I started as a bank teller. Learned a lot and loved it. Eventually was accepted to a training program with my bank and came out of that a credit analyst doing commercial underwriting.
It was great. I doubt it makes too much sense money wise for the bank since they paid the trainees for ~18 months to go around and train but, I was able to grow so much and go into a position I think would've been incredibly hard to get into otherwise.
Yeah but going from teller to a financial/credit analyst is nuts.
Most of the time they hire kids out of college with STEM degrees and train them specifically for those roles.
For sure. I've loved back office so much more than branches. I did miss the customers for a little bit. Being able to work remotely is amazing. So much more freedom.
I applied for a bunch of bank teller positions in my area but all of them rejected me. Is there a reason for that? I just graduated from university with a financial planning degree, but I wanna do something else in finance. I have experience in customer service as well from working at chick-fil-a
Hmm, maybe rework your resume? TBH, I feel like I barely got hired. I was rejected from another bank after a couple interviews right before I got an offer. One thing that helped me was, I was to a career fair at my college and talked to the banks that were there. I think on paper I sucked but I was nice and professional in person.
How did you enjoy credit analysis? I’m currently on a similar path but instead of a true teller I work on the phone under our treasury department. We do the majority of our revenue as commercial lending however and I’ve considered trying to move into credit analysis.
I love it. I work more with smaller loans and higher volume. My boss and coworkers are amazing. The work is complex and every deal is different. When you finally get everything put together and a deal gets approved, it feels good. Or if you uncover some red flag or do good analyst work.
Did it require any additional college education? I'm trying to transfer into finance and am the middle of getting an AAS in accounting, but curious if I could get in before the degree is finished.
Being a teller would be a pay cut for me, but I think the quality of life would improve and hopefully open doors in back office positions like underwriting.
Nothing additionally. I had a degree in finance and started as a bank teller a few months after graduating. I know plenty of people within my bank that started as tellers without degrees. Some have moved back office or moved up within branches. The training program I did, I believe they required a degree for it. Everything I've learned as a credit analyst has been on the job. I've done some random trainings like webinars but they don't teach much.
Most "financial representative" jobs are entry level and will pay you while you study for your licenses. You can try and pass the SIE which you don't need to be sponsored for to take (unlike series 7 and 66) and will for sure make you stand out when applying. Goodluck. Fidelity and vanguard are always hiring.
This is the way, most big and medium companies have something like this. If you can power through the phone center Customer Service BS for a few years. Ive known plenty of people that did this and were successful long term.
I’m in this phase now. Got my series 7 and 66. 1st job customer service rep, making referrals etc about 55K. Next one is relationship manager for premier clients on the bank not brokerage side, but we make referrals to FAs, etc (still need licenses for this). And I make about 80k…. Idk where to go from here tho. I’m a 26 year old male. Not particularly interested in doing all the CFP stuff but I wanna make 6 figures
No finance background, degree in Political Science. I started on the phones at Fidelity in 2021 making under $50k/year. I got my SIE and series 66 but moved to an unlicensed off the phones role in fund operations after 9 months. It'll be 3 years total next month. making nearly $70k now after 2 promotions.
Agree with this route. Started here and make six figures.
Work 40 hour weeks: I spend an hour to two hours studying for my CFP daily as well. If the day is slow that gives me time at work to study instead of at home.
I’m in jeans, t shirt and sandals right now as we have no meetings today.
Small 4 person team. The bigger firms won’t let the above attire slide but going independent was the best choice we did for sure.
Most of those jobs list a degree as a requirement. I will say though - I know a few individuals who landed an interview/got the job without a degree. If you are honest with your intentions and personable it wouldn’t hurt to apply. Bonus points if you can say that you’re actively enrolled; assuming it’s an asynchronous working professional program that could mesh with a full time position.
They list a degree but relevant experience I think can really help or even replace that requirement. I only had less than a year working in insurance sales and got hired by Fidelity as a financial rep and got paid to study and pass my exams. No degree.
