Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) is an autonomous body which conducts the IBPS Specialist Officer (SO) exam to recruit specialist officers for the vacancies created in different public sector banks.
The exam is conducted to fill vacancies in various departments for job roles like IT Officer, Law Officer, Marketing Officer, Field Officer, HR Management Officer, Sales Officer etc. A Common Written Examination (CWE) is conducted online for Specialist Officers by IBPS once every year for selection of Specialist Officers.
Every year the recruitment of in Banks SO is done through a written competitive exam called Bank SO exam, which is followed by an interview.
Bank SO (Specialist Officer) exam is conducted Institute of Banking Personnel Selection. IBPS started its operation in the year 1975 as Personnel Selection Services (PSS) in the year 1975.
In 2011 IBPS RRB (Rural Regional Bank) made it necessary for all 19 major public banks to do selection on the basis of the national level eligibility exam known as IBPS SO exam.
Bank SO exam is conducted for recruitment in Public sector banks for the following Cadre posts:
Lists of banks for the postings of selected candidates:
Institute of Banking Personal Selection is an autonomous recruiting organization which conducts the IBPS Specialist Officer (SO) exams to recruits Specialist Officers of Scale – I and Scale – II. The IBPS Specialist Officer (SO) Pay Scales is same for all Specialist Officers. There are different pay scales allotted to the fresh recruits as per the position for which they are hired. The salary payment structure of IBPS SO is mentioned below:
IBPS Specialist Officer Salary Scale – I and Scale – II
Officer Junior Management Grade (JMG) Scale I: Rs 14500 600/7 18700 700/2 20100 800/7 – 25700
Officer MMG Scale II: Rs 19400 700/1 20100 800/10 – 28100
Specialist officer Posts for Scale (I, II):
This exam is same as all the other exams conducted by IBPS. The selection procedure of the exam consists of following steps:
Written Examination:
The written examination consists of 200 marks for all the posts and the time given to the candidates for the completion of the test will be 120 minutes. Candidates who are only applying for the posts of Rajbhasha Adhikari and Law Officer will have to appear for a General Awareness test. Applicants who are applying for Agricultural Officer, HR Officer and Marketing Officer Posts would have to face a Quantitative Aptitude test.
Personal Interview:
The short-listed candidates from the written examination would be called for personal interview by any participating organization through IBPS. Minimum qualifying marks for the interview is set to be 40% for general category and 35% for the SC/ST/ PWD candidates. Weightage of CWE and interview marks would be 80:20.
Provisional Allotment:
Students who are selected in personal interview will be offered provisional allotment according to the vacancies available. Allotments will be done on the basis of merit.
Identity Verification:
Every student has to carry his/her identity proof at the time of interview. After verification of the Identity of the applicant, final allotment will be offered along with the joining date.
A Bank Specialist Officer is appointed for specialized roles in banks according to their expertise and educational background.
SO Posts in banks includes:
Here is a list of job Profiles for the Specialist Officers (SO) in Banks.
IT Officer:
The Information Technology Officers are responsible for taking care of all banks' software systems. The IT Officers are responsible to look into database, maintenance of servers and other networking aspects.
Law Officer:
The Law Officers are responsible to handle all Legal activities of the bank.
Agriculture Officer
An Agricultural officer is responsible to promote loans in rural areas for general and agricultural purposes under various schemes instituted by governmental and financial institutions. These officer need to maintain good relations with farmers to do lead generation, client acquisition, site visit before the loan sanctioning.
Marketing Officer
A marketing officer is responsible for marketing and branding of a bank and its activities either at online or in offline media. They are required to develop marketing campaigns, programs, press releases, public relations activities, advertisements and other special events.
Rajbhasha Adhikari
The Rajbhasha Adhikari is responsible for translating official documents in English to Rajbhasha (Hindi) and other banking activities like circulars, notices etc.
HR Officer
HR Officer in bank is responsible to handle human resource department functions like industrial relations, performance management, training and development, compensation etc.
IBPS CWE
The CWE (common written examination) is conducted by IBPS (Institute of Banking Personnel Selection) for the recruitment to the post of Agricultural Officer, HR Officer and Marketing Officer. The exam consists of 200 questions of one mark each, with a duration of 2 hours duration. This exam is conducted when the need for Specialist Officers (SO) arises in different banks.
Eligibility criteria:
SBI (State Bank of India) conducts an online exam for the recruitment to the SO posts. Applicants who are looking for the carrier as Deputy Manager (Law) and Assistant Manager (Systems) can apply for the test. The test will be conducted online.
