Favoritism

There was an opening for a senior licensed banker in the most successful branch in the district. That branch has always been at the top and has great foot traffic with mostly affluent clients, so naturally everyone wanted to work there. I’ve held this same position for 3 years at a slower branch and I wanted to move there so I applied. I saw a few other people when I did the interview, some of them are also senior bankers, for far longer than me. If I didn’t get that position then it’s because other people are more qualified and have more experience and higher numbers, however the result was that the hiring manager promoted a banker. They used to work together before, and that banker only has 1 year of experience of being a banker, so they would have to through the training process. I don’t think the hiring manager chose the most qualified candidate given that other people are already in this same role for years with experience and proven numbers. Maybe I’m just salty lol. Does this happen a lot at other banks?