Working In Banking

Working in banking either conjures up two images, one of tellers sat behind a counter at Barclays telling you how little money you have or the mysterious suited people who work behind the scenes. Banking is a very lucrative business sector that offers very high salaries and great bonuses. But with these highly tempting positives come a lot of hard work and many long hours that may conflict with your personal life.
When it comes to deciding where to work within this sector, then there are plenty of business and companies to work for. You can work for commercial banks, building societies, investment banks, broking firms and financial advisors.
Roles within the banking sector also differ wildly and are not always clear cut. Banking can be roughly split into two camps, retail banking and investment banking and these areas can also be found within the same companies and organisation. High street banks will have both corporate and investment banking operations.
Retail banking is the financial services you will find in your high street banks and are offered to small business and individual customers. These services include safe keeping of money, transferring funds between accounts, providing loans, exchanging foreign money, providing advice, mortgages, insurance and stock broking.
Working within retail banks will involve managing staff, advising customers, authorising overdrafts and loans and creating and developing local business links. These roles tend to mix banking, marketing and human resource management.
Investment banking involves providing financial services and advice to commercial, industrial and government organisations.
Your role will deal with aspects of corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, stock exchanges, arranging loans for corporations and government bodies, financing large projects, negotiating loans and credits and other tasks.
Investment banking employers will include large international banks as well as large UK based clearing banks, medium sized and small boutique investment banks.
The finance and banking sector have been hit hard in recent times and have been getting some negative press. But you can be assured they will be looking for some hard working experienced employees that can help them make it through these tough times.