Anyone a bank teller?

[minnie1012]

Hi I'm currently looking for a part time job and was wondering how it is to be a bank teller? I worked for 13 years on Wall Street in financial services but I need something with a better quality of life (I have 2 small kids) but yet enough to pay the bills. Do you like it, and a silly question is it hard? I am looking to work around 3 days a week. If you have worked for multiple banks, are they basically all the same or are some better to work for than others?

Thanks!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I worked as a teller many years ago. It was the worst job I ever had. I swear I hated working there. I worked in two different branches and imo one was worse than the last. I had a friend who was one also (we met later in life long after we both quit) and she hated it too. I don't know exactly what it was about the job that I didn't like as it was just an overall thing. I would never work in a bank again. YMMV.

 

[ob_rnkim]

I worked as a bank teller for 2 years right out of high school. I loved it, but was ready to move onto something else. I don't think it was hard. Worst was when your drawer didn't balance at the end of the night, but typically it was just a transposed number and was easily found. I'm a nurse now and sometimes wish I could go back to being a teller!!
Good luck on your decision!!

 

[Piecey]

Hi I'm currently looking for a part time job and was wondering how it is to be a bank teller? I worked for 13 years on Wall Street in financial services but I need something with a better quality of life (I have 2 small kids) but yet enough to pay the bills. Do you like it, and a silly question is it hard? I am looking to work around 3 days a week. If you have worked for multiple banks, are they basically all the same or are some better to work for than others?

Thanks!

I'm not currently working as a bank teller, but I did for almost three years.

I wouldn't say that all banks are the same. I've worked for two- Huntington and JPMorgan Chase. Chase DEFINITELY had the more user-friendly teller systems, more technology, etc. that made the job easier.
Huntington used a more antiquated system, with more paper "tickets" required to process a transaction and sometimes I'd forget- which wasn't a HUGE deal as long I remembered to go back and fix it before closing time. (I started @ Chase, then went to Huntington, then back to Chase, so it was like going back into the stone ages a bit!)

Being a Teller isn't a bad job. I got to know and love my customers.
You have to be careful- never walk away from your money unlocked (even if you trust your co-workers with your life), you have to be observant of your customers (you should have training that goes through all this but basically if a customer is doing something illegal and the bank fails to see it and report it, they/you could be held responsible) and other such things.

All in all, I never found it very difficult. Sometimes Fridays, Mondays after a holiday, or Fridays that fall on the 1st can test your patience a bit but it's not a bad job at all.

I left when my maternity leave was up to stay home with my son.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

My DBF has worked in a bank since he was in college - started as a teller and is now in the mortgage loan office. He says a teller job really isn't difficult, except for the long days of standing. You just have to really pay attention to the numbers you enter, make sure you have the correct account #, as it's very easy to transpose and deposit or withdraw from someone else's account!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I was a bank teller for 3 different places for 8 years (I'm now a paralegal at a law firm). There are some differences place to place. With some of the bigger banks you have sales quota's you have to meet every month or quarter (selling savings accounts, CD's, etc.) which can get tough if you're at a branch that you see a lot of the same people all of the time. Some of the banks will show you the door if you don't meet your "goals" after awhile while some it just affects any bonuses and/or evaluations.

Two of the banks I worked at one Saturday a month was required from full and part time employees (not all of the branches were open on Saturday's so you rotated to branches if your particular branch was closed on Saturday's). A credit union I worked at just allowed tellers to sign up for Saturday's if they wanted overtime. So there was always people willing to work extra for the money so you could choose not to work any Saturday's if you didn't want to.

I liked working at the bank because I liked the people I worked with at every place. Other than that, there wasn't much I did like. There is no black and white with banks. If you're good at standing your ground and you have a manager that follows the rules you'll be fine. The first bank I worked at I was 19 and had a manager who was "friends" (the customers) with everyone and let everyone do whatever they wanted. Therefore I'd get yelled at daily by customers for asking for their ID "cause so and so knows who they are" or for not asking for their ID "cause everyone is supposed to ask for their ID" or charging $2.00 for a money order and "they never have to pay for them when so and so waits on them" or having to place a hold on the check because that's what the policies say to do and after 10 minutes of the customer berating you the manager just casually releases the hold and apologizes to the customer for wasting their time. I'd say 80% of customers though are friendly, cash their checks, make their deposits, and go on their way. The credit union branch I worked for was on a military base and it was pretty slow except for on paydays, even then pretty much everyone was nice and there were hardly any issues.

I worked for a bank in Cincinnati, OH in a very rough part of Cincy (customers had to go through 2 sets of metal detectors just to get in and we had a cop permanently stationed there) and I was so incredibly thankful when I got to leave that job and move back home. It was truly the worst job I've ever had with how horrible the customers were to me and the other tellers (I was the head teller there).

Banks usually offer pretty good benefits, even to part-timers. I have a few friends that are part time tellers and they like it because they're not there long enough every day (plus they don't have to do a lot of the things full-time tellers are responsible for) for it to get to them (they work like 10-2), they say. No matter if you're full or part time though, the day seems to fly by if you're at a busier branch!

 

[JVL1018]

I was a bank teller for a 7 years and I liked it okay when I was working with an ehh group of people, loved it my last 5 years when I worked with a bunch of great people.
The only thing I hated was we had to sell sell sell. Hated it with a passion, I am not a salesperson. Especially since we saw the same people week in and week out.
The rest of the job was fine. People will yell at you from time to time, because people get a little crazy when it comes to their cash, but that was rare.

 

[minnie1012]

Thanks for the detailed responses, its been very helpful!