Starting a new career as a Bank Teller

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How long were you there, everyone says don't quit, but, when you're stress levels reach too high and the mistakes levels are high, isn't that also a risk.

Working full time was 2-3 years, I went to a night shift afterward and stayed there on part time just one day a week which was a lot more manageable.

Giving up and quitting is the worst mistake. But preventing burn out is important too. After not sleeping, living alone, being disconnected from family, working night shift, I started to have rage attacks when I hit an obstacle and was very afraid and anxious to spend time on people taking up my time anymore. It made people say that I am bizzarre, dangerous, vague in my answers and it made me angrier and I started telling people off thinking I am smart and writing angry excessive emails and got fired and kicked out of my family who now all resent me for telling them off.

How did you pull off working one day a week? Did you start another job and they were ok with it?

It depends on the job and the company. Some jobs have shifts like at a hospital. So I was working five days a week for two years, and then switched to 'per diem' schedule and asked to schedule me to work every Wednsday. They needed a person, and I was already trained in the job, so they agreed. A few times they did not need me and I thought I was fired, but then they called me again when they were short.

You first have to work full time for a year or more to switch down to one day a week.

Stick with the job. Don't give up. Keep a diary of your experiences so you remember what you were trained and learn from mistakes not to repeat. It will be OK!

It has gone in a bad direction, not sure it is salvageable

Do your best to be patient with the circumstances and do not fight with anyone in your job. If you get criticized, apologize, and ask, 'What should I do in this situation?'. Try your best not to panic and catastrophize or let your embarrassment and anger overtake you. Don't quit. Just say, 'I'm really. I want to do a better job.'

I have a bit of experience in banking, although I have mostly managed to stay in processing centres… (my couple of months in the call centre were pure Hell!). I’ll try to help although I have only ever worked in the UK. Basically there is a lot of emphasis now on putting the customer first, giving them fair outcomes, etc. It’s difficult because you’re supposed to be able to pick up on any and every cue that might suggest that they are vulnerable, short of money, have health conditions, have any sort of life events that have recently affected their cash flow such as a job loss, house move, etc but you’re also supposed to try to pick up on what they haven’t said! So, questioning them very carefully around all these issues to ensure that there aren’t any problems you might have missed, that the bank can help them out with. This also means you need massive product knowledge on all the products and services offered by the bank so you know exactly what is available to that individual. It’s sort of like point scoring between the products and the individual, if that helps to think about it, there’s product templates and people templates, and we have to also keep this in mind and try to figure out how we can match the people to products, at least to make them aware of it, even if all they did was come in to pay in a cheque. I hated it at first because it seemed like it would inconvenience the customers rather than help them. But you don’t have to sell them anything, just make them aware. But I know the pain. For me it wasn’t learning about the products but speaking to the customers in such a way as to find things out so we can offer them things. Like I said, I couldn’t hack that, and I can understand exactly why you would want to quit. It is a job in this current climate so don’t quit but maybe spend all of a lunch break browsing their internal vacancies to find something non-customer facing if you can, and try to objectively view the learning experience without being stressed by it. If you tell us more about exactly what is going wrong maybe we can help tailor an answer. You’re doing well by putting yourself out there anyway! I hope you had a better day today

I've already put in a 2 weeks notice, after a meltdown with a psychological tremor I simply couldn't go forward.

What triggered the meltdown? Don't worry about it. You've gained job training and experience and expanded your comfort zone, by working outside of it. If you did this enough times, eventually you would learn the job of a teller and be able to do it as a routine without many meltdowns. Don't let this prevent you from applying to more jobs.
Have you started applying for new jobs?

Yes, I have pursued other jobs in the industry, and actively talked to managers on the phone of what they are looking for and sending resumes, it is best to be active while you are still employed. I did gain valuable experience and was paid for it, it just wasn't where I wanted to spend a large portion of my life.

Exactly. Not that big a deal in the grand scheme of life. My cousin's first official job was unpaid as an insurance salesman. He got two weeks of intensive sales training. He was never paid anything and left when he figured out it was kind of a half scam company. But he used that sales training in his next job which he was able to get only because he already had the previous company on his resume. The next company laid people off, but the on the job training he got allowed him to know how to work in his current job. You build your skill set and employee history from bits and pieces from different jobs where you had varying degrees of success.

Since I have put in the notice, I am doing better mentally, with pressure off I can perform tasks without freezing up.