Awe shucks, Lestie and Dawnie. I am a bit embarrassed.
Thank you too Paragon. I appreciate the kind words.

My reason for moving up so fast is a solid dedication to my family. Married at 18 with my first child at 19, I heard it all about how I would be working minimum wage for the rest of my life, yada, yada. (Not by my parents, they are very supportive)
I made sure to turn things around.
I guess what I am trying to say is that you need to take things into your own hands. I have seen many others 'wait' for opportunities to come their way. I do not like to wait for anything. If I had nothing to do, i.e. slow day, I would volunteer to take on tasks. It not only helped me learn more about banking, but when a position came along that I was interested in, I already had knowledge in that particular area.
My bank has been good to me, and for that I am truely grateful.
Now I'm back to work. Whew!

I think people are reading me the wrong way. I am not upset at where I am in terms of being entry level. I just think with my degree and experience of 3 years in banking I am qualified to start learning other areas. Being something other than a teller. I am not wanting to go into management yet. I just want to move to something else in the bank.

I was told by my supervisor that is the pecking order. I have done a lot of those things. I liked being a courier, and have no problem with them. All I want is to move to something different than a teller. I know how to be a teller. I have been trained in commercial, the vault and being just a regular good ole teller in the drive thru and the lobby. After doing it for 2 years don't you think a person deserves a chance elsewhere if that is what they really want???

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Yes and no. What's the competition? Are there any openings? Have you been passed over in favor of someone else? If yes, why? I'll will tell you this, if you communicate to your peers, supervisors and management as you have done here, it's getting you no where fast. Also, if your goal is csr, talk to your supervisor or HR to determine what you need to do within your organization to make that happen - or possibly why it's not happening. Hopefully, you will secure an honest, helpful response. Although, if your course is not clear, move on to another environment.

Also, you probably should rent "Keys to Tulsa (1996)" before you go there.

Anon, have you checked out the Oklahoma Bankers Association website? This might help you find banks that are headquartered in Tulsa (ATM/Debit Cards and call center would probably be there) or have branches there (CSR jobs). It also has some employment opportunities listed.

If you truly don't want a teller job, make sure that you don't emphasize all of your teller experience on your resume - tailor it to the job you want to nab.

Best of luck to you and there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to advance, learn more, and better yourself.

Edit: here are some Tulsa banks that have websites.
• American Bank & Trust Co., Tulsa
• ARVEST Bank of Tulsa, Tulsa, Broken Arrow
• Bank of Commerce, Chelsea, Tulsa, Adair, Catoosa, Sequoyah
• Bank of Oklahoma, N.A., Tulsa, and locations throughout Oklahoma
• Bank One, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, points throughout the state
• Bank South, Tulsa
• Community Bank & Trust Co., Tulsa
• F&M Bank & Trust Company, Tulsa
• Local Oklahoma Bank, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, points throughout the state
• National Bank of Commerce, Altus, Enid, Kingfisher, Oklahoma City, Tulsa
• NBanC, Oklahoma City, Tulsa
• Oklahoma National Bank and Trust Company, Tulsa
• Stillwater National Bank & Trust Company, Stillwater, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Chickasha
• Triad Bank, Tulsa
• Tulsa National Bank, Tulsa
• Valley National Bank, Tulsa

I'm sorry Anon...how sexist of me to guess female! I smacked myself with a stick for it as soon as I read your response.

Follow some of these great suggestions. Check out other financial institutions if you need to. They aren't all great (I've worked for some doozies!).

Also let me see if I can give you another little hint that helped me. I started my career in banking wanting AVP within 3 years and VP in 5. To reach this goal I had to take some seriously crappy jobs most often the ones posted in the career postings for EONS!!! They were begging for trained monkeys verses leave the job unfilled for any longer. (Speaks highly of my skills huh?) I progressed up from two grades below a teller to my goal by taking on each task and working my buns off to do so. Most often I had 50+ mile commutes. I rarely stayed in any position for a year back then, always progressing upwards to another challenge. Man did those commutes suck! And the jobs were rarely worth them at the moment but...in the long run it's how I was noticed and how I made the goals.