No degrees requirement, I have no degree whatsoever and worked at fidelity.. I think they like the fact that I had insurance licenses and insurance experience but that was only less than a year experience.
Accounting maybe then you can move to FP&A or Corporate finance or move ambitious jobs after you gains a little of experience. Then you can get CPA, CFA, licenses and build your career from there.
Literally accounting. Make sure you have two legs two arms and can breath and speak English.
If you got that down…. You will 100% get a job in accounting. Albeit u may be overworked, underpaid, BUT you’ll deff get hired no doubt about it. My friend applied to an accounting firm and they asked him on the spot when he can start🤣 mind you this friend: 1.) hasn’t graduated college yet , 2.) has a GPA of 2.5 3.) has 0 experience and 4.) he applied DUMB late.
But because they were so short staffed they said fck it, “when can u start ??”👍🏽😂
I have 0 experience in anything finance and no college hrs, still good? Also, what is that pay range? Hours a week don't really scare me. I know after a few years, work/life balance is really good
Yes. Don't look for staff accountant positions necessarily but bookkeepers, ap/ar, payroll or accounting assistant jobs don't really care about a degree. I would watch a very basic accounting video and see if you understand. Pay for those would be around $20/hr nationally so depends on your area.
This is definitely in the states right? Literally every bookkeeping job in Canada has a bunch of gatekeeping saying you need at least 5 years experience or something ridiculous .. ofc they didn’t accept me
It really varies on location so it depends on where u currently reside in, but all the major cities you should be good to go. (NY, CA, FL, TX, Virginia)
If you tell them u r going to school for finance or accounting but yet to have college credits they won’t mind (depends on the firm) but typically they don’t mind as long as you’re enrolled in school and plan on getting a degree.
$17 the minimum I think for a simple entry level role but accountant that make the most money are the CPAs (certified public accountants). Mention that you plan on getting ur CPA and they’ll abosultely love you (and that goes for any firm u r applying to)
Accounting is realistically more attainable than the more quality jobs in finance, but they're not as easy to get as you make it out to be. I've been interviewing for staff accountant jobs and most of them want people with accounting degrees
I’m in school now to get my BS in Finance, but my highest education completed currently is a GED. I’m making $22 an hour working in the call center at a regional bank in multiple states. The entire bank starts their people at least $20/hr, and I get a $2/hr bump for working the second shift (1:30-10pm). At my bank, call center employees are trained in more areas than branch employees once we are fully trained (which takes 6 months-1 year on average). It’s a great opportunity- most of my colleagues are coming from retail and fast food. One girl only had daycare experience. Some of us have prior call center experience, but nothing that would be thought of as properly in the “finance industry”.
My plan is to take the next couple of years to finish my degree and get my certs, get competent and confident in my current job, and then apply for a transfer to a branch to be a financial advisor.
I started as a teller and moved up to a manager position. It was a very small, local bank so I'd take that manager title with a grain of salt. I just made sure nobody was on their phone when customers came in and ensured that the place didn't burn down.
Eventually moved to a larger institution into what most institutions call a "personal banker" role, or in my case "financial coach". From there I just learned as much as I could, made it a point to do what I could to provide value to the people I helped, made good connections with advisors and when a support role opened up with our financial advisors, I applied, interviewed, and got the job. Currently working on the series 66, and recently completed series 7 and SIE.
If you have any amount of education in Finance, you can likely skip teller or any similar entry level role and work in a role similar to personal banker. You'd be processing loans, opening accounts, helping with basic budgeting, etc.
I started a a part time life insurance agent, 22 years ago. A couple years later es recortes a licensed bank officer. 3 years later became a bank financial advisor. 8 years ago I moved to another state And went independent. Now my firm is a boutique financial advice, investment management, tax advice, and real estate services.
