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I get a lot of questions about the best investment banking resume/CV template to win interviews and get hired. So in this article, I give you a proven investment banking resume template, plus answers to the most common investment banking resume questions we hear, such as:
- What should I put on my investment banking resume?
- How can I tweak my resume for investment banking?
- What skills and experience should I list (and what should I leave out)?
So let’s dive in…
Table Of Contents:
Free Investment Banking Resume Templates [Download Here]
Start by downloading our free templates to get a huge head start:
Investment Banking Resume Template (PDF)
Note: You should always submit your resume in PDF format unless the employer advises otherwise.
For a step-by-step video walkthrough of the resume template, check this out:
The Ideal Investment Banking Resume Structure
Notice how the resume template is very compact – investment bankers only spend 30 seconds reading your resume, so you want to hit on the key points rather than overloading them with information.
We recommend sticking to 1 page unless you are applying to Managing Director-level positions (and if you’re reading this website, that is probably not you, though I’m sure some MDs do read).
And before anyone mentions it – yes, I know Australia is an exception to this rule and resumes there often go on for 2-3 pages even for entry-level positions.
Avoid 0.25″ margins and size 8 font unless you absolutely can’t fit everything – use 0.5″ margins at a minimum and preferably at least 0.75″ (like you see here).
Decreasing the font size is better than decreasing the margins if you need to fit more information on the page – but again, you should make sure everything you include is both necessary and useful.
All the entries should be right-aligned for the dates and locations – to do that, you go into “Styles” in Word and create a New Style with right-aligned tabs (just watch the video above to see how to do this, it’s really hard to explain in text).
The Ideal Investment Banking Resume template has 4 main sections: Header, Education, Work & Leadership Experience and Skills, Activities & Interests.
Section 1: Resume Header
Center the header, make sure your name is in bigger font than the rest (so they remember who you are), and write your address, phone number and email address right below that.
There’s not much more to it than that – keep it short, don’t include stars or symbols, and please, keep photos of your pet rabbit off your resume (I’ve seen all of the above before…).
There are some regions where it’s acceptable to include your own photo here, so go ahead and do that if it’s common practice.
Note: Never include your photo on your resume in the US, even if one of your “interests” is “professional modeling.”
Section 2: Education
If you’re still in university, Education should always be at the top. The key points:
- where you go to school
- what your major is
- graduation date
- GPA/SAT score.
Honors, Relevant Coursework, and Research are actually all optional, but they’re good to include if you have something business/finance-related to write about.
You absolutely need to include your GPA, even if it’s “bad” (below 3.5) – otherwise they will think it’s “really bad” (below 2.0). SAT scores are more optional, but I would leave them in if they’re over 1400 in the old system or over 2100 in the new system.
If you’re outside the US, you would write your grades in your own system here – in the UK, for example, you might write “Earned 2.1 cumulative average.” Class rank is also fine if you don’t receive official “grades.”
If your GPA is poor then you can “hide” it by also listing:
- Major GPA
- 2nd/3rd Year GPA (this is more of a stretch and only works if you can show a strong improvement trend)
You can also list study abroad or summer program experiences here – these should be included as separate education entries if you have the space.
Don’t include high school in an investment banking resume unless you just got to college and have no real experience yet – or unless you went to a top school with a lot of alumni in finance (Andover / Exeter in the US).
Don’t include clubs, activities, or certifications here – those should be in one of the 2 sections below this instead.
Section 3: Work & Leadership Experience
You should aim for between 2 and 4 major work experience entries. Don’t make a laundry list of all 27 different clubs you’ve been in, because there’s no way you had major accomplishments for all of them.
Think about what a banker reading your resume would want to know – here are a few examples:
- You had an internship at an asset management firm and then at a hedge fund – and you also started your own business fraternity. Each of these should be an entry, and you should devote most of your space to the internships.
- You worked at a boutique bank over the summer, and have spent 20 hours/week on a Varsity sport at school – these should be your major entries (yes, sports are fine to list under “Work & Leadership Experience” but in this case you definitely want to focus on the boutique bank).
- You were in 4 clubs at school and also had an internship at Goldman Sachs (in any group). DO NOT write about each of these as if they were equal – Goldman Sachs is exponentially more important than your clubs, so spend half your resume on GS, pick the 2 activities where you contributed most, and write a few lines about each of them.
Together or Separate?
You’ll notice I grouped “Work Experience” WITH “Leadership Experience” here – that’s because you probably have a few internships and also a few activities you spend a lot of time on. Grouping these together under one heading saves space and makes your activities seem more like “work experience.”
But let’s say you had 4 investment banking internships (summer and part-time) – in that case, I would probably just call this section “Work Experience” and focus on the 3 most recent ones.
If you’ve had absolutely no real internships or other work experience, you should still call this section “Work & Leadership Experience” to give the impression you did.
How To Structure Each Entry In An Investment Banking Resume
There’s this idea floating around that you should have 3 work experience entries, and then 3 bullets within each one of them – in principle this sounds reasonable, but in practice it can be difficult to include exactly 3 bullets for each entry.
The better way to approach this: decide on a Project-Centric or Task-Centric structure for each entry, and then write everything based around one of those.
- In each case, start out with a Summary Sentence stating what you did and the major results of your work (if you know them).
- For an investment banking internship, the Summary Sentence might be “Worked on 3 live deals and created valuations using public company comparables, precedent transactions, and DCF analysis; worked with clients to develop management presentations and Executive Summaries.”
- For a marketing internship, the Summary Sentence might be “Worked with 2 major clients in media & entertainment industries and developed advertising campaigns to promote new seasons of top-rated network TV shows.”
The Project-Centric Resume Model
The Project-Centric structure starts off with the Summary Sentence and then goes into “Selected Project Experience” (or “Selected Client Experience” or “Selected Transaction Experience” or “Selected Investment Experience”).
Use the Project-Centric structure for:
- Investment banking/private equity/hedge fund experience
- Consulting (any kind)
- Anything else involving specific clients or companies – equity research, wealth management, law, accounting, etc.
Pick the 2 or 3 best projects (for internships, these will likely be the ones you did the most work on) and then give a single bullet or two describing what you did for each one (more on that below).
Listing just 1 project or client looks weird – but don’t list 8 different projects either, as you want to focus on the most relevant ones.
If you’re listing these for an investment banking internship, you should use titles such as:
- Pharmaceutical Company’s Potential $150 Million Acquisition of Biomedical Devices Company
- Technology Company’s $250 Million Initial Public Offering
For anything on the buy-side (PE, HF, VC), you might use:
- Potential $1 Billion Investment in Manufacturing Company
And for experience outside finance, you would use similarly descriptive titles and avoid naming specific companies unless whatever you worked on was announced to the public.
The Task-Centric Resume Model
The Task-Centric structure is not that much different – you still have a Summary Sentence at the beginning, but you separate the work by tasks and responsibilities rather than by specific projects or clients.
This format is best for part-time jobs (you worked as a sales rep at Radio Shack one summer – not your “part-time job” at Lazard), activities, and anything else outside finance – like research or engineering.
If you can re-position what you did to make it sound like specific projects then you should definitely do so – but if it’s a stretch, don’t bother.
Kevin said this doesn’t work as well for management consulting, but it definitely helps with finance because bankers look at it quickly and say, “Aha! It looks like they worked on deals!”
How To Write Compelling Investment Banking Resume Bullets
Each bullet point you write on your resume needs to do 2 things:
- Say, specifically, what you did. Numbers are good, as is the proper lingo. “Valued client using DCF, liquidation analysis, and public company comparables” is better than “Valued companies.”
- Give the results of what you did – and yes, I know that you don’t always have them. Numbers are good, but even something qualitative like “Resulted in private equity firm proceeding with additional due diligence” is better than nothing.
The order here doesn’t matter that much, so go with whatever sounds more natural – if you give the specifics first you should use a semicolon to separate it from the results.
If you go with the results first, you should use “by” to separate each part, as in “Supported senior bankers’ effort to negotiate 5% lower price for client by creating merger model to analyze best-case, average, and worst-case scenarios.”
If you have an extremely lengthy description, then it’s fine to include the specifics all on one line and then make a separate line for the results.
Section 4: Skills, Activities & Interests
Surprisingly, this is the one section where you see the greatest number of mistakes and outright silly writing. Let’s start with the list of common mistakes:
- Leaving it out entirely (only do this if you’re much older).
- Going on for too long (10+ lines).
- Failing to list useful/interesting Skills, like Language abilities, and instead listing every single club you were in since age 5.
- “Fluent in English” – Except your resume is already in English, so I’d be really concerned if you didn’t know the language…
- “Proficient in Microsoft Office/Excel” – This might have been impressive in 1992. Not so much today.
Keep this section simple and list any language proficiencies first, followed by technical skills (real ones, like programming languages), and then you can list your financial modeling/CFA courses next, followed by a line or two on more minor Activities, and then your Interests at the end.
This is a more subtle point, but when you’re picking your Interests try to list interesting Interests. Don’t just write “Running” – write that you “Competed in marathons in 13 countries across Europe and North America.”
Even though this isn’t “work experience,” the same strategies hold true – be specific, focus on what’s memorable, and try to go in-depth with only a few areas rather than giving a laundry list with minimal details.
Additional Resume Templates & Examples
The core advice in this article relates to resume writing for university students who want to break into investment banking. If you’re not a university student, don’t despair: just look these other resume templates and tutorials:
Responding To Objections
“But wait,” you say, “this resume format is too [boring / narrow / insert other negative adjective here].”
That’s nice, but the purpose of a resume is not to show off your artistic skills or creativity.
It’s to win the attention of time-strapped bankers and land interviews.
Yes, the design above may not be “stylish” but it’s effective and makes it very easy for bankers to quickly assess you.
As mentioned above, there are regions such as Australia where resumes / CVs are more personal and go on for several pages.
I don’t want to get in a debate about cultural differences – it is what it is, and the template above works great for the US, Europe, Asia, and most other regions outside of Australia.
No Work Experience?
If you’re light on experience, invest a few minutes reading this article, titled How to Write a Finance Internship Resume with No Work Experience.
Interested in Private Equity or Hedge Funds?
You might be interested in reading The Private Equity Resume: How to Write Your Way into Interviews and Job Offers at the Mega-Funds or Hedge Fund Internships: The Best Way to Become Your Quantified Self?.
Need More Help With Your Resume?
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- Optimal structure – You’ll learn where everything from Education to Work Experience to Activities should go. Regional badminton champion? Stamp collector? You’ll find out where those should go, too.
- The 3-point structure to use for all your “Work Experience” entries: simple, but highly effective at getting the attention of bankers.
- How to spin non-finance experience into sounding like you’ve been investing your own portfolio since age 12.
- How to make business-related experience, such as consulting, law, and accounting, sounds like “deal work.”
