Go-To Banker Review

I work in an in-bound call centre where I deal with customer queries. Being a go-to banker means that I work within the lending department so I help customers to discuss their borrowing needs. I also help customers with any additional features that they want to add onto their pack and try to be as proactive as possible to help my customers.

By doing a leadership degree I have been able to hold meetings and coach my team in certain areas in order to practice what I have learnt in the classroom. Leadership is not something that I have done before so being able to hold meetings and coach has been a huge learning curve for myself

I enjoy working in my study blocks with my university students where I was able to meet new people and discuss what areas they work in. By doing this I was also out of my comfort zone within my own workplace, speaking to people who work in much higher positions helped my confidence to grow. I have also enjoyed the amount of theory I have learnt throughout my course which have me understand a lot more about a successful leader.

it is very well organised in terms of regular study blocks and regulr meetings with tutors etc. The induction was great as it gave a detailed overview of the course so i knew what to except. My own workplace proved to be difficult at times to arrange my own study time but this has now been resolved. The only issue I have really had is that I feel as though the study blocks need to be at least monday to friday as travelling over 150 miles for 2 days doesnt seem to be using time most effectively, plus while at the study block you never really fully settle as you know you're going home the next day.

To be honest, at the start my employee was really accommodating in giving me my study time and organising my study blocks. However, when I moved departments as a promotion, this new department didnt full understand the apprenticeship I was on so thought I was not entitled to study days or study blocks. This did cause a lot of additional stress on top of my studies. This was eventually resolved but was not a smooth process.

My tutor does have regular phone meetings with myself to check on where I am and if I need any additional help too. When at study blocks if my tutor is available they will arrange to have a face to face meeting to discuss my progress and any additional support needed. I do feel as this was very formal and when it comes to checking progress i feel as though this should be less formal to make it more comfortable and less stressful

At the moment I have to be completely honest and say that it doesnt. I am still in a customer facing role and have not stepped into leadership yet. I therefore have not been able to practice any theory or techniques that I have picked up during my studies. However, I have been able to hold meetings and coach in certain areas which have helped.

As it stands at the moment no. If there are then they aren't broadcasted internally very well. We do have charity events that run occasionally but are not often enough to be able to attend. Plus with my particular shift pattern I do work weekends which means I dont have any off time to attend anything outside of work

No

At the moment, especially in this new department we are not getting praised or rewarded for our hard work, we are more brought to our attention of the things that we are doing wrong and need to work. Along with this we are getting constant threats that if we aren't performing we would lose our jobs. This has been only on this new department. when working in Moment banking it was a great place to work and there was a lot of colleague recognition. This particular new department is very demanding and comes with a lot of stress.

Make sure to research the department to where to want work, maybe talk to people who work there. Also make sure that you are happy to work with customers on a daily basis, I have seen to many times colleagues come to work here and not be able to work with customers all day everyday and they are therefore not able to do their. If though they do still want to apply, in the interview just try and be yourself, at the end of the day we want people who work here to have personality to help provide the best possible customer service.