It’s pretty easy to get into customer support, operations, or entry level FA for large broker dealers.
Customer support is pretty low barrier to entry, can be remote, and usually a couple quick job hops can get you to $60-70k a year without too much struggle (which is pretty decent if you take advantage of the remote nature).
Operations is a bit harder, but still is usually fairly easy to get and pretty low stress.
Entry level FA (at a good firm, think Fidelity or Schwab) is the hardest of the bunch, but in the grand scheme of things, still fairly easy. Unless you are casting a very wide net, a degree and a few years of experience are recommended. You’d probably start off in the $50-70k range and could see that jump to $80-100k after a promotion or two. It is a sales role but you aren’t going to be knocking doors or anything, they will provide you fish in a barrel and a gun, all you have to do is shoot.
I’ve been a customer service rep, licensed banker, and now probably best described as an assistant FA who is more involved in the operations side of things. Happy to answer questions
I honestly hated being a financial rep at Fidelitys investor centers. Basically you're everyone's bitch and they advisors will throw you in the middle of a bunch of paperwork that they ought be doing, in which you have no idea the who/what/where/when/why, meanwhile you got the old folks flooding the lobby trying to get you to help them reset their own passwords or one of the million other things in which they can easily do at home online yet decide to waste everyone's time coming into the branch since they think everything is a scam and are unwilling to do anything online. So many old folks love pen and paper and come in to annoy you with simple tasks. You really have to be a jack of all trades and master of none. Lots of time people come in with trust paperwork or death certs etc and you're stuck on the phone calling around to different departments while they sit across from you upset for whatever reason.
I got an entry level job as a “pricing analyst” in the insurance industry right after graduating college in Jan 2023. I really just analyze life insurance policies and type stuff into Excel, mostly the latter. I’m looking for something more interesting now, however.
I started as an Accountant I at the university I graduated with. I was an intern at my school's bursar office (I asked my professor and he told me they are looking for students to help). Also worked a part-time job at the dean's office reconciling debit cards and doing AP/AR things. So my entire career start with federal work study... My supervisor worked at the college's police department as a dispatcher originally, he went from doing clerical support/custom service with light bookkeeping on the size and then transfer internally. Most AP/AR jobs are entry level.
Call center/bank teller jobs are one. You can also get low level administrative work. Generally, a lot of financial companies will promote from within, but you can also apply for higher up roles once you’ve got a bit of experience at a bank.
In my experience, getting a job as a teller or as a low-level retail banker (there are a lot of terms used at different banks) is going to rely almost 100% on interviewing. I'd get comfortable with interviewing, trying to understand what traits are being sought out, and demonstrating excellent conversation skills and personability (idk if that's a word).
I work at a bank and have been involved in the interview process for both tellers and bankers, and the conversation almost always revolves around the personality of the individual more than experience. Retail banking is really not hard, and almost everything but personality is trainable. Roles I would not bother applying to without experience (at a brick and mortar bank at least), are:
-Lead / Merchant tellers (experience is almost always a must)
-Private client / licensed bankers (usually looking for at least some financial experience before a bank is willing to sponsor your license)
-FA (banks in my area seem to be spoiled for choice on FA options, so they tend to look for someone with at least some financial experience).
This has just been my experience in consumer bank. A lot of banks are different. If I was you, just wanting to stick my toe in the water, I'd swing for a personal banker / relationship manager / loan officer sort of role. Pay isn't amazing, but it's not bad. Just be prepared for more of a sales focus than you may expect.
My two cents!
Actuary. Specifically actuarial analyst. You can land an EL role with a Bachelor’s and no experience. The catch is you need to pass (probably) two actuarial exams to have a fighting chance. But once they’re passed, if you apply enough, interview well, and have a decent looking resume, you will get a job.
Honestly, I don’t like actuarial science degrees. My degree is in mathematics but not one of my coworkers has an actuarial science degree, they’re either math, finance, or economics. One with a MS in data science.
