Why do you want to pursue a career in the banking industry?

"I am passionate about the field of finance and accounting, mixed with an unwavering passion for quality customer service. The banking industry allows me to tap into both areas and have a lot of fun making positive customer experiences along the way."

Before your interview, take some time to think through your career goals. Santander Bank is looking for motivated individuals who want to grow within the company. Share your career plans. Talk about how this position will help you achieve your goals!

"Careers in banking run in my family! My mother was a banker and my father, a financial advisor when I was growing up. It always fascinated me how smart they both were. It's in my blood!"

"I want to pursue a career in banking because I think I would benefit from learning about banking and loans that I can then apply to my own life in the future. So, it would be beneficial for me."

If a client here at Santander Bank were to be denied the financing that they desire, how would you handle that situation?

"This is a very common occurrence in my current role in the mortgage industry. When a client is denied financing, I am very up front and honest with them in my approach. The most important thing that a customer wants to understand is why financing is denied and my experience in the finance industry lends well to me explaining the importance of credit scores and debt to equity ratios. I have found that customers that are denied financing really take well to my approach and I have had many customers come back after doing the personal work needed to improve and succeed in their application process."

As a Loan Officer at Santander Bank, you will have times where you will have to have the difficult conversation with prospective clients that are being denied financing. For this question, your interviewer will be looking to hear that you take a professional approach with the clients and that you have a firm understanding of the regulations surrounding loans in the industry. To seal the deal for this question, talk about your ability to educate the client to better the chances that they will come back to Santander Bank for business in the future.

"Life as a successful Loan Officer is about being knowledgeable and professional and I pride myself on my ability to project both of those things. In the times I need to personally decline a potential customer, I am firm and fair with them. I don't beat around the bush in any way because this can leave a customer with a false sense of hope. Taking the time to explain the regulations for the loan in layman's terms often helps customers understand things better as well."

"I would let them know that they have been denied financing. But then I would explain to them why they were denied in the first place. So, they understand why, and then they can fix anything that needs to be done so they can come back later and then be approved for financing."

Talk about a time you had to handle failure at any point in your career. How did you handle that situation and move forward with confidence?

"A couple of years ago with my current company, my manager asked me if I would consider a promotion into a role as a supervisor for our department. Having not had experience supervising individuals up to that point in my career, I was very hesitant at first. My manager kept telling me that I had the skills necessary to do so. I did accept the offer to become the supervisor and after just three months, I fully realized that the position wasn't for me. I had become very close friends with a lot of the people I was now supervising and that made the real difficult for me. I didn't hesitate to approach my manager to let them know that I wasn't cut out for the role and we worked on a plan for me to transition back my former role. Looking back on the situation, I really learned a lot about myself and who I was as a worker to not put myself in a situation like that again."

This is a question that is being posed to you that gives you a chance to show your ability to overcome adversity and handle yourself with integrity during a time of failure. Your job in answering this question will be to prove that you can cope with failure in a productive way that leads to making the situation right and learning lessons for the future. As you prepare for a question like this for your interview with Santander Bank, think of a situation where you can highlight both of these things and don't hesitate to tell your interviewer the reasons why the failure occurred. Your interview fully understands that you are a human that makes mistakes and as long as you take a lesson moving forward, you will be in great standing with them.

"In my current role, I was the person who was informed that we were losing one of our biggest clients to a local competitor. In speaking with the client, they were very unhappy about our customer service and overall pricing. Being responsible for the customer service for our customers, I felt very responsible for losing this client and had to break the news to our leadership team. Right away, our Sales Manager contacted the client to ask a lot of questions on why they were no longer utilizing our services. From there we took a lot of lessons moving forward and I worked through a new customer service policy for my team to follow moving forward."

"I have failed in my career. When I was offered to help run a swim school I was working at, I took the opportunity because I figured it would give me an opportunity to learn new skills for my future. However, I faced failure in this position because every time an issue came up in the building or the program, I would have ideas and ways to fix it, but my boss did not like to take them into consideration, so I felt I was failing myself and my coworkers by not being able to help change things around our workspace."

How do you respond to problems that require a quick solution?

"I can think quickly and can do mental math, problem-solve, and mention other products and services to offer the customers. In the case of an urgent matter, I trust my instincts and can quickly evaluate situations to recognize the next steps and act accordingly. I feel secure in my ability to think and act quickly while I'm working in ABC position for Santander Bank."

You may experience a variety of issues related to customers or technical issues while working in the banking industry. Give an example that demonstrates your confidence and your strength as a decision maker and a problem-solver.