- How to avoid the fatal investment banking resume mistake that will get you automatically rejected.
- One caveat: we only have capacity to work with a limited number of clients each month. In fact, we purposely turn down potential clients in cases where we cannot add much value. We prefer quality over quantity, and we always want to ensure that we can work well together first.
Other Options for Personalized Help: Wall Street Mastermind
Finally, if you want to go beyond just your resume and also get help with landing internships that you can list on your resume, check out Wall Street Mastermind.
They’ve worked with over 1,000 students to help them secure high-paying investment banking jobs out of school (and internships while in school), and their coaches include a former Global Head of Recruiting at three different large banks.
They provide personalized, hands-on guidance through the entire networking and interview process – and they have a great track record of results for their clients.
It could be a great fit for you if you’re looking for comprehensive coaching through the entire process rather than just a new version of your resume or cover letter.
You can book a free consultation with them to learn more.
Want more?
You might be interested in:
- “Walk Me Through Your Resume” in Investment Banking Interviews: How to Answer
- How to Walk Through Your Resume in Buy-Side Interviews.
About the Author
Brian DeChesare is the Founder of Mergers & Inquisitions and Breaking Into Wall Street. In his spare time, he enjoys lifting weights, running, traveling, obsessively watching TV shows, and defeating Sauron.
Free Exclusive Report: 57-page guide with the action plan you need to break into investment banking - how to tell your story, network, craft a winning resume, and dominate your interviews
Comments
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Hey Brian! Thanks for all the valuable resources and insights. I’m in my late 30s and currently in corporate finance (snr financial analyst in banking, FP&A role). Received my undergrad over 10 years ago. I’m also a CPA. Additionally, I’m currently enrolled in a part-time MBA program (T15 school). Is IB internship possible given my age (I’ll be almost 40 by the time I start the internship)?
Internships during part-time MBA programs are tricky because you can’t really “intern” part-time in most cases. If you wanted to do this, you would probably need to find a way to take time off your actual job. Your age could potentially be an issue as well because you may be perceived as over-qualified for Associate roles. But people still do this sort of thing (the odds are just lower). The bigger issue is the timing and how you can free up several months to do the internship.
Hey Brian , Hope you are doing well . I am based out of India and I used to work with a big 4 audit firm. I have around 3 years of work ex with them, now i am looking to pivot into more investment finance roles like portfolio management , PE, VC, Equity research. I have graduated from one of the best university in India, but my couse was more related to accounting. To improve my chances I cleared the 3 levels of the CFA exam. I am not looking to Pivot into IB since I believe it would be difficult for my profile since I do not have a masters yet and all my experience and education were more of accounting related other than CFA. So it would be great if you could advice me which industry you thing should I be targetting and if you have specific insighits which i should take care of.
The problem is that India is a bad market for all of these roles. Also, portfolio management, PE, VC, and equity research are all completely different, so you need to narrow that down and focus on just one first. In general, most finance professionals in India realize they need to leave the country for at least some time to advance, so I might recommend that (maybe do a Master’s in Financed or MBA degree in another country and work there after).
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-in-india/
If you haven’t even done IB, roles like PE and VC are going to be extremely difficult to target because they normally want candidates with deal experience.
For becoming an investment banker I have to undergraduate form a reputed college, or a postgraduation from reputed college?
Please see:
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-target-schools/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/how-to-get-into-investment-banking/
I’ve been immersed in the IT Services sector for the past couple of years, specializing in Corporate Finance with a strong technical focus. My educational background includes a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology. I’m curious about the feasibility of transitioning into Investment Banking given my current profile. Any insights or advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
I can’t say anything without knowing your years of work experience, quality/reputation of undergrad degree, grades, ability to network, etc. In general, it’s very difficult to get into IB roles after more than a few years of full-time work elsewhere because they only want certain types of candidates. Past that, you normally need an MBA to have a good shot. A lot of this is also region-dependent (this path rarely works in places with underdeveloped or non-existent MBA recruiting).
I’ve been reading your website for the last few weeks and it’s really insightful!
Just a quick question, if I wanted to work in finance in Italy at some point in the future, and I’m set on studying abroad in Italy, does it matter much for future job applications where I study?
I.e., will it help more if I study at Bocconi rather than at another Italian university?
Thanks in advance.
Yes, it will always help if you study at a top-ranked university in the country. So Bocconi is the best choice in Italy for pretty much anything. Just be aware that if you’re not Italian, it could still be very difficult to work there.
Hi, I’m a rising senior completing a strategy consulting internship at a T2 in NYC. I’ve interned at a large consumer bank doing product management and data analytics before and learned this summer I want to go into IB after doing some due diligence projects for my consulting firm. Is it best to wait for a couple years and try and enter into IB as a lateral hire or try and apply for positions this fall with no networking or financial modeling background.
Lateral hiring is the best path because you don’t have a great chance if you haven’t networked or otherwise prepared for these roles or done closely related internships.
Hi Brian,
Thank you for your informative article. I have 3 prior internships, including a tax internship at Big Four, a sales internship at commercial bank, and a sales internship at security firm, and doing an IB internship right now. I am wondering whether I should include all internships in my resume or leave out sales internship at commercial bank, because this experience seems irrelevant. Thanks a lot!
I would leave out the sales internship at the commercial bank or reduce it to 1 line at most.
Hi Brian,
I completed a tax audit internship in a government finance type of role during the summer of my freshman year. I eventually want to get into banking, and I was wondering how I can write this experience on my resume, so that it sounds more relevant to finance. What would you suggest for me? Thanks.
Hard to say because I don’t know exactly what you did. Your best bet is to make it look more like deal or client experience by separating it into specific “projects,” even if that’s not quite what you did, and mentioning keywords like Excel, financial statements, valuation, modeling, etc., even if they’re a stretch for your actual work.
Hi Brian,
I tried to spin the experience to more finance. Here is what I have:
• Worked with client to develop Excel model that summarized company’s revenues and expenses; led to increased efficiency of audit process
• Analyzed client’s financial statements and determined appropriate tax obligations and entitlements; resulted in increased tax savings for client
• Assisted with due diligence assignments and tested working papers; led to discovery of material errors in client’s financial statements
• Gathered data on Canadian pharmaceuticals industry and analyzed performance of specific companies; reviewed history, financial performance, and value of IP assets
Please offer any suggestions. Thanks!
That looks reasonable.
Hi Brian, how should I spin summer audit internship into something IB related for undergrad recruitment?
Say that you learned a lot about accounting and the financial statements but want something more forward-looking and oriented around major deals that change companies, not reviewing the paperwork for annual and quarterly results. You like the skill set but want to apply it differently.
Hey Brian,
I spent the summer of 2020 volunteering at a government partnered startup in the education sector as a result of a rescinded offer from a BIg4.
My last relevant experience in Finance was in the summer of 2019, and I’ll be joining a masters program in September, making it a solid 2 years before I actually go out and work. How bad will this gap look? Should I include the volunteering experience on my CV? (I have two internships – one in Equity Research and one as an accounting intern)
Yes, I think you need to include the volunteer experience so you don’t have a gap for this past summer. That kind of gap is not the end of the world at the undergrad/Master’s level as long as you can tell a reasonable story about what happened.
Thanks a ton! Following up on this, I will be ending up with 3 internships to mention on my CV. Unfortunately, that’ll mean something will have to go since there won’t be any space left. In my leadership section I have mentioned being the President of two clubs at undergrad (Finance and Debate). Which one do you think I should be booting out?
I would remove all undergrad activities if you already have 3 real internships. Maybe just list those at the bottom under interests/activities.
Hi Brian,
Quick GPA question. I have a 3.1 overall GPA but a 3.7 major specific GPA. Should I put both on there or just the major specific GPA?
I’m currently a junior at a non-target school if that helps.
Thanks!
Both
Dear Brian,
I did three internships in marketing prior to my first internship in corporate finance. Now I am doing my master’s. There is a bunch of finance-oriented leadership to mention. Should I still include the marketing internships or leave them away already?
Best,
Cole
Leave them off if you have at least one finance internship and finance-related leadership experience.
Hi – I graduated last year and have been working full-time in Corporate Banking at a BB ever since. I intend to make a lateral move into IB next year (with about 2 years of experience in CB) and I was wondering if you could shed some light on the following:
– Which resume template do you recommend I use? I took a look at the one for a University Student and I don’t think that fits well. Perhaps the PE resume template from IB?
– How do you recommend I sell my CB experience on my resume even though it has not been deal-focused? More so focused on annual review write-ups and portfolio monitoring of covenants and triggers.
Thanks again for your quality content over the years.
1) Yes, the PE from IB template should be fine.
2) Try to spin it into sounding deal-related by pointing out how the covenants are all linked to initial debt issuances of the same types that bankers work on. Make it sound as if these were DCM/LevFin deals, but you didn’t necessarily work on all parts of them.
Thank you, Brian.
Just a quick (stupid) question: after studying your resume template I noticed that there are absolutely no articles used (e.g. “a”, “the”). Is it common practice to omit articles in a resume? For reference, I’m a non-native speaker, and I’m worried that a person reading my CV may get the impression that I don’t know English grammar if I skip articles
Thank you
It’s intentional. Resumes purposely do not use articles; it’s just the normal style.
Hey Brian!
Great job, quick question,
I am a sophomore with a low gpa because I thought I should take good courses instead of easy A bird courses, this thinking gave me a poor gpa but I do have one Corporate banking experience & I’m a club president.
Do you think these things would be good to land an IB internship in Canada?
Canada is extremely competitive because there are very few spots in the country, and students at all the top schools in Canada compete for them. So… I don’t know, and it depends on the rest of your profile, but in general, it’s almost always harder to win IB internships in Canada.
Hey Brian,
Great article! I’m currently completing an internship at the same company that I work for. How would I lay this out on my resume?
Best,
Jack
??? Not sure what you mean. You’re already working there, so how can you also intern there if you have a full-time job? If you have multiple roles at the same company, just list them sequentially.
Hi Brian,
Thank so much for this article, extremely helpful! I have got two questions – (1) I am a junior in college with no finance experience. I recently completed an open access IB virtual internship and the program gave strict guidelines for the experience to be listed as an extra curricular activity on my resume. I don’t agree with this. Can I still go ahead and list this under work experiences? I believe it will be best optimized there.
(2) Is it okay for me to list future internship experiences on my resume? My internship this summer starts in a few weeks .
1) Sure, I don’t think this will be an issue as long as you don’t use this resume to apply to the same bank. I doubt other banks will know about this rule.
2) Yes, but make it clear that the internships haven’t started yet and don’t describe them in detail.
Hello!
I wanted to know what should I do if I do not have any work experience, just one time in a supermarket.
I am applying for a second year summer internship, what would you reckon I should do at this situation? I have about three months until my university starts.
Should I do part-time in shops or restaurants? Or teach english or sort to foreign students? As it is hard to find any professional short-term jobs right now..
