re: Banking

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I did the two year program with Hibernia in the mid-90's. Very good experience to get, but the pay sucks, the analyst job itself is terribly boring and get ready for some big egos and a whole lot of office politics - there are a lot of personal agenda's with the senior lenders and credit officers that have nothing to do with the best interests of the bank. But all in all, snag it if you can, I've gotten a great career out of it - that experience and being able to speak that language will open doors you can't imagine.

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Can't add much more here. My wife got an accounting degree and a job as a credit analyst at Hibernian as well. She hated it for the reasons above.

You spend 90% of your time spreading financial statements and assembling craploads of paperwork for loan committee. Not glamorous at all. Be prepared to be reminded occasionally by lenders and portfolio managers that you are indeed at the lowest rung of the ladder.

If you do want to go into non-retail banking it's a good opportunity. You'll learn more than you think you will. You'll get to work with people who know a ton about banking, not just lending.

I currently work for BB&T and took a semester off from school to work full time in credit administration many moons ago. seems that "formalized" credit analyst training programs aren't as prevalent as they were like ten years ago, probably due to the lack of commercial and small business lending nowadays. But that might be a good thing. The lack of structure can allow you to mold the gig to suit your career desires.

Good luck!