"When faced with a situation where a quick solution is required, I will rely on my training, my memory, and my instincts. I am confident in my ability to find a solution to last minute, or unexpected, problems."

"I respond to problems that need a quick solution by thinking back to my training. If I can think about what I was taught, then I can offer a solution to the problem."

On the finance side of Santander Bank, we expect our representatives to be ingrained in our sales focused culture. If hired for this role, how would you learn and embrace our sales process?

"Knowing that the main goal of Santander Bank is to sell more products, I understand my role on the finance side is to provide customers with the best options for them to walk out the door as a lifelong customer. If hired for this role, I will take the time over the first weeks on the job to fully understand your product line, costs and typical financing procedures so I can hit the ground running in no time. In my current role, I communicate very regularly with our sales staff on each customer that we work mutually together with. It really helps provide the best customer experience possible and absolutely helps boost sales."

As an experienced loan or finance professional, your interviewer is likely very confident in the skills that you would bring to the team. This question gives them the opportunity to how you will fit into the unique culture with the team at Santander Bank. Because they are a sales focused organization, your interviewer will expect anyone in this role to embrace that culture. In your answer, talk about your ability to partner with sales staff by using your strong people skills. As well, give your interviewer a sense of how you go about learning new processes if hired for this position and don't hesitate to give an example from your past on how you've done this.

"I would fully expect that a good part of my orientation process into this role at Santander Bank would entail a full education on the sales part of the business. I would look forward to working closely with and learning from the boots on the ground sales staff as that would give me great insight into the customers that I would be working with. From there, I would be able to build relationships with the sales staff and build a bond moving forward."

"I would love to work with and learn from the sales team as it would give me a better understanding of the customers I will be working with. By working with the sales team I would have a better understanding of how to make sure product gets sold efficiently."

Walk me through your thought process when delegating responsibilities to others that you are responsible for. What are the important factors that influence your decisions?

"As a manager, I have a really great history in delegating the right work to the right people in the right amount. Any time that I delegate work, it is important that I put the work in the hands of the right person and I do this by knowing the colleagues that I manager very well. If hired for this role, my immediate goal upon starting would be to get to know my team very well. I would have one-on-one conversations with everyone during my first week and would take the time to read prior performance evaluations. After I have a comfortable handle on my team, my next goal would be to divide up work in the best way possible that gets people working to their strengths."

As the potential next Branch Manager at this branch of Santander Bank, your interviewer wants to hear that you have the innate ability to delegate responsibilities among the team that you'll be managing. For this question, they'll be looking to hear that you you can do this effectively by knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your team members and also that you know the responsibilities of each role that you'll be managing. As you talk about your ability to delegate, make sure to talk about the importance of delegating for both your own efficiency in your work and in the work of your team. As well, don't hesitate to talk about your ability to train others when needed to ensure that the necessary work gets completed.

"My first step in a decision making process to delegate work is to evaluate the task at hand for consideration. I ask myself if it is a duty that I as a manager should be handling first. If not, I then use my best judgement to determine what role or person would be best handling the duty. I ensure that I consider factors like current workloads, KSA's of my team and impact of the task to be delegated in my thought process."

"My process for delegating responsibilities is first understanding what each person does well on and can quickly get done on time. Then I would dish out the tasks according to who I feel would do well with them and get them done according to our schedule."

To get to know what type of leader we'd be hiring at this branch of Santander Bank, how would you describe your management style?

"I take a very well rounded approach with my team that is both personable and professional and I've honed this approach through my time and experience as a senior leader. I take the time to get to know my staff and their work preferences so I can effectively delegate work as needed. I know that I am the authority for my team and I always keep an open door policy for them to approach me when needed."

With your interviewer looking to hear your thoughts on what type of leader you will be, make sure not to use generic labels of different leadership styles. Rather, try and remain focused on your ability to build and maintain an effective team based atmosphere as the success of any branch at Santander Bank will rely on the Branch Manager's ability to do so. From there, talk about your specific skills and abilities that will really be able to foster that team atmosphere to promote branch growth and employee satisfaction moving into the future.

"I consider my management style to be a very adaptive one and I say adaptable in that I am able to cater my approach to each unique team member and each unique situation. I pride myself on promoting a fully functional team environment and I like to allow others to be part of the decision making processes. But when necessary, I can make crucial decisions and communicate those decisions with my team in an educational and firm manner."

What is one unique skill that you will bring to our loan processing team here at Santander Bank?