Thank You so Much
Maybe see if you can find freelance work on Upwork and list that as work experience. If not, just list what you have and try to add something else… if you already have retail experience, maybe teach English or some other skill to students or try for a leadership position in a club (assuming universities even open in the fall).
Hi there,
Should I be including my work experiences in retail stores on the CV?
Also, will it be valid to include a social activity that was cancelled after a year long preparation due to Covid-19? (as a leadership role)
If you have no other work experience, yes, you can list your retail experience. But you should try to come up with something more relevant, even if it’s a school activity. Yes, you can list activities that were canceled.
Thank you.
Also, i have license/certificate for International MOS Master (microsoft office) and International emergency first response license. Is it good to include these too?
Also, i am from Korea and is applying for IB in the UK as im currently in an UK university.
Should I include license/certificates. Qualifications of Korea (not international).? Thank you
Those licenses/certificates will not make much of a difference. Sure, you can include them, but they matter very little next to school quality, grades, and work experience. I don’t think most people in the UK will know qualifications/certifications in Korea, so maybe include them but don’t give a lot of detail.
My SAT was 1400. Since it’s borderline based on your recommendation, should I keep it or leave it out?
Keep it
Hello there,
Thank you for the tips listed above. Just a question.
I currently have been in VC (2.5 years) and had also sold my venture to a fund here in Dubai recently.
However, as unusual as it may sound, i’d like to make my way back towards IB/ Sell-side.
I have 2 years of M&A experience at boutiques (prior to my VC and startup stint)
So when i prepare my CV, does it matter if i show my old M&A experience in a project centric format first, and then my current VC and venture exit experience below it?
As i feel showing VC/ startup experience first in reverse chronological order, would not be ideal for them to look at as it would show i’ve had a 2.5 year gap from IB.
Thank you in advance.
Jargo
If you’re applying to IB roles, yes, put the M&A experience first and the venture experience below it.
I just wanted to let you know that in my interview today with the head of M&A, he mentioned that I should’ve put my high school and year of graduation on the resume. Could you elaborate on your reasons for leaving it out?
I am currently in the 4th semester of uni (out of 7) studying economics and business administration in Germany. I had previously studied law for 2 years and thought high school wouldn’t be that relevant, since it’s a while ago
High school still doesn’t belong on your resume unless you’re very early in university or you went to a notable high school that many people will know. Otherwise, it wastes space that you could use for your internships or university. You have to keep in mind that sometimes more senior bankers give less useful advice – they’re basing it on what things were like 20-30 years ago when they got into the industry, not what current standards are. Yes, they still interview people, but they’re not familiar with the current recruiting process in the same way current Analysts and Associates are.
Hi Brian,
Quick question: My cumulative GPA is a 3.3, but that is due to a poor performing freshman year with each subsequent year averaging above a 3.5. If I choose to include my 2nd/3rd/4th year GPA and my major GPA (3.6), should I include the original cumulative GPA on the resume as well? Or just list the 2nd/3rd/4th year GPA?
You have to include the overall cumulative GPA somewhere. I would just list your Major GPA followed by Overall GPA.
Hello Brian,
As someone with a physics degree and who’s never done any finance related jobs or internships, what would you suggest to start breaking into the banking world?
Thank you in advance.
Read this article and take note of paths #1 and #2:
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/how-to-get-into-investment-banking/
Hey Brian – thanks for this article, it is truly timeless.
Quick question, how do you feel about using a different font color (i.e. dark blue) for section headers and your name/personal information at the top of the resume to make it stand out more?
Different colors are a bad idea. Yes, it’s 2019, but finance is still a conservative industry. Maybe if you’re applying to tech companies or startups this could work.
Hi Brian,
first thank you for investing your time to build a platform like this!
just a couple questions. I am in my 4th year of uni studying finance & im following your template to build my resume however all my work experience falls under retail as a sales associate & keyholder. how can i make that transition onto my resume.
thank you
I’m not sure of your question – are you asking how to present retail and sales associate experience on your resume? That should probably use the task-centric format.
Hi Brian,
Thoroughly appreciate all the good advice you’ve given on this website. I have a question regarding first year grades. I received a 2:1 overall (just crossed the boundary to get a 2:1) but I’ve scored only passing marks on one module. I’ll be applying for summer internships this September. Do investment banks ask for transcripts for first year? Would my grades in individual subjects matter significantly or would banks generally focus on my overall score? I have some good extracurriculars on my CV and have completed a spring week at a BB.
Thanks
They will focus on your overall score, but they could still requests transcripts. If you have a 2:1, don’t panic, just keep doing well and send in the information they request.
Hi Brian,
First off I wanted to say how much I appreciate all the hard work you’ve put into this website. It’s been a great asset in resume building and interview prep for both my boyfriend and I, and he’s not even in finance or trying to be.
I recently attended the American Bankers Association Women in Leadership Forum and Emerging Leaders Forum, part of the Government Relations Summit in DC. Hopefully all that networking paid off, but in case I’m back to square one and still sending out my resume I was thinking about adding it to my Work & Leadership Experience section or maybe as an activity. Considering that I don’t really have the most experience, would a three day conference in which I was an attendee be appropriate to add? What are your thoughts?
Thanks!
Rachel
Hi, I am a final year student studying Financial Economics and Econometrics. However, my work experience are not finance/banking related – operational assistant in a pastry factory, and a retail staff. However, I am a head analyst for the investment society in my university and we do have a 1 million fund that we can use to invest in stocks weekly. I’m am not sure what are the stuff I should focus on the elaborate more other than the stuff that I have done for the society. Could you give me some advice on this matter?
Focus on the Investment Society and do not write that much about the rest. Maybe devote 50% of your space to the Investment Society and 25% each to the others. Emphasize leadership, teamwork, attention to detail, and other skills that apply to banking.
If my student society is newer than my work experience, where do I list it on the CV? At the bottom like yours and ignore the error in having the dates in chronological order
It doesn’t really matter, but yes, you can list it at the bottom. It’s not an “error” to list things out of chronological order.
Hi, I wanted to get your opinion on how to write my current CFA candidacy on my resume. I am currently registered for the next exam (level 3) and just recently passed the level 2 exam. Should i list this on my resume? Just wandering because i am looking to break into investment banking or private equity as an entry level analyst and most of internships has been in technology related. I majored in computer science.
Yes, but you obviously can’t list it after your name until you have the required work experience. So just list it at the bottom or maybe under Education if you’re a current student or recent graduate.
Hi Brian,
I have graduated for a year and am working in Commercial Banking as a Management Associate. I am drafting my resume to apply for some IB/ Corporate Banking graduate programs in the coming recruitment season. However, my previous internships are not as comprehensive as my full-time job now, particularly in deal experiences. I did some industry research, prospecting when I was an intern. So if I use the project-centric template, will the HR/Hiring Manager think my CV looks too messy? I mean I can put 3 deals (say, “XYZ’s potential acquisition of a Real Estate”) with a bullet point each under the summary sentence while I can only write three bullet points (“Assist the tax managers in …..” x 3) under my internships.
Thanks,
T
No, just write whatever you can.
Hey, I am currently looking to break directly into banking. I have 2.5 years management consulting experience working on banking change/regulatory projects.
How is the best way to display my transferable skills relevant to banking on my CV?
There are some tips here:
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/consulting-to-investment-banking/
Hi,
I am currently working on applying for sophomore summer analyst positions for next summer and I have a question regarding work experience. I will have completed 2 finance/accounting internships by summer’s end. However, I will be starting 2 new positions this coming semester as the treasurer of a successful club and a part time job as a campus ambassador for a former employer (not already listed on resume). I realize neither are specifically “banking” related, but they do require a large commitment, teamwork, and confidence, which are characteristics banks look for. Do you think I should list these or only 1 of them? If so, how would you suggest doing so considering I have not started them yet?
Best Regards
Just list 1 of them and describe it as an “upcoming” role with a date in the future. The finance/accounting internships are far more important.
Hello Brian, I’ve won Stock Market Simulations and many other Negotiations/Trading events. Should they be put on the resume and if yes, then under which head?
Yes, probably under Education or under Work Experience if you have minimal Work Experience to this point.
I currently have an finance internship at a Retail Firm(not related to IB) and a research internship with the Government. I’m also a position holder at two clubs in my college.
How should I put them so that I land my next internship at an Investment Bank?
a*
Please see:
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/
Hello Brian,
Just a quick question – I recently attended a 3- day long diversity program (Insight program) held by a BB. Should I include it on my resume? If yes, under which section should I include it?
Thanks!
Yes, maybe list it under Education or under Work Experience if you don’t have much else that’s relevant.
Hello,
I am a couple weeks into the internship and applications for next summer’s SA roles have opened up at several banks. I was wondering if I could put this current internship in my resume and whether or not I should/there are advantages of applying this early as opposed to later on. Also if I applied early will they start the interview process during the summer?
Thanks,
Sean
Hey I have a 3.4 cumulative but 3.8 in my latest semester, is it okay to just put my latest semester GPA on there. Eg. GPA (Fall 2017): 3.8/4.0 ??
You need to list both.
Can’t seem to download the word file
http://resume-videos-00.s3.amazonaws.com/University-Student-Investment-Banking-Resume-Template.docx
Hey Brian,
I started grad school immediately following undergrad as I was playing college football (received extra eligibility due to injury…long story). I took a few semesters off as I had a short stint in the NFL. I’m back in grad school this semester and will finish my masters in May. Both my masters and bachelors degrees will be from the same school. How should I structure this in the education section of my resume?
You can use the same heading for both of them and just use separate lines for each degree.
What do I have to do to ace the numerical tests that come along with the application?
Practice… a lot of practice… https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-assessment-centers-competency-questions/
Hi,
Thank you for sharing this great template and instructions with us. I have a question regarding spring week resumes. Since I am a first-year student of economics and my year is not yet finished, how do I state my grades (GPA equivalent in the UK)? Should I list expected grades?
Thank you for your answer and keep up the good work!
Best regards,
Blaz
Yes, just list expected grades such as 2:1 or 1:1 or 2:2.
Will do, thank you!
Good afternoon,
I finished bachelor studies and a got a scholarship for the CFA Level 1 exam for the June 2017 exam session. In your opinion, how (where) should I include this info since I think it’s relevant both because it is a CFA and the fact that I got scholarship based on merit.
Thank you in advance
You can list it under Education if you want, especially if you didn’t attend a top school and need something else to stand out.
Hello Brian,
Sorry, forgot to mention that one. I went to the both top and target university (especially for the IB divisions in London) with a major in Finance.
Thank you for your suggestion and appreciate your prompt reply.
One quick question if you have time to answer: Can you suggest me any website for the international equivalences of UK degree (i.e. 1:1,2:1,2:2). I am struggling to find the most accurate one, since different websites say different things (and sometimes these deviations are significant).
