Banking As a Profession
For Young graduate, an attractive offer after college is banking profession. It remains in this most wanted job position for years and it is because it enjoys much respect and prestige in the society. After the extinction of BSRB the only window to enter into this well sought career is Probationary Officers (PO) Exams conducted by individual banks. Banks inducts eligible graduates by this exam for training for a probational period of two years. The selected candidates performance during the probation period will decide their position after training. Different Banks recruit probationary officers during different periods in the year. Students has to keep on watch about the notifications and should be alert on applying promptly.
Career as a Probationary Officer
Pursuing Career as a probationary officer is a unique experience in itself. But it is the most common and highly sought after question that "what a Probationary Officer really do?".After the selection and till the date of joining the same question was making my mind puzzle. Hence I would like to share some of my experience with all of you looking after banks as a career option. I would be sharing my day to day experience within the bank so stay with us ...
Recently with the merger of associate banks & Bhartiya Mahila Bank with the State Bank of India, it adopted a new look recognising the need of present modern times.
Taking a clue from foreign banks and private counterparts like HSBC, HDFC, ICICI etc., State Bank of India decided to cut short to SBI. It gave try to some refreshed set of blue while doing away with the full name along with the tag line that reads 'The Banker to every Indian'.
The historical keyhole symbol, designed in 70s by Shekhar Kamath from National Institute of Design (NID) has been kept, which remains an identity of SBI now.
Many a times, it has been seen that aspirants of joining Public Sector Banks have some doubt in their minds regarding the scales and designation in the Banks. The seniority levels in the Banks are as under:
i. Junior Management Grade Scale (JMGS) - I: Assistant Manager
when a person is recruited in bank as a Probationary Officer (PO), he will be absorbed in JMGS - I, he is called a PO because he is in probation.
ii. Middle Management Grade Scale (MMGS) - II: Deputy Manager
iii. Middle Management Grade Scale (MMGS) - III: Manager
iv. Scale IV: Chief Manager
v. Scale V: Assistant General Manager (AGM)
vi. Scale VI: Deputy General Manager (DGM)
vii. Scale VII: General Manager (GM)
iix. Scale IIX: Chief General Manager (CGM)
Thereafter top most positions in SBI, there is Deputy Managing Director (DMD), Managing Director (MD) and Chairman.
Top most senior positions in different banks are named differently in other banks.
As an officer in State Bank of India, all officers get opportunity to work in its foreign offices by appearing in internal competitive exam called Junior India Based Officers (JIBO) examination. It has two stages, firstly one has to appear in an written examination and those got passed will face a high level interview committee. At present, SBI is having a very good foreign presence, as of now a total of 190 foreign offices are located in 36 different countries. Any officer up to Scale III i.e. Manager can appear for JIBO. Its now like that senior officers after Scale III can't go foreign offices. Actually, for Scale IV and above senior officers, there is different pattern of selection.
It was almost a new morning for all of associate bank's employees on 1st April 2017, when all remaining associate banks got merged with the parent bank i.e. State Bank of India. For information, initially State Bank of India was having 7 associate banks. Out of these seven banks, State bank of Indore (Indore Bank) and State Bank of Saurashtra (SBS) got merged officially with State Bank of India (SBI) on 26th August 2010 & 13th August 2008 respectively. The remaining Banks were State Bank of Patiala (SBP), State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) and State Bank of Mysore (SBM), which all got merged on 1st April, 2017. It was a thoughtful merger, having two shots in one go. First, Govt. wanted a world level bank from India. After this mammoth merger, SBI entered in the list of World top 50 banks and secondly SBI would be able to finance those big ventures, which it was unable due to its limited size. In addition to all these five, Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB) was also merged with SBI on 1st April 2017.