"I think the one skill that I have that sets me ahead of the rest running for this position is my experience and success in the world of sales. As you can see from my resume, my career out of college started in auto sales. In my five years of sales, I worked my up from Associate Sales to a Sales Team Lead at my dealership. Getting to know and master the sales side of the business has really helped me on the finance side with overall knowledge of the business and developing the skills needed to upsell customers on their loans."

Throughout your application process and candidate vetting process, you were brought into interview because your interview was confident that you had the basic skills and knowledge required to handle this job. Now, your interviewer is giving you the opportunity to set yourself apart from your competition with this question. As you prepare for this type of question, try to think of a unique skill that you have that can prove to be a big asset if Santander Bank offers you the job. In your answer, be sure to explain why this skill applies to this role.

"As you can see from my experience, I have extensive leadership experience in leading teams of up to 12 employees and I also have remote working experience. Both of these duties have really given me confidence in my decision making abilities. If hired for this position, I would be able to hit the ground running on day one and be trusted with critical decisions where you might not have that ability with other candidates that don't have leadership experience."

What experience do you have working on an advanced phone system and what skills do you have that you feel would be essential to work with our clients over the phone?

"In my current position, I handle a majority of the incoming calls to our company. I have to triage calls based on customer needs and utilize the system to transfer calls, place customers on hold or push through to another person's voicemail. Some key things that have helped me master this part of my current job are my willingness and ability to learn my company inside and out and my clear and concise communications with customers that call. If hired for this role, I would be very thorough in my orientation process to learn all of the potential situations I would face with customers here at Santander Bank over the phone."

As the customers of Santander Bank become more virtual, a good chunk of business transactions happen over the phone. In this role, you will be expected to bring solid skills in handling the technical side of the phone system and great communication skills to handle customers when not face to face. In your answer, talk about any experience you have in working a multi-line phone system. As well, talk about the communication and organizational skills you have to ensure that you can help customers in any way possible over the phone.

"The skills that I would bring to the team here at Santander Bank in this role would be clear and concise verbal communication skills, my ability to read the tone of voice of others and strong organizational skills to handle multiple duties at one time. These skills really helped me thrive in my last role where I was handling customers online, over the phone and in-person in our branch office. At that job, I used and worked on the Avaya cloud based phone system and was able to learn and use all functions of that system."

What is your experience in managing an overall performance appraisal process for your staff?

"In my current role, I manage a team of 13 employees and our policy is to conduct appraisals near a staff member's hire anniversary. I'm a firm believer that writing an appraisal takes preparation throughout the year by documenting performance. When it comes time to writing the appraisal, we use an online performance management system that makes organizing details within the appraisal really nice. I always block time on my calendar to take the time needed to focus on putting detail to paper and don't rush through it because feedback is so important to improving the performance of my entire team."

While your interviewer can see that you have employee management in your experience from your resume, this question is allowing you to really get into detail about what experiences you have in working through a performance appraisal process with your staff in the past. While being open and honest in your experiences, try to highlight your ability to use fair judgement in writing performance appraisals and highlight any technologies that you've used to help manage the performance of your team. As well, don't hesitate to discuss any of the difficult conversations you've had in the past with your staff as Santander Bank will look to you to be an effective part of this process as their next Branch Manager.

"As you can see from my resume, I have over 10 years of management experience and within that experience, I have a lot of experience in the performance appraisal processes for my staff. I take the approach of using a fact and documented based approach with my staff rather than personal opinion. Being in a very volatile and high turnover industry right now, evaluating my staff on tangible factors is very important. Throughout my career as a manager, I've had to have many difficult conversations with staff that were put on performance improvement plans based on their annual reviews and am comfortable having these conversations in a professional, yet personal manner."

Tell me about a time when you showed integrity in your work.

"In my last position, I was responsible for the cash deposit on a daily basis. There was never a discrepancy, in the four years that I worked there. I have proven myself reliable through my consistency, always showing up on time, meeting deadlines, and keeping my word."

Integrity is best displayed through honesty and consistent moral values. The banking industry relies on employees who are trustworthy and reliable. Give an example that shows how you have demonstrated these qualities in the past.

"I show integrity in my work in everything that I do. It's important to me that my employer and colleagues see me as trustworthy, with a strong moral compass."

How would you respond to a customer complaint?

"A customer called me very frustrated about an issue with their bank account. I listened and told them I would be happy to help. I asked more questions to understand the problem and then suggested once I had a better idea of what might solve it. The customer was very relieved and grateful that I took the time to listen and make sense of the issue. I plan to provide consistent customer service in the same way when I work for Santander Bank."

The interviewer would like to be assured that you can professionally handle customer complaints. Give an example of a time you helped resolve a customer's issue.

