Branch Manager

For an assistant manager you’re ultimately not the one in charge and you need to be respectful and mindful of your authority and not go in there and try and rule the show. But there is always potential to move up. It’s a good learning and stepping stone for anyone to be in management. As an assistant manager you are given authority to manage people and it kind of gives you an idea of what management is like without giving you the absolute, full-blown responsibility of it. What I mean is, I have authority but I don’t make the final call on things.

I believe they would rate me fairly highly. I took the time to foster relationships with all of my workers, and I believed that everyone was important to the company. I treated all of my employees with respect, without compromising sales and customer satisfaction. Of course, there were situations that required a degree of firmness, but I always remained fair.

I am an assistant to the manager but I oversee all the daily operations of the branch. That includes making the weekly schedule, I oversee all the teller daily activities and make sure that they’re performing their tasks and staying within their check cashing limit. I also balance the ATM. I do a lot with customer service, complaints, and helping people resolve any customer conflict that might arise. I open new accounts. I make sure all the cashier’s checks and money orders are typed up and issued correctly and logged. I do a monthly audit of the branch. I just make sure that the branch operates smoothly. A lot of it is administrative work.

Well obviously a goal of mine is to move up the corporate ladder, whether or not that’s in banking I don’t know. When you’re in the management position you tend to start like I did as a teller and then the next step after that is management. I would like to move to the commercial side and see how the lending side of the bank operates.

For all job interview questions, it is important to stay away from any true weaknesses or shortcomings. Yet with management questions, it is acceptable to offer a minute amount of humility with your own abilities to provide a believable answer. An effective answer to these types of interview questions is, “Sometimes in the heat of a deadline, I have found that I have overlooked great work by a staff member. I am working on making sure everyone I work with gets their deserved recognition for successful completion of their tasks, because it is important that every individual staff member be recognized for their contributions toward building the company’s success.”

A high school education. The only thing you really need to be is a good people person and be able to understand that the customer is never wrong. You need to be good at resolving conflicts and coming up with ways to make the customer happy. You need to go out of your way to help accommodate their needs. You also need to be computer savvy and know Excel templates for monthly auditing and those kinds of things.

Well I first graduated from college and I had a few interviews with other companies and the bank just offered me the job. I first started out as a teller and then got involved in the manager training program and then I was promoted to assistant branch manager.

In your interview answer demonstrate how you communicate information effectively to an individual or group, adjusting your approach according to the situation. Include your ability to see the other person's perspective, to listen properly and establish a constructive relationship.

Management job interview questions about motivating staff or delegating tasks are common in management interviews. When you answer them you should focus on communication and team building, “I do my best to show recognition and acknowledgement to all employees that meet goals, which keeps morale high and employees on task. Also, when applicable, I keep tasks interdependent within the team, so that staff members require and encourage fellow staff members to complete their work.”

Again, companies want to hire people who are passionate about the job, so you should have a great answer about why you want the position. (And if you don’t? You probably should apply elsewhere.)

First, identify a couple of key factors that make the role a great fit for you (e.g., “I love customer support because I love the constant human interaction and the satisfaction that comes from helping someone solve a problem”), then share why you love the company (e.g., “I’ve always been passionate about education, and I think you guys are doing great things, so I want to be a part of it”).

I’m salary-based. We don’t get commission and recently after I was promoted to assistant manager I got a raise. And then at my yearly review I got a booster raise which is basically a standard raise for employees.

I love my customers and they come to see me so I’ve built good relationships with customers at the bank. And again I’ve enjoyed everybody I’ve worked with.

For me the most challenging thing would be to move up in the bank. Basically, it’s challenging trying to prove that I can do more than what I’m doing now. I kind of feel like I’m underused.

In my experience delegating responsibility and authority is crucial. A team needs to be able to develop and grow as individuals and a whole, not be held back by low expectations or ego.