3 Steps How To Be A Banker (Complete)

(doylc.com) How to Be a Banker - Working in banking covers a wide range of professional tasks. You could be a loan officer holding the future of a young family or a struggling business in your hands. You may be the chief executive officer who needs to hold everything together and know the overall plan for the entire company, but you may have started out in the mailroom. Some bankers remain in a particular field throughout their careers, while others cover a variety of job titles during their time at a particular institution. What to expect

• Getting qualified

Graduate from high school. While you might be able to work in a bank with no college experience, you definitely need to finish high school if you want to develop any kind of career. It's only reasonable.

Now pay attention in math class and like it . If you're bored or just struggling with it every afternoon, banking probably isn't your thing.

Get your BA in finance, accounting or another related field. To compete with the hundreds or thousands of others you will face off against in your lifetime, you need a BA to even be taken seriously. You did well in high school, so you can get into a good college, right?

Start networking now. Take a variety of courses (related to math and business, of course), get to know your professors and get involved on campus. The more work you do now, the less work you have to do later.

Get good grades in college. This could have been a bullet point under the previous step, but it deserves bold (and twice): Get good grades in college . Sure, Cs get degrees, but they don't get into good grad schools and they certainly don't breed good work ethics or study habits.

Get a part-time job at a bank. Somehow you have to pay off the tuition, so start working in a bank! Also, being a cashier 10 hours a week is your foot in the door. The smaller banks in your area are great places to go. You might even find a mentor and meet a few people who can help you get started.

This is of course apart from managing your own finances. If you're looking to get into investment banking or brokerage, you'll find it beneficial to start managing your own stock portfolio. If you can't handle your own money, you probably shouldn't handle other people's money!

reading. This is an area where you can (and should) learn a lot from the pros. Since you're probably still not quite sure which direction you want to go in, reading books on the various aspects of banking can get your mind wet.

Sometimes called "the best book on mergers and acquisitions," take a look at Barbarians at the Gate. If it doesn't sound like fun, you're doing it wrong.

Do an internship. So if running your city's credit union is your dream, you probably don't need an internship (read: You definitely don't need an internship). But if you ever see yourself flying to Tokyo to meet up with a client and make out and get drunk (that your bank pays for) in the bars of 5-star hotels, do an internship.

If you're into investing, mergers and acquisitions, public finance, leveraged finance, blah blah blah, you need an internship. An internship can only put an unnecessary strain on your wallet if you intend to go the personal banker path and stay relatively small.

• Find your banking career

Decide what type of job fits your current skills and education. Certain jobs are more entry-level in banking than others. Most cashier positions require only a high school education and on-the-job training. But pretty much everyone else will be looking for a BA or MBA. What did you have in mind?

Entry-level, non-degree positions are typically part-time and have high turnover, as employees are often students returning to school or employees progressing to higher-paying positions.

Positions such as financial manager, which may include bank controller, credit manager, branch manager, treasurer or finance officer, risk and insurance manager, cash manager, and international banking manager, require a bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, or a related field.

Positions that require additional training include investment banking sales agents. Many agents earn their master's degree in business administration (MBA), but it's the company's specialized business model that an employee needs to learn.

Go the personal banker way. This is the guy (or girl!) at your bank who can provide you with expert financial advice and who you actually know by name. He/She is great at building relationships with customers and is very service oriented. Does that sound like your idea of ​​“banker”?

You can then be promoted from a personal banker to service manager, store manager, business specialist or licensed personal banker. The web that bankers weave is clearly quite complicated!

To become a personal banker (from your local credit union to a giant like Wells Fargo), you need your BA.

Or go the investment banker route. This one is a bit more complicated and will eventually lead to you needing your MBA. There are a thousand opportunities out there for you when you start this career - which means a lot of people move on to another area of ​​banking early on. But if you see yourself hitting massive Gs and shaking hands to make a living, an investment banker is your ticket.

You start as an analyst, move up to associate, then VP, then managing director, then department/division head, something like an executive, and finally CEO. In the beginning you are swimming in your workload and not making much money, but in the end you are swimming in your money and not making much work.

Choose an employer that suits you. Regardless of which path you want to take, do your research when it comes to job hunting. Here you will be trained and shaped for the rest of your life. Do you want a small bench where you get a lot of attention? Or would you like to work with hundreds of people who have the potential to rise above them all?

