If you are looking at a new career or have a young relative that is deciding what sector to enter banking could be the answer. You do not necessarily have to be a maths genius to work in the industry.
A significant percentage of banking jobs are backroom or retail roles, which means that you only need a basic grasp of figures but do not need a maths or accounting degree to land most of these jobs.
Here we look at the kinds of jobs you can expect to find in banking and give you some idea of the kinds of qualifications you need to fill those roles.
The better your qualifications are the more choice you have
The first thing to understand is that we are not saying you do not need any qualifications to work in the sector. Of course, there are backroom roles such as cleaning and maintenance, where you can start without qualifications, but most jobs in the banking sector do require qualifications.
It is a highly competitive industry, so they only employ the best. For example, if you are planning to work in IT support, development or another support role, you will need the relevant qualifications and they need to be good grades.
Retail work
A significant percentage of the jobs in the banking sector are still customer facing. Most banks and financial institutions still run branches, which need staff. People who work in branches and sales teams need to be well presented, comfortable with people and have proven sales skills.
Call centre jobs
Most banks run their own call centres. These centres are a good place to get started working in the sector. Dealing with customer issues gives you a good overview of how the bank works and lets you familiarise yourself with their systems. It also gives you an understanding of the issues that face both the bank and its customers.
Understandably, some banks recruit most of their call centre staff internally, but many still have positions open to people from outside the industry. If you have previous experience of working in a call centre or customer service you can normally find a job in a bank call centre.
IT support and development
Banks, like most businesses, are heavily reliant on IT. They need people to maintain their existing systems and provide support to staff and customers. In addition, new systems need to be developed and tested, which means that there is a lot of work available within the banking sector for IT specialists. You need good qualifications to land your first job, but once you have completed your first project finding further work is usually not difficult because there is strong demand.
Where to find banking jobs
There are several ways to find these jobs. Agencies, the trade press and job boards all have banking jobs available. However, most banks and financial institutions do the majority of their recruitment themselves. This means that you can find jobs advertised on their websites, so that is where you should start your search.