Best regards
You would have to go country-by-country. To convert UK results to the US system, this list is decent:
http://www.unco.edu/international/studyabroad/Documents/Grade%20Equivalencies.pdf
1:1 is an A (4.0 / 4.0) in the US system, 2:1 is an A- / B+, around a 3.5 / 4.0, and 2:2 is a B (3.0 / 4.0).
Thank you Brian.
Keep up with good work and I wish you all the best.
Regards,
Alex
Hello Brian,
Sorry, forgot to mention that one. I went to the both top and target university (especially for the IB divisions in London) with a major in Finance.
Thank you for your suggestion and appreciate your prompt reply.
One quick question if you have time to answer: Can you suggest me any website for the international equivalences of UK degree (i.e. 1:1,2:1,2:2). I am struggling to find the most accurate one, and different websites say different things (and sometimes these deviations are large).
Best regards
Hi, I’m just wondering how should I include my intention to complete a MSc in Finance after my undergraduate degree on my CV?
I want to make it as clear as possible however, graduate schools have not released their offers yet and as a result I am lacking the info required to make it stand out.
As of now all I have is:
“Upon completion of my undergraduate degree, I intend to complete an MSc in Finance in one of the EU’s leading universities”
Many thanks for your help.
All you can really do until you have an offer of admission is list it the way you suggested under your undergraduate experience. It’s too risky to make it a separate entry if you haven’t even been admitted yet.
Hi there,
Is it ok for my to use serval bullet points to describe my valuation model? For example, how I searched for peer company, how I made the assumptions , and how I discovered a mistake in model?
Thanks!
Sure
Good afternoon Brian,
I’m a working class 20 year old from Scotland, and with your advice regarding networking and email templates I managed to secure a ‘coffee session’ with an Investment Director at a very high-level Investment Management firm. And after the coffee session meet-up he was impressed by me and was told that after I finish my Uni degree next year to apply for a job there. It was all because of your advice that I managed to get the opportunity to get my foot in the door; and for that I just want to say sincerely thank you very much. If anything, you helped a kid get one step closer to his dream career.
Many thanks,
Anas Afzal
Thanks for sharing your experience with us, and let us know how it goes!
Hi M&I team,
Under what circumstances am I allowed / not allowed to include the names of the companies in the deals I have worked on ?
If the deals are public (i.e., they have closed and been announced) then yes. If they are confidential (still ongoing or never announced) then I would leave them out.
Hi there Brian. I’m 16 years old and live in London and would appreciate your advice with regard to securing work experience. I’ve only been successful in getting one with a large hedge fund based here in London. I’ve emailed dozens of PE firms, boutique investment banks and hedge funds as well as commodity trading firms but the reply usually receive is that they don’t offer work experience. What is the best way for me to secure more of these at my age
You are too young. Get into the best university you can, and then try again later when you’re in your first or second year of university.
I am currently a rising junior at a business school, but I am graduating a semester early in December 2017. When do most sales and trading positions start, as I am wondering if I would be able to start working sooner than those graduating in June 2018 or if all offers are given for the same start period?
Most S&T roles start in May/June. Most offers start around the same time. They do have off cycle offers so you maybe able to start in January if you speak with HR.
Hi Brian,
I am a Accounting and Information Systems major looking into land a job in investment banking (JPM/MS/GS). I am about to finish my 3rd year and still have 1 year to go. I applied for summer internships at these bank however I received no offers/interviews.
I wish I had known this website beforehand. I realised how horrible my CV and Cover letter was and I know where I might have gone wrong. I do not plan on deferring my education and noticed Morgan Stanley offers winter analyst positions. Do banks offer full-time positions based on winter analyst program performance?
One last thing I would like to clarify is that I am not a finance major thus I do not have extensive knowledge (e.g. Financial Modelling). Do I have to explain myself in the cover letter about this? I attended a career talk where they mentioned that your major is irrelevant as long as we show we are fast learners. How do I show I am a fast learner?
Thank you in advance.
Yes, some banks do so I’d encourage you to apply if you can. I don’t think you need to explain your major choice on your cover letter. You can show that you’re a fast learner in interviewers and on the job itself.
Hi Nicole,
Thanks for your input. I would also like to clarify how I can demonstrate I am a fast learner?
Thanks
Cite examples of previous situations where you learned quickly and performed well after doing so (previous jobs, clubs, classes, etc.). Despite what the bank said, your major is most definitely relevant and they expect you to have the required skills (or at least some of them) before you start…
Hi Brian:
Thanks for your sharing! I have couple questions here.
I am an international student studying in U.S. Since I am not an English native speaker (which is easy to tell by my name), should I include the “Fluent in English” under my Language skill section?
Besides, I have already obtained my Bachelor degree from U.S university without many work experiences as I am focusing on earning high GPA in order to apply the Master program provided by the target schools. My only work experience related to Finance is an operation and product management internship in a well-known Asian Bank. Should I still need to put it on my resume if I would like to apply intern in U.S?
The last question is I already got an offer from a target ivy school. However, the program will begin in couple months from now. Can I use my personal Gmail address? (My undergraduate university edu.com email address will expire soon) Should I list this school on my resume as well?
If your resume is written in English, you should not list “Fluent in English” as it will be assumed.
Yes, list the experience at the Asian bank.
Yes, you can use your personal Gmail address and list the new school on your resume.
Thanks for your reply Brian!
Hello, I have a 2 yrs S&T internship experience and I am applying for a FT time position now on S&T. Should I write my resume on a Task-Centric or Project-Centric Format?
Probably use a project-centric format for S&T experience.
Hi, I already have 2.5 yrs of combined work experience as an analyst in IB and Asset Mgmt groups at two bulge bracket banks. Should I still keep my GPA (3.2) on my resume? I’m applying to an M&A senior analyst position. Thanks!
I probably wouldn’t unless they ask for it.
Thank you for the information. It’s very useful.
I was wondering whether I should include my future job on my cover letter. I’m applying for a job which begins on June, but on February I’m starting to work in another company. I’m applying now, so I’m not sure if it’d be weird if I included information about my future job which begins in 19 days.
Yes you can include your “future” role on your cover letter if you have already received an offer.
Hi,
I’m currently an Economics student at university. I recently initiated a side project with my finance professor where he oversees me as I manage a mock portfolio (through the Investopedia site). This is completely my idea and isn’t for marks. I figured that this demonstrates leadership so I would like to place it in the ‘Leadership Experience’ section. My question is, what do I put as the “company name” and “position”?
Many Thanks
I’d probably just use the Project Name.
Hi there Brian,
I’ve cold emailed this firm who offers summer internship in america. However I live in the UK and they were impressed by my CV but unfortunately they stated they don’t hire interns in London. How would I respond exactly to this?
Ask if they offer unpaid internships or remote internships, or if they partner with any other firms that might offer internships in London.
Hi there,
I’m an Economics student studying at a Russell Group university in UK trying to break into M&A. I overheard from recruiters that they don’t like to see that you have a small business or any entrepreneurial experience. Is this true? If so, how can I demonstrate this valuable experience without giving the idea that I will leave their company to pursue my business in the long term? I am fully committed to a career in Investment Banking after completing an internship in M&A, but I am having trouble displaying the useful business qualities that I could contribute to the bank’s business.
Thank you!
You can list that at the bottom of your resume in one-line and not highlight it.
Hello,
I am going into my final year of an Economics degree at a top 10 university. My grades are very strong and I’ve had great life experiences and leadership opportunities but no actual relevant work experience.
Am I too old to apply for Spring insight weeks? If that is the case what is the next best option?
I plan to go on and study an Msc in Finance starting in 2016.
Thanks
I’d suggest that approach alumni, and cold-email/connect with people on LinkedIn to improve your chances. I am not sure if you’re eligible for spring insight weeks since you’re a final year student.
Hi Brian,
I have completed 2-years at a UK target uni, got into the top 5% of my class, and I am currently in my 3rd year abroad in Europe.
1) Can I leave my grammar school (European, not UK one) out? You mentioned in this article, https://mergersandinquisitions.com/free-investment-banking-resume-template/ , that in the UK one should list his/her high school.
I don’t mind listing it but it takes space. My education section is 2/5 of the page since I also attended a summer school.
2) Do I need to write my degree class (GPA) as a separate bullet or can I put into the same line as my qualification,
e.g. BSc (with Honours) Accounting with Study Abroad: 1st Class Honours?
Again, just to save some space.
Many thanks for your help!
Yes, you can leave out your grammar school. You can also include your degree class on the same line as your major to save space.
Greatly appreciate your advice Brian!
Hi Brian,
what is your stance on having 2-line bullet points? I know 1-line bullet points are preferred, but how bad are 2-liners? Because using your approach, e.g. the one with “narrowed list down to 10 (..) , resulted in …”, it goes over 2-3 lines, and I had a spring-week at a BB which I wanted to summarise in the way you proposed, taking over 2-lines. Will that be read in screening or thrown away straight away?
Many thanks for your articles.
Michael
Hello,
First thing first, great site; very useful and comprehensive.
I have gone through all the material regarding resumes, but unfortunately, none explains how to “spin off” none Finance/IB related jobs. (to emphasize: I’ve read the spin-off article and the blueprint as well) They all explain how to bankify investment roles… etc
To make this clearer:
I have worked for Westen Union; not business oriented, no valuations ..etc. Also, I can’t provide any quantitative results since I was working with endless customers with very short interaction period
I also have done a research internship on credit rating agencies; again no quantitative results or IB models
The rest is marketing or customer service jobs; no need to expand here.
I’m really struggling with “bankifying” my CV to get some internships.
Any help on how to twist the above would be highly appreciated.
Last but not least, I’m doing a Masters in Management (not MBA) at a university in London (not target)… how useful is it? how can I use it for leverage?
Also: Is an internship in asset management useful?
Thank you for your time,
KE
Addition: Most if not all will be task-centered, is it ok?
I had previously acquired sponsorship deals with big companies/banks for workshops with the student’s union. Should I include this, given that I have graduated last year and I’m doing PG studies?
Yes it is fine. You can include such experience but I am not sure how relevant this is to IB
If you’ve done any analytical work you can include that on your CV. It can be challenging to bankify your experience if you don’t have any relevant experience in banking. Yes an internship in AM can potentially help, but most IB roles look for people with valuation/deal experience.
Hi,
I am a tax accountant but want to apply for a position in a hedge fund company.
What should I put on the resume to be qualified?
Please advise.
Regards,
Gary
If you have had any experience dealing with hedge funds this may work. This article is a good source of information: https://mergersandinquisitions.com/how-to-get-a-job-at-a-hedge-fund/
Is the University of Virginia considered a “target school”?
Banks recruit there, but more so at the business school I believe. You can definitely get into IB coming from there, but it’s not at the same level as the top Ivy League schools. They were around #15 last year in terms of undergraduate schools producing IB analysts.
