Bank Clerks Career – Career Path, Growth and Prospects in Public Sector Banks | Career in PSB’s as Clerks
Bank Clerks Plays a major role in day to day activities of the Bank. Since 2016 there are no interviews for selection to clerical positions in public sector banks. Thus the complete selection process takes less time now.
Banking services in India are broadening and both public and private sector banks are strengthening their network. The private banks have more presence in metros and other big cities whereas public sector bank (PSB) branches exists in every corner of the country.
Placements of Bank Clerks in Public Sector Banks PSB’s
Banks offer their services through branches and alternate delivery channels. Alternate delivery channels mean ATMs, Points of Sale etc. Banks’ basic function is to accept deposits and provide loans. In addition to these, banks are also involved in business of foreign exchange, letter of credit, issuance of guarantees, credit cards, depository services, financial inclusion, selling of gold, mutual funds, insurance policies etc.
Career of a Bank clerks in public sector banks
Usually career of a Bank clerk in public sector banks begins with induction training. Almost every bank has its own training institute at different locations in the country.
The duration of training can be one to two weeks. The training program covers topics like laws and practices related to banking, know your customer policies, deposit and loan schemes, customer service essentials etc.
Since most of the banking is now technology driven, your training will include working on bank’s technology platform like Finacle, Flexicube as the case may be. You will also be trained in soft skills like communication, team work etc.
After this induction training you’ll get opportunities to attend many more training’s in the course of your career.
Responsibilities of Bank clerks in Public Sector Banks PSB’s
Your first posting is likely to be in a branch mostly in deposit section where your job will be to open current, savings bank /term deposit accounts and provide other related services to customers. Some of you may also be posted in cash and other sections. Most of your learning’s will be at job.
Career Progression from Bank Clerks to Officer and other Posts in Public Sector Banks
There are not many organizations in the world which allow people to move up in higher cadre, limiting the growth within a particular cadre only. For example in a number of organizations a person who has joined as a Bank clerk can get promoted to become a senior clerk or head clerk but can never become an officer.
Public sector banks are very liberal in promotions when compared to other Commercial Banks/Organization. It was surprising but there have been cases of people joining a public sector bank as clerk and rising up to the position of ED or MD. Every clerk, subject to fulfillment of requirements, has the opportunity to become an officer. More and more senior people are retiring from public sector banks making way for juniors to move up on the ladder.
In many bank clerks with 2-3 years of service are getting the chance to join officer cadre in junior management. After junior management comes the middle management followed by senior management.
Highest is top executive grade consisting of deputy general managers & general managers. After becoming a general manager the next opportunities are positions of executive director (ED) and then managing director (MD).
Promotions of Bank Clerks to Higher Officers Cadre in Public Sector Banks PSB’s
Good understanding of banking business, principles and products will definitely help you in your promotion from clerical to officer cadre and then promotion to higher scales in officer cadre.
Apart from having above skills, if you’re looking for promotion quickly, then you have clear the CAIIB Examination as soon as possible. This Professional CAIIB Exam is allowed to take by practicing bankers only.
The CAIIB Exam is held every half year and conducted by Indian Institute of Banking & Finance (IIBF). Full Details about IIBF can be found here
Recruitment Process of Clerks in Public Sector Banks PSB’s
The recruitment process in PSB differs from Commercial/Private banks. These Commercial/Private Banks recruit through on campus /Off campus selection and through Recruitment Consultancies / Agencies. The Recruitment Process in Public Sector Banks is straight forward. All their officer and clerical staff in Public Sector Banks are full time regular employees.
The recruitment of probationary officers is on all India basis, clerical recruitment are state wise which includes union territories(UT) also. Candidates can apply for vacancies in any one State/ UT only.
IBPS Role in Recruitment Process of Bank Clerks in Public Sector Banks
If you want to talk about Recruitment Process in PSB’s, first we should talk about IBPS. The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection also known as IBPS, is a recruitment body that was started with an aim to encourage the recruitment and placement of young graduates in public sector banks in India. IBPS with its office in Mumbai, has been entrusted to conduct recruitment examination for various positions in public sector banks. Banks advise number of vacancies to IBPS.
Based on the Candidate performance in recruitment process and Number of vacancies in the PSB’s, IBPS prepares a Recommendation list of candidates to respective banks for appointment as a Clerks. Banks after completion of formalities make job offer to these candidates. In normal course recruitment process for these banks is conducted annually. Recently IBPS has come out with a new notification for requirement of Bank clerks in all 19 nationalized banks.
List of Public Sector Banks for Bank Clerks Recruitment in India
- Allahabad Bank – Kolkata
- Andhra Bank – Hyderabad
- Bank of Baroda – Vadodara
- Bank of India – Mumbai
- Bank of Maharashtra – Pune
- Corporation Bank – Mangalore
- Canara Bank – Bengaluru
- Central Bank of India – Mumbai
- Dena Bank – Mumbai
- Indian Bank – Chennai
- Indian Overseas Bank – Chennai
- IDBI – Mumbai
- Oriental Bank of Commerce – Gurugram
- Punjab National Bank – New Delhi
- Punjab & Sind Bank – New Delhi
- Syndicate Bank – Manipal
- State Bank of India – Mumbai
- UCO Bank – Kolkata
- Union Bank of India – Mumbai
- United Bank of India – Kolkata
- Vijaya Bank – Bengaluru
Eligibility for Clerks in PSBs Graduates
- There is no condition for minimum requirement of marks.