Eligibility Criteria:
Deputy Manager (LAW)
Assistant Manager (System)
Examination Pattern:
Deputy Manager (LAW)
Assistant Manager (System)
Making series / analogy |
Clock |
Data interpretation |
Time and work geometry |
Boat and stream |
Area |
Square roots and cube roots |
Mixture and allegation |
Profit and loss |
Pipe and cistern
|
Algebra |
Problem on trains |
Compound and simple interest |
Proportion |
Percentage |
Surd and indices |
Average |
Surd and indices |
Probability |
|
Number system |
Clock |
Data interpretation |
Time and work geometry |
Boat and stream |
Area |
Square roots and cube roots |
Mixture and allegation |
Profit and loss |
Pipe and cistern
|
Algebra |
Problem on trains |
Compound and simple interest |
Proportion |
Percentage |
Surd and indices |
Average |
Surd and indices |
Probability |
|
Odd figures |
Series test |
Making series / analogy |
Miscellaneous test |
Classification |
Abbreviations |
Current Affairs (National and International) |
Budget and Five Year Plans |
Sports |
Books and Authors |
Science – Inventions and Discoveries |
Banking & Financial Awareness |
Important Days |
Major Financial/Economic News |
Awards and Honours |
|
Error correction |
Vocabulary |
Sentence rearrangement |
Synonyms |
Comprehension |
Unseen passages |
Idioms and phrases |
|
Modals and Articles |
Spellings |
Antonyms |
|
Agricultural officer |
LAW officer |
Marketing officer |
IT officer |
HR officer |
Syllabus for IT officer:
C Programming Basics |
Data Communication & Networking |
Web Technologies |
MS Office |
OS functions |
Network Security |
Windows OS and Programming |
DBMS types |
Software Engineering |
Basics of hardware |
Basic Programming concepts |
Syllabus for LAW officer:
Foreign Exchange |
Contract Acts |
Consumer Protection Act |
Information Technology Act |
Banking Ombudsman Scheme |
Bankers Book Evidence Act |
Prevention of money laundering |
SARFAESI |
securities |
RBI Constitution |
RBI functions |
Partnerships and companies |
DRT Act |
RTI Act |
Syllabus for marketing officer:
Services marketing |
Brand management |
Corporate social responsibility |
Marketing mix |
Copyrights |
Patents |
Marketing strategy |
Basic knowledge of retail management |
Intellectual property rights |
Business ethics |
Syllabus for HR officer:
Placements |
Provident fund act |
Leadership styles |
Principles of management |
Compensation |
Recruitment and selection |
Industrial relations act |
Performance appraisal |
Interview |
Training and development |
Job analysis |
Job design |
Industrial relations |
Promotion, transfer and demotions |
Preparation for interview should be taken with utmost importance, as this is a stage that can lead to a favorable decision for the candidate. Most of you might think of it as a difficult and tedious task but it is not so. Preparation for an interview can be made a fun task that you can actually benefit you in long term.
Here are some tips that may be of benefit to you:
Be eloquent
First thing you must know is that an interview is a conversation between two (or more) individuals. Speaking and listening are the two important actions that take place in an interview. This calls for having an excellent hold over communication skills and an ear to hear. To boost your confidence and clarity in speaking, stand in front of a mirror and start speaking; reading books loudly can help you greatly by not only improving your pronunciation but by also bringing in clarity and coherence in whatever it is that you speak. If you can master these two things, every interview will be a cakewalk for you.
Be Confident:
From the moment you enter, the way you greet, the way you answer you will be judged every second by an interviewer. So be confident, keep your answer short but to the point. Say only how much you know for sure.
Focus more on important topics:
As it is a Clerical interview, and basic questions about banking will be asked such as:
Do not panic:
It is not uncommon or strange to lose nervousness when you fail to answer any question. The interviewer already knows that. But he will test your patience and how much stress you can handle. That is exactly what they are trying to see in you. So whenever you panic keep calm and wait for the next question.
Don't wear Jeans:
IBPS will announce the results of SO exams soon which were held on 24th January 2016. The merit list will be uploaded after the announcement of the results on the official website.
Cutoffs of 2015 are given below:
|
IT officer |
Agricultural officer |
HR officer |
Law officer |
General |
128 |
112 |
124 |
121 |
OBC |
120 |
104 |
114 |
113 |
SC |
120 |
104 |
114 |
113 |
ST |
120 |
104 |
114 |
113 |
Visually impaired |
120 |
104 |
114 |
113 |
Hearing impaired |
120 |
104 |
114 |
113 |
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