Thanks for your input – yes keeping it punchy is important
Hi Brian,
I have two quick questions for you. First, I go to a target liberal arts school which offers very little finance specific courses. Should I put down economics classes (e.g. Microeconomic Theory, Intermediate Macroeconomics) in the relevant coursework or should I just leave it blank?
Second, my actual name is really hard for most Americans to pronounce so I want to include my nickname in my resume. What would be the best format for this? (I don’t want include just my nickname because it is an acronym).
Thanks in advance.
Yes, I’d list the economics class.
Yes I’d include your nick name and then your last name.
Hi, Brian/Nicole,
Is it too informal to use alot of abbreviations in my resume, in order to save space? example being: confidential IMs, trading comps, market cap, SOTPs(sum-of-the-parts) etc.
Many thanks,
Al
I’d try not to use abbreviations, but what you listed is fine.
Hi, thank you for the template, I got one question about work experience.
I live in france and before to go to university, I went to london 2 year and was working in bar and restaurant.
Can I put this in my resume and if yes, where about?
If beside my study I used to work the night in restaurant as well, should I include it?
Thanks for everything.
Yes, under work experience if you don’t have any other work experience. Otherwise, you can list it at the bottom of your resume under Other Experience.
Where is the link to download that template?
If you click on https://mergersandinquisitions.com/free-investment-banking-resume-template/ and scroll down to (middle of page) Investment Banking Resume Templates [Download] you can download the documents there.
Hello, thank you very much for the template. I got two questions if you can help me out with them.
1) Under army service I was appointed into office work regarding resources and expenses. Is there any way I can include this when writing a CV for a finance job?
2) I will start teaching Advanced Mathematics from the 30th of September to 1st year students. Is it okay to include it in my CV or should I have at least done it for 1-2 months to include it?
1. Yes you can list this under professional experiences and talk about the tasks you did
2. Yes you can include that and just list “expect to teach.. XX”
So it would better to differentiate the army from the other work and leadership positions and create a new category called professional experiences?
Sure, if you have sufficient professional experience to list
I’m brazilian and currently studying business in university, what do you think are the best courses and abilities that I should have, in order to be eligible for a Goldman Sachs internship? I’m in my second semester and sort of lost in what I should study/do to gain real experience.
I’d say Accounting and Finance courses would be useful. Solid GPA and prior experience in finance will also help. You may want to reach out to finance clubs on campus as well as take on a part time finance internship at a finance firm while you’re at school if possible
Undergraduate applying for internship: is it advisable to leave a fun last line in interests – does this show that you’re human or make it appear that you’re not taking the process seriously?
I have a genuine interest in croquet (does this have a bad image like video games?) and was considering “Croquet – for fun and official competitions: semi-finalist in intra-college tournament, but knocked out in first round of University wide tournament due to away draw – unable to compensate for the unfamiliar topography of the lawns and weighting of the mallets”
Thanks
Yes leaving interests on make you appear more multifaceted.
Yes you can include that if you want
Hi Brian, I have been a teaching assistant for 3 courses. Though my work experience / leadership is taken up by internships and a club, I thought I would make this a separate line item under the activities section (i.e. Teaching Assistantships: [List Classes]).
Is this okay, or should they be in the education section?
How would you spin retail sales to appeal to financial hiring managers?
Talk about the analytical work you’ve done and how much money you’ve been generating
Brian,
If we wanted to list major GPA (4.0) and overall GPA (3.59) should I just make another line and list my major GPA on top with the overall right below?
Overall GPA: XX / XX Major GPA: XX / XX , of course if major GPA is higher I’d list that first
Thank you Nicole. One last question, I have taken 2 investment banking workshops and have them listed in the last section under certifications. Should I list those under work and leadership and remove a non-banking work experience (manager for a university gym for 2 years now) Although the manager role is important, I feel as though I am selling those relevant experiences short by just listing them instead of having them as entries under work and leadership? If I did list them in that section, I will have 4 main entries (1 banking internship, 2 workshops, 1 leadership) instead of the 3 provided in the template. Thank you for your help.
Yes you can remove the non-banking work experience and list your IB workshops below your work experience
Brian,
I’ve had 3 internships. One with an automotive company as an engineering student/intern. One in the Sales & Use tax department at Fortune 500 company and one was with big4 accounting firm working in tax. My dream though is I want to work in finance. But i feel like the only thing I’m scared that will hold me back is my GPA I carry a 2.7/4.0…I graduate in december and wanted to know if i had a shot.
Thanks
You really need to boost your GPA to have a good shot – otherwise, you’d have to work full-time or do another degree program first or rely on a ton of networking.
Hi Brian/Nichole, How important are summer internships in freshman year? I’m planning to work for a non profit with a course on investment analysis and portfolio valuation this summer. I’ll probably intern with a bank next year. Is this enough for my first year? I have a few people from class interning at EY. Are my summer plans relevant given that I want a career in ib and not audit/accounting?
Yes they are very important. However, since you’re only a freshman, EY is a good stepping stone for a finance role down the line. Not many people have opportunities as a freshman so you have a headstart
Brian,
Given your fondness for GPA-related questions, I figured you’d be the perfect person to shed some light on this issue I’m having (I get that there’s no “right” answer and it’s simply semantics, but I’d like to hear what people who’ve been in the industry think):
My GPA isn’t terrible (3.4/3.5), but being at a target school with many of my peers much higher in GPA, it’s been a bit of an issue through the recruiting process. I’ve even had some even tell me “explain your GPA” before asking or saying anything else. I have a solid explanation for it — I worked 40+ hours per week my first 3 years (community college) and then 2 jobs/20 hours per week since I transferred — but I think all things considered, it’s still been a bit of an issue.
I’m using your resume template, so my GPA is the first line under education. Do you think it would it be a fapaux to write something like “GPA: 3.4 / 4.0 while working X hours per week” instead of just “GPA: 3.4 / 4.0”?
I hate to be “that” guy, but I would definitely appreciate some help on this and would like to hear what others think. Thanks!
Yes you can do that though they may still ask you that in interviews. I don’t think you can “get around it” – just make sure you’re able to give a solid answer why, demonstrate your knowledge and passion in finance (to compensate for your GPA) and present yourself well in interviews. Focus on other aspects that will make you look like a better candidate.
Hi Nicole,
I noticed “Career objectives” was not included. What is your thoughts on this? Should I include, “Career obective – Investment banking”? And one other question. My cumulative GPA is 3.37 and my major (business) GPA is 3.71. Should I ‘hide’ my major GPA? Include both? Or else?
You can include both to make your cumulative GPA look better.
I’m at the tail end of B-school (last class). And as a part of our program, we consult with a local business. This project is extremely extensive and comprises about 80-90% of the semester. We meet with the CEO and other executives for discovery interviews and correspond afterwards via email for additional information. We’re left to our own devices for the most part and only given direction by the professor. So, as you can see, it’s truly a project that “we” created. As a result, I have A LOT of information on it that I’d like to include in my resume, but I’m not exactly sure how to include it and where. Also, should I include the name of the company?
Thanks again for all your help
Yes you can. I’d focus on the tasks you’ve been involved with as well as the impact you’ve made. Around 4 bullet points should be enough
Great! Thanks. Also, I was looking at a few banks I intend to apply to. I noticed that I wasn’t sure if I should apply as an experienced hire (as I have about 4 years of full time professional work experience), or as a graduate associate. Which would give me a better shot at getting in while still getting the proper training? In addition, I noticed that a few of the positions didn’t formally say “investment banking associate”. They would say something to the effect of “debt allocation associate” or “capital markets associate”. Is this still all IB just in different divisions, or something else? Thanks again. Can’t express how helpful your site is.
If you are not a recent graduate, you may have to apply as an experienced hire because graduate associates are usually reserved for recent graduates.
I am not sure about the debt allocation associate role, but capital markets associate, while part of IB, is actually capital markets related – https://mergersandinquisitions.com/equity-capital-markets/
Debt allocation maybe related to https://mergersandinquisitions.com/debt-capital-markets/
Brian, Nicole, and the rest of M&I team,
You guys are awesome !
Thanks for providing such a fantastic support !
Reading articles on this site, I found out more than searching other sites combined.
Thanks one more time.
Thank you very much for your kind comment. We are glad to be of help.
what investment banks want is a person capable of writing new business and someone with provable connections. It is why dildoes like princes and princesses, ex cabinet ministers, prime ministers and presidents get jobs as investment bankers.
If you are innovative you can become a centre of influence and demonstrate to your prospective employer your ability to become a catchment area for them.
University pedigree is often also a plus but not always. Rich and influential people send their children to the top 10 universities. So too do the poor who have brilliant children if they are able to secure scholarships.
Today it is about writing business. We do it with large pools of small ticket clients and pool their funds with their consent into a feeder. They bother us less and give us greater flexibility with their portfolios.
If you are looking for that “lifestyle” then go groveling to the street. If you want quality references then hey ask.
Hi Brian two questions,
During my last semester a tragedy struck my family and this affected my marks, is there anyway to address this because this was well beneath my standard. Secondly I am currently on exchange at KFBS at UNC and a lot of these courses have been really helpful especially teaching me financial modeling and linear programming is there anyway I can accentuate this because courses that focus specifically on excel are non-existent in Australia
Yes, you can use “family reasons”. Yes, if you sign up on our email list here https://mergersandinquisitions.com/ you’ll have access to our free tutorials which can accelerate your excel learning
is that bocconi a top ten univ in europe for i bank…how is seen? could Simeone make me a top ten ranking among university in europeo? thank u :D
Yes, it is, but in Europe generally the UK-based schools give you the best chance of working in London, which is the biggest financial center there and therefore has the most opportunities. Places like Bocconi are better if you want to work in the country in question.
Hi Brian,
Can I use this template for university students if I’ve only graduated about a year ago and worked full-time for about a year in the retail banking division at a bank?
Thanks
Joey
Yes you can do so.
Hi Brian, I must say I am greatly enjoying your articles – tons of good advice here. I’m also a customer of your online financial modelling program. Anyway, I’d much appreciate if you could share some insight with me. I work as a financial advisor in the retail banking at a Canadian bank and my job duties range from recommending day-to-day accounts to selling credit cards and mortgages and setting up a savings/retirement plan for clients to recommending mutual funds. Have you had, by any chance , ever heard from anyone who made a career change from working in retail banking to investment banking? How they did it and what was their value proposition?
Thanks!
Joey
Joey, thanks for your comment. I haven’t heard of anyone who transitioned from retail banking to IB on my end. This doesn’t mean that you can transition from retail banking to IB, but I think this may require a bit of planning given the difference in skills required for the two. I think most who are interested in transitioning to IB after retail banking go through a target MBA/masters program, though readers may have other thoughts.
