New Bank Tellers Burn Out Before Passing Compliance Certs
New bank tellers and personal bankers are experiencing intense pressure and a lack of support. They're overwhelmed by the volume of information, performance goals, and outdated systems, leading to burnout and fear of job loss. The rapid pace and high expectations create a stressful environment, especially for those new to the industry.
SOURCES (60)
“hydrate, sleep, and prep like 3 solid stories using star format for times you helped a customer, handled an upset person, hit a goal, and fixed a mistake be ready for why banking, why frost, and how you handle pressure nervous is normal, especially when…”
Working in a bank, especially on the retail side, is a miserable job.
“Hello! About a month ago, I made a huge career transition and started my new job as a Teller. I had a crash course in training that lasted for about 3 days, and have been taking the online training assigned to me, as well as asking as many questions as I can. But I'm still very new and don't know a lot of stuff. I had a transaction this last week that has me kind of stressed, and I'm trying to figure out if I caused a bunch of trouble and/or will be in trouble. Basically, a customer”
“graduated with bba, was interested in finance/analytics/ops roles but due to my insane luck and the market i ended up getting a customer service role in a tier 3 bank. im planning on pursuing cfa and will take l1 in may 2027, while also actively seeking better roles. i plan to leave the job after 6-8 months (3 months notice after probation, 2 weeks before probation so idk how this will work) but considering my work exp being less than 1 year, it might be challenging and... it’s customer support.”
“Advancement in banking really has a lot to do with the structure of the institution. Do you live in the same town as their headquarters or a main office? You can absolutely advance. But you have to really put your foot forward and take a lot of initiative in doing additional trainings looking at available webinars, look at shadow training. So you can research other departments, but all of that is really only beneficial. If there's a headquarters, otherwise you're stuck at the branch leve”
“Been a while since I was in the branches but at the time: $5+/- gets logged. 6 logged discrepancies (or any $1000+ discrepancies) within a rolling 6mo triggers an automatic 3mo probationary period. Any loggable discrepancies within that probation period is an automatic termination. Happened to a teller when I was brand new, and then when I was a head teller I had to let one go for the same reasons. In my 8 or so years in the branches before moving to corporate saw this happen only those 2 times”
“My employer’s policy is that under $100, teller recounts. If it can’t be found, we note and go home. Frequently, we get a check correction, or they end up off in the other direction the next day. Over $100, we have a dual count. We will check work, but if we can’t find it, we will often set some time aside to do a deep dive the next day. If it is found and corrected within a week, it doesn’t count towards quarterly outage totals. Accuracy is part of performance review, but high volume branches a”
Nice edit buddy, you know we can all see the change right?
“As soon as you have downtime talk to your supervisor about avenues you can go. In the mean time, make super certain your drawer is balanced. If you can't count your money while talking to the customer, don't talk to the customer while counting.”
“I’m in management at a fairly small bank. The last couple years, our over/short account has had entirely too much activity, and we have to figure out how to have our tellers be out of balance less than they are. What are your internal policies? submitted by /u/TheCarroll11 [link] [comments]”
“Hello, I’m going to start my first day as a teller next Monday with not prior banking experience and just wanted to see if anyone had any experience with starting a career in baking as a teller? How long did you stay as a teller? Did you get promoted quick? Did you move to different branches or job hop? My main goal is to have a career hopefully in 5-10 years down the road. Been stuck working what it feels like jobs that don’t have any ceiling to get promoted. I just want to have a career.”
“A universal banker is someone who works the teller line and also opens/closes accounts.”
“Do it for a year, learn all you can, then leave for a new gig at another bank. Signed a psychology major/ former bank worker. Universal banker you’re doing two jobs for half pay. You’ll build valuable skills though.”
“That’s what I was thinking, it’s 3 weeks currently at my community bank with a 90 day grace period to learn the sales side.”
“Yes. It’s pretty much any size institution I’ve seen that has made that change. No one just gets to be a teller anymore. They’re going to have you doing account maintenance/selling deposit products from day 1 now.”
That's how bank tellers are trained. Source:former banker teller myself
Just about everything you described is a struggle for all personal bankers/loan officers when they first start. It does take awhile to learn the work flow but you have the right idea…
“Id give it at least 6 months before you think about resigning. Its impossible to learn everything in 2 months. I been with a bank for almost 4 years and i am very happy i didnt give up early when i was feeling the same way you are right now.”
“You remind me of me when I started in banking many years ago. I guarantee you within a year you will be doing what you need to do to stay out of “trouble”. As you head to work each day just tell yourself that you are to be the best you can be that day. Banks and their customers need good young bankers. I bet you are going to be one. Before you know it 5, 10 years will have passed and you will have built a solid foundation for a great career.”