"Each customer complaint is unique; however, I have been trained to handle them all with the same method. Listen, be empathetic, and use phrases such as 'If I understand your concern...' and repeat their words back to them. This method has always worked for me."

If you were on the job here at Santander Bank and a customer came to you with a very odd request that you did not know the answer to or how to solve, how would you handle that situation?

"If I were faced with any question that I didn't know the answer to on the job, I would confidently explain to the customer that I would need to bring in another teammate to help solve the issue and would do so quickly. While I always try to be a subject matter expert on any job that I do, working with external customers can always bring new things. If I could use any resources like a company intranet page or other documentation to help solve the issue myself, I wouldn't hesitate to do that either."

If hired for this role at Santander Bank, you will have the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of customers. Given that variety, the number of unique, and often odd, requests that could come your way are pretty great. Whether a customer is looking to transfer money to another country or some other odd request, your interview is hoping to learn that you are able to think on your feet and not get flustered in any situation you may face on the job. As you answer the question, stay focused on the professional and resourceful approach that you would take with customers when put in this situation and don't hesitate to talk about any similar experiences you've handled in the past on the job.

"First, I would make sure that I fully understood the situation by asking more questions of the customer and would do so in a very polite and professional manner. To ensure that the customer knows a plan moving forward, I would then explain my next course of action. If it was an issue that I had to approach my manager about, I would do so immediately and I would show the customer where they could wait in the lobby. If I would be consulting any documentation or other resources, I would do the same with the customer to not have a holdup in the lobby. Then, I would work diligently to find an answer and make sure the customer was handled in a respectful and efficient manner."

How would you rate your comfort level receiving money and counting back many to our customers here at Santander Bank?

"Because of my cashier experience in the retail industry, I would say I'm very comfortable in handling and counting large sums of cash very accurately. I was responsible for transactions made via cash, check and credit card and at the end of every shift, I had to reconcile my till. I'm happy to say that I never had an issue with a till that was off at the end of a shift or a customer that complained about change that I had given them. This was all due to the extra time that I took to ensure accuracy in every transaction."

As a Teller with Santander Bank, you will be responsible for the receipt of cash and distribution of cash to customers that come into the lobby and drive-thru of the branch location you would be working at. Your interviewer will be looking to hear about any direct experience that you have in handling money during your career. As you talk about any experience that you do have, be sure to make it clear that you take pride in the accuracy of your work and that you show honesty and integrity that all you do in working with sums of cash.

"While I don't have direct work experience as a Cashier or Teller handling cash, I would still say that I'm confident in my abilities to handle that aspect of the job here at Santander Bank. As you can see from my resume, my experience in finance has had me balancing accounting ledgers and those duties required a strict attention to detail and a high level of integrity in the work that I performed. I think this experience would help me transition very nicely to this role."

How do you check your work for accuracy?

"I take pride in any work with my name attached to it and therefore, always review my work before I submit it. Whether I am typing an email or handling cash, I always check my work twice and sometimes even ask a co-worker to review it first. Being detail oriented and thorough are two of my greatest skill sets."

The interviewer wants to hear that you are detail oriented when it comes to checking your work. Explain the steps you take to eliminate minor mistakes and ensure your customer transactions and paperwork are accurate.

"I proof my work before sending it out, and I double check everything. I'll use a calculator when necessary, and ask for help if I am unsure of my own accuracy."

How do you build rapport with those that you work closely with?

"In an industry like yours here at Santander Bank, one bit of mistrust between your institution and a customer can spell disaster as they withdraw funds and move them somewhere else. I pride myself on ability to build trust and rapport with those that I work with and I do this by being very genuine in all of my interactions and finding time to connect personally with all that I work with. I always remain respectful to the needs of others and do my best to keep a smile on my face and stay positive at all times."

The banking industry relies on the relationships built between the institution and its customers and your role as a Teller with Santander Bank will find you face to face with many customers. Your interviewer is looking to learn how you go about building rapport with both customers and your colleagues in this question. As you answer, be sure to talk both about why you feel that building rapport is important and the ways that you go about building rapport to those that you work with. If possible, make sure to highlight why building strong relationships is important in the banking industry to really sell your interviewer that you have what it takes to be a part of the success at Santander Bank.

"In my mind, building rapport with my colleagues and customers comes down to the basic principle of trust. I build trust with people by doing what I say I'm going to do and delivering results on time. I'm also always considerate to the thoughts of others and work my timeframes around the needs of others, especially when it comes to the customers that I work with. I am confident that my ability to connect with customers in a trusting way will greatly benefit the business here at Santander Bank because customers want a friendly and trusting face handling their personal finances."

