IfIf you love working with others and you happen to be a whiz with numbers, a job as a Bank Teller might be your perfect next career step. Half financial, half customer service, an entry-level job as a Bank Teller can lead to limitless opportunities in finance and banking.
Bank Tellers rely on a unique mix of technical and interpersonal skills to help customers with all types of financial transactions plus investment and loan services. To land this position, you’ll need to prove your knack for money handling, upselling bank products, and accurate records keeping, all while offering a helpful disposition that draws customers back in the door.
So how do you express the dynamic personality needed to succeed as a Bank Teller?
A great cover letter is the first step to introducing your strengths, experiences and the unique qualities that make you a perfect fit for the Bank Teller position. Our Accounting & Finance cover letter examples plus Resume.io’s collection of resources are designed to help you land the job – hassle free.
This Bank Teller cover letter example along with our adaptable sample sentences will:
There are some things to keep in mind when writing a Bank Teller cover letter. You can find a cover letter sample below, but knowing the nuances of the job is also important. Unlike many other entry-level positions, Bank Tellers candidates must possess a specific set of traits that qualify them for the role. Great mental math skills, ability to learn new computer programs and a strong sense of ethics are combined with a helpful personality and a great sense of customer service standards.
With such unique needs, hiring managers often rely on cover letters to help them gain more insight into the candidate behind the resume. A Bank Teller cover letter is a one-page document (about 200-400 words) that expresses your goals, experiences and skills to convince a branch manager that you’re the right choice for their bank.
In a nutshell, a cover letter (including one for a Bank Teller) has one primary purpose: increase your chances of getting the position compared to other candidates. It usually does so by expanding on your personality, impressing hiring managers with your personal qualities, and explaining anything your resume couldn’t.
Your cover letter should expand on the relevant experience from your resume and offer brief examples of how you’ve handled situations similar to those you might face in the bank. It also gives a taste of your professional demeanor in order to encourage the hiring manager to contact you. We’ll dig deeper into the structure of the document later in the guide, but the Bank Teller cover letter sample below already shows the basic elements. See if you can guess them.
What if the job application DOESN’T require a cover letter?
A cover letter is one of the most commonly requested application materials, but sometimes online applications mark them as optional. So does this mean you don’t really need to write a cover letter?
Unless an application or hiring manager specifically asks you NOT to submit a cover letter, we recommend writing and sending one anyways. This document is one of the most important tools you have to convince a hiring manager that you’re the right candidate for their opening. It allows you to say anything you didn’t have space for on your resume while highlighting the right achievements and skills – a cover letter is an opportunity you can’t afford to miss!
A great cover letter isn’t just about good writing. Formatting also plays an important role in how a hiring manager perceives your application. To stand out from other candidates without overdoing it, you’ll want to follow general guidelines on fonts, sizes and colors, as well as making sure your design is appropriate for the exact bank you’re applying to. You can find all our formatting tips, tricks, and advice right in our comprehensive cover letter writing example.
Now let’s take a look at an actual Bank Teller cover letter example that can be adapted to your exact experience and the job opening:
Dear Mrs. Flight,
Combining my love for numbers with my passion for helping others makes working in a customer-facing banking role an ideal start to a financial services career.
I worked at the Fayetteville branch of Crawford bank as a bank teller for two years after graduating with a BABS in 2018. I am proficient in all manner of banking transactions: verifying loan and mortgage payments, preparing cashier’s checks, exchanging foreign currency, and checking transactions. It is one thing handling complex duties, but another entirely when you have a customer who may have other needs. My product upselling rate was the best in the branch (out of seven tellers).
I am a trusted and reliable handler of cash – balancing drawers, handling night deposits, and correcting branch discrepancies. My eagle eye spotted many a mistake, and my accuracy level won me five Employee of the Month awards.
In terms of my ability to handle a large volume of work accurately:
I am interested in a role at Mandrill Bank because your social responsibility agenda fits in with my beliefs. Many of my friends bank with you for exactly this reason, and I would be proud to become an employee/advocate for your broader agenda.
I have more than 50 customer references from my previous role and I would welcome an interview to take you through how I received a 98% customer satisfaction rating.
Sincerely,
Ian Michaels
If you want a broader look at cover letters, check out our related accounting and finance cover letter samples:
The second purpose of a cover letter is to cover/explain any gaps in experience, skills or qualifications that you might have — to smooth them over and provide context. This is especially important if you are transferring from another field or just starting your career fresh out of college.