“Hey everyone, Just wondering if anyone has any advice. I’m 21 and I’ve been working as a bank teller for about 1.5 years while doing a co-op program for uni. My schedule alternates between one semester of full time school and one semester of full time work, but even during my school semesters, I’m still working part time at the bank. My home branch is insanely busy. We get a ton of elderly clients and people who don’t speak English, and honestly, dealing with the language barrier and patience al”
“Apply at local banks. Drop your resume and the job description into chat and ask it to help make resume stand out. Then ask it to ask questions you might have in an interview. Helps prepare”
“I have a very similar plan to you. Long time in customer service and about to finish my associates at 25. I wanted to get in the door somehow to become an advisor as well. I applied for about 2 months before I landed a job as a teller. I gotta say though it’s been nothing like I expected. I’ve ran a till since high school and this has been by far the hardest job I’ve ever had. Forget everything you know about cash handling. I feel stupid every time I walk through the door and it’s been about 4 w”
“the resume keyword thing is huge, treat the job description like a checklist and mirror every skill they list if you actually have it walking into a branch with a printed resume still works better than you'd think for teller roles, managers are usually buried in online apps and a face to a name cuts through the noise also maybe look at credit unions, sometimes they're less swamped with applicants than the big names”
“So I’m currently 2-3 weeks in into applying to banks. I have 3 years of customer service, and I’ve been using that and the two in retail as my primary focus. But all the banks I have applied for ( Wellsfargo, BOA, CHASE, Frost Bank, PNC) all rejections. I live in Fort Worth, Texas. I was wondering if anyone have tips or suggestions to help me get a job as a Teller or, Banker (I want to get my feet wet so I can become a Financial Advisor.) submitted by /u/Competitive-Pool36 [link] ”
“So I’m currently 2-3 weeks in into applying to banks. I have 3 years of customer service, and I’ve been using that and the two in retail as my primary focus. But all the banks I have applied for ( Wellsfargo, BOA, CHASE, Frost Bank, PNC) all rejections. I live in Fort Worth, Texas. I was wondering if anyone have tips or suggestions to help me get a job as a Teller or, Banker (I want to get my feet wet so I can become a Financial Advisor.) submitted by /u/Competitive-Pool36 [link] ”
“So I’m currently 2-3 weeks in into applying to banks. I have 3 years of customer service, and I’ve been using that and the two in retail as my primary focus. But all the banks I have applied for ( Wellsfargo, BOA, CHASE, Frost Bank, PNC) all rejections. I live in Fort Worth, Texas. I was wondering if anyone have tips or suggestions to help me get a job as a Teller or, Banker (I want to get my feet wet so I can become a Financial Advisor.) submitted by /u/Competitive-Pool36 [link] ”
“I’m 21F with a psychology degree, and this is my first professional job and my first job involving cash handling. I’ve worked several jobs before, but they were primarily customer-service/food-service positions. I recently started as a Universal Banker at a retail bank branch, and I’m having a much harder transition than I’ve ever experienced before. I started June 29. I spent roughly 5–6 weeks doing mostly virtual training (Zoom classes, computer simulations, etc.), with relatively limited shad”
“I’m 21F with a psychology degree, and this is my first professional job and my first job involving cash handling. I’ve worked several jobs before, but they were primarily customer-service/food-service positions. I recently started as a Universal Banker at a retail bank branch, and I’m having a much harder transition than I’ve ever experienced before. I started June 29. I spent roughly 5–6 weeks doing mostly virtual training (Zoom classes, computer simulations, etc.), with relatively limited shad”
“I’m 21F with a psychology degree, and this is my first professional job and my first job involving cash handling. I’ve worked several jobs before, but they were primarily customer-service/food-service positions. I recently started as a Universal Banker at a retail bank branch, and I’m having a much harder transition than I’ve ever experienced before. I started June 29. I spent roughly 5–6 weeks doing mostly virtual training (Zoom classes, computer simulations, etc.), with relatively limited shad”
“Drop your resume and the job description into chat and ask it to recommend changes. Ask chat to ask you questions/ prepare you for the interview A call won’t help at all big bank. At small bank see if you can find HR or hiring manager online and e-mail them, in addition to applying online”
“Make sure when they are done with questions, you interview them back. Have atleast 3-4 question to ask.”
“Interview will be mostly just getting to know you and your personality especially for an entry level teller/CSR position. You should lean into your customer service skills and any money handling skills. I started out as a float teller coming from a retail job, it was a fairly painless transition”
“Would you guys leave your 9 year retail job as Assistant Store Manager for a Peronal Banker, Teller at Wells Fargo. Only thing I like is that it’s a more set schedule like 9 to 5 rather than retail. I work different schedules throughout the week. The latest is 9:30 pm for now before the holidays. submitted by /u/Boring_Job8977 [link] [comments]”
“I've been working for banks since I was 18. I started at M&T Bank as a teller and secured a role as an associate banker at Chase at 21. I’ve been working for Chase for a year now. As you can tell, I have a solid foundation in work experience; however, school was my downfall. I started at a community college at 18, but my grades plummeted because I prioritized my job. I completed one semester of cc with good grades, which allowed me to transfer to a four-year university at 22. Now, I’m at”
“I worked as a bank teller years ago in a very wealthy neighborhood. Some of the nicest customers were the most wealty and did nt need flaunt there financial status, and some of the rudest were rhose that were trylng to Act rich and complained about everything.”