If hired for this role with Santander Bank, how would you handle a large workload of clients working through a mortgage process?

"In my current role, I'm able to handle a very large workload with my ability to stay organized on the job. If you could take a tour of my office, you'd see that I maintain a neat and clean desk with a very organized file cabinet of my current workload. If I need to shift gears and move on to work with another client, I can easily access information on the fly and keep moving. I also utilize my Outlook calendar to set deadline reminders to stay on track of closing deadlines and paperwork requirements and the tasks function within the program helps me stay right on track with all of my clients I am working with at a given time."

At the heart of this question, your interviewer is looking to find out how you manage a busy workload by having you talk about your organization skills on the job. In your answer, talk about the skills you have and the tools that you use to stay organized and on-track while handling a large workload. Don't hesitate to talk about the software programs that you use and any other tactics that you use to ensure that all deadlines are met and no issues occur with clients because of too large of a workload. In the end, your interviewer wants to walk away from this question knowing that you'll be able to provide top notch service to the clients of Santander Bank.

"During my time working a large client load as a mortgage consultant, my success was due to my efficiency and organization on the job. If hired for this role with Santander Bank, my efficiency would be very high because of my experience with the entire mortgage loan closing process and my ability to handle certain challenges quickly with that experience. From there, my organizational skills within the loan process software I have experience with kick in to help me keep each client on track with their loan process."

What do you want to accomplish at Santander Bank?

"First and foremost, I want to deliver top quality service to customers of Santander Bank and perform my responsibilities with best in class service. I want to work at Santander Bank because I want to become a financial advisor. Starting out as a professional banker will give me valuable experience resolving client account issues and providing financial assistance, from investments to savings and travel advice."

Set some goals so that you can share how this position at Santander Bank will help you to achieve them and how you will add value to Santander Bank along the way.

"My primary goal is to achieve a leadership position within the banking industry. To do this, I will continue my related education and take any training opportunities that come my way."

What ideas could you bring to Santander Bank to help grow revenue in this branch?

"While I will always be a firm believer that traditional marketing techniques are key to creating new business and revenue, an outside the box approach can always be vital as well. Here at Santander Bank, I would make it a priority for frontline staff like Tellers to be trained in advanced sales skills to help upsell customers in their regular conversations with them. Customers of Santander Bank typically see the frontline workers the most and Tellers are most likely to steer your customers towards revenue generating products."

If hired as the next Branch Manager at Santander Bank, one item that you will be continually tasked and evaluated on is your ability to help grow revenue at the branch through new customer acquisitions and increased sales of banking products. This question gives you the chance to cite your revenue growing skills and how you will apply them to the banking industry. Prior to your interview, be sure to do your research on growth and revenue in the banking industry and think of a creative way or two that can really sell your interviewer on your ability to help drive increased revenues at the branch you are interviewing with.

"Over the past five years, I've become more entrenched in data analytics in my current role to help drive revenue and I think the banking industry can surely use data analytics to help predict customer trends. With the rapidly changing service combinations that banks put out, data analytics could be key in helping predict customer preferences and that data could be put to use to put out the most preferred packages for future customers."

Have you ever operated a currency counting machine or a coin counter?

"While I don't have direct experience working with currency counting technology, I feel very comfortable in my ability to learn how the machines here at Santander Bank operate. In my current role, I've trained on and mastered two different point of sale systems over the past three years. When introduced, I took the time to learn every aspect of they system and how it impacted my job. Through the training processes, I was attentive and hands on to make sure I could hit the ground running on the sales floor. Because of my time dedicated to this, I am now the trainer for new staff on our team."

To help save time and ensure accuracy, Santander Bank has invested in cash counting technology to help automate cash counting processes within its branches. As a Teller with Santander Bank, a part of your job will be operating and troubleshooting these machines on a daily basis. Your interviewer will likely be able to simply answer this question themselves by simply looking at your resume. What they are really looking to hear is that you have some tech savviness in working with simple machines in any of your work experience. If you do have direct experience with currency counting machines, that is great! If not, there is no need to worry as long as you can talk about your ability to learn and thrive with different technologies and give examples of times where you've had to do just that.

"Other than cashing in change in my own bank's lobby, I don't have direct experience. But, I do consider myself to have a very high technical acuity when it comes to machinery and technology. If offered a Teller position here at Santander Bank, one of my first priorities would be to become an expert on all systems that I would be required to work on. In my last role, I had to do just this with the phone and computer systems that were specific to my role and I did this with ease."

Talk about a time where you felt overwhelmed by your job duties. What did you do to stay organized and on track with everything happening?

