Hi guys (and girls
)
I have a close friend who recently joined SBI as a PO. I also know another friend whose father is a PO at SBI. I'm in and from Kolkata, West Bengal.
I got a feeling from scanning the forums that a lot of people here wanna know how life is a PO. So I kindly
thought of sharing my knowledge with you all.
Lemme go at it in an organised way:
Posting: It has been 6 months since my friend joined as a PO. The good news is that so far my friend hasn't been posted anywhere outside his native state. He says that most people are usually not sent anywhere outside their state during the probation period which is 2 years (talking about SBI). They keep shuttling from one place to another WITHIN their state. Now the bad news is that you will be posted from one centre to another after a period of time which varies from 4-6 weeks to 1-3 months! 4 weeks you are in Siliguri and then you are sent to Burdwan for a month and then to some other far-flung area for just 1 week. And so on. Its quite random.
The company will cut a little from your gross salary every month for lodging at all the different places ONLY if they are outside your city. But if the place of posting is in your city (no matter how far!) no lodging is provided.
My friend's gross is 24K something and his in-hand salary is 18K. But they won't give you free food anywhere. You need to bear your fooding expenses yourself wherever you go. The same goes for all travel and commuting expenses. You will usually be sharing your room with a fellow PO.
One things for sure folks: get ready for EXTENSIVE travelling when you are a PO! My friend often commutes for hours to his place of posting and then back home. At the end of the day, he's dead tired!
Perks: When you join as PO, you will be given 90K (wow!) to buy furniture! My friend says that they will give you this every year! Hmmmmmm
Apart from this, there are no perks or incentives during probation.
Workload & nature of work: My friend says that job at the workplace is neither too tough nor too easy. You get lunchbreaks of course. I asked him about the kind of work he does. He says that you just need to be at your desk all day, do some paperwork, and interact with customers SOMETIMES.
For example if a customer comes and wants to know about or get a loan, he will be directed to you. Customers can't get to you as easily as they can get to the cashier. So direct customer interaction is limited, but its there. I haven't yet asked him too many details about the work he does and if the work varies from place to place. But its like any other corporate job. You can't just sit at your desk and have coffee all day. You will expected to PERFORM & pass certain written tests during probation of 2yrs.
After probation: I haven't asked my friend too much about life post-probation. But he said that even after probation period, your posting will change EVERY 2 years. How long this will continue I cannot say. I haven't asked him this. But another of my friend whose father is a PO still goes from one place to another every 2 yrs!
Well thats it folks. If you have any more questions, feel free to tell me. I will ask my friends and let you know.
My friend was about to sit for CAT again last year when this offer came along. So he gave up his MBA plans and went ahead with the PO offer. As far as I know, he does not intend to do MBA and will be settling with the bank job for life.
He says that his biggest complaint is that he can't do anything on a regular basis. For example he wants to join a gym and start training but because his place of living keeps changing so unpredictably, he's not able to do so. And he says he misses all his friends in his hometown whenever he's out of the city.
If you ask me, well: NOT INTERESTED!
Probably because I hate travelling and would prefer just a single place to go and work everyday. I'd be happier with a teacher's job in a school for less salary than this PO thing. But your tastes may vary. I was earlier very excited about this PO thing but not anymore. But it has its good points like job security, holidays in sync with national holidays, some perks etc.
Hope this helps you in making a better and informed career decision. All the best!
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