“It was literally my job to help them and that often included looking at their transactions. Customers would need help figuring out why they were overdrawn or if they had fraud we'd have to look through to see what was legit and what wasn't. I wasn't just pulling that stuff up for no reason. I had plenty of other work to do.”
“I've got a few. I went from part time teller all the way up to Head Teller over the course of a few years and despite it being many years ago at this point, a few things still stand out. As others have said, what we imagine $100,000 looking like and what it actually does is night and day. I don't have particularly large hands and I can easily hold that much in one hand. I could easily get half a million in one arm, provided they're all in 100s of course. My perception of money got sc”
“You're gonna want to apply for teller jobs and try to move up from there. Emphasize your customer service and cash handling experience from Burger King. You can mention you're good with numbers but don't focus too heavily on that. A lot of the counting is not done by hand anymore. Still a positive but focus more on service and actual cash handling ability over math skills. Once you're in focus on getting refferals and sales. That's gonna be your key to moving up. My tellers n”
“front line banking is basically customer service with money, so lean hard into your medical assistant and burger king experience on the resume and talk metrics if you can. apply everywhere, referrals help a lot. this whole hiring scene is a joke right now and even entry stuff is weirdly hard to get”
“Hello, I am 23 years old and i am looking to give banking a chance as a career after being a medical assistant for 4 years. I'm looking to figure out how to make myself more appealing to employers in terms of my resume or any other way to catch their attention. I've graduated high school with an honors diploma with my most highest achieving class being math. I've also had some experience at customer service working at Burger King when i was 16. Any input would be appreciated su”
“I worked as a teller in various capacities for a while and I'll never forget my first time seeing the vault. I'm 21 or so, I'm led into the back room, I'm picturing something like a big vault door, or shelves of stacks of cash, only to see.... a couple 1x1 metal doors and some horizontal lockers for the cash boxes. That's it. The "main vault" was barely big enough to squeeze in two shoeboxes. And still somehow held well over a hundred grand. Blew my mind at the time”
“I hope it gives you some peace of mind! I’m a banker myself, and at my institution if you even happen to click on a customer account without a valid reason to do so (and curiosity is not considered a valid reason), you can be held accountable for it. (But my institution might be one of the stricter ones in that regard because all branch-level employees can access and perform maintenance/transactions on almost any account) But even at less strict institutions, in order to mess with your accounts”
Wow that is interesting to read, Thank you for your precious input 🙏🏻
That is comforting to read, Thank you for this precious info 🙏🏻
“What has surprised me the most is how some people live with having so little money in their accounts. Like I work at the bank, and am drastically underpaid, and can barely make my monthly bills, yet people with less than a quarter (or even less than a tenth) of what I have in my account on a weekly basis are able to somehow live…? Like what? 🤯 I get having multiple banks with multiple accounts, so we may not see their whole financial picture, but why even have an account with us if you aren’t g”
“Sometimes they use a name like relationship banker. Try to apply to bank of America, hi think they are starting out at about 24 dollars an hour or so.”
“I’m currently a teller at PNC. Still in school but I’m currently exploring jobs within the AMG, ISG, or wealth management teams. 95% of PNC’s advisors are remote. Speaking with managers in those teams, one of the more common entry roles for the investment service group (ISG) is working as a remote service agent, basically just servicing wealth management clients. It’s an unlicensed position but the expectation is for you to study and get licensed while in the role. My recommendation is to talk t”
“Teller nad banker are your best bets. Applied to 4 different banks and got in with the one that hired me a Personal Banker, which is a top 10 bank, but was the best way to get in. Customer service experience is also a typically a big plus if you have the experience.”
“Teller, float teller, member service representative, call center agent, customer service representative, loan clerk, title clerk.”
“apply directly on bank sites, filter for customer service, personal banker, relationship banker, call center, client service rep. network with tellers on linkedin and ask how they got in. even these roles get tons of apps now, it’s rough finding anything entry level”
“What’s the best way to lend an entry level job like a teller or associate banker? What other position names besides the 2 I named are entry level? Thank you. submitted by /u/bxto222 [link] [comments]”
“Keeping my drawer neat and organized was always number one, bills all facing the same direction and counting everything more than once, when getting cash, giving cash. Those things were the most basic things, they are usually stressed in training and there is a reason, it is proven to help keep you in balance.”