Pros
The staff at the my branch was very welcoming after training and greatly helped me settle in as a new hire with no prior banking experience. It was a very collaborative work environment and exposed me to a variety of service requests at the retail level.
Cons
If you don't know how to process a transaction for a customer and no one in the branch does, get ready to sit on the phone waiting for an answer. You could spend from 30 minutes to 2-4 hours waiting for an answer as the branch fills up with clients. Branch culture is heavily dependent on managerial disposition and experience, so pray you have a good one. Similarly, when it comes time to make a judgement call on the legitimacy of a transaction or to expedite a process for a client, the back office will leave it to you or your manger's discretion. It's a financial institution, so don't be surprised when documents, checks, or registration information that you, your manager, and the back office all assessed as legitimate, comes back months later as a resume generating event. In sum, people will come to the bank in hysterics(even on Christmas) and make it your problem, only a delicate touch and tactful delivery will keep you from cleaning your office the next day.