"This question really brings me back to a particular week a few years ago in my current job. It was late fall as the holiday shopping season was ramping up and our store was very short staffed due to a maternity leave and two employees leaving on short notice. While we were short staffed in the store, it took a full team effort to ensure that customer questions were being answered, shelves were stocked and registers weren't getting backed up. To stay organized, the small team we had on staff worked off of a checklist each day to ensure we weren't missing anything important. Constant communication and flexibility was key for our success as we continually helped each other out on important things throughout the day. For me personally at the end of each day, I took a lot of satisfaction in knowing that I kept my head focused and did a great job."

At some point during your career up to this point, you've faced a time where you felt completely overwhelmed while on the job. As you answer this question, try to paint a clear picture for your interviewer that explains all of the contributing factors to you being overwhelmed. Then, proceed to focus most of your answer on talking about the skills and resources you utilized to keep you on track and focused during this difficult time. In the end, your interviewer is ideally looking to hear that you can stay organized and on track no matter how busy things get if you're hired to join the team at Santander Bank.

"Over the past four years, my current department has cut staff by almost 50% while the overall amount of work has remained steady. This has led to my total duties doubling over the course of four years. While this has been very overwhelming for, and even detrimental to others that I work with, my ability to handle the stress has been very important. The best thing that I do is set time aside at the end of each day to recap what I've done and make a plan for what to handle the next day. Some of my colleagues can't believe that I set aside 30 minutes to plan, but I know that making a plan actually saves me considerable time in the long run and makes me more productive. As well, on days where I do feel very overwhelmed, it is important to take some personal time during a break to step away and get some fresh air. A quick 10 minute walk outside really helps refresh me for another half day of work."

Talk about your experience in mortgage loan closing. How would this experience be beneficial to our team here at Santander Bank?

"As you can see from my resume, my current role involves a lot of detail in the loan closing process for the customers that I work with. I assemble and prepare closing documents and coordinate the details of the closing process when all terms of the sale are met. In this role with Santander Bank, I think that my hands on approach that I currently take with my customers would suit your clients well because I take the time to work with them one-on-one and never hesitate to provide top notch customer service to any person that I'm working with."

As a Loan Consultant with Santander Bank, you will be tasked with guiding clients through the complete mortgage process. This will include seeking the best funds available, completing paperwork and seeing the loan through to closing for them. For this question, your interviewer can a good sense of your experience by taking a look at your resume, but they're looking to get more details on your mortgage closing experience by having you talk in detail. Be sure to discuss your specific experience and tie what you can to this specific role with Santander Bank.

"Having been in the mortgage business for over ten years, I have a vast amount of experience in seeking personalized mortgage options for clients and walking them through the entire loan process. I am familiar with the processing of necessary loan closing documents in several state and know all of the fine details that are required to ensure that there are no hiccups in the process for clients. This experience would allow me to hit the ground running in this role here at Santander Bank."

The banking industry can be stressful. Tell me about a time when you worked in a high-pressure situation.

"When I was working as an administrator at a financial firm, I worked in a very high-pressure environment. There was one case that was highly sensitive and required me to pay extra attention to detail. I had limited time to prepare the paperwork, but I was still able to support the lawyer and the client, by staying calm and carefully providing everything they needed. I asked questions to clarify the deadlines that needed to be met and set daily goals to meet them."

While working at Santander Bank you might find yourself stressed by customers or the fast pace of the work environment. Think of a time where you produced your best work under pressure to showcase how you shine under high-pressure situations.

"Almost every day in my banking career has been filled with high-pressure situations. When I am faced with a stressful situation, I remind myself to slow down, breathe, and assess the situation before jumping in with both feet. Customers seem always to appreciate my calm and methodical approach."

Here at Santander Bank, part of your job will entail talking to our customers about sensitive and confidential information. How will you handle these situations if offered this position?

"When faced with this situation, I would ensure that the conversation between the customer and myself would be done quietly and with any documents out of the view of others. A person's financial situation is private and I would take all necessary measures to keep conversations as private as possible in this role. In my current role, I have frequent private phone conversations with customers and I need to keep the same mindset with them as I would in this job."

At times in this role, you will be required to discuss the confidential finances of customers and this will happen during customer deposits, withdrawals and payments to the bank. When these situations happen during times where the lobby is busy with other customers, you will be required to speak with customers in a very quiet manner. As you answer this question, make sure that you reiterate that you are aware of the sensitive nature of the transactions you will be working on with customers at Santander Bank and talk about how you will go about ensuring that a customers private information is kept private. If you have worked in situations that involved confidential material in the past, be sure to talk about them as well.