With sizing and location (and payment) already settled, be sure to start thinking about your training program. Some banks will turn you over to the dogs quicker than others. So before you sign this contract, you should know what is expected of you in the first few months.

Start at the bottom of the ladder. A bit like life works, really, but it's especially true in the banking world. Early in your career you will push paper. You'll run meaningless errands, correct your boss's typos, and spend hours poring over piles of paper. But it's getting better!

If investment banking is your thing, chances are you'll be hired as an analyst for a very specific 2-year assignment. You can imagine that after those two years, many people will take the resume generator and get out of the banking world.

In addition to the position of analyst, there is the position of financial assistant. As soon as you arrive here, you are considered a "life person". You'll still be working 100-hour weeks (didn't we mention that? Yeah...) but at least you'll be able to boss your analysts around.

Starting out as an analyst isn't going to be pretty. You'll spend most of your waking life (and you won't get much sleep) doing math, fixing Excel spreadsheets, and being treated like you're not worth much. just so you know But it's getting better. Much better.

Get a license if needed. There are two exams an agent may need to be aware of: The General Securities Registered Representative Examination, also known as the Series 7 Exam, and the Uniform Securities Agents State Law Examination (Series 63 or 66). Administered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Series 7 is a required exam to become a broker or investment adviser. Only some states require the 63/66.

This only applies to a specific branch of banking – namely investing. If you don't do any of these, you might not need to worry about taking these exams. By the time you need to take an exam (be it those two or not), you no longer need this article to outline the process for you.

You can get a license as a personal banker. Your bank will help you with this once you have gained enough experience.

• Successful in your career

Work your butt off. We've more than hinted at how crappy life is going to be for the first few years, especially if you plan on working with the big boys in banking like Chase, Goldman Sachs, or Wells Fargo (just to name a few). You'll survive on black coffee and onion cheeseburgers, and if you just want to sleep you'll have to ask for more work. Sounds good right?

You won't have much of a social life for a while (unless you're constantly on stimulants to avoid sleep, of course, but that's a terrible idea). If that's not a sacrifice you're willing to make (which is why a lot of people drop out early), you might need to consider another career -- or at least go into banking on a much, much smaller level.

Get your MBA. A lot of people do that two-year stint as an analyst and then work on their MBA. They come back and they've got all their bases covered. Some get their MBA straight away - and then they get jobs as assistants and bossing around the analysts, who actually have a better idea of ​​how things should be done, so it can be a bit confusing. If you see an MBA in your future, get it sooner rather than later, but don't feel the need to get it right away.

If you don't know if an MBA is right for you, sleep on it. It costs a lot of money and time, and if you don't need it, there's little point worrying about it. A lot of people don't have them and do more than just fine.

Be quantitative. That really goes without saying - if you don't have a head for math and finance, this is going to be one hell of a fight. Not only should you be good at it, you should be proud of it and enjoy it too. In the long run! After 5 years these numbers must still be interesting. Only a quantitative mind could do that!

Be calm yourself. You will encounter many situations that would stress the average Joe. You can't be your average Joe. Your response to a stressful situation should be more like, “The client wants 24/7 access this week and a brand new presentation? OK, no problem. I have a Starbucks gift card. Work has a shower. I have this."

You will also get into situations that are stressful because of your co-workers. In the beginning, the competition can be quite fierce. You have to believe in yourself and see this as bullying, not a personal attack. There's just so much money out there that some people can get pretty bubbly.

Nail that handshake. Once you've spent your time falling asleep at the keyboard and giving presentations your boss gets credit for, you'll eventually get to the point where you're getting paid to fly to Chicago and shake an old guy. s hand. When it comes, make sure you've worked on your charming smile, punctuality, taste for whiskey and firm but warm grip.

In the end it's just chatting and drinking. All the work you put in early will finally pay off. People will come to you - there is no need to come to them. That will certainly take years, maybe even more than a decade, but it can come with the right amount of perseverance (and, well, economic prosperity).

Rock the golden handcuffs. That's kind of pessimistic, sure, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's not true. If you make that whopping six-figure salary, maybe you can retire early and live the rest of your life with a little less stress. Or you can get hooked on that paycheck and spend the rest of your years working on it. You'll be handcuffed to your job, but at least those handcuffs are shiny.