth a lot more when you actually make it

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and I know me and Max will have made like a couple like like a dollar or so at most off of this podcast

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but like it's it means a lot to us. Yeah. You know I had a client I do have time I had a client who

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didn't have uh who just graduated from high school but he was so persistent in you know in

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in getting successful he used to be a vendor in the market then he became a messenger then he became

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an fx dealer you know trading currencies. Yep. He's a very big he's worth more than uh 20 million

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dollars. That's crazy. Yeah it's it's it's how you how persistent you are how passionate you are

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and how disciplined you are you know in trying to get where you want to go. Yeah I get that.

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Yeah me and Max will like we have a vision of like we just have a vision for this podcast

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and like we share that same vision and this is why ever this is why you're talking to us right now.

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We want to push our goals to inspire so many kids. Well I like I really like what you're doing.

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Thank you. We're never gonna quit probably we're just gonna keep on. We're gonna okay

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until we are not going to stop until we inspire as many children as we feel is needed.

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Yes. Wow wow that's nice. You're on the right track both of you. Thank you.

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I think Henry has a question. Yeah I do. What is your main life advice for kids listening to this podcast?

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What is what? Your main life advice. Main life advice?

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Well just be true to yourself. Be kind to people try to pay it forward you know both of you have

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are getting good education and if you want if you have the time get exposed in helping you know

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people in need. I like that that's very good advice. Yeah. And thank you so much Mr. Levo for

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allowing us to interview you. I'm sure more kids will be inspired to take a path of finance and go

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to business school because of this interview. To whoever is listening. Thanks for listening to the

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Three Years for Kids podcast. Hope you enjoyed the episode and we will see you in the next one. Bye.