Pros
I really wish I could share a pro about this job, but just can't think of anything other than the benefits are OK.
Cons
In this role, you will have very aggressive sales goals with many things hindering your ability to make those goals. Here is what you will not be told in the interview process. Not only will you have the responsibility of making aggressive sales goals, you will have to do at least three other jobs. 1. You will be running a teller drawer whenever a teller calls in sick, takes a leave of absence, is in a meeting, has a day off or is on vacation. This impairs your ability to close sales, which is not accepted as an excuse for not achieving your goal that given day. The teller position is a very high turnover job, which means you will be on the teller line quite a bit. 2. The financial center managers (FCM) find any & every excuse to be out of the branch, which means you are next in the chain of command. You will be doing the FCM's job, mostly dealing with angry customers. The FCMs never work Saturdays. So if you are short staffed, you will work EVERY Saturday. . 3.You will have a huge role in the day to day operations. The operations job used to be a full time position but was eliminated and the responsibilities distributed amongst the team. You will be...Opening/closing the branch, balancing the vault, preparing cash shipments, signing off on large deposits, managing the coin machine (which includes removing heavy bags of coins), and taking out garbage. If you don't take out the garbage, the garbage cans will overflow & the break room will smell. The cleaning people come when they want to, and do the bare minimum. Overall, the branches are dirty. When running a teller drawer, should you violate procedures, be out of balance...you will be written up & potentially fired. You will only get three days of teller training, thrown to the wolves & expected to know everything. Being a teller is the highest risk part of your job, unless you have had previous experience. The technology you will use is average at best. The lack of great technology will cause you a lot of extra work because it causes so many problems. The worst technology problems are the issues you will deal with when interacting with customers. And the means to fix these issues are very archaic and sometimes don't work, which means the customer will be at your desk multiple times in a state of frustration and anger. You will compete with your internal investment reps for business. For example...If the customer wants to renew a CD, then you will get the sales credit. If the investment rep works with the client and puts that CD money in an investment, then you will get zero sales credit towards you huge goals. Working with your internal business partners puts a feather in your cap and money in their pocket. You do the work, they will take the money. You will get a few points towards your sales goal, but that's about it. Online banking & other emerging technologies eliminate the need for customers to come into a bank. In this role, you will see very few clients,only those that are angry, want to close their accounts or need coin or a cashiers check. This means that you will have to be a telemarketer & make several out bound calls per day. There is nothing wrong with this business practice, except you will not be told that telemarketing is critical to having any hope in making your huge sales goals. Turnover is constant which means your branch will always be short staffed. You will have to do the tasks of those open positions until they are once again filled. Employees get written up and/or fired almost daily., so short staffing is epidemic. You will be under constant pressure to do questionable and unethical things to get sales. You will need to decide whether this is a risk you want to take in order to appease your manager & make your goals. If you report anyone for unethical practices, be very documented & be prepared for retaliation. Overall, you will be treated with a lot of disrespect, and expected to do more & more work without any additional compensation. It's a real sweat shop environment that would make sense to avoid. If you can find a better job, then take that path.
