RBI Assistant or SBI PO: A Tough Choice for Banking Aspirants

About 25 Lakh candidates fill up the applications for both the exams every year, explaining the level of competition. It is also a difficult choice as the candidates need to analyse various aspects of the posts which meets his/her career aspirations in order to make the right selection. We’ve discussed some of these below.

1. Cut-Off for Both Exams

The overall and sectional cutoff for SBI PO is announced separately for the various stages of recruitment process. The cutoff for Prelims is usually quite high while for Mains, it is relatively low because of the higher difficulty level of exam. For RBI Assistant, the cutoff for different stages vary to a great extent, depending on the state/region of preference opted by the candidates.However, despite such competition, the number of applicants rise exponentially every year.

2. Exam Pattern and Competition

For RBI Assistant, preliminary examination of one hour is conducted for 100 marks, followed by Mains, held for two hours for200 marks. The questions in the preliminary exam are based on English, Reasoning and Quantitative Ability, while the Mains exam has five sections.

SBI PO is a three-staged examination consisting of Prelims, Mainsand Interview. A candidate needs be to proficient in the English language as Mains focuses on this arena.

Considering the probability of success, it is noticed that compared to the number of vacancies, the number of candidates that apply is huge, which reduces the probability of success.However,there is a higher probability for a candidate tobe called for the personal interview round to be selected as RBI Assistant.

3. Job Profile

The post of RBI Assistant is basically related to clerical work. The major responsibilities include drafting a letter, file maintenance and data management.

However, the responsibilities carried out by an SBI PO are not limited to desk-work. The person needs to be customer-oriented. The basic responsibilities include verification of vouchers, tracking new leads andcredit monitoring.

4. Salary

The basic salary of an RBI Assistant is INR 28,000 which includes HRA and DA. Apart from this, the person receives allowances on various grounds such as medical, books and other necessities. The initial salary may be average but one cannot ignore the consecutive 5-year promotion scheme which every capable RBI Assistant enjoys duringthe job.

On the other hand, the basic salary of an SBI PO is INR 40,000 andvarious allowances for medical purposes, books and furniture are received as well. The post is an extremely prestigious one and credible work of the individual will fetch promotion after every 3 years.

5. Work Pressure

According to resources, the schedule of an RBI Assistant is fixed; the person needs to work 5 days in a week for a fixed number of hours. Since Reserve Banks are major organizations, one can also expect a convenient posting, near his or her hometown.

However, as an SBI PO, the work load as well as the responsibilities are doubled. The individual has to work for 6 days a week, except on 2nd and 4th Saturdays. There are chances that the PO may have to work overtime as he or she needs to take care of huge database and records. Also, SBI encourages posting all over India and the candidate may end up landing in a rural area, which can be a drawback for some.