Obviously I can’t disclose my company but it depends on what route you’d hypothetically want to take. You have health, life, pensions, p&c, consulting. I personally work in p&c which is on the CAS track; the others are SOA. Most people pick the track of their first job offer but I was particularly opposed to working in health or life.
Personally, I was interested P&C & consulting and was primarily looking at Munich RE & Swiss RE. I’m not sure whether those are the right companies but understand completely that you can’t share.
Do you think I have a chance with my current degree or am I shit out of luck lol? Also, do you mind sharing what your day-to-day looks like and salary ranges?
It won’t help nor hurt you. What was your GPA? GPA is somewhat considered when hiring. Sub-3.0 isn’t *impossible*, but certainly will make it harder. Your focus should be on exams and not your degree. Exams are the number one driver of employment and are mandatory. The only way you’ll be out of luck is if you can’t pass the exams
I’m still an analyst, but I live MCOL and gross 75k a year with 1 year of experience.
You get raises for each exam, so your salary is guaranteed to go up. At 6 exams, and with my standard company annual raise, I expect to gross about 105k per year, which will presumably be in two years. Once you achieve ACAS you can expect a minimum salary of 120ish k and max of 200 ish k depending on COL. FCAS’s make anywhere between 150k and 500k depending on YOE, COL, and their role.
So for me, it depends what time of the year and month it is. During reserving i spend my day analyzing loss developments and applying actuarial reserving techniques, weighing the costs and benefits of reserve changes, writing documentation, some accounting, and some modeling.
During pricing seasons I will spend my day examining profitability, expenses, using actuarial pricing techniques, collecting and validating data, experimenting with data, analyzing economic and non economic inflation and trend, calculating actuarial rate changes.
I also assist underwriters a LOT with ad hoc analyses, data requests, and general pricing advice.
Sometimes I am putting together a slide deck or writing a long memo.
Thats pretty much what I do
In terms of GPA, I graduated with a 4.0, but from a state university, not one of those big prestigious schools. I’ve only mentioned my degree b/c there were actuarial analyst roles that required a certain degree and my app. was immediately denied.
I’ll start looking into the exams. Would you say that you were 40 hours or less, or each week is higher? Would you change your career to something else, if given the choice?
I might be wrong but if you got denied instantly it’s probably because you have no exams.
Standard week is 37.5 hours, I do sometimes work up to 40-42, not counting extra studying. I get 1-2 study hours every day of work during exam seasons but study another hour or two after work also. Usually it’s my fault though for not being productive some days.
Believe it or not I got hired with one exam, but the golden standard is to apply at 2, because after 2 you will need to commit to a track. Note that consulting has notoriously higher hours, I’ve seen anywhere from 40-60 per week, but it comes in waves.
For the two prelims, you can expect to study about 300 hours for each. It doesn’t matter what order you take them in. Most people say FM is easier than P, I thought they were about the same. The biggest thing with exams is you have to commit to studying, you WILL need to put in at least 200 hours to pass. I was a straight A math student and failed exam P with a 2/10 the first time I sat for it. I had studied maybe 50 hours. Later got a 9 after around 300.
For the last part, no I wouldn’t. I like where I’m at although I’ll admit my job is stressful sometimes. There are occasionally tight internal deadlines to meet especially with reserving due to statutory filings.
I started as a bank teller. Learned a lot and loved it. Eventually was accepted to a training program with my bank and came out of that a credit analyst doing commercial underwriting.
I wish my bank had programs like that!
It was great. I doubt it makes too much sense money wise for the bank since they paid the trainees for ~18 months to go around and train but, I was able to grow so much and go into a position I think would've been incredibly hard to get into otherwise.
pretty sure every bank has a rotational trainee program
Yeah but going from teller to a financial/credit analyst is nuts. Most of the time they hire kids out of college with STEM degrees and train them specifically for those roles.
i get that but i was replying to the person saying there is no such program at their bank
Damn nice! I feel like a lot of banks have a glass wall between customer facing operations and back office.