I’m not going into investment banking, but I am an accounting major. I like the format of this resume, and the cover letter as well. Is there anything specific I need to change besides just talking about accounting?
Not really.
What are some ways a FIRST-YEAR university student can prepare, accumulate relevant experience, and reach an internship with an investment bank?
Furthermore, How might a first-year student learn the skills necessary to work in boutique or smaller I-Banks that require recruits to have the necessary skills without training?
Thanks in advance,
Joshua
It is challenging for most first year students. It is best if you have some sort of personal connection through family and friends. Bank won’t expect you to have the skills though taking courses http://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/ will help. If you sign up on our email list, you will receive free tutorials on our courses.
Hi Brian,
I’m from the UK looking for a banking/equity research internship. You said leave your CV to 1 page for the BB banks what about the smaller boutique banks/equity research firms could you make it 2 pages? due to the fact that theoretically they will have more time to view your CV.
Thanks
Since you don’t have experience over 8 years (I presume), I’d leave that to 1-page
Quick question, when applying to NYSF a resume is obviously needed. Would you recommend using the template given?
Yes. You can use the template.
Hi,
Should I include my BB BO experience on my resume
for S&T and IBD?
I’ll be working this winter although just for a month in IBD division unpaid though- how much do you think this will help me in terms of experience coming from no background?
Should I emphasize this just 4 wk experience much more than my previous internships that are big brand names but one is oil&gas(28wks) and the other is a BO in BB(10wk)
it was a technology not ops. fyi
Yes I’d emphasize on your 4 week experience and the deals you’ve been involved in there.
Hello ,
Thanks for sharing the template with us. In case we do not have any work experience, can we make a skills based resume? Are banks skeptical about the skills based resumes?
Thanks
If you don’t have any work experience, you may want to list your education and club experience. Listing your skills may potentially help in your case though I’d try your best to gain as much experience in clubs as possible
Do you have a video tutorial for an experience applicant with circa 2-3 years experience? Thank you.
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/mba-experienced-investment-banker-resume-template/
Hi everyone, I’m currently a junior in a semi-target college looking for a ibd internship. I’m doing a double degree (B.S. Business administration; B.A. Computer Science) with a music minor and I got a problem when I try to list them on my resume:
I try to fit them into one line with sth like
Dual Degree: B.S. Business administration; B.A. Computer Science, Minor: Music with Expected 2015 right aligned.
But it seems to be toooo crowded in a line.
I’m wondering if there’s any better way to list this?
Also, ppl always find it strange that I receive a B.A. in CS and a B.S. in Business — that’s just because CS is a degree from liberal arts college.
ALSO, I managed to receive a cumulative GPA of 3.91 for both majors.
Should I just list cumulative GPA: 3.91? Will the recruiters KNOW that this is a cumulative GPA for both business major and cs major? Do I even need to bother listing my major GPA, which, btw are all almost 4.0.
I’d move your minor to another line
Yes you can just list Cumulative GPA for 2 majors: XX/XX
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Does this mean that a CV should not be stylish ? For after all a “stylish CV” can be even easier to read then what you’ve shown us.
“Stylish” is a subjective term. And I think people would be interested in a simple and easy-to-read layout with robust content – this is what our template offers
Do you think military experience should be listed in the resume in the project-centric or task-centric format?
I’d say task-centric format.
Brain,
Quick Question. I worked as an Analysts in a Capital Markets group at a large mortgage originator this summer. While there I go the chance to work with their in house M&A group and worked on a simulation model they give to all their new hires. I built out the entire model based on the assumptions they wrote out and came up with an appropriate valuation of the target company.
Can I list this on my resume as experience I gained during the internship, or will it be frowned upon since it wasn’t a “live deal”?
Thanks,
Patrick
No, list it anyway as it will only help you.
Where should I put one-day diversity BB events that I have participated in (eg. JP Morgan Winning Women) on my resume? I have 2 of them. Should I put it with honors at the top? Mesh them with activities at the bottom? Other suggestions? I definitely want it to be noticeable
I’d put them under relevant experience and list what you’ve learned at those events. However, if you have significant work experience in an IB, I’d leave your experience at the one-day events at the bottom of your resume.
Just wondering what should I put down for “company” if I am trading stocks on my own. (is it even a good idea to show that on my resume? I assumed it was because I am going for a S&T position)
Yes if you’re going for a S&T role it is useful to list your investment experience on your resume. You can list 2-3 examples of the trades you’ve made, your rationale, and the returns you’ve generated from the trades.
Hi Nicole,
Should I mention securities workshops of for example Deutsche Bank under ‘Certifications & Training’? Even if I’m applying for other banks?
I don’t have many certifications yet..
Thanks!
Yes, you can list that under certifications
I’m picking a job through out the school year at as a bank teller at one of the major banks in my region. Would this occupation be beneficial to list as one of my positions under WORK & LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE considering that my other two consist of a finance internship and a marketing internship?
I’d list the finance and marketing internships first. I don’t think the bank teller experience will help your resume a great deal unless you had no other work experience
Brian, Nicole, What should I do? I wanna break into Banking except my gpa is only a 3.3 and I don’t go to a target school. worst of all, I am boring and only read the news for a hobby. How do I stand out to Banks? Should I pick up Pyrography, or just give up on being a Banker?
This article should help you https://mergersandinquisitions.com/low-gpa-investment-banking/
Is it okay to use a combination of project-centric and task-centric structures for a single internship (provided that it is much more important than all of my other experience)?
So the hybrid structure might be:
Summary Sentence
Project-centric entries
Task-centric entries (for those staff that I have been done outside those projects)
Thanks!
I think it’s best to keep one structure – it can be a bit confusing to use both structures. If that internship is a finance-related and prominent one, I’d choose project-centric entries.
Thanks a lot! Just to follow up on my question, what would be an “uper limit” (if any) for the number of lines I should devote for a single work/intern entry?
2-3 lines. It also depends on your wording and other content on your resume.
I have some questions how i should write my work experience. I have worked at a large scandinavian bank two years in a row now during the summer. Last summer you could say I was simply a janitor changing light bulbs. This year I support companies with transactions (transaction banking; merchant banking). I have also worked part time at my fathers hedgefund mostly doing simple paperwork. How can I make this sound better than it actually is but without lying about what I have done. Should I leave out my first experience at the bank as I feel it does not really contribute to my cv
Yes you can focus on your second experience with the bank and leave out your first experience. Focus on any finance-related analysis you’ve done and quantify your impact.
Thanks for your information.i got clarity how to make a perfect resume.But i have a doubt. is it necessary to place strengths and weakness in resume?
No, you don’t. But you’ll need to address them in interviews.
I am a rising Sophomore (non-target school) and I have a Wealth Management internship this summer, and want to eventually get into Banking. What type of internships should I be looking for next summer? When is the best time to look?
The best time to look starts in fall. While summer recruiting starts a bit later than full time recruiting, its best to equip yourself as early as possible. The best internship to help you break in is one in IB. Its best if you start networking with bankers this summer (if you have access to such contacts through your internship).
Question about formatting:
I have two summer jobs, one during summer 2011 & 2012 (same job two summers in a row) and one during summer 2013. I am also hold two VP positions for university clubs, but those responsibility only began in the spring of 2013. Do i list these items on chronological order, or do the club positions always go after summer job experiences?
Summer internship experiences usually come before club positions. However, if your club positions are more relevant to finance, you may want to list them before your summer internship.
Hi Brian,
I am a senior from a non-target school, and I will start a finance master program at a target school this fall. I am currently seeking a summer internship opportunity. I was wondering if it would be appropriate for me to list the master program on my resume right now.
Thanks very much.
Yes you can list that (remember to list expected start date)
Brian,
I am a transfer student, having transferred from one college to another. I was on the Dean’s List for the two semesters I spent at the first college, with a 4.0 GPA. Now, I am writing my resume I am wondering if I should include the first college, as it makes for a lengthier resume?
Yes, I believe it is wise to include your first college though you can shorten the lines to emphasize other points on your resume.
Hi, I’m a political science major with an emphasis in international political economy? Where would I place that and what would be the formatting. etc? Thank you for your attention and time!
That should be under education at the top of your resume. Please refer to our suggested resume format – click on the links in the post and you’ll see our suggested formatting.
I mean where do I place my emphasis? Right after the major or does it go on the line below? Thanks
How should I state my startup experience?
I spent 2 years in college in starting up a social venture in China.
In my previous resume i had to state it using 10+ sentences to fully explain the business model and how we broke even. But since its a socail enterprise neither the earning numbers are very impressive nor we sold the company (im still a biggest shareholder. )
Should i still stick to the numbers rather than explaining the BM?
I think you should focus on what you’ve done and what impact you’ve made. I think sticking to numbers may be better though you may not have much to show in your case, which means focusing on what you’ve done, qualitative impact you’ve made and how you broke even may be more productive.
Hi Thank you for your posting I’m a MA student in international affairs and security policy with course work in international econ (micro ,Macro, business strategy and accounting) I am applying to a country risk analyst position in a leading bank.
I have intelligence and NGO experience- how can I portray an inclination towards the business/ banking world.
Is it feasible to apply to a BA oriented training program as an MA student?
Possibly though I think most banks have restrictions and only take BA students for BA programs; there may be exceptions nonetheless
Hi,
Thanks for your great template. I’m currently working for a small Investment Bank and lucky to get additional coachings by an experienced Associate about structuring MBOs and LBOs. Now I would like to apply for a Spring Insights Programme.
Should I mention this specific trainings under “Skills, Activities & Interests”? Or would it be better to list only certificated courses, where I participated?
Thanks for your time and a happy new year.
I’d list it under certifications (skills, certifications, activities, interests)
My school offers a (2+2) program for its business school, 2 years of anything and then 2 years at the business school. If I’m currently a first year in something completely different than Business (kinesiology) how do I portray myself as a business student to employers/recruiters?
Show them your interest and experience (if any) in business.
Why do you use semi-colons in listing classes taken and honors received? Why not use comma? (somewhat trivial question, but really curious!) Also, is it OK to write “fitness enthusiast” for interest if I regularly work out in the gym?
If I come from a non-target school, and also don’t have the best GPA, but I completed both the fundamentals and advanced modeling course from BIWS, where do you suggest I list this? Also should I go into detail about it?
You can list this at the bottom of your resume
Hi!
I have one internship in credit insurance brokerage and credit collection, and one in the finance department of a company. 5 years ago I had one in the animation team in a tourist resort, I also worked as a switchboard operator in a company part time and I am now working as nightwatchman during weekends to raise money to pay fees. Should I put in my resume only the first two experiences as the other are not finance related? Many thanks for the answer
Just highlight the finance-related ones.
My question is, how should I format inserting my own business that I started? I started my own clothing line and felt it would add something to put it in my resume. What information should I include that would appeal to people looking at my resume? I see you like to focus on things related to finance.