So...long advice short. If you're at the wrong bank, find the right one (where the staff are happy and the opportunities are available) and start over with them, knowing your goal is to work your way up the line to the position you eventually want. Don't work at several different banks! Moving up fast looks great on the resume...moving from bank to bank tells an employer you won't be with them long so don't invest in you.

Sad news...you're wanting CSR? You'll get really tired of that soon But good news is if you learn it you'll soon want even more and you'll have a foundation to get there.

Personal advice (for what it's worth)...someone is going to disagree with me but...stay out of collections, dealer banking and special credits. Dead end jobs for all but the toughest of us!

Quote:

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I think that job would be a step towards a career position, and involves more than data input - lien perfection, document prep, file reviews, customer service.

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Probably just a difference in locations. Where I am (and have been) it's basically secretarial. We rarely see any progression. Those folks apply to work with me as admins before they move into lending.

As an ex credit analyst...I must say I never liked the college to credit analyst move. But then again where I've been (both large and community banks) our analyst's do more than you've described joker so that could be the difference.

You are welcome. You are an example for those that are starting out in banking - one needs to look around for those that have 'made' it, those that appear to be happy at work and talk to those people relating to their experience and what it takes within the organization to make it.

If the anon poster has been at it three years and openings have come up - this may be an attitude issue, but if there were no openings - it's possibly just time to move on. Some of the worst banks to work for have the best openings, so one should not hesitate to pay some dues in that environment - I have and it was one of the best learning experiences of my career.

With that said, it's my belief that a percentage of bankers simply have 'talent for the game,' regardless of education, etc. - they simply are a natural at what they do in banking (from entry level on up) - it's all easy. These people rarely have to ask for a raise or promotion - management comes to them. Other bankers need to take boxes of work home, but the job does get done, somehow. It's always a treat when you get to work with someone that has 'talent for the game.' If you ever run into a banking 'natural,' listen to him/her and perhaps some of it will rub off on you. A trait to look for: when you are around them you feel energized to do your best work.

Off subject... Oh dear goodness! A miracle has happened...Paragon and Dawnie agree

Is white stuff falling down under yet? Paragon...well said

Wow, what a popular thread. Lots of good comments in there, to many to scan.

Two thoughts come to my mind. One was a recruiting poster for the Army that said something to the effect of "Generals wanted...who will start as privates" and the fact that you shouldn't go to work AT the bank, but go to work FOR the bank. Paying dues and learning the ropes will make you a more valuable and effective employee.

If you are not happy with your compensation or responsibilities, tell them. If opportunities don't open up, vote with your feet.

I recall when I was doing loan collections, I was told it was temporary. One day I was walking and talking with my SVP boss and I said since I was ready to move up they have hired experienced lenders who could collect, they hired inexperienced lenders who could collect, but I was still there. I'll never forget his response, "it won't be forever, no one lives forever". Bad answer, but I stuck around and some folks left and I moved up. Eventually the SVP was one of them.

Thanks, Dawnie. You possibly see at least part of yourself in the last paragraph. You can sure energize the BOL troops.

I started as a teller, a teller with a college degree, and i felt like i deserved better because i had a degree... but i was told to stick with it... learn the ropes... so i did, and i understand the pay sucks (still don't know how i survied on it looking back), finally i became a CSR... in someways, just a title change as i spent a great deal more time being a teller when some one called in sick... realized it was not what i wanted to do, so i became an admin for commercial lending. It has been a most interesting job, in the sense that i am more than likely overquilfied for what i do, but i have learned more in my 2 years doing this job than i could have in college. this job has made me see some of the reality of banking, and for people our age (i'm only a few years out of college) this can be hard to take... you have to in some ways be humble, know your skils, market them well... but never think you're intitled to anything... bankers can be prickly and if they think you're too big for your britches, they won't hesitate to knock you down a bit. that was hard for me to learn, but i did and lord knows i'm better for it.
also you say you don't actually work for the bank, you work for a temp company... this could be the biggest hold up of all, technically the bank owes you no great alliance, as you don't work for them... i would work hard to get on with the bank itself, even if it's as a teller... this will help you get into better position to move up.
I do wish you luck... i think what others have said is sage advice and would not ignore it.

