Best Way To Start Commercial Banking Career

I agree entirely with gregt. The only thing I would add is the great training at the larger banks typically comes in the form of a Credit Training crash course which gives you the basics of Commercial Lending. These training sessions can vary hugely between banks, but typically its only the larger banks that have the real capacity to provide solid training.

From my mid-career experience at a larger bank, I have seen a relatively high failure rate (or much long learning curve) from all-stars in small- and even mid-size community banks trying to break into the larger banking realm. Simply put, there's much less 'winging it' like many small/mid size banks can get away with. You're very tied up with policy, regulations, and the overall bank goals compared to the one-off focus of smaller banks.

For your specific goals (which may also end up being my career path), I would go the following route: Analyst at a big bank learning as much credit as you can for 3-5 years > ~10-15 years as a Lender/Senior Lender/Team Lead role while learning as much as you can about the whole process and building your public profile in the community, then move to a community bank to ride off in the sunset as a Regional/Market President for a medium size bank or Head of Commercial Lending for a smaller bank. The pay should be fairly solid throughout if you perform well (with big jumps from analyst to lender), the work-life balance is great, and work really isn't that difficult. I think you will see virtually of the individuals in the the sought-after, ideal, high level and even CEO positions in the small-mid size community banks, had their start or some significant experience in Commercial Banking.

Very doable. Commercial/corporate banking is not as competitive as investment banking, and if you are able to demonstrate knowledge of the job and specific reasoning for why you want to go into the role, it should differentiate you.