I've been in the commercial finance industry for almost 10 years now. Currently I'm a VP of underwriting for a large commercial finance company, working on loans from $10 million to $150 million+, and love the job.
My best advice to you is to initially focus on the experience, not the pay. My first job out of college didn't pay well, but it gave me a tremendous amount of experience at a young age. And that experience really jump started my career and put me ahead real quick. That experience was worth a LOT. You won't see it in your pay check when your starting out, but later in your career you will.
You can start with that co-op job with the local bank, but I wouldn't stay there long (they don't need to know that though..). Give it a year or so, get your experience, let the economy improve, then go seeking bigger name firms. Keep focused on your career track in general - not on a career track with one company. Set goals of where you want to be at certain points in your life. And if you're not reaching those goals with your current company, then its time to move on. Its easy to get on a bad career path or dead ended in this industry. Be careful and aware of that. There's a lot of turnover in this industry - its both unfortunate, and opportunistic at the same time.
If you really want to make it big in the industry, you should plan on getting an MBA at some point. I did, and it shot my career ahead by about 10 years. Don't go for your MBA right away though. You'll want a solid 5 years or more of good work experience before tackling the MBA.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