- The graduate degree should have recognition of University Grants Commission.
- The applicant should be computer literate with operating and working knowledge in computer systems.
- For this candidates should have Certificate or Diploma or Degree in computer operations/language or she should have studied Computer / Information Technology as one of the subjects in the High School/College/Institute.
- Candidate should be proficient in the Official Language of the State/Union Territory. It means that the candidates should know how to read/ write and speak the Official Language of the State/Union Territory for which she has applied.
Selection Process for Clerks Recruitment in Public Sector Banks
Selection process All candidates fulfilling the above mentioned requirements will be first called to appear in a preliminary examination for which prescribed time is one hour.
IBPS Clerks Recruitment Preliminary Examination
- English language (30 questions),
- Numerical ability (35 questions)
- Reasoning ability (35 questions).
Your composite score will determine the merit but scoring minimum qualifying marks in each segment is also a must to be eligible for the next process. Depending on the number of vacancies IBPS will determine a cut off.
Those who stand high in merit by crossing this cut off will have to appear in the main examination which too shall be a computer based online test.
IBPS Clerks Recruitment – Main Examination Pattern
- General and Financial Awareness (50 questions),
- General English (40 questions),
- Reasoning ability, Computer aptitude and quantitative aptitude (50 questions).
Note: Reasoning ability and Computer aptitude are put under one section with 50 questions in all.
For main examination maximum permitted time is two hours and 40 (160) minutes. To qualify a candidate should score minimum prescribed score in all the sections individually. Minimum composite score is also prescribed. Except for the English part all other questions will be available both in Hindi & English.
As both preliminary and main examinations will have objective type multiple choice questions only, the candidate has just to choose the right answer to be marked in answer sheet .There won’t be any need of writing descriptive answers.
There is provision of negative marking. For every wrong answer the candidate will lose ¼ mark. It means if there are 4 wrong answers 1 mark will be deducted. As such the test has to be attempted carefully and diligently with the objective of maximizing your score. Qualifying in the merit list of preliminary examination is critical because only then you may appear in the main examination.
Final selection will be on the basis of marks scored in the final examination. Since 2016 there are no interviews for selection to clerical positions in public sector banks. Thus the complete selection process takes less time now.
Indicative coverage under different segments is given below for Clerks Recruitment
English:
- Questions on comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, verbal ability and sentence formation are included in this section.
- Under grammar problems may relate to tenses, articles, prepositions, degrees of comparison, subject-verb agreement, conjunctions, parts of speech, standard construction, adverbs, etc.
- English is part of both preliminary and main examination. The pattern shows that difficulty level of questions in main examination is higher than preliminary examination.
General awareness:
- This section tests your knowledge of environmental and social issues, famous people and events etc. Questions may relate to dates of historical events, inventions and discoveries, developments at national and international level, basic geography, eminent authors and artists etc.
- Financial awareness: Banks deal with financial matters. So candidates are expected to have some awareness of finance related issues. Questions may relate to economy, banking landscape (consisting of different banks like Reserve Bank, Payment banks etc.), budget, population, role of organizations like SEBI,NPCI, IRDA,NITI Ayog among others.
Reasoning Ability:
- Questions under reasoning section are meant to check your analytical and problem solving skills. Based on given information which may be in form of text or data, you’ll be required to draw the right conclusion.
- Questions may relate to verbal and visual (non-verbal) reasoning, consisting of letter and number series, analogy, time sequence, finding the odd (unmatching) information etc.
Numerical ability:
- This section deals with numbers and basic mathematical functions like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. You may be asked to find the missing or next number in a particular series, calculate ratios, fractions etc
Quantitative aptitude:
- It measures your accuracy in mathematical calculations. The problems posed will be from pure numeric calculations to problems of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, graph and table; percentage etc. The questions in are usually of SSC (10th) standard.
How to crack the IBPS CWE to secure a job in PSB
IBPS clerical examination is a simple test but to do well we should know what it covers
- By Making a comprehensive preparation leaving nothing to chance. This can be achieved only by thorough understanding of the test pattern and types of questions to be covered in each segment of the preliminary and main examination.
- Go through old question papers showing how solutions have been arrived relating to reasoning, numerical ability and quantitative aptitude.
- Studying and analyzing the solution pattern in Model/sample solved papers will tune your mind to find right answers in a systematic way.
- For solving Multiple option questions, there are two approaches. One is finding the right answer right way and second is elimination method where we ignore the answers which do not appear as right.
- Read Newspapers on a regular basis for general and for Financial awareness
- Internet offers many free resources Practice both offline and online. When you’re in final stage of your preparation, try to solve few practice papers in test environment as if you’re attempting the real examination in the given time frame.
IBPS intends to engage CWE CLERKS VII. Eligible candidates are advised to apply only online. Please check Full Details about IBPS CWE Clerks VII
Official Notification of IBPS Clerks Recruitment CWE VII 2017: Click here
Apply for IBPS CWE Clerical Cadre VII: Click Here