Yes. Putting that under your professional experience will help. Remember to quantify the impact you’ve made – sales you generated and give a detailed description of what your company does
Hi, I am an engineering student in India at one of the premier institutes of the country – IIT. I am interested in working as an investment banking analyst in New York in any of the bulge bracket banks. Currently I’m in my 3rd year(junior year). Is there any chance of me getting selected as a full-time analyst at such banks? I’d be applying in the next year. I’ve been selected at Deutsche bank, Bombay in Trading Division for summer internship.
Hey Brian, I am sophomore applying for boutique IB internships for the upcoming summer. I do not have any previous finance work experience but I am both the Vice President and an equity research analyst at my school’s investment fund. Would it be acceptable to put the the analyst position and responsibilities under the work experience section of my resume and the the VP position and responsibilities under leadership? Thanks for your time.
I’d group them all under one entry under leadership experience. You can separate the two if you want though I don’t think its necessary
I am a undergrad in college and i have a strong interest in investment banking. I recently recieved training on how to a financial database called zephyr, which is used to research M&A deals and ipo’s. are investment bankers familiar with this database and should i list it on my resume.
Hello Nicole! I just finished and internship and I was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the organization. Should I list it? and if yes.. how?
Sure, just list it under your internship experience as a bullet point. If no space, you can list it at bottom of your resume
Hi Brian,
I’m a 2nd year undergraduate at UCL. My CV looks much (10x) better after using your template and advise. I have one small problem though. I recently wrote a paper (testing market efficiency in a exotic, rarely talked about market) which will hopefully be accepted for publication in a journal. I was wondering how that could be fitted on my CV?
I was thinking of renaming the skills, activities and interests section to PUBLICATIONS, ACTIVITIES & INTERESTS and write it down there. Or would it look better in the education section, under my economics degree at UCL?
Also, if you could share with us the standard “style” of writing a publication/paper on one’s CV, it would be of immense help (like everything else on this wonderful website).
Thanks!
How would you write a resume where your previous experience was in public finance? In public finance the basics are the same (writing pitchbooks, structuring bonds, working on models). however, it has nothing to do with comps, precendent trans, or DCFs. Do you have any idea how to spin it to ibanking?
Focus on how you’ve made an impact. You can’t make up comps, precedent transactions, DCFs etc if you haven’t done them at work but you can focus on your experience and how you’ve made an impact there. Talk about the pitches, models etc you’ve done there.
Hi,
This particular resumé page caught my eye, particularly because you highlight what to state regarding high school education. I went to Phillips Exeter and am currently a rising junior at a former target, now semi-target college. I have not had any former finance internship experience since it was only this past year that I have realized banking is what I wish to do. As such, I hope to use the majority of my page-long resumé to highlight other work experience that is still relevant (highly technical and project-oriented) to help this shortcoming. Is there a proper method for including my high school in my resumé? I would assume placing this information under my collegiate info/GPA would be appropriate, but I am also afraid of my resumé appearing cluttered. Any advice/suggestions are appreciated.
We normally don’t suggest candidates putting their high school info on their resumes. https://mergersandinquisitions.com/free-investment-banking-resume-template/
However given your situation, you can put your high school info under education, but leave out the courses etc you did at HS.
Check out https://mergersandinquisitions.com/
Thanks for the help! Could you please post an example of an ideal investment banking resume for a university student?
I am a college student and will be applying for investment banking internships for the summer of 2013. During summer 2012, I worked as a summer analyst for a top tier litigation (financial and economic) consulting firm, and I am looking for some help as to how to emphasize this on my resume.
The case I worked on involved a 10-figure LBO, and the work I did was very technical in terms of financial analysis (in other words, I think it would be very relevant for investment banking). I really want to highlight this experience on my resume, but all of the work I did is confidential and will continue to be confidential until at least spring 2013 when the case is scheduled to go to trial (unless it settles beforehand). How can I implement this into my resume without violating confidentiality?
Thanks
-John
Talk about what you’ve done that can be disclosed to the public. Be more general if need be. I’d leave out the confidential information
This is really great stuff, thanks!
I have a few things I wanted to make sure about:
1) Right now, my three main Work&Leadership exp. entries are (in chronological order starting from most recent)- finance internship at a very small (not known at all) company, one-week program at a BB, and a finance internship at a non-BB bank. I read that many recruiters focus on the first two entries, so my only actual banking internship may be overlooked. In this case, should I change the ordering or keep it chronological?
2) I plan on including my high school for the alumni network. Should I include my SAT score (in the 2150-2250 range) under my college or high school entry?
3) Should I include dean’s list (req. 3.5 semester gpa) under my college entry?
4) Should I include AP scholar with distinction under my high school entry?
Thanks a lot!
1. You can change your ordering around if the entry you want recruiters to focus on isn’t too dated. We usually suggest people to keep their order chronological.
2. Yes you can include your SAT score under either one though we usually don’t recommend students to include their high school entry
3. Yes
4. Sure if you have enough space but again, we usually don’t recommend students to include their high school entry
OK I see. Thanks a lot! I am in a club sports team in college and I am very committed to it. How can I emphasize on my resume that it is the most important out of all of my activites at the bottom of the resume?
You can just list your position at the club and how you’ve made an impact there in one-line. You can list it prior to your other club activities if it is very important to you
I really enjoyed your insight and had questions regarding the interests section. First, I am HUGE sports fan (most sports) but I find it hard to convey how interested I am in sports and that I really enjoy looking at stats. I am morst interested in basketball and I really enjoy watching all levels and helping people become better. How do I concisely explain this? Secondly, I really enjoying cllecting, buying and trading, and repairing sneakers (“sneakerhead”), but is this not a good thing to include? Finally, I always enjoy interacting with people from all over the world (I’m multiracial), but don’t know how to convey this either or if it sounds cheesy (although it’s true).
Interests: Basketball; Coaching Athletes; Sneaker Collecting
Its cheesy but its cool. I’d leave it on.
Brian,
I am pursuing a double major at the University of Wisconsin. My first major is called “Finance, Investment, and Banking” my second major is just “Economics”. I’m curious on how to state this in the major section of the resume. Should I just write “Major: Finance, Investment, and Banking & Economics” or should I do “Finance, Investment, and Banking/Economics”? I want to be able to distinguish that the two are separate; as it stands it seems like the title is a total of finance, investment, banking, and economics all in one. What is the usual approach to writing down double majors, especially when one has such a long title? Furthermore, what is the most appealing way of writing it down?
Thanks,
Tim
We’d usually use the format below:
Majors: Finance, Investment, and Banking; Economics
Hi,
I have been to 5 different schools in 3 different countries. Specifically, Bachelor degree in Accounting from Africa, MSc degree in Finance from Germany. I attended 5 months exchange program in Switzerland. I am presently pursuing MBA in US. Meanwhile, I did attend a semester in another school before transferring ( I transferred my credits) to my current school.
I have 2 years work experience in both Manufacturing and residential construction companies. My job was more of financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting.
I feel my resume looks somehow if I include all these schools. So, I removed exchange program in Switzerland. I would also have removed my previous MBA school, but I participated in an activity with a leadership role (Led a team for CFA Institute research challenge) that I would like to reflect in my resume, because my work experience has been more focused on Financial reporting and budgeting.
Please, is it a good idea to remove the said school? Am I in a disadvantage position, as almost half of my resume contains the list of schools while having short bullet points under work and leadership experience.
Thank you
No I don’t think you are at a disadvantage because you will be listing your current school (MBA) there
Thank you
Hi,
Is value of deal treated as confidential information? Is it safe to be put into resume?
Thank you
If it is public info & announced, it is safe to put it into your resume. If the deal hasn’t been announced and is confidential, leave the deal details out
Thanks a lot~
I’m starting to network and send my resume out for internships next summer and was wondering if it is alright to list my activities for this current summer that have not yet been completed. I’m day trading options with my own money and will include “stats” and other information about my performance once the summer is over. But I was just wondering if it is fine to list what I am currently doing so they know what I’m staying busy with this summer. If not, what would be an appropriate way to let them know?
-Thank you
Sure, you can list it. Just make sure you use “future tense” – “set to start” YYY /”Will perform” XXX
I got the highest grade in several of my upper level econ classes. Would it be ostentatious to include that under Education or is it best to simply have a Relevant Coursework bullet point?
You include your course work and course grades under Relevant Coursework
Is their anyway I could send a resume through to you and get your most honest 30 second thoughts?
No unless you are a paying client, because it will not be fair to clients who pay for our services.
Hey guys!
How would i use the structure you guys provided for a regular sales position? From looking at multiple articles I’ve only picked up that I can change my position title to “Sales Consultant” to make it sound nicer
This would be 2 of my 4 bullets as an example:
• Confer with customers to demonstrate products, explain product features, and advise customer with personal selections
• Establish or identify prices of goods, services or admission, and tabulate bills using calculators, cash registers, or optical price scanners
Thanks M&I!
Focus on how you made an impact. How much sales did you generate?
And, what kind of customers did you cover?
How can I list a dual major with expectation dates that are almost a year apart (ill be graduating in the summer for the other one however my school doesn’t allow dual business majors, you must come back to do a second undergraduate major)
Will you be getting two degrees?
School Name City, State
Degree 1, Concentration Year of Graduation
Degree 2, Concentration Year of Graduation
Hello M&I,
I’m a college student, and I’ve only had one real job which is in retail.
For the Task-Centric structure there was not really an example like the Project structure. Could you provide an example of how to write a bullet for example: examining daily sales records and preparing a report on accumulated sales.
Or how to spin off “administrative duties” that you do for managers to make it look more appealing. Thank you for your feedback!
You need to be more specific – how did your work make an impact?
It can challenging to spin admin duties unless you’ve made a significant impact…
Hi Nicole,
Hi Nicole, As a student-athelete, where would it be appropriate to list my sport? I currently have it listed under “Work & Leadership Experience” and have a few bullet points under it, however was wondering if it would be appropriate to first briefly mention it under “Education” as “University of X Varisty X Team” additionally. Would this be a good way to immediately draw the banker’s attention to the fact that I am a student-athelete after seeing my GPA, which currently is around a 3.4-mid 3.4, or should I just leave it under “W&L”? Thanks so much for your help!
You can leave it at the bottom of your resume if you have enough work experience to talk about
Thanks for the quick response. I don’t have too much work experience yet, as I’m only a rising junior. I will only have one internship and a quick 3 day program (at a big bank) in my experience section. Basically, would it be ok to mention the sport twice on my resume? once at the top briefly, and then once with an elaboration in the W&L section? Thanks!
I’d suggest just mentioning it once – don’t see the point of emphasizing it twice. You’d be better off elaborating on your work experience and 3 day program instead
Hi M&I
Thanks for the article, great insights!
