Top tips to ACE your bank interviews

Simple tips to prepare for bank interviews from M B Sivaramakrishnan, a HR professional and author of the book Guide to Bank Interviews.

In recent times banks, especially PSU banks, are on a hiring spree. As per industry reports, in next three years, more than 3 lakh Bank PO (probationary officers) and clerical jobs are to be filled in the public sector.

Immense scope in the banking sector has raised people's excitement of working in public sector banks that assure several benefits along with a good pay package.

The criteria for bank recruitments are not so stringent and the aspirants only have to pass the bank entrance exams (SBI conducts its own exam, and other 19 nationalised banks recruit people based on IBPS Common Written Exam -- CWE) along with personal interview and group discussion round to get the job.

Important note

Some of the recent bank recruitment details:

• Andhra Bank hiring 600 clerks -- Last date to apply May 16, 2012
• Punjab and Sind Bank hiring 800 clerks -- Last date to apply May 18, 2012
• Central Bank of India hiring 1,000 probationary officers -- Last date to apply 2012 May 21, 2012
• UCO Bank hiring 100 clerks -- Last date to apply 2012 June 2, 2012

M B Sivaramakrishnan has authored four books: Guide to Bank Interviews, A to Z About Interviews, How to Crack Group Discussions and Personal Interviews and Guide to Entrepreneurship. These books are published by Buzzingstock Publishing House (www.buzzpublishing.net) and are available in English, Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi.

M B Sivaramakrishnan, a HR professional and author of the book Guide to Bank Interviews says, that the reasons for candidates' failure in bank interviews are:

• Lack of preparation
• Lack of subject knowledge
• Lack of skills and most importantly
• Lack of confidence

Here is an excerpt from his book Guide to Bank Interviews on how to crack bank interviews.

How to prepare for bank interviews?

After clearing your bank recruitment written exam you would receive a call letter from the bank for interview and group discussion.

After you have got your interview schedule without wasting time begin your preparations.

Check the web site of the bank and gather crucial information about its history, management, services offered, recognitions, business volume etc. Note down these information in your diary for immediate reference. The interviewer will be very much interested to know how much you know about the bank.

In case you are an experienced executive, visit your present job ro#8804 remember some of your key achievements & failures, difficult situations you had overcome in the job due to your expertise etc.

If you are fresher, brush up your curriculum. You may get to encounter with questions based on your subject, i.e. accounts, finance, economics etc. You also need to be prepared to answer questions pertaining to co-curricular activities too.

Go for a mock interview. Ask a family member or a friend to pose as an interviewer. Give them the possible questions and you respond to it. Check your flow of language and the way you handle objections.

One important point is, one out of every five candidates tend to do all these at the last moment. i.e. on the day of interview or the day before. Make sure to have all the necessary documents ready well in advance to safe guard against any eventualities such as power failure, Internet breakdown etc.

Since you are applying for a job in the banking industry, you should be prepared to answer a few banking industry related questions. For example, what is NPA? What is repo rate, SLR, CRR, etc? Who is the present Governor of RBI?

Finally Best of Luck to you all... Always remember one thing: Once you are well prepared, cracking the interview is never going to be a tough job.