Make the Most of Your Career

“A career at NPC is not always clearly defined. That’s the best part.”

“My advice to anyone just starting with NPC: come in and do a very, very good job at what you were hired for. It stamps your ticket to advance onto different things. Definitely don’t be afraid to tell everyone who will listen what you want to do with your career.”

Mike Hileman did just that. When he started with NPC in 2002, Mike was just looking for “a job to pay the bills.” His entry-level role as a document processor achieved that goal… for awhile. But Mike realized that he wanted something more.

Becoming the go-to guy

Mike discovered that becoming a subject-matter expert for a particular project catapulted him into a valuable position. By communicating with the customer on a daily basis, he was able to ask probing questions and listen closely to their answers. From there, he got a better sense of exactly what they needed and could bring that insight back to the team so that what NPC delivered was exactly right.

“If it’s on your mind, it’s your responsibility”

“I was given some good advice at the beginning of my journey toward growing into something more… ‘if it’s on your mind, it’s your responsibility to take care of it,’” Mike explains. With this in mind, he actively sought out more responsibilities within his department. “Don’t be afraid to say ‘I want that job’ or ‘I want your job.’ People in this organization don’t take that as a threat. They see it more like, ‘That’s a good, driven person that we want to work with.’”

Making our clients’ lives easier

Mike spent his pre-NPC days working in retail. “In that space, the customer tells you what they want and you tell them what is available. But NPC inverts that process. We constantly ask our customers what we can do to provide them better service and better meet their needs.” By trying to ease pain points from the clients’ businesses, Mike and his team took an active role in helping our clients support their businesses. “We’re trying to make our customers’ lives easier, not attempting to increase price or sell additional services.”

Mike has turned his drive and personal growth into a prominent leadership role within the company. He now leads 100+ employees as NPC’s Document Processing Manager, and continues to look for ways to better himself and the company.

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