SBI SO Salary 2023: In-hand Pay, Job Profile & Career Growth

The Basic Pay of an AM (Systems) is 2370. The in-hand salary is above 40k. However, the four additional increments that are admissible to PO at the time of joining are not applicable for Specialist Officers. But you can earn increments after qualifying for JAIIB and CAIIB exams conducted by the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance.

Apart from salary, monthly monetary perks include:

• Reimbursement of cost of 55 liters of petrol if you own a two-wheeler and a bit higher if you own a four-wheeler
• Tea/Entertainment Expenses - 750 (approx.)
• Newspaper Reimbursement - 550 (approx.)
• Cleansing Material and Casual Labour - 700 (approx.) This perk is applicable only if one has availed furniture allowance facility of the bank.

Note that you don’t have to submit any bill for all these. The amount just gets credited in addition to your monthly salary.

The details of the Scale of Pay for different posts is shown below:

Other Important Perks:

• Leased Accommodation: One can also avail the facility of the leased accommodation facility provided by SBI to its employees. The rent permissible varies from city to city. The lease amount gets paid directly to the landlord/house owner.
• Furniture Allowance: Furniture allowance of approx. 1 lakh is granted. You can use this to purchase furniture as per your choice.
• Some other perks are reimbursements for the purchase of mobile handset, briefcase, mobile bills, residential landline telephone bills, Loans at a concessional rate of Interest etc.

SBI also offers home loans at a very concessional rate of 8% along with other loans at concessional rates.

SO (IT) provides technical help, runs different software jobs to compile data, generates reports, develops internal websites and other regular technical works. Some specific works to be carried out are listed below:-

• Maintaining IT infrastructure of the bank
• Coordinating with vendors for development, maintenance, procurement of software, hardware and other services
• Monitoring of technical infrastructure and its maintenance like database, security etc.
• Data mining and reporting for business units
• Troubleshooting PC issues
• Server maintenance
• Managing the maintenance of ATM machines
• Troubleshooting proprietary software issues.
• Some basic tasks like installation, formatting, and troubleshooting windows

Specialist Officers form a very small fraction of SBI workforce, thus resulting in limited opportunities for career growth. The career growth of Specialist Officers whether it be IT, Law, Civil or Electrical has been somewhat lower in comparison to Generalist (Banking) Officers as the vacancies shrink higher up the ladder. It takes at least four years for an AM (Systems) to get promoted to the next post, whereas a Probationary Officer is eligible for his next promotion just after 2 years.

For the first two promotions, there is a provision for a written exam and an interview. Thereafter, for promotion to higher scales, there is no provision for interviews or written exams.

Although Oracle certifications, CCNA, etc, is not mandatory for promotions, you can avail of the facility of fee reimbursement for these courses and exams.

An Assistant Manager (Systems) JMGS-I can be promoted to the post of Deputy Manager (Systems) MMGS-II in a span of four to five years and further to the post of Manager (Systems) MMGS-III. In practice, the highest an AM (Systems) gets promoted is to the rank of General Manager (Scale VII).

But considering the inclination of the Banking industry towards greater digitalization, the career prospects of AM (Systems) seem relatively brighter in the future.

The work pressure for an AM (Systems) is low in comparison to Probationary Officers because they don’t have to do public dealing. You don’t have to work after office hours except in exceptional circumstances as an IT officer gets to work only in the backend of banking operations, unlike a PO which is a generalist job. Hence, this post is one of the best among all banking jobs when it comes to work-life balance. Though, you have to work beyond officers in case of exigencies.

An SO gets posted only in a metro city, Zonal office or Head office. A huge number of selected candidates are posted in Mumbai and the rest are posted in various other cities across India. They get posted either in Local Head Offices (usually State Capitals) or Zonal Offices (in Tier II cities). Apart from this, the transfers are also not frequent. However, one is liable to be posted anywhere in India.

• The leased accommodation facility is a huge plus point
• Attractive salary and allowances
• You get medical facility for yourself as well as your dependents
• A respectable job
• Good work life balance

• Slow promotions
• Area of operations confined only to the technical field

The given details about various parameters will help you in making a well-informed decision to opt AM (Systems) as a career choice. The post of AM (Systems) offers bright career prospects and attractive remunerations. Moreover, being a part of a highly reputed organisation like SBI is a matter of pride in itself.

To help you with your exam preparation, we have started a new integrated course in accordance with the exam pattern. This course will be your ferry in the river of competition and will take you to the verge of selection.