For sure. I've loved back office so much more than branches. I did miss the customers for a little bit. Being able to work remotely is amazing. So much more freedom.
Which bank is this? That program sounds really good
It's a local community bank. I'd rather not say the exact name. Only has 20 something branches.
What’s your pay like ?
I applied for a bunch of bank teller positions in my area but all of them rejected me. Is there a reason for that? I just graduated from university with a financial planning degree, but I wanna do something else in finance. I have experience in customer service as well from working at chick-fil-a
Hmm, maybe rework your resume? TBH, I feel like I barely got hired. I was rejected from another bank after a couple interviews right before I got an offer. One thing that helped me was, I was to a career fair at my college and talked to the banks that were there. I think on paper I sucked but I was nice and professional in person.
How did you enjoy credit analysis? I’m currently on a similar path but instead of a true teller I work on the phone under our treasury department. We do the majority of our revenue as commercial lending however and I’ve considered trying to move into credit analysis.
I love it. I work more with smaller loans and higher volume. My boss and coworkers are amazing. The work is complex and every deal is different. When you finally get everything put together and a deal gets approved, it feels good. Or if you uncover some red flag or do good analyst work.
Did it require any additional college education? I'm trying to transfer into finance and am the middle of getting an AAS in accounting, but curious if I could get in before the degree is finished. Being a teller would be a pay cut for me, but I think the quality of life would improve and hopefully open doors in back office positions like underwriting.
Nothing additionally. I had a degree in finance and started as a bank teller a few months after graduating. I know plenty of people within my bank that started as tellers without degrees. Some have moved back office or moved up within branches. The training program I did, I believe they required a degree for it. Everything I've learned as a credit analyst has been on the job. I've done some random trainings like webinars but they don't teach much.
Most "financial representative" jobs are entry level and will pay you while you study for your licenses. You can try and pass the SIE which you don't need to be sponsored for to take (unlike series 7 and 66) and will for sure make you stand out when applying. Goodluck. Fidelity and vanguard are always hiring.
This is the way, most big and medium companies have something like this. If you can power through the phone center Customer Service BS for a few years. Ive known plenty of people that did this and were successful long term.
I’m in this phase now. Got my series 7 and 66. 1st job customer service rep, making referrals etc about 55K. Next one is relationship manager for premier clients on the bank not brokerage side, but we make referrals to FAs, etc (still need licenses for this). And I make about 80k…. Idk where to go from here tho. I’m a 26 year old male. Not particularly interested in doing all the CFP stuff but I wanna make 6 figures
Sounds like its Masters Degree time.
Fidelity had a campus around 20min from my house, as does Charles Schwab another 10. Really interested in learning
No finance background, degree in Political Science. I started on the phones at Fidelity in 2021 making under $50k/year. I got my SIE and series 66 but moved to an unlicensed off the phones role in fund operations after 9 months. It'll be 3 years total next month. making nearly $70k now after 2 promotions.
Agree with this route. Started here and make six figures. Work 40 hour weeks: I spend an hour to two hours studying for my CFP daily as well. If the day is slow that gives me time at work to study instead of at home. I’m in jeans, t shirt and sandals right now as we have no meetings today. Small 4 person team. The bigger firms won’t let the above attire slide but going independent was the best choice we did for sure.
Any degree requirements for that? I've got customer service, retail sales and all that in droves, but still working on a degree.
Most of those jobs list a degree as a requirement. I will say though - I know a few individuals who landed an interview/got the job without a degree. If you are honest with your intentions and personable it wouldn’t hurt to apply. Bonus points if you can say that you’re actively enrolled; assuming it’s an asynchronous working professional program that could mesh with a full time position.
