Qualities Required In Juniors

In their juniors, the banks want intelligence-solid rather than showy attainments being preferred. A good character, and respectability of family are always looked for. A sound body is another requisite. Soundness of body conduces to soundness of mind. Another reason for requiring good health in the applicant is the fact that, contrary to the general outside belief, the work is exacting in many offices. The occupation, too, belongs to the sedentary, indoor class. Therefore, a reasonably strict medical examination has to be passed.

Furthermore, the embryo banker is expected to have a pleasing exterior and a good address. This does not mean that the ultra fashionable or smart society man is preferred. Quite the contrary in fact; for the bankers know that when any of their men achieve too undisputed a pre-eminence in fashionable attire, or in society's favor, these things are apt to receive an undue share of time and thought, to the prejudice of the work in the bank. Then there is the increased likelihood of such men running into debt, and, perhaps, being tempted to steal. The banks wish to have their offices filled with men who will impress the public favorably. Healthy, good-looking, nice-mannered young fellows, who attend courteously to the wants of customers, create a favorable impression, and do much to increase the public good-will towards the banks to which they belong. But persons possessing strikingly disagreeable peculiarities of speech, feature, or appearance are handicapped in their efforts to win regard, and their usefulness is thus impaired. Deformity of this kind is a bar to entering the banking service, not absolute in the case of its not being too pronounced, but a bar nevertheless.

Manners And Disposition

A prominent New York banker recently caused considerable discussion by a remark he made as to the desirability of having agreeable, pleasant-spoken men for the banking service. He said that, in his own bank, he rather preferred employees with a stand-offish manner, because they were not so apt to lose time carrying on conversations with customers. He added that, in his opinion, this class of officer was not so likely to be imposed upon by swindlers, confidence men, and the like. These remarks were met by general disapproval from other bankers and from banking journals, who held that agreeable and courteous clerks could be expected to have as much as their crustier fellows of the hardness of temper and vigilance requisite to keep them from wasting the bank's time and from being victimized by sharpers.

Home Training And Education

A few words as to the kind of home training and preliminary education best calculated to make a boy useful in a banking office, and to facilitate his progress to the higher positions will be here in order. One of the first requisites is obedience. A young boy, upon entering a bank, can have but little knowledge of the consequences likely to follow his acts. He is called upon to do a number of things, the full purport of which can only come to him gradually, after months, and perhaps years, of service. In some cases, should they be done wrongly, gravely disastrous results might follow. Therefore, he has to be instructed carefully at first, and the instructions received he must implicitly obey. A disobedient junior would be too great a fool and too great a source of annoyance and danger to be tolerated. And obedience is best learned at home. With it goes respect for authority. Several of the other qualities already mentioned as desirable are also notably the products of home influences and surroundings. If good health, kindliness, gentlemanly manners, are not acquired before going into the bank, they may never be acquired. Such things as neatness in work and taste in dress may be acquired, or at least improved, afterwards.

In the matter of education, an all-round training such as is given in the public and high schools forms a good groundwork on which to impose the special training imparted by the bank. A college education, particularly if specialized in commercial subjects, is a further help. The advantage to be derived from that would, perhaps, be more apparent after the earlier stages of bank work were passed. The lack of a college education is in no sense a bar to selection, or to the most highly successful career. There are many managers doubtless who would prefer to take as junior a boy of seventeen fresh from a high or good public school rather than a college graduate. In actual practice, very few college graduates apply for banking positions. The knowledge of bookkeeping and of commercial usage acquired at the business colleges has better results in permitting an advantageous start. The courses necessary to secure a diploma from them are short, and the expense in connection therewith not great.