Personal Banker Review

My role involved talking to customers from various background on utilising digital banking through computer and mobile. I'm a personal banker for Barclays and most of the time I resolve customer's issue that arise with their banking needs. I also assist them in depositing cheques and teach them many ways of transferring money across and abroad all through their mobile. However, my challenges are that I need to be wary of people transferring money to certain banned countries such as Syria, Iraq, etc as this help clamp down and prevent any terrorist activity. This really what sums up my day-to-day at Barclays.

Speaking to customers ranging from disability to seniors, young and old. It's an eye opener to many different people of different culture. It has taught me many ways of leveling my tone especially approaching to seniors/disadvantage customer. What makes people tick, what makes people respond, understanding customer’s need further by requesting/probing for answers whilst building a productive relationship

Training and consistently learning about the how banking revolution is taking place. The steps the banking take to move forward, supporting their ever-growing customer's banking need. Educating people of the next steps of ensuring that they avoid frauds. I’m an eye-witness to all of these front-end change so sometimes it can be overwhelming.

Employees are not very well valued. They based it on the length of service rather than the work done. This is evidenced by the achievement many of the colleagues had whilst working for over 5-10 years period. This is very demoralising and demotivating given the nature of the job and the award for the length of service.

Barclays have very structured and organised, everything is highly systematic which is good. A rule to follow that keeps the rhythm flow. This ensures that everyone do not go off hand in breaching any data policies. Ideally I think this is perfect not just in banking but just in general as it helps the organisation to keep their employees focused

I don’t receive a lot of training since most of them provided are on the portal but they’re not ideally effective in terms of implementation since there’s a lot of things that can go wrong when having training on computer. Most of them are assigned to a computing point and click.

I do not receive a lot of support. I have to learn everything myself which is not good. However, good news is that, I’m a tech savvy individual and I'm extremely familiar with Barclays products and their digital mobile banking so it gave me a head start in the company.

Barclays retail division for personal bankers offers very low salary especially for the PB position. It's a good entry start for those who wants to advance their career. However, the salary puts a lot of people off so it’s ideal if you look further than just the pay package. Think experience and money will come later.

There's lots of opportunity outside of work. Work is 9-4pm in my case so which isn't too bad. Personal banker role may be demanding at first because you’ll get customer needing you everywhere the place but eventually, it doesn't get enough challenge and this is when you can plan your day, even during work!

Yes

Although personal banker position may offer very low salary especially given the nature of the role. It's a good entry start for those who wants to advance their career. Experience comes first before money which I’ve said many times over and over. Anyone who have prestigious company on their CV are much better off earning bigger pay check with different company.

Most importantly, Be humble and be respectful in character, this must be the nature of your character. Learn about the culture of the company. Work hard until it hurts. Work until you learn everything, work until you get bored. That's when you know you got nothing left to learn. Ask for more work, find ways to organise your time and work. Barclays is a good entry start for those who wants to climb up the career ladder