"Having worked with confidential data and information through my entire career, this part of the job at Santander Bank would be second nature to me. By keeping a neat and tidy work area, I would be able to ensure that any customer information was filed appropriately after each transaction and wouldn't be viewable to the next customer that I handled. When it comes to personal interactions, I would ensure that our conversations were held in a quiet manner as privately as I'm able to do so."

At Santander Bank, we are building a very team based culture. If hired for this position, what would you be able to contribute to this team based culture?

"If hired for this role, I understand that I'd be working among a great team of Tellers, Loan Officers, Analysts and Advisers and I really love this aspect of the role here at Santander Bank. In my current role, I work closely with our administrative and sales staff to help ensure smooth operations on a daily basis. I rely on my ability be upfront in speaking with everyone that I work with, no matter what role they play with the organization. I have no worries in walking into the office of our CFO to talk on a regular basis and wouldn't hesitate to do so if needed for this role."

As Santander Bank continually builds a team based atmosphere within their branches, they want to ensure that new employees that are brought aboard are true team players that will thrive in their culture. As you answer this question, be sure to stress to your interviewer that you are a team player by talking about your experiences in working as part of a team. Talk in detail about what roles you are comfortable in assuming in a team atmosphere and then discuss your own personality traits that make you a great team player. If possible, try to stress the importance of and your ability to communicate effectively to your interviewer.

"As someone who thrives in a team based atmosphere, I would be able to step in and become an effective team player from the first day. I have taken the lead on many project teams during my career and love the responsibility of taking charge on these teams. As well, I can also take directions from others on my team when needed. I have a communication style that is very confident, friendly and professional no matter who I work with. During my career, I've been complimented for my openness to feedback from others and my willingness to help other members of my team when needed."

Where do you see yourself in five years?

"I plan to continue working in the banking industry as a branch manager, working my way up through attending training and participating in your leadership development program. I am excited to start out in ABC position because I am confident that it will help me achieve my goal and broaden my skill set."

If you are a recent college graduate or starting a new career, you may or may not know where you'd like to be in five years. Santander Bank wants to see that you think about the future and are actively working towards your goals. Better yet, they want to know how working for them will help you accomplish your goals! Share how this job will help you get one step closer to achieving your goals.

"Being in a leadership role is important to me, so I plan to be working in a management based position at Santander Bank in the future. I will achieve this through continued education and leadership training while also proving my value to you through my everyday work ethic."

Talk about a time you had to communicate with a colleague or customer that was unhappy. What were the keys to making the situation better for all involved?

"A few weeks ago, I was having a pretty normal day at the front of the store. About an hour from closing time, a customer stormed through our front door and approached me at a rapid place with a very mad look on her face. She slammed a bag on the counter and demanded a refund for a shirt that she had purchased last week because she claimed it had a tear in the armpit. Before I could even say anything back to her, she then began berating our store for selling inferior products and she demanded to see a manager right away. As calm as I could, I told the lady that I would be very glad to take care of a return for her and I'd be happy to put her in contact with a manager. I let her know that I'd need to take her number as our manager was not in the store that evening. While she still left upset after receiving a refund, I followed up with my manager the next morning to ensure that he followed up with her. He let me know that she had calmed down and thanked me for my service the evening prior. I know that my ability to not take her harsh words personally really helped make the situation better."

Your ability to handle conflict will be an important part of this role with Santander Bank. Tellers are often the first line of defense with customers that call or come into the branch and you will be relied upon to help diffuse any situation that could get out of hand with customers. In your answer, try to focus on your communication skills that you feel are vital to your success in these situations. As you think of a situation you've been in to use in this situation, make sure that you can demonstrate the steps that you took to ensure that the unhappy customer or colleague left the situation in a much better place.

"Last year, I showed up to work to find my close colleague in a fit of rage at her work area. He was slamming desk drawers and using really inappropriate language. Knowing that this wasn't typical behavior from him, I immediately walked over to see what was wrong. He began by telling me that he had received a very bad customer complaint the day before and was now being reprimanded for it by our manager. He started to then talk badly about our manager and I immediately cut him off. By hearing what he had said, I tried to replay the conversation for him and then asked him what led to the customer complaint. I took a very empathetic approach to learn why he was feeling the way that he did and I quickly learned that he was indeed in the wrong in thet situation. My advice to him was to take a quick walk, calm down and hen go talk to our boss. Later that day, he thanked me for my great advice and talked about the lesson learned moving forward."

