The life of a banker is multifaceted. A day in the life of a banker is full of so many activities and busy schedules.
What does a day in the life of a banker really look like? This should be the first question one needs to find an answer to before venturing into the profession. A banker’s life has its ups and downs and for some reason, life goes by so fast, often filled with regrets when prior plans put in place are not met. Not having a path towards achieving those personal goals mapped out at the beginning of your banking career can make your life miserable. It means you keep counting the years go by along with your under-achieved goals, in your static position and only looking forward to the credit alert you will receive by the end of the month.
A banker’s job demands a lot of time and attention, just in case you intend to become a banker. The time from 8:00 am – 7:00 pm is the most usual thing in the daily life of a banker.
Waking up every day and following the same routine can be exhausting. Sometimes you wish there could be a possibility of working per diem and be paid hourly, in order to have a more flexible life.
“Working under pressure” is a regular phrase used by many bankers. Over time, your system is built towards meeting intense deadlines and targets. Weekends are not excluded, if it means working over the weekend to meet up, you just have to do it. As there are a million and one people waiting to take your job once you quit or are relieved of your job. The banking career can consume you, but managing the lifestyle is what keeps you going. It takes a whole lot of endurance, hard work, sacrifices and dedication to have a successful career in Banking.
Bankers who work in the credit department, multitask a lot and mostly have to stretch beyond the above limit. So, they are left with a very little time to spare with families. Whatever time is left, a banker needs to manage personal chores and the remaining time is gone commuting between office and the resistance.
A banker has no actual regulated working hours. If need be one can be called anytime even on holidays. However, for those working in the clerical cadre; they have specific working hours which they may begin by 9 am then leave by 5 pm. You may even leave the desk work for another day or let it be completed by another officer on the same day. In clerical cadre duties, one can spare quality time with family.
Another daily life routine in the life of a banker is meeting daily job targets; the pressure is mostly on officers, bank managers and assistant bank managers in particular for the achievements of the targets related to core banking.
Those in the clerical position are limited to their passing powers; officers accountable to everything that happens in office/branch. In the case of credit officers, if advanced and turned NPA; enquiries proceeding start immediately and officers are penalized for the same on a case-to-case basis. By its nature, a Banking Job exposes bankers and bank workers to a lot of financial information.
In the same vein, the job requires the staff of the bank to dress well and be presentable at all times. Even though the majority of bankers complain of their take-home, still one of the good-paying jobs one could find around is a Banking Job. Besides, because this is a job that strives on integrity and trust, the credit rating given to Bankers in some quarters are very high. They are generally considered to be creditworthy. The implication of the above is that Bankers could easily use what they want to use today and pay later. The earlier Bankers were deemed to be conservative.
The ethics of the banking profession made bankers frugal in their spending. Because a banker was supposed to be a financial adviser to people who require his/her services, the banker of yesteryears cultivated a very strict personal financial management principle. No wonder he/she earned himself the description ‘bankers are stingy’.
Majorly, the daily life of a banker is very regulated as the day’s business is completed and updated every day. And as a person dealing with people’s money, the banker has to maintain absolute confidentiality, secrecy and personal integrity throughout his/her life as a banker.
