All About Careers in the Banks

Banks are going to recruit over seven lakhs professionals by 2016 and among these, over four lakhs jobs are at the entry level positions for fresh graduates. This article takes a close look at the different career opportunities available in banking.

It cannot be denied that banking has emerged as one of the biggest recruiters among the different financial services. In addition to creating large number of jobs, banking jobs are more stable compared to other financial services.

Financial Services

Although, there are varied types of jobs available in the financial services, but we will consider jobs meant for graduates, who are aspiring for jobs in this sector.

It should be noted at the outset that students pursuing any degree course can enter this sector for a thriving career. It is not limited to commerce or management graduates to join the sector. Here we will discuss more on mass employment opportunities and not on jobs with few openings.

Financial services companies are broadly divided in three categories:

· Banks

· Insurance companies

· Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs)

The NBFCs are mostly into multiple businesses like capital markets, lending, asset management, wealth management, etc.

There are 5 categories of Banks. These are:

· Public sector banks – State Bank, United Bank, etc.

· Private sector banks – HDFC, ICICI, Axis, Yes bank, Kotak Mahindra, etc.

· Foreign banks – Citibank, Standard Chartered, HSBC, Barclays, etc.

· Regional rural banks – Gramin banks

· Cooperative banks – Greater Bombay co-op bank, Abhyudaya co-op bank, etc.

In spite of the large number of banks, access to banking services still remain underpenetrated. Over twenty-five percentage of the population does not have access to the financial services sector. Hence these remain largely untapped and provide enough opportunities in the coming years. Given the rise in income levels and the use of latest technology, banking sector is expected to grow 4-5 times of its current size by 2020. The number of people who will be directly employed in banking sector is expected to be over 2 million.

Currently about 60% of people are employed in operations, 30% in sales and 10% in support functions.

How to start a career in banking?

The recruitment process in public sector banks starts with a selection process at entry level. The Institute of Banking Personal selection (IBPS) conducts the Common Written Exam (CWE) for 19 public sector banks. The marks scored at the CWE are used to shortlist candidates for Probationary officers (PO), Clerical cadre, and Specialist officers. The shortlisted candidates appear for group discussion and finally personal interview and the combined scores of both the stages are taken for the final selection.

Separate written test and interview are conducted by the State Bank for recruiting clerical cadres and PO posts. For regional rural banks (RRBs), recruitment is done by IBPS through a test. Private sector banks conduct their own tests and interviews for recruitment at the entry level. These banks have their in-house programs for training to improve skills of the employees.

In conclusion, there is a huge opportunity available in the banking sector for students doing graduation in any stream. A good number of courses are available that provide coaching to help students prepare for the selection process of the jobs in this sector.

Source by Subhashish Bose