When the telephone rings, Cihan Sevim picks up the receiver and greets the customer. Very professional, like a real bank advisor. Yet Cihan Sevim has been a Commerzbank apprentice for only a year. He is not yet allowed to conduct consultations with customers on his own, but here at the branch the 21-year old learns the practical knowledge he needs for his future occupation. "In my last practical phase I was allowed to occasionally act on my own. I conducted the opening of an account, of course supervised by a consultant."
Cihan Sevim has been an apprentice with the Commerzbank in Frankfurt am Main since August 2013. As is the case with every apprenticeship in Germany, the practical phases in the bank alternate with theoretical lessons at the vocational college. Cihan Sevim enjoys work at the bank branch very much and his training supervisor Natascha Werner is very satisfied with the committed young man. "My apprentice is doing very well; after all, I helped to select him. He really is a good one, he does a very good job and one can see he is enjoying it."
Cihan Sevim was hired in his very first application attempt. After an online test, he was invited to an assessment centre where he prevailed against many other applicants. For Cihan Sevim this is a dream job. He is interested in economic topics, but that is not the only reason why he thinks that he is the right man for a job as a customer advisor in a bank. "I am a very communicative person; this is very important especially in daily business, because one has a lot to do with customers and that is what makes a bank clerk."
Grades are important, but personality and the joy in having customer contact are more important
Prior to his apprenticeship, Cihan Sevim had graduated with the university entrance qualification from a grammar school in the Federal State of Hessen. But neither the university entrance qualification nor a school certificate full of As are required for becoming an apprentice at a bank, says Isabell Müller, Group Manager for Personnel Marketing at the Commerzbank.
Her task is to encourage pupils and graduates towards taking up an apprenticeship with her employer. "For the bank apprenticeships we search for applicants with a secondary school leaving certificate or a university entrance qualification and people, who are enthusiastic about dealing with other people." The grades are important, but personality and the joy in having customer contact are more important.
Applicants from abroad also may take up an apprenticeship with a bank, however, a binding requirement exists, says Isabell Müller: "Their knowledge of German must be very good." Other languages are an advantage. This has become obvious also to Cihan Sevim, who grew up bilingually with German and Turkish. So far, his bilingualism has earned him only advantages during the apprenticeship, says Sevim. "As soon as a Turkish customer sees me at the branch, he gladly comes to me. I then say one or two sentences in Turkish by way of a welcome."