Pros
-Great benefits (even at part time, you get just as much vacation time as a full time employee right out the gate. For part time, sick time is accrued per so many hours worked. Insurance is pretty solid). -Learn legitimately useful skills for not just the job, but your own life. Being immersed in banking really opens your eyes to smart financial decisions like saving, setting up beneficiaries, investing, etc. It allows you to learn a lot of the lingo just by working in that environment. -(This will be a long point). Pretty good upward mobility opportunities. It usually goes like this: A) Entry level, unlicensed- Associate Banker (this is a fancy title for a teller). You'll also do some basic account maintenance stuff. Starts at like 20 an hour. No commission. B) Licensed- Relationship Banker. At this point, you're not doing transactions- in fact, you're not allowed. You must give any transactions to an Associate Banker to perform. You will be helping clients at your desk either in person or on the phone. Your main goal, and what is expected of you, is to make so many, what are called, PVC's. You earn these two ways primarily: bringing in new money from new or existing clients and getting them to invest new/current with you and your financial advisor you'll work with. You'll also be doing a lot of customer retention by calling and checking in and offering additional services/recommending higher account tiers/investing. This job requires you to be pretty good at talking to people and IS basically sales, but way less scummy feeling than regular sales. The majority of your earning potential is through PVC's (aka commission). C) Licensed- Private Client Banker. You're doing the same thing as the relationship banker, but typically handle the wealthiest clients, 150k and up. Your earning potential through PVC's is much higher. D) This is where your upward mobility starts to branch and slow down. From Private Client, you could apply to become an LAO (Lead Associate of Operations, which sometimes you can get right out of being a teller or if you have the proper experience. The role is basically a glorified Associate Banker with more responsibilities and slightly higher pay), Financial Advisor, a or Branch Manager. From what I've seen and have been told, these positions are attainable within 5-10 years of working for Chase. -Since its a bank, you're off on loads of holidays, and all Sundays! Some locations are even closed on Saturdays, too! -A job as an Associate Banker is not hard, once you learn the system and some of the financial lingo. -Sometimes make genuine connections with clients, getting to know them and their families.
Cons
-Relating to, but contrasting my last point above.... Have you ever told someone they can't access their money? Want to guess how well they take it? If you guessed sometimes "horribly, red in the face, threateningly" bad, you're right! At times, due to system messages or your own personal suspicions, you'll be unable to perform transactions for customers. Many of them throw a minor tantrum and then leave/take the proper steps required in order to do the transaction, but every once in a while, you'll get someone who goes BESERK. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "Why do you need my ID/debit card? It's my money and I want to withdrawal some right now! I'm not showing you anything." -Depending on the branch/area you're in, you can get some truly incompetent management and market directors (they're the head honchos of a big area, usually managing a dozen or so branches). You can often be in situations, or process changes can happen, that will leave you scratching your head in confusion and wonder if the higher ups are working for the same company you are. I've thought countless times, "They have no idea what things are really like in the office, working with clients." They can be VERY out of touch and have extremely unrealistic expectations. -While it seems like almost nowhere is completely safe nowadays, you need to realize- it's a bank. Your chances or being in a dangerous situation like a robbery or hostile takeover are higher when you work in a place with tens of thousands of dollars on-site. This factor can vary drastically depending on what branch you work in. - You have to be on guard a lot. People try to commit fraud ALL THE TIME. You'd be shocked to know how often we had to deal with either clients who were victims of fraud or people trying to commit fraud right there in the bank. If you mess up, or fail to follow proper fraud protocols, you could be responsible for the bank (and more importantly, clients!) thousands of dollars. I've seen it happen (had a co-worker fail to take certain fraud prevention steps and the fraudster walked away with 7 grand!)