What's it like to work at a bank?

I’m in the market for a new job. I’d like to be able to go to school for training, but ,alas, financially it isn’t a viable choice. I’m curious about working in a bank. I’m a quick learner and good with computers, and I think that the job would be within my skill levels. I have no idea of wages or job conditions, and I don’t know anyone who works at a bank.

Are any Dopers tellers, by any chance? How is the pay? And, most importantly, do you like your job?

Alexx

I thought it sucked. The pay was crap. You mostly do the same thing all day and put up with everyone’s attitudes. A lot of people think you are trying to steal their money. There’s a high chance of facinging down a gun as well. Of course, you’ve gotta pay the bills one way or another.

I work at Safeway right now, so I deal with monotony, attitudes, and accusations of stealing money already. But my complaints are another post entirely. We’ve gotten held up, too, but admittedly it’s a rarity.

I was a teller during the summer in high school, but it was a long time ago. It was basically a minimum wage job, but the working conditions were somewhat nicer than most. You still have to deal with some a**hole customers, though, and the richer they are, the more thoroughly right they always are, no matter what. It was very much an old-boys network then, too, though I would hope that things have improved somewhat.

If you are looking at it as a longer term career move, you should talk to someone at a bank. Tellers are not necessarily put into the way of promotions, unless you make it clear from the start that you want to work your way up.

Wow, I didn’t know tellers were paid so little. How does the bank expect them to dress professionally on such a paltry salary?

I’ve wondered the same thing about the women who work in department stores.

The worst thing about working in a bank is that money stops being this wonderful stuff, which you never have enough of, and becomes this annoying material you have to handle all day long, and still never have enough of yourself.

Also, since banks lose 4 times as much to embezzlement than by stick-ups, be prepared to be bonded and piss-tested and all that.

And if, in the first week, it looks like your head teller is going to be unpleasant to work for, don’t bother sticking around. In a reasonable amount of time, you will finally “click” with the system and be able to do your job almost on autopilot, but if he/she’s not supportive in the meantime, get out. That’s him/her on the honeymoon period, and he/she’s only going to get meaner when it’s over.

The answer about dressing professionally is the same for tellers and women in department stores: It’s your problem.

My husband’s mother sold furs for several big department stores. Poor pay, poor treatment, but she was expected to look and act like a million bucks. (She put up with it because she was raising four kids on her own.)

Maybe the pay for tellers is somewhat better than it used to be. I worked for a small local bank and only on summers and weekends. But there is no union and no special training required beyond the most basic high school math, so I wouldn’t think that things have improved spectacularly.

I was bonded (including lie-detector test), but not drug tested–this was back in the late 70’s, though.

It might not be a great first job, but if you’re a go-getter, it could lead to promotions, especially if you continue your education on off-hours or look promising to the suits.

The first 40-hour/week job I ever took was for a bank, in the lowly clearings department as a figure clerk. Not even teller status. All I did was add up stacks of checks (it was before checks could be read by optical readers). But I kept trying to improve the work flow, learned to use the fancy IBM proof machines, and after 6 months, the bank took notice. They offered to put me thru night-school college while training me to be an assistant auditor.

Instead, I quit to go back to college full-time – I had other plans that weren’t bank-compatible. But to this day, I wonder what might have happened if I had taken them up on their offer. I could see a VP in my future even then, yet all I had was a high school education.