I have a BSc in Civil Engineering. Not finance. Not economics. Civil Engineering.
When I decided I wanted to work in banking, I had no finance degree, no internship, and nobody inside the industry who could open a door for me. Most people would have looked at that and moved on. I did not.
That decision eventually took me from Access Bank in Lagos to JPMorgan in the UK to where I am now at a leading global bank in Canada. Three countries. Three very different institutions. All of it built on a foundation that had nothing to do with a finance degree.
I want to say that upfront because the first thing I want to remove from your head is the idea that you are not the right kind of person for this industry. You probably are. You just have not gotten in yet.
Everyone who works in banking today was once exactly where you are right now. No experience, no network, no idea how it actually worked. They got their first role anyway. That role taught them almost everything. The goal right now is not to have it all figured out. The goal is to get in.
Your first role will not be glamorous
Uh, I know that is not what people want to hear. But it is true and I think it is worth saying clearly.
Your first role might be branch banking, back office operations, a graduate scheme rotation, or a junior analyst position doing work that feels far removed from the career you pictured. That is fine. More than fine, actually.
Banking is an industry where a huge amount of the real knowledge is learned on the job. How money moves, how decisions get made, how risk is assessed, how clients are managed. None of that is fully taught in a classroom. You absorb it by being inside an institution and paying attention every single day. Every person who genuinely understands how banking works earned that understanding by doing the work. Your first role is where that begins.
What banks are looking for at entry level
At the junior level, banks are not expecting you to arrive knowing everything. From what I have seen and experienced, what they are actually looking for is simpler than most people think.
A genuine grasp of basic finance. Not a CFA. But you do need to understand how interest rates work, what a balance sheet tells you, the difference between equity and debt, and roughly how banks make money. If you cannot explain these things in plain language, that is the first thing to fix. Read. Watch. Study. The basics are not optional.
The ability to learn fast and adapt. Banking environments move quickly. Regulations shift. Markets change. Teams restructure. In my experience, the people who build lasting careers here are not necessarily the ones who arrived knowing the most. They are the ones who absorb new information quickly, adjust without drama, and figure out what is needed in the moment.
Professionalism and communication. This sounds obvious but it is consistently where candidates fall short, in my observation. Clear written communication, the ability to listen properly, showing up prepared. These things get noticed immediately at every level.
Genuine curiosity about the industry. Banks want to hire people who actually want to be there. Follow financial news. Have some sense of what is happening in the markets. Have a view on something. It does not need to be sophisticated. It needs to be real.
This is a numbers game. Treat it like one.
Hmm, this is the part most people get wrong and I feel strongly about it.
They apply to five banks, get rejected from three, hear nothing from two, and conclude that banking is not for them. That is not a verdict. That is just how the process works.
Every role I have landed in banking required more applications, more rejections, and more patience than I initially expected. None of them came easily. All of them eventually came because I did not stop.
Landing your first banking job is a numbers game. The more applications you send, the more interviews you get. The more interviews you get, the more you improve. The more you improve, the closer you are to the offer. Apply widely. Apply to roles that feel slightly out of reach. Apply to smaller banks and regional institutions, not just the names everyone knows. Apply again after rejection. The people who get in are rarely the most qualified. They are often just the most persistent.
How to give yourself a better chance before you apply
A few things that, in my experience, meaningfully improve your chances.
Get the basics of finance clear in your head. Not textbook level. Conversational level. Be able to explain what a bank actually does, how it makes money, what credit risk means, and why interest rates matter. If you struggle to explain these things simply, that is your starting point.
Tailor your CV to each application. Generic CVs get ignored. Read the job description carefully, identify the two or three things they are prioritising, and make sure your CV speaks directly to those. One focused page is better than two vague ones.
Research the bank before every interview. Know their recent news. Know which division you are applying to and what it does. Know why you want to work there specifically. Interviewers can tell immediately whether you have done this or not.
Be honest about what you do not know. At the junior level, pretending to know things you do not is a fast way to lose credibility. Saying "I do not know that yet but I am actively learning it" is, in my experience, a far stronger answer than a confident bluff. Banks hire people they can train. Show them you are trainable.
Once you are in, the real learning starts
Getting the offer is step one. What you do in the first twelve months matters enormously, from what I have seen.
Ask questions constantly. Nobody expects a junior hire to know everything. They do expect you to be curious and engaged enough to ask. The people who advance fastest in banking, in my observation, are rarely the ones who stay quiet trying to look competent. They are the ones who are visibly trying to understand everything around them.
Pay attention beyond your own role. Banking is interconnected. Understanding how your work connects to other functions, other teams, and ultimately to the bank's clients and revenue is what separates people who stay junior for years from people who move quickly.
Be reliable above everything else. In a new environment where nobody knows you yet, your reputation is built entirely on whether you do what you say you will do, on time, to a good standard. That sounds simple. It is the foundation everything else is built on.
The honest summary
Everyone had to get their first banking role before they could understand how banking works. There is no shortcut around that.
Your job right now is to get inside. Understand the basics. Show that you can learn fast. Apply to more roles than feels comfortable. Keep going after the rejections, because rejections are part of the process, not a verdict on whether you belong here.
You do not need to be perfect. You need to be persistent, curious, and honest about where you are starting from. That is enough to get through the door. Everything else follows from there.
Disclaimer: Everything here is based on my own personal experience and perspective. It is not professional advice of any kind. Every person's situation is different, and what was true for me may not be true for you.
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