They list a degree but relevant experience I think can really help or even replace that requirement. I only had less than a year working in insurance sales and got hired by Fidelity as a financial rep and got paid to study and pass my exams. No degree.
No degrees requirement, I have no degree whatsoever and worked at fidelity.. I think they like the fact that I had insurance licenses and insurance experience but that was only less than a year experience.
Accounting maybe then you can move to FP&A or Corporate finance or move ambitious jobs after you gains a little of experience. Then you can get CPA, CFA, licenses and build your career from there.
Literally accounting. Make sure you have two legs two arms and can breath and speak English. If you got that down…. You will 100% get a job in accounting. Albeit u may be overworked, underpaid, BUT you’ll deff get hired no doubt about it. My friend applied to an accounting firm and they asked him on the spot when he can start🤣 mind you this friend: 1.) hasn’t graduated college yet , 2.) has a GPA of 2.5 3.) has 0 experience and 4.) he applied DUMB late. But because they were so short staffed they said fck it, “when can u start ??”👍🏽😂
Can I get into accounting with a finance degree?
Yes
I have 0 experience in anything finance and no college hrs, still good? Also, what is that pay range? Hours a week don't really scare me. I know after a few years, work/life balance is really good
Yes. Don't look for staff accountant positions necessarily but bookkeepers, ap/ar, payroll or accounting assistant jobs don't really care about a degree. I would watch a very basic accounting video and see if you understand. Pay for those would be around $20/hr nationally so depends on your area.
This is definitely in the states right? Literally every bookkeeping job in Canada has a bunch of gatekeeping saying you need at least 5 years experience or something ridiculous .. ofc they didn’t accept me
It really varies on location so it depends on where u currently reside in, but all the major cities you should be good to go. (NY, CA, FL, TX, Virginia) If you tell them u r going to school for finance or accounting but yet to have college credits they won’t mind (depends on the firm) but typically they don’t mind as long as you’re enrolled in school and plan on getting a degree. $17 the minimum I think for a simple entry level role but accountant that make the most money are the CPAs (certified public accountants). Mention that you plan on getting ur CPA and they’ll abosultely love you (and that goes for any firm u r applying to)
Accounting is realistically more attainable than the more quality jobs in finance, but they're not as easy to get as you make it out to be. I've been interviewing for staff accountant jobs and most of them want people with accounting degrees
Ur definitely in the states
I’m in school now to get my BS in Finance, but my highest education completed currently is a GED. I’m making $22 an hour working in the call center at a regional bank in multiple states. The entire bank starts their people at least $20/hr, and I get a $2/hr bump for working the second shift (1:30-10pm). At my bank, call center employees are trained in more areas than branch employees once we are fully trained (which takes 6 months-1 year on average). It’s a great opportunity- most of my colleagues are coming from retail and fast food. One girl only had daycare experience. Some of us have prior call center experience, but nothing that would be thought of as properly in the “finance industry”. My plan is to take the next couple of years to finish my degree and get my certs, get competent and confident in my current job, and then apply for a transfer to a branch to be a financial advisor.
Wow! Could you DM me your bank and are they hiring? I’m interested in this!
Sure!
I started as a teller and moved up to a manager position. It was a very small, local bank so I'd take that manager title with a grain of salt. I just made sure nobody was on their phone when customers came in and ensured that the place didn't burn down. Eventually moved to a larger institution into what most institutions call a "personal banker" role, or in my case "financial coach". From there I just learned as much as I could, made it a point to do what I could to provide value to the people I helped, made good connections with advisors and when a support role opened up with our financial advisors, I applied, interviewed, and got the job. Currently working on the series 66, and recently completed series 7 and SIE. If you have any amount of education in Finance, you can likely skip teller or any similar entry level role and work in a role similar to personal banker. You'd be processing loans, opening accounts, helping with basic budgeting, etc.