I heard this speech on the radio on Martin Luther King's birthday this year--I think there has been some politically correct editing by MLK's estate but Dr. King's theme remains wholly intact:

What Is Your Life's Blueprint?

Six months before he was assassinated, King spoke to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967.

I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life's blueprint?

Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good, solid blueprint.

Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is whether you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint.

I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life's blueprint. Number one in your life's blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don't allow anybody to make you fell that you're nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.

Secondly, in your life's blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. You're going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold what you will do in life — what your life's work will be. Set out to do it well.

And I say to you, my young friends, doors are opening to you--doors of opportunities that were not open to your mothers and your fathers — and the great challenge facing you is to be ready to face these doors as they open.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great essayist, said in a lecture in 1871, "If a man can write a better book or preach a better sermon or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, even if he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."

This hasn't always been true — but it will become increasingly true, and so I would urge you to study hard, to burn the midnight oil; I would say to you, don't drop out of school. I understand all the sociological reasons, but I urge you that in spite of your economic plight, in spite of the situation that you're forced to live in — stay in school.

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better.

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

— From the estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Wow...
i think that says it all!

Original Anon--register and send me a PM, or just check my bio and email me. We have branches in the Tulsa area and I can get you in touch with our Regional Coordinator to at least check into the possibility of a position with our bank. I, of course, cannot guarantee a position or that you would even want to work for my bank, but I'm willing to put you two together in order to discover that for yourself.

fraudpup, check pm's

That spider gives me the willies tooooooo! Hope it doesn't satisfy its hunger right before my eyes. Yuk!

Before I even begin, "Big Banks" may not be a bad place to work, they just didn't "work" for me.

I began my banking career as a teller in 1993 just out of High School at a "big bank." I was there for approximately 16 months before I began looking for employment elsewhere. I had the highest transaction count of my branch, balanced within tolerance each day and was backup for the vault. When I bacame unsatisfied I approached my branch manager about the possibility of advancement and was not given very hopeful information. Shortly after I was hired as a teller at a community bank with three branches. My balancing history and work ethic were the same at the community bank and I was soon asked to do additional tasks in addition to being a teller without receiving a raise. I did so without complaint and as a result was recognized and promoted to assist the cashier while still being a teller. Again, shortly after a compliance position was posted and even though I had no college degree or direct experience I was given the opportunity to "try my hand" at compliance, with a minimal raise, in part to my past work history.

I have experience as a teller, loan servicing, accounts payable, proof (very limited), software implementation, compliance, telephone installation, etc, etc... I volunteer for everything without thinking of what the immediate benefits will be for me. In the long run, the more I know about the bank and its operations the more valuable I am so that when I am unhappy I have more leverage at the bargaining table. Today, I am the Compliance Officer, AVP with a salary and work schedule that satisfies me. However, I decided it is time for me to move on and will be changing positions once again as a "Project Supervisor" primarily for software implementation. I LOVE change and learning new aspects of the banking world. My bank recognizes these qualities in me and uses them to their benefit which in the end benefits us both.

The underlying question is this: What do you want to do? The best teller in the world will probably make a lousy credit analyst. The best analyst may make a poor lender. If you want to get into credit – try collections. It can be unpleasant, but I think it is extremely important for some areas of the bank.
If I want you to make loans, I want you to know how to collect loans. That being said, the absolute best collectors I have ever managed were not really suited for much else.

The teller route is fine if you are looking to be a branch manager. If not, try another path.

What do you want?

That spider gives me the willies tooooooo! Hope it doesn't satisfy its hunger right before my eyes. Yuk!

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You do need to wonder where the spider goes as it exits the screen for a second or two - headed your way!

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How do you know there is only one spider? Better check your office.

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That would be like saying that all spiders look alike! Trust me, it's one spider, it's on the web, in theory it has access to your PC through your IP address and who knows where it will end up from there! Have you checked your purse, lately?