Banking is one of the popular career choices among the career aspirants. Banking jobs are not only for commerce/economics students but it is for arts, science and engineering students. Banks are now appointing management graduates, CAs and CFAs but still bright graduates from any subject can get entry in the Public sector Banks through All India Bank Examination. Banks provides money for various development work and thereby generate thousands of jobs and career opportunities. 

Now banks are in diverse fields like the mutual funds, securitisation business, credit cards, housing loans, trading in gold and forex activities. The joining a Public sector Bank as Probationary Officer (Direct Officer) on the basis All India exam has become a stepping stone for the career growth in the Banking Industry. The private sector banks like IDBI, ICICI, etc are more technology savvy and offer better salaries. Foreign Banks are the most sought after due to their attractive salary packages. The Reserve Bank of India as well as all the other nationalized banks recruits personnel in clerical Grade, Grade A Officers and Grade B Officers. The globalization and privatization has resulted in growth and diversification of banking sector. This has generated enormous job opportunties in the fianance sector. 

Bank sector offers very attractive pay packages. Especially foreign banks provide very good pay packages to their employers.

Public sector Banks recruit mainly graduates for Clerical and Probationary Officer posts on the basis of All India Level examination. These jobs require a strong understanding of accounting. Graduates with commerce/economics are desirable candidates but any one from any stream can enter into this service by qualifying the exams conducted by banks. Foreign Banks prefer take MBAs,CAs, CFAs, etc. through campus interviews.

• Good communication skills.
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to deal with customers.
• Good knowledge about information technology.
• An alert nature and basic knowledge of the industry.
• Good analytical and creative ability.
• Strong mathematical skills.
  

If you record “Yes” for maximum questions then it indicates that you have potential for perusing career in the field of Banking.

• Do I like to play with numbers?
• Do I have better computing skills?
  
• Do I have ability for analysing numerical data?
  
• Do I have analytical skills?
  
• Do I have practical business sense?
  
• Do I have good decision power?
  
• Do I have good knowledge of economics and investments?
  
• Do I have sound knowledge of management and general marketing?
  
• Do I love systematic way of working?  
  
• Do I like to work for several hours (8-12hrs or more) per day in an office?
  
• Do I have ability to work with a team?
  
• Do I think logically and then take decisions?
  
• Do I have computing and interpreting skills?
  
• Do I have organizational and administrative skills?
  
• Do I read budgets, business news and economic reviews?
  
• Do I give utmost importance to the accuracy?
  
• Do I have good computer skills?
  
• Are I ready to learn and adopt new methodologies?
  

• Personnel 
  
• Marketing: Designing campaigns to promote new and existing services, researching customers' banking habits to find new opportunities for the bank.
  
• Operations: Processing transactions and loans, researching new technology or different working methods to increase the bank's efficiency.
• Electronic Services: Writing a new section on the bank's website, developing interactive digital TV banking services.
• Card Services: Authorizing and issuing cards and managing transactions.
• Credit and Risk: Analysing loans and deciding whether to approve them.

• Accountants and auditors
  
• Bill and account collectors
• Bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks
• Branch managers
• Chief executives
• Computer and information systems managers
• Computer programmers
• Computer software engineers
• Computer support specialists
• Computer systems analysts
• Credit analysts
• Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks
• Customer service representatives
• Executive secretaries and administrative assistants
• Financial analysts
• Financial managers
• General and operations managers
• Human resources, training, and labour relations specialists
• Loan interviewers and clerks
• Loan officers
• Management analysts
• Marketing and sales managers
• Personal financial advisors
• Tellers

 Job descriptions:

•  Book Keeping and Auditing Clerks: They record and classify the financial data. They keep on track of the financial records.
• Branch managers: They are responsible for overseeing all activities in branch including opening new accounts, loan origination, solving customer problems,  foreign exchange and safe deposit boxes. Most importantly, they are responsible for establishing relations with customers.
• Financial Managers: They formulate financial policies and also help in its implementation. They make business forecasts, formulates strategies so as to minimize losses in the insurance sector of banks, prepares financial reports that reflect the financial health of the bank and monitor the flow of cash.
• Bill and Account Collectors: Collects the money overdue from the debtors.
• Loan Officers (credit analysts): They check the eligibility and creof all the individuals seeking loans from the Bank. They check their credit worthiness. A thorough evaluation of the loan is carried out.

• Private sector banks.
  
• Public sector banks.
  
• Foreign banks.
  
• Co-operative banks
  
• Corporate banks.
  

• Indian Institute of Banking and Fianance offers Certificate courses, Diploma courses, Managment courses in Banking. http://www.iibf.org.in
• B.Com and M.Com. corses
• MBA Finance.

• National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM), Pune- 411048 www.nibmindia.org
• Centre for Advanced Financial Studies, Institute for Financial Management & Research ( IFMR), Chennai. Website www.ifmr.com
  
• The Indian Institute of Banking and Finance. Mumbai. Website www.iibf.org.in
  
• University of Madras, Centenary Buildings, Chennai www.unom.ac.in
  
• The Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh www.amu.ac.in
  
• Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar www.annamalaiuniversity.ac.in
  
• Sri Venkateshwara University, Tirupati www.svuniversity.in
  
• SNDT Women's University, Mumbai www.sndt.digitaluniversity.ac
  
• Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology, IDRBT www.idrbt.ac.in
  

1. Bank Clerk: Eligibility Criteria: Should be within the age of 18 - 28 years, a degree or equivalent in any discipline or must be a pass out of 12th/11th/ Intermediate/ Diploma in banking or any other equivalent examination, with at least 55% marks, good communication skills with fluency in English and a certificate in computer programs. Selection: The Written test that would be conducted by the Concern Bank consist of objective questions on i) Reasoning ability ii) Numerical ability iii) English iv) Banking Awareness, Socio-Economic v) Clerical aptitude and vi) computer awareness. There is a negative marking for wrong answers. Based on the scores of the test, merit list candidates are for the interview and selected finally.

2. Probationary Officer: Eligibility Criteria: Should be within the age group of 21- 30 years, a degree in any discipline from a renowned university and certificate of basic knowledge in computers.  Selection: On the basis of the scores of the written test and interview. Written test is objective type that consist of quantitative aptitude, reasoning, English & Marketing Aptitude, Socio economic and banking awareness. Remuneration: The salaries in this sector ranges from Rs.10,000-1,00000 per month Professionals like MBAs, CAs and CFAs recruited in this sector get very high pay packages. 

Tips for getting through bank examinations: 

•  Strong determination and exclusive focus on bank examination.
• Studying right material for the examination.
• Keeping updated information about banking sector.
•  Practicing vocabulary.
• Time management in paper solving.
• Leaving aside doubtful questions at the time of examination and attempting easy questions first.
• Do not adopt any unfair means.
•  Practice of previous year question paper sets.
•  Reading of news-paper daily and noting down the important news.
• Solving of practice sets per day without any gap.
  

• Outside India, an individual who has undergone the rigors of a banking course can get lucrative jobs like Project Finance Manager, Equity and Fixed Income Settlements Specialists, Commercial Finance Manager, Compliance Officer, Corporate Banking Trade Analyst, Cash Management Operator and Consumer Banking Asset Operator
• One can also look for various other job profiles like Business Analyst, Market Risk Analyst, Corporate Banking Credit Analyst, Consumer Banking Asset Operation Manager, Forex Head and Corporate Banking Branch Head, in banks like ABN AMRO, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Citi Bank, Dresdner Bank, Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and many others.

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