Santander Bank Interview Questions

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1. Why do you want to pursue a career in the banking industry?
2. If a client here at Santander Bank were to be denied the financing that they desire, how would you handle that situation?
3. Talk about a time you had to handle failure at any point in your career. How did you handle that situation and move forward with confidence?
4. How do you respond to problems that require a quick solution?
5. On the finance side of Santander Bank, we expect our representatives to be ingrained in our sales focused culture. If hired for this role, how would you learn and embrace our sales process?
6. Walk me through your thought process when delegating responsibilities to others that you are responsible for. What are the important factors that influence your decisions?
7. To get to know what type of leader we'd be hiring at this branch of Santander Bank, how would you describe your management style?
8. What is one unique skill that you will bring to our loan processing team here at Santander Bank?
9. What experience do you have working on an advanced phone system and what skills do you have that you feel would be essential to work with our clients over the phone?
10. What is your experience in managing an overall performance appraisal process for your staff?
11. Tell me about a time when you showed integrity in your work.
12. How would you respond to a customer complaint?
13. If you were on the job here at Santander Bank and a customer came to you with a very odd request that you did not know the answer to or how to solve, how would you handle that situation?
14. How would you rate your comfort level receiving money and counting back many to our customers here at Santander Bank?
15. How do you check your work for accuracy?
16. How do you build rapport with those that you work closely with?
17. If hired for this role with Santander Bank, how would you handle a large workload of clients working through a mortgage process?
18. What do you want to accomplish at Santander Bank?
19. What ideas could you bring to Santander Bank to help grow revenue in this branch?
20. Have you ever operated a currency counting machine or a coin counter?
21. Talk about a time where you felt overwhelmed by your job duties. What did you do to stay organized and on track with everything happening?
22. Talk about your experience in mortgage loan closing. How would this experience be beneficial to our team here at Santander Bank?
23. The banking industry can be stressful. Tell me about a time when you worked in a high-pressure situation.
24. Here at Santander Bank, part of your job will entail talking to our customers about sensitive and confidential information. How will you handle these situations if offered this position?
25. At Santander Bank, we are building a very team based culture. If hired for this position, what would you be able to contribute to this team based culture?
26. Where do you see yourself in five years?
27. Talk about a time you had to communicate with a colleague or customer that was unhappy. What were the keys to making the situation better for all involved?

Santander Bank Interview Questions

1. Why do you want to pursue a career in the banking industry?

2. If a client here at Santander Bank were to be denied the financing that they desire, how would you handle that situation?

3. Talk about a time you had to handle failure at any point in your career. How did you handle that situation and move forward with confidence?

4. How do you respond to problems that require a quick solution?

5. On the finance side of Santander Bank, we expect our representatives to be ingrained in our sales focused culture. If hired for this role, how would you learn and embrace our sales process?

6. Walk me through your thought process when delegating responsibilities to others that you are responsible for. What are the important factors that influence your decisions?

7. To get to know what type of leader we'd be hiring at this branch of Santander Bank, how would you describe your management style?

8. What is one unique skill that you will bring to our loan processing team here at Santander Bank?

9. What experience do you have working on an advanced phone system and what skills do you have that you feel would be essential to work with our clients over the phone?

10. What is your experience in managing an overall performance appraisal process for your staff?

11. Tell me about a time when you showed integrity in your work.

12. How would you respond to a customer complaint?

13. If you were on the job here at Santander Bank and a customer came to you with a very odd request that you did not know the answer to or how to solve, how would you handle that situation?

14. How would you rate your comfort level receiving money and counting back many to our customers here at Santander Bank?

15. How do you check your work for accuracy?

16. How do you build rapport with those that you work closely with?

17. If hired for this role with Santander Bank, how would you handle a large workload of clients working through a mortgage process?

18. What do you want to accomplish at Santander Bank?

19. What ideas could you bring to Santander Bank to help grow revenue in this branch?

20. Have you ever operated a currency counting machine or a coin counter?

21. Talk about a time where you felt overwhelmed by your job duties. What did you do to stay organized and on track with everything happening?

22. Talk about your experience in mortgage loan closing. How would this experience be beneficial to our team here at Santander Bank?

23. The banking industry can be stressful. Tell me about a time when you worked in a high-pressure situation.

24. Here at Santander Bank, part of your job will entail talking to our customers about sensitive and confidential information. How will you handle these situations if offered this position?

25. At Santander Bank, we are building a very team based culture. If hired for this position, what would you be able to contribute to this team based culture?

26. Where do you see yourself in five years?

27. Talk about a time you had to communicate with a colleague or customer that was unhappy. What were the keys to making the situation better for all involved?