Pros
Fixed hours as a teller. (No such thing anymore once you become an FSM) Nice friendly co-workers. Most customers are nice too. Work benefits are average, nothing special.
Cons
VERY low pay for a university grad. (But this is commonplace among the big 5 banks) Stressful work environment: - Long lineups month-end and before/after holidays - Customer's fraudulent cheques, outages on cash could land you in hot water any-day - Potential bank robberies (had 2 at my branch when I was working there) Career growth is heavy based on personal sales. If your branch location is not ideal, i.e. located in a poor area, then chances are you will be stuck in the same position / branch for a while, or even let go for lack of sales performance. My tips: - Make sure you land your CSR position at a branch with lots of new traffic. (Not the same customers day in/day out). - Part time CSR position beats full time any-day. Full time CSRs have disproportionately higher sales targets than part time. Full timers also have to take care of start of day/ end of day treasury duties. On the other hand, customer satisfaction score (NPS) is calculated as a team score for the branch. In other words, if your branch coworker pissed off a customer really bad, you will share that bad customer review on your scorecard even if it has nothing to do with your own service. Be aware low NPS is always used as an excuse by upper/middle management to cut back on year-end bonuses! Side notes: Before the year 2012, CSRs only had 2 weeks of annual vacation. As of summer 2013, CSRs not only have to sell credit cards, but also travel insurance!