As you might have gathered from the previous section, a cover letter is really about one thing: maximizing your chances of success in landing the position. For entry-level jobs, this becomes even more important since many candidates will be applying without previous experience.
If you’ve never worked as a Bank Teller before, your goal should be to highlight the transferable qualities and personality traits that you believe make you an excellent candidate to learn the field.
If you already possess some banking experience, you may be able to leverage that for a more experienced Bank Teller role. As ATMs and online banking allow customers to complete more and more transactions from the comfort of their homes, Bank Tellers are being asked to take on more complex duties. Knowledge of banking systems and the most frequent customers’ needs can give you an advantage when it comes to securing your next Bank Teller position.
Although writing a cover letter is an important part of the application process, there’s one more step you’ll need to complete before your letter is ready for submission. Customizing your cover letter can be done right from the very start – or – if you’re applying to many Teller positions, you may choose to create a general letter and then customize it with more specific skills and situations for each job opening.
Whichever method you choose, the most important element is making sure a hiring manager sees your interest in their bank – not just your desire for any Bank Teller position. The extra time it takes to tailor your cover letter will pay off big when your application checks all the boxes the branch manager was looking for.
Some applicants fear the cover letter writing process because they think it lacks structure. While it may be more free-form than a resume, in this section we’ll walk you through the sections that make up a complete cover letter. And what’s more – this cover letter format can be applied to any field or job title so you’ll be prepared no matter where your career takes you.
Here are the key components:
You can find even more tips on writing each of these parts, plus sample sentences and formatting advice in our overall guide on cover letters.
As a hiring manager begins to scan your cover letter, the first thing they’ll likely notice is the cover letter header. This section sits at the top of the page and serves two main purposes. The first is to identify your document with your name and contact information so a hiring manager can quickly get in touch with you should they want to schedule an interview.
Your header is also likely the only place on your cover letter where you’ll get to add some creative design elements and maybe even a touch of color. Therefore, this section also serves to capture a hiring manager’s attention, distinguish you from other applicants and express a bit of your personality.
The goal of the cover letter header: Label your document with your personal information so a hiring manager is never wondering whose cover letter they are reading, add attractive formatting to differentiate your application.
If you’re looking for a quick way to increase your application’s chances of getting noticed, one of the easiest things to do is align the document styles of your cover letter and resume. This means choosing a matching visual format to create a cohesive look and feel across all your application materials.
You can achieve this in a few clicks by choosing corresponding cover letter and resume templates. For Bank Tellers, we recommend Resume.io’s collection of professional cover letter templates – perfect for formal industries like accounting and finance. Choose a design as your starting point, then make sure to customize it to align with the branding and tone of your prospective employer.
Your Bank Teller cover letter greeting is your first chance to speak directly to the hiring manager so it’s worth getting right. Here’s the golden rule: whenever possible, try to address the hiring manager by name. Since banks are professional institutions, you’ll want to opt for a formal greeting. “Dear” followed by the correct salutation and last name of the branch or hiring manager is generally the right choice. It may be helpful to inquire about the name of the hiring manager to personalize your salutation (but be careful to respect barriers if you encounter any, as you don’t want to come off as prying or unethical).
The goal of the cover letter greeting: Set a friendly and respectful tone for the rest of the letter by using the hiring manager’s name in your greeting or addressing the hiring team/department as a whole.
The importance of names and addressed greetings.
Why is it so important to use the hiring manager or letter recipient’s name in the greeting of your cover letter? Names make us feel good and they help to establish a personal connection when the speaker shows they care about the person on the receiving end. That’s why anyone who works in customer service, sales and even banks make it a point to use customer’s names. And the evidence is more than anecdotal – studies have shown that humans have a positive neurological response upon hearing their own names.
When applying directly to a local branch, the branch manager’s name is generally a safe bet to address your letter. For large institutions, however, it can be much trickier to discern who the right letter recipient is. If you can’t say for sure, you still have options. Try a collective greeting like “Dear (Bank Name) Hiring Team” or even “Branch Family” for local institutions with more sentimental branding. These are also great alternatives to the cold and outdated “To Whom It May Concern.”
