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8/10/2019 Banking Careers Are Booming
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BANKING CAREERS ARE BOOMING
With the financial crises of the late 2000s, bank careers went into in a severe slump, making it
difficult to find employment in this field. However, if you're concerned that it's going to be
more difficult to find a job in banking than in other careers, don't be. Your concerns were
warranted, but the worst of the crisis has passed, according to most experts. Making things
even better is the fact that many banks and other financial institutions will be doing "catch up"
hiring, to make up for the years when they did no hiring at all. So the next few years look
extremely favorable for the field. Keep reading our site to find out all you need to know about
landing the career of your dreams.
Banks and credit unions sell and service a myriad of financial products, and collectively hold
billions of dollars in assets, commercial and personal accounts, and policies. The people who
are employed in various banking positions manage all manner of money transactions made by
banks and credit unions every day. Banks can be small, locally owned banks in rural areas, withlocal customers who are loyal to the bank owners and managers who are their neighbors.
Careers at these banks tend to be very stable, longstanding jobs, with close relationships among
the local residents and customers. Banks can also be huge multi-national financial institutions
that handle millions of transactions daily. Large financial institutions and credit unions offer
various options for the person seeking a position in a financial institution, with vast
opportunities for advancement and promotion within the large departments of the company.
The history of banks and the people who work with money goes back to ancient times in Persia
around the year 300 AD when “bankers” issued letters of credit to “borrowers”.
The word “bank” comes from the ancient Italian word “banca”, which meant a bench or a
counter. Italian bankers during the Renaissance times of high international trade plied their
business of money changing and lending from “bancas” or benches set up as tables in bustling
market squares.
In the United States, most banking business has been derived from English common law
regarding banks, with significant changes over the centuries, particularly those that have
become law after directives from Congress and other federal institutions. Generally, banking
business is defined as holding money for customers, paying money drawn on customers’accounts, loaning money to customers, and collecting interest from borrowers. The same
business model applies to credit unions and savings and loan institutions, with some exceptions
for market focus in these firms. Banking for centuries was conducted entirely by the various
staff employed by the banks, and accounts were recorded by the hand of a bank employee.
Since the advent of computers, the Internet, and EFTPOS (electronic funds transfer at point of
sale) it may seem that computers might someday replace nearly all the jobs in banking in the
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past. Nothing could be further from the truth, as banks are bigger than ever, employ more
people than ever in the past, and many jobs and duties must still be handled or overseen by a
person.
Banks and credit unions employ many people for various positions. At the core of a bank are
bank tellers, bank or branch managers, loan and mortgage officers, credit analysts, and office or
administrative staff.
Larger banks employ many different levels of each of those five positions, according to the
responsibility of the position. Additionally, larger banks also employ other company staff, such
as human resources, personnel, payroll, information technology (computers and software), and
marketing staff, similar to what would be found at any large company
QUALITIES REQUIRED TO SUCCEED IN BANKING
People who choose to go into banking should be very 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. As the federal government regulates many
aspects of the banking industry, individuals looking for careers in the financial
Banking: Is It The Job For You? industry should be able to adhere to all the rules and regulations
that banks must follow.
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 GEDfor 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
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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 andvarious 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 supervisedfinancial operations, making them excellent environments for a safe, pleasant, and rewarding
places to work. These careers offer integrity and stability.
Advantages of Careers in Banking
There are many advantages to these careers. A position in banking is a good fit for a person
who enjoys working with both numbers and the public. Working directly with the public can be
both stimulating and exciting – but it takes a special person with a patient temperament.
Working with the public can be difficult at times, but it can also be very rewarding. If you like
numbers and accounting, but maybe don’t especially like working with the public, you mightenjoy being an actuary. If you like working with people and counting money but don’t like a lot
of responsibility and don’t like research, you might enjoy being a bank teller or a mortgage
broker.
Most retail banks, with a few exceptions, offer daily shift times and allow most employees to
enjoy free time on weekends, evenings, and holidays. Usually, credit unions and banks are
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rarely open on holidays, but some call centers and retail banks, particularly those located inside
a grocery store or department store, are frequently open on weekends and some evenings. The
advantage for professionals who choose banking is that they can frequently choose to go to
work for a bank with a schedule that will fit the needs of their personal life.
Most banks have excellent benefit packages, offering medical, dental, and life insurance
benefits as well as retirement plan options and personal or sick leave days and vacation
benefits. Offices are always clean and pleasant, heated or air conditioned, since personal
comfort, both for the employee as well as for the customer, is of utmost importance. Banks are
required to be regularly examined and audited, and must follow many regulations and
procedural rules and fair trade practices, making a bank or a regulatory agency a highly
supervised and safe environment for all employees.
Banking institutions offer many opportunities for advancement, and many banks will even pay
for or reimburse the talented employee for continuing education courses, as well as coursestoward a college degrees, with some requirements. Banks and banking regulatory agencies
offer many opportunities for advancement for ambitious professionals. A skilled and
knowledgeable banking professional will be in demand for promotions both within his or her
own bank (depending on the bank’s size), as well as in other competing banks with similar
departments. Banking is an industry that is not projected to go away in the near or far future--
far from it. With the growing economy in many developing countries as well as our own, and
with the continuous growth in population, there will continue to be a growing need for banks to
hold and loan money, to make monetary transactions, and to keep hiring people.
Disadvantages of Bank Careers
One of the biggest disadvantages of bank careers is that serving the public can often be
extremely stressful. Money issues are sensitive topics for most people, and customers can be
quite rude and may become irate if the transaction is not correct or not handled perfectly to
their satisfaction. A banking professional must be willing to work tactfully and carefully with a
bank’s customers, and must be able to confidently and correctly handle all banking
transactions.
To work in the banking industry, the professional must be good with numbers, cash, and
money, and must be able to be patient and diligent in the accounting duties.
This is not a career for someone who is casual with finances. The professional must be willing to
take the responsibility of large amounts of money and must be able to carefully account for all
the monies under his or her care.
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This is also not a career for someone who dislikes using the computer or an adding machine –
nor is it a career for someone who hates to balance a checkbook.
While there are a myriad of possible career choices in banking, they all center around two
things: money, and the accounting of money.
To be successful, the banking employee must enjoy wearing professional dress such as a suit,
dress shirt and tie for men, or a pantsuit, dress, or skirt suit for women, and dress shoes. A
person who prefers the casual dress of jeans and t-shirts or a uniform shirt and khaki pants may
feel out of place dressing to impress in a bank setting. The practice of a professional dress code
for the banking industry came from the need to portray both an attitude of wealth and strength
along with a conservative and professional attitude toward the money that the bank holds on
behalf of its customers. In the banking industry, casual dress may infer that “we play around a
lot and don’t care what we do or what we look like”, but a professional, understated, wardrobe
is supposed to convey the message that “we pay attention to detail and take care with yourmoney”.
Some positions require that employees stand on their feet all day, such as a bank teller. Others
demand that the employee stay at a desk, hunched over the computer screen, crunching
numbers or formulating reports. A person would be well advised to determine all the negatives
and weigh them against the benefits before deciding on a career in the banking field.