Banking Careers – People who choose to go into banking should be well organized, enjoy numbers and money, and must have excellent math and computer skills. They should also have good communication skills, be good at dealing with people, and be service-oriented. Someone desiring to go into the banking industry must be good with detail and numbers. Financial institutions need to hire people who are trustworthy and honest as well as people who are able to read and calculate or balance numbers correctly.
- Anyone considering a career in a service industry should enjoy working with people and meeting their service needs. Working with people in a banking setting requires patience and acceptance of people from all walks of life and in all kinds of financial shape. Those who choose to do so will work with the specific transactional details of many different people. He or she will need to focus on the details of the transactions while making the customer feel satisfied and confident that the banking employee has successfully aided the customer with their service need.
- Applicants interested in going into banking should have at least a high school diploma or a GED for most entry-level positions. A college degree in accounting, finance, business, or other math-related field, such as actuarial science, credit analysis, or insurance will assist the job applicant not only when initially hired, but also when seeking promotions within the banking industry.
- As the banking industry today is computer-automated and dependent on the Internet for many transactions, banking professionals must be computer literate and must be proficient with accounting procedures and accounting software. If the employee is a trainee or a newly-hired person without that skill set, he or she must at least able to learn. This is not a career for a dyslexic person or someone who does not enjoy accounting, mathematical details, or adhering closely to many rules and regulations. A bank sells services and products that relate to money and interest, and these fields follow numerous and stringent rules. Add that to the many and various regulations, procedural rules, fair trade practices and consumer protections, and one can see that those who choose a career in banking should be comfortable with both the vagaries of the public as well as following many rules and regulations.
- A person with good people skills who is successfully able to troubleshoot issues and negotiate details might make a good mortgage broker. A person with good analytical skills who can see the “big” picture out of many numbers may make a great economic analyst. Someone who has the skill of managing people and encouraging teams of people to work well together might make a good bank manager. A lawyer who enjoys digging into the details of a fraudulent financial scheme, with pages and pages of numbers and contracts, may be a great legal analyst for a regulatory body. A person who prefers to work 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, perhaps because of family issues, may enjoy working as a bank teller at a small local bank. Someone who prefers to work nights, weekends, or varying shifts and who likes to work at a computer and a telephone may make an excellent loan officer for an online bank.
Banks offer many job opportunities, schedules, duties, and career path options for people today, for those with a high school education as well as those with secondary degrees. Most banking firms offer excellent benefits, including medical insurance and disability insurance, sick leave and vacation, and retirement options. Banking firms are highly regulated and supervised financial operations, making them excellent environments for a safe, pleasant, and rewarding places to work. These careers offer integrity and stability.
Source: Banking Info