[PasstheCPA23]

Hey guys, how is it going? I wanted to write this post in hopes of gaining some career advice and/or tips. About me: I have worked as an auditor in public accounting for about 2.5 years now, and I’m a licensed CPA. I realized I love the financial services industry (i.e. working with any type of banks). For one, during college, I worked a job as a personal banker in the banking industry and loved to help customers one on one. I also loved to sell and I have a strong selling personality. Now, on the other hand, working in auditing doesn’t give me this one on one interaction with the customer and I am not selling anything, so, this is why I hate it. I ALSO loved the fact that my salary as a personal banker wasn’t just my base. I also got bonuses and commission, so, it was very bonus based.

However, I do not just want to leave accounting for good as I worked very hard to obtain my CPA. So, I wanted to do a bank role where I can still “sell”, get a nice base salary, bonuses/commission, AND still analyze financial statements. I do not mind analyzing financial statements and doing that type of work, but again, I still want to sell and get that one on one interaction with the customer.

So, are there any bank roles out there that describe this? One role that might be a good fit would be “Commercial Banking” in which I can analyze financial statements and also sell loans to businesses and it is still sales driven, which I like? Does anyone agree or have any experience with this?

My last question is: Is an MBA required? If so, what type of concentration would I need in a MBA to excel in something like this? Or would an MBA be useless? Again, I have my CPA, but, was thinking of obtaining an MBA too.

Thank you so much everyone!

[PasstheCPA23]

Anyone with any advice?

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

I've worked in both commercial and corporate banking. The role you're after is a Relationship Manager/Senior Relationship Manager (or depending on the bank, some variance of the “Vice President” title). At any rate, the RM/SRM is what you're after.

You'll be responsible for managing a portfolio of banking clients (commercial or corporate), bringing in new business, analyzing financials for loan requests and quarterly/annual reviews, covenant compliance reviews, and will have a compensation structure exactly what you're after – base + bonus. Usually, a RM/SRM will have at least one or more analysts/underwriters working under you doing the leg work on the financial analysis. You'll provide them guidance on said analysis and you are ultimately the employee responsible for signing off the report/review/loan request.

You'll find that having a CPA will go A VERY LONG WAY in regards to a RM/SRM position. Most of the ones I've dealt with in my 10 years of banking have minimal understanding of financials or financial analysis. They're just really good sales people who rely on their analysts/underwriters to do the financials and tell them whether the customer's request is going to fly with the bank's underwriting standards. I just hate sales so I prefer just crunching numbers and letting someone else do the ‘smooth talking'. 🙂

So the fact that you understand accounting/financial analysis as a CPA will look VERY good to a bank. You can make A LOT of money as a RM/SRM. My first year out of college I was a 22 year old credit analyst to a SRM who made over $500k the first year I worked for her. This was back in 2005. It was just her and I doing all the analysis. She was brilliant – great at sales and had a strong understanding of financials. She'd find new clients, bring me the financials, I'd do the analysis based on what loan they were after, she'd review, and then we'd submit to the CFO/Senior management for review/sign-off. We had a portfolio of $1.3B in loans.

I personally think the CPA will go further than a MBA in regards to this line of work. You'll definitely want to get a good understanding of bank underwriting and loan types to match customers' needs with the right product. Hope this helps a bit!

[PasstheCPA23]

@Cruz818: Thank you so much for the detailed information. I was wondering if we can chat. What's your email or do you have LinkedIn? Again, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

[Anonymous]

@passthecpa23 check my profile

[PasstheCPA23]

@ Cruz818: Let me know if you got my email. Thanks!

[PasstheCPA23]

Anyone else want to share their thoughts?

[Author]

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