Just a quick question. I participate in student clubs but I haven’t been in a leadership position at all. I’m just about to graduate so it’s a bit too late to get involved now, and I’m worried that it will be too obvious on my CV if the section is called : Work and Leadership experience.
What would be a good way to fill the gap?
(PS I have completed a year-long internship so I do have some work experience but wondering if that would be enough to compensate for the lack of leadership roles at clubs.)
Thanks! :)
Emphasize on your work experience esp experience that is related to finance. Leadership roles are important but they are not as important as solid work experience. List your work experience above your student club experience (unless your work experience is not significant)
Thanks! I would do that then.
(PS My internship was a part of my undergrad degree (Sandwich course).I worked in the Finance department of a technology company so its relevant experience but the nature of the job didn’t allow for developing much leadership skills either, hence the ‘Leadership’ gap on my CV).
Try to spin your experience a bit and think through aspects in the role that allowed you to use your leadership skills.
If I’m minoring in Applied Statistics, how should I list it on my resume?
University Name
Major: [XX]; Minor: [XX]
Is it possible for you to create a template of an Australian Resume, or provide some form of example ?
If you already have, please link me.
We don’t have a template specifically for Australians!
I know you say to not put on there that you know Microsoft Office ect. What if you are certified in Microsoft Excel or something? There are 3 different certifications that I am aware of, if you have passed these should you put them on your resume?
We don’t advocate putting Excel on your resume, but if you have the 3 diff certs that you passed and would like to show on your resume, you should do that
Thanks for this post and the templates. I have just used it to rewrite my resume. It’s shorter and much better than my old resume. :-)
I was wondering if this resume could be used for other business-centric jobs?
Yes – remember to focus on quantifying your results
Brian,
I am applying for SA/FT in Sales and Trading. I only have one (very weak) finance related experience, and all the others are marketing experiences (though they are of high-quality). So I thought that may be I should list my personal investment experience on my resume. I have:
– Big number & potentially high-impact Personal Real Estate investment (four-year project).
– Small (perhaps not something to boast about) personal stock and forex trading experience.
Could you recommend me how and where I can list this experience? or should I simply list them under “Activities” with not much description? Thanks for your time!
When I meant “Activities,” I meant the small section under “Skills, Activities & Interests.”
You can actually list the RE Investment under professional experience. You can list the personal stock/forex trading under activities though I’d suggest you to elaborate on them & list your returns (if they are good). If you had stellar performance, you could also list them under prof experience – again it depends on your resume. Hard to say on comments page.
Thanks! However, my returns were mediocre and the amount wasn’t too high for my stock/forex trading.
What I really wanted to know was whether or not I should leverage my experience in the “Big number & potentially high-impact Personal Real Estate investment (four-year project)” for Sales and Trading positions. If yes, how and where I can list this experience in my resume? Thank you for your time!
Under Professional Experience..
Thanks! Much appreciated! :)
Brian,
I am a sophomore in college and I have a lot of part-time work experience (as a lifeguard, a camp counselor, and a server’s assistant). I also have a legal research position like you mentioned in the tutorial. However, I am trying to break into the financial industry with the ultimate goal of landing a summer internship. Since I don’t have any real work experience I am struggling to choose what to include under work and leadership. As the scholarship chair of my fraternity I have finished a few pretty significant projects. Do you think I should just include the research position and the scholarship chair? Or is it wise to also include a part-time job that is irrelevant to finance?
Sure. Yes, if it illustrates your leadership skills
I only worked for Big 4 for internships as audit intern. Should I list out my two internships in the CV (Deloitte: Property dept; KPMG: financial institution) or should I just list KPMG’s one as it is more relevant?
Would an auditing internship experience unfavorable to the eyes of IB?
Thanks a lot!!!
You should list two. No.
Hi M&I, I’m from a non-target uni with substantial business development/marketing & sales experiences at no-name firms, and greatly above avg/interesting extra-curriculars and accomplishments (3.9 GPA). I never applied to FO, and I’m currently working in IT (analysis & project management) at a medium-sized known IB.
Would this make me a strong candidate for breaking into an IB analyst position?
Thanks in advance for the answer!
Having a strong IB network and deal/valuation/modelling experience will help in your case. Otherwise, I don’t think your candidacy stands out
Thanks for all the effort M&A!
I know this is nitpicky, but what about combining the best portions of my SAT scores in order to get the highest number? Will they actual verify this SAT business?
Assuming I do combine my best portions of the SAT (resulting in a 2090), should I list it?
Don’t know if that is a good idea.
Don’t know in reference to which… the combining or the fact that the score is less than 2100?
*btw I meant M&I, sorry about the typo
Just a bad idea in general to combine SAT sections from separate exams.
Do not combine scores from separate SATs.
I see. Well to get to basis of my question, is it worth listing a score 2050?
Probably not. List if its above 2100.
Hi M&I,
I m chinese who is studying at the UK uni.I decide to apply 6-month placement for banking.However, my HK A Level result is quite bad, and i took a foundation programme to progress to uni.I m just wondering whether i should show my HK AL result?
Probably not
Hello. Thanks for the great template.
I’m a junior from a top-tier university majoring in
economics, but I have no banking nor work experience except for working in a professor’s lab for a year, and a local convenience store during the summer. How should I list it? I don’t want a big blank on “work experience” part.
List your work at the lab and convenience store.
Hi M&I,
I was wondering if you know of any good resume templates for Australian applicants? Would it be acceptable to still use the M&I template but go into more depth, or are they going to be after something else entirely?
Thanks!
Yes, use our template
If my GPA is poor, should I list my 2nd and 3rd year cumulative GPA if it’s showing an improvement? Or can I just pick my 3rd year GPA since it’s the highest? How should I format it if I also want to include my SAT score?
Overall GPA: XX/4.0; 3rd Year GPA (better yet Major GPA if Finance/Accounting): XX/4.0; SATI: XX/2400 (only include if higher than 2300)
This is ridiculously helpful. I have just a few more questions:
1. Should I break down my SAT into its 3 sections (M:800, CR: 750, W: 700), or just put down the total score (2250)?
2. My ACT score of 34 converts to 2280, which is slightly higher – should I put that down along with the above, or instead of it?
3. On my Campus OCR (I’m at a target), there are a bunch of bulge-bracket banks offering IBD/S&T sophomore internships (all of it’s front-office stuff). They’re not asking for either cover letters, or transcripts. Should I send them (for me, cover letter is average to good, transcript is average to mediocre)
1. Total score is fine
2. Either way
3. If not great, I wouldn’t send them unless they ask for the docs
Thanks!
Hi M&I,
I finished my masters in May 2011. Should I NOT put my 2007 accounting internship experience and leadership experience as vice president of student government on my resume? What time period is considered old?
Thank you.
You can though its dated. Anything older than 5 years I believe would be considered old
I’ve transferred schools and done summer school at a local community college. Should I include these on my resume? Also, those credits at other schools have boosted my overall GPA. Should I distinguish my overall undergraduate GPA from my GPA at the school I now attend full-time (which is higher-ranked).
Yes. Sure.
What’s the best way to convert this to A4? Just changing the page size makes the lines not line up with text, etc
Can’t really say here on this comments section. I think it works for me and most other readers when we print the doc out though so don’t know what happened on your end
Should I add a border to my CV?
I don’t think its necessary but if you want to, go ahead
So let’s say I have had an IB internship, a middle/back office internship, and a PWM internship. Did the middle/back office internship first, IB internship second, and PWM was the latest. Obviously in terms of importance, I think the order is IB -> MO/BO -> PWM. But in terms of dates that’s not chronologically in order. Can I still put the internships in ORDER OF IMPORTANCE on my internship? Or will I get penalized for not having the jobs in chronologically dated order?
No I’d say IB – PWM then MO/BO
Depends on what roles you are applying for. If you’re applying for PWM roles, I’d do IB then PWM then MO/BO
meaning if it’s not chronologically in order it’s not what’s important?
Sometimes it is. It depends. If you want to highlight a particular experience, you might want to put it at the top of the resume even though chronologically speaking it should be at the bottom of your resume because interviewers usually focus on the top two entries of your work experience.
Can I include a three line description of the company I am working/worked after every experience entry on my CV? are the recruiters obliged to know the company you worked and its general objectives?
I don’t think that’s the best way to do it. Varies according to different individuals
Before transferring to my current college, I had to take off two years to work full time to help support my family financially. Should I include this break in my resume and explain why?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Yes, if this experience is not older than 4 years
Goldman internship application asks for an academic transcript but it’s not mandatory. I don’t have the transcript yet as the semester isn’t over, and by that time it will be too late.
What should I do?
Ask for an unofficial transcript, which you should have
Is a Master in International Business (MIB) a competitive degree to break into Investment Banking? I am afraid that a Master of Business Administration (MBA) is quite common these days..
They are different things to my knowledge. MBA is more for career changers whereas MIB I think is just a normal Master’s degree (do a search for it on the site)
Hi,
I am currently a 2nd year student at a semi-target in Canada. I have a extensive marketing and consulting experience but I’m looking to get into banking. I’m currently interning at a boutique and intend to put that experience on my resume. Problem is, I do very menial work (researching potential clients, analyzing trends, making ppt presentrations etc.) which involves little to no excel/modeling work. What do I do? I have two options:
1) Put this experience on my resume, and if I do get called for an interview, I won’t have much to talk about in terms of meaningful experience.
2) Leave it out and hope my marketing/consulting experience will get me an interview.
I have a ~3.4 GPA.
Any help is appreciated.
Regards
Definitely list it. Even if you’re doing the most menial tasks imaginable, working at a bank is far better than not working at a bank. Focus on your contributions to winning clients, and write about how your work could potentially lead to certain deals or certain amounts of fees generated for your firm.
Great, thanks for the reply Brian.
I’m studying in Germany and have already founded two (internet) companys, both with no financial aspects.
How can I include them appropriate in my resume?
Thanks for your help!
Just list what you did and try as much as you can to quantify your impacts
hey i currently go to uni in the uk and am applying for summer interns my grade wasn’t great last year but i have 3 yrs left do i have to include it?
thanks
Yes I believe they will ask for it
I study in a branch campus of an American university, should I include the location of the Satellite campus or both locations (domestic and American). I want to avoid confusion and help recruiters associate the satellite campus with the home campus in the States…
I was thinking to include it like this
Madrid, Spain/St. Louis, MO, USA
I’d include both locations if you have spent some time in America during your studies
Thank you for your prompt response Nicole. What if I haven’t spent time there? Should I include only the location of the satellite campus? How can I help recruiters understand that the campus in Europe belongs to the American institution?
Include only location of satellite campus. Try to list the campus in Europe as affiliate to American institution.
I heard that Stephen Schwarzman got into Donald Lufkin & Jenrette after studying a Intensive Culture and Behavior degree at Yale and had not taken a single accounting or economics course there (I.e. not done anything related