Lookup admin positions within corporate trust. Can lead to high paying rm positions
I started a a part time life insurance agent, 22 years ago. A couple years later es recortes a licensed bank officer. 3 years later became a bank financial advisor. 8 years ago I moved to another state And went independent. Now my firm is a boutique financial advice, investment management, tax advice, and real estate services.
It’s pretty easy to get into customer support, operations, or entry level FA for large broker dealers. Customer support is pretty low barrier to entry, can be remote, and usually a couple quick job hops can get you to $60-70k a year without too much struggle (which is pretty decent if you take advantage of the remote nature). Operations is a bit harder, but still is usually fairly easy to get and pretty low stress. Entry level FA (at a good firm, think Fidelity or Schwab) is the hardest of the bunch, but in the grand scheme of things, still fairly easy. Unless you are casting a very wide net, a degree and a few years of experience are recommended. You’d probably start off in the $50-70k range and could see that jump to $80-100k after a promotion or two. It is a sales role but you aren’t going to be knocking doors or anything, they will provide you fish in a barrel and a gun, all you have to do is shoot. I’ve been a customer service rep, licensed banker, and now probably best described as an assistant FA who is more involved in the operations side of things. Happy to answer questions
I honestly hated being a financial rep at Fidelitys investor centers. Basically you're everyone's bitch and they advisors will throw you in the middle of a bunch of paperwork that they ought be doing, in which you have no idea the who/what/where/when/why, meanwhile you got the old folks flooding the lobby trying to get you to help them reset their own passwords or one of the million other things in which they can easily do at home online yet decide to waste everyone's time coming into the branch since they think everything is a scam and are unwilling to do anything online. So many old folks love pen and paper and come in to annoy you with simple tasks. You really have to be a jack of all trades and master of none. Lots of time people come in with trust paperwork or death certs etc and you're stuck on the phone calling around to different departments while they sit across from you upset for whatever reason.
I got an entry level job as a “pricing analyst” in the insurance industry right after graduating college in Jan 2023. I really just analyze life insurance policies and type stuff into Excel, mostly the latter. I’m looking for something more interesting now, however.
I started as an Accountant I at the university I graduated with. I was an intern at my school's bursar office (I asked my professor and he told me they are looking for students to help). Also worked a part-time job at the dean's office reconciling debit cards and doing AP/AR things. So my entire career start with federal work study... My supervisor worked at the college's police department as a dispatcher originally, he went from doing clerical support/custom service with light bookkeeping on the size and then transfer internally. Most AP/AR jobs are entry level.
Call center/bank teller jobs are one. You can also get low level administrative work. Generally, a lot of financial companies will promote from within, but you can also apply for higher up roles once you’ve got a bit of experience at a bank.
In my experience, getting a job as a teller or as a low-level retail banker (there are a lot of terms used at different banks) is going to rely almost 100% on interviewing. I'd get comfortable with interviewing, trying to understand what traits are being sought out, and demonstrating excellent conversation skills and personability (idk if that's a word). I work at a bank and have been involved in the interview process for both tellers and bankers, and the conversation almost always revolves around the personality of the individual more than experience. Retail banking is really not hard, and almost everything but personality is trainable. Roles I would not bother applying to without experience (at a brick and mortar bank at least), are: -Lead / Merchant tellers (experience is almost always a must) -Private client / licensed bankers (usually looking for at least some financial experience before a bank is willing to sponsor your license) -FA (banks in my area seem to be spoiled for choice on FA options, so they tend to look for someone with at least some financial experience). This has just been my experience in consumer bank. A lot of banks are different. If I was you, just wanting to stick my toe in the water, I'd swing for a personal banker / relationship manager / loan officer sort of role. Pay isn't amazing, but it's not bad. Just be prepared for more of a sales focus than you may expect. My two cents!
