Much of the success that American companies have achieved globally is due to the support of large and small banking and investment institutions. They employ tens of thousands of trained professionals who oversee a diverse assortment of service starting right from loans and investments to risk management and advising or even funding corporate mergers and acquisitions. A career in banking opens the doors of opportunities, giving scope to individuals working in it to employ their skills in many ways.

What Do Bankers Do?

Many different types of bankers are employed in the financial sector. These include personal bankers, as well as commercial and investment bankers. Personal bankers work in the retail banks where people keep their checking accounts and fixed deposits and are involved in serving the full spectrum of the financial needs of retail customers, including that of small businesses. Personal bankers are responsible for helping customers to open savings and current accounts as well as overseeing their financial transactions like handling deposits and money transfers. Commercial bankers interact with businesses and organizations, and in addition to handling their retail transactions, also help making investments, discounting bills, arranging bank guarantees, issuing loans and letters of credit, etc. Investment bankers assist companies to raise money from the market in the form of debt or equity for their expansion as well as financing acquisitions. Investment bankers need to pass exams and be registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)

Key Skills Required of Bankers

Analytical skills:

Bankers need to possess a very high degree of analytical skills so that they can identify the patterns and trends in the industry and the economic environment and be able to arrive at definitive conclusions from the huge amounts of information they have access to. A wrong inference drawn can easily cause the bank to lose a lot of money or to lose out on a lucrative opportunity to the competition.

Technical skills:

As is typical for job profiles in the digital age, the majority of decisions will depend on your ability to analyze data. This means that you will need to be tech-savvy so that you can access and process the data to yield meaningful information and successfully present it to your seniors. Apart from spreadsheets, word processors, and presentation software, they will also need to be familiar with numerous specialized banking and finance software. You will normally get exposure to these software packages so be sure to make the most use of the opportunity. Online lenders that have emerged as competition to traditional banking institutions operate completely in a digital environment.

Commercial awareness:

Bankers do not operate in a vacuum and it is their ability to keep abreast with global trends and predict accurately what their impact will be on local businesses that will separate the men from the boys. Bankers need to be able to analyze economic, financial and environmental developments to find out which companies will be affected and be able to tailor their lending policies accordingly. Bankers also need to develop domain expertise in sectors so that they know intimately how certain industries will react to changes in their operating climate and how it will affect their fortunes.

Attention to detail:

need to also develop a very keen eye for detail so that they will be able to take note of changes in trends or something that is not quite in place when they are perusing complex financial reports. It is their ability to spot mistakes or even anomalies that will help them to alert their senior management that all is not right. Accounting fraud is extremely common in modern days, and an alert banker can help avoid exposure to them.

Determination:

Due to a large number of players, banking, especially corporate and investment banking, is ruthlessly competitive, bankers have to be extremely street-smart and determined to achieve success. Even when the obstacles seem insurmountable, you will have to keep plugging away at it even if it means very long hours at the office and not being able to have any sort of family life. However, for those who are consistently successful in powering their employer banks ahead, the financial rewards are generally well worth it.

Work ethic:

From the outside banking may seem to be a cushy job, however, what people do not know that irrespective of it being personal banking or corporate banking, the competition is intense and customer demands sky-high. From the early states to at least the senior echelons of middle-management, you can generally forget about your work-life balance as you will normally be needed to put in very long hours of brutal work. Unless you are ready to push yourself to the extremes for the first five to seven years of your banking career, you should consider other jobs. Accordingly, you will need to have a very high tolerance for stress and be able to manage it without letting it affect your work. It may not seem so but certain banking profiles, especially in investment banking are like that of people controlling aircraft in the radar room.

Confidence and communication skills:

If you want your career to take off in the banking sector, you will need oodles of confidence that only stem from the fact that you know your work and the need of the client better than anyone else. Both your senior management and clients facing you are equally tough and continually looking to take advantage of chinks in your armor so you need to be capable and confident when interacting with them. Needless to say, your powers of communication, both oral and written will be critical to your career advancement because not only do you have to convince customers that the solutions you are presenting are to their advantage but also ensure that your bosses see your strategies helping the bank to grow.

Conclusion

Bankers are perceived to be responsible people of the society and are thus well regarded. Only industry insiders know how fiercely competitive it is and how hard bankers have to work to get their institutions to come out at the top of the table. However, if you are well-educated, have the requisite qualifications, and possess all the personality traits that are required of successful bankers in this globally-connected world, there is no limit to the success you can find both in terms of fulfillment and remuneration.