Many hiring managers are inundated with applications for each opening they post. That means your Bank Teller cover letter introduction – even just the first sentence – can be the deciding factor as to whether they continue to read your cover letter. There’s no reason to stress, though. By avoiding dull, generic openings and opting instead for a relevant anecdote, statistic, or skill, you can surpass dozens of candidates and pique a reader’s interest.
The goal of the cover letter introduction: Encourage a hiring manager to keep reading your cover letter by offering them an interesting statement, fact, anecdote or statistic that gets to the point and flows into the rest of the letter.
Dear Mrs. Flight,
Combining my love for numbers with my passion for helping others makes working in a customer-facing banking role an ideal start to a financial services career.
Your Bank Teller cover letter body takes up the bulk of your page because it’s the place best suited for all your most relevant experiences, traits, and skills. In the first body paragraph, you can use the STAR method to offer examples of times you dealt with difficult customers, went above and beyond to meet someone’s needs, or otherwise accomplished something relevant and noteworthy relating to the Bank Teller position. First list a Situation, then the Task, your Action and the positive Result you achieved.
In the next body paragraph of your cover letter, you can more directly point out the appropriate skills and traits you possess based on the job description and answer the questions Why me? and Why this position in this bank?
The goal of the cover letter body: Use the STAR method to highlight examples of your strengths in action, offer your potential contributions and make your case as the right choice for the bank’s opening.
I worked at the Fayetteville branch of Crawford bank as a bank teller for two years after graduating with a BABS in 2018. I am proficient in all manner of banking transactions: verifying loan and mortgage payments, preparing cashier’s cheques, exchanging foreign currency, and checking transactions. It is one thing handling complex duties, but another entirely when you have a customer who may have other needs. My product upselling rate was the best in the branch (out of seven tellers).
I am a trusted and reliable handler of cash – balancing drawers, handling night deposits, and correcting branch discrepancies. My eagle eye spotted many a mistake, and my accuracy level won me five Employee of the Month awards.
In terms of my ability to handle a large volume of work accurately:
Once you’ve made it to the conclusion of your Bank Teller cover letter, you’ll want to wrap things up with a Call to Action. This line expresses your interest in the position and invites a hiring manager to contact you without sounding demanding or entitled to an interview. You can then finish your letter with a professional and formal signature. “Best regards,” and “Sincerely” can work well.
The goal of the cover letter conclusion (and call to action): End your letter with an effective Call to Action that encourages a hiring manager to get in touch, sign off with a polite and professional “Best regards” or “Respectfully”.
I am interested in a role at Mandrill Bank because your social responsibility agenda fits in with my beliefs. Many of my friends bank with you for exactly this reason, and I would be proud to become an employee/advocate for your broader agenda.
I have more than 50 customer references from my previous role and I would welcome an interview to take you through how I received a 98% customer satisfaction rating.
Sincerely,
Ian Michaels
When applying for a bank teller position, there are a few key qualities you’ll want to convey in your cover letter.
Today’s Bank Tellers aren’t just rote money counters. They are helpful, friendly assistants who are growing increasingly involved in more complex transactions and a variety of bank services and products. And what’s more, you don’t even need a college degree to get started as a Bank Teller. This role can serve as a jumping off point for career moves in the financial industry all with just a high school diploma.
So how do you land a Bank Teller job with no experience? The secret is to leverage your transferable skills and highlight qualities like interpersonal skills and a strong moral code that are hard to train in others if they don’t already possess it.
If you’re a fresh graduate looking to work as a bank teller, you might be well-served to first try your hand at another customer service role. From there you can paint yourself as the right person to be the face of your local branch.
Here are some related roles that may help you find qualities to highlight on your bank teller cover letter.
Even work as a restaurant server or a medical receptionist can be used to make the case for your people skills, attention to detail and professionalism. Make sure to choose examples of tasks or accomplishments that have a clear connection to the bank teller role, such as closing out the cash drawer, upselling products or services or handling many transactions efficiently.
You can instantly put yourself ahead of a large percentage of candidates applying for the same Bank Teller position by avoiding these common pitfalls:
According to a survey by the U.S. Federal Reserve more than 80 percent of Americans say they’ve visited a physical bank branch and interacted with a teller in the past year. Although some teller jobs are being lost to automation, contact with a teller remains the preferred banking method for both elderly folks and younger people who encounter tech issues with online banking, according to USA Today.