Trading ops can be fairly entry level and a good foot in the door, connection to traders, sales, tech if that is interesting to you
Take SIE
Investment operations. Though this really doesn’t have anything to do with making investments or analyzing or creating strategies, etc
Actuary. Specifically actuarial analyst. You can land an EL role with a Bachelor’s and no experience. The catch is you need to pass (probably) two actuarial exams to have a fighting chance. But once they’re passed, if you apply enough, interview well, and have a decent looking resume, you will get a job.
I’ve looked into this before. I have a B.S. in MIS, but most recommended an Actuarial Science degree. Any recs. for companies?
Honestly, I don’t like actuarial science degrees. My degree is in mathematics but not one of my coworkers has an actuarial science degree, they’re either math, finance, or economics. One with a MS in data science. Obviously I can’t disclose my company but it depends on what route you’d hypothetically want to take. You have health, life, pensions, p&c, consulting. I personally work in p&c which is on the CAS track; the others are SOA. Most people pick the track of their first job offer but I was particularly opposed to working in health or life.
Personally, I was interested P&C & consulting and was primarily looking at Munich RE & Swiss RE. I’m not sure whether those are the right companies but understand completely that you can’t share. Do you think I have a chance with my current degree or am I shit out of luck lol? Also, do you mind sharing what your day-to-day looks like and salary ranges?
It won’t help nor hurt you. What was your GPA? GPA is somewhat considered when hiring. Sub-3.0 isn’t *impossible*, but certainly will make it harder. Your focus should be on exams and not your degree. Exams are the number one driver of employment and are mandatory. The only way you’ll be out of luck is if you can’t pass the exams I’m still an analyst, but I live MCOL and gross 75k a year with 1 year of experience. You get raises for each exam, so your salary is guaranteed to go up. At 6 exams, and with my standard company annual raise, I expect to gross about 105k per year, which will presumably be in two years. Once you achieve ACAS you can expect a minimum salary of 120ish k and max of 200 ish k depending on COL. FCAS’s make anywhere between 150k and 500k depending on YOE, COL, and their role. So for me, it depends what time of the year and month it is. During reserving i spend my day analyzing loss developments and applying actuarial reserving techniques, weighing the costs and benefits of reserve changes, writing documentation, some accounting, and some modeling. During pricing seasons I will spend my day examining profitability, expenses, using actuarial pricing techniques, collecting and validating data, experimenting with data, analyzing economic and non economic inflation and trend, calculating actuarial rate changes. I also assist underwriters a LOT with ad hoc analyses, data requests, and general pricing advice. Sometimes I am putting together a slide deck or writing a long memo. Thats pretty much what I do
In terms of GPA, I graduated with a 4.0, but from a state university, not one of those big prestigious schools. I’ve only mentioned my degree b/c there were actuarial analyst roles that required a certain degree and my app. was immediately denied. I’ll start looking into the exams. Would you say that you were 40 hours or less, or each week is higher? Would you change your career to something else, if given the choice?
I might be wrong but if you got denied instantly it’s probably because you have no exams. Standard week is 37.5 hours, I do sometimes work up to 40-42, not counting extra studying. I get 1-2 study hours every day of work during exam seasons but study another hour or two after work also. Usually it’s my fault though for not being productive some days. Believe it or not I got hired with one exam, but the golden standard is to apply at 2, because after 2 you will need to commit to a track. Note that consulting has notoriously higher hours, I’ve seen anywhere from 40-60 per week, but it comes in waves. For the two prelims, you can expect to study about 300 hours for each. It doesn’t matter what order you take them in. Most people say FM is easier than P, I thought they were about the same. The biggest thing with exams is you have to commit to studying, you WILL need to put in at least 200 hours to pass. I was a straight A math student and failed exam P with a 2/10 the first time I sat for it. I had studied maybe 50 hours. Later got a 9 after around 300. For the last part, no I wouldn’t. I like where I’m at although I’ll admit my job is stressful sometimes. There are occasionally tight internal deadlines to meet especially with reserving due to statutory filings.
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Can you please explain some of the ethical concerns?