Recruitments in the banking sector that have been big in recent years, generating considerable interest among job-seekers, are set to remain so for the next few years as well. This, however, does not make it any easy for the aspirants as with bank jobs gaining currency, the competition is also hotting up.
Indeed, it is intense as the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), which conducts recruitment examination on behalf of public sector banks, says the number of applications received has been a whopping 1 crore a year for the last two years. The number of posts was 50,000 on an average a year. The break-up, sources associated with the recruitment process say, is 20,000 officers and 30,000 clerical cadre posts.
It is in this backdrop a Bangalore-based firm, with which many past and present bankers are associated, recently introduced an e-learning programme to train the candidates. Unveiling the course and website of BReT Solutions Private Ltd., Canara Bank chairman and managing director R.K. Dubey underscored the significance of better preparation for the candidates.
Other speakers, including non-executive chairman of Karnataka Bank Ananthakrishna, said with the examinations being conducted online, the candidates need to tune themselves from that perspective too.
Canara Bank recruitment this fiscal, Mr. Dubey said, was likely to exceed last year’s 7,800. State Bank of India was planning an online exam around June for selecting 1,897 probationary officers. A key reason for the massive recruitment in the banking sector is the growing emphasis on financial inclusion — spreading to unbanked areas. With many employees who joined in 1970s retiring, more posts are falling vacant.
Popular choice
A senior banker, who did not want to be identified, attributed the popularity of bank jobs to the reasonable salaries, job security, improved status in society and the opportunity to serve customers. Recruitment by public sector banks was 50,000 for the past two years. The same pattern would continue for three more years, he added.
In terms of applications, there seems to be more from Bihar and States where job opportunities were relatively less compared with States where employment was available in manufacturing and services sectors. On the level of competition, the senior banker said the date of birth was the decider when hundreds of candidates were tied at the same score. Seniority in age gets them the job.
On the competition, a senior executive of BReT Solutions said that according to IBPS figures only 10 per cent of the estimated 2 crore candidates who took the examination got selected for interview. Of them, a mere 2.3 per cent got the final selection notice.
Chairman and managing director of BReT Solutions Ashok Hegde, a former general manager of Karnataka Bank, said in the absence of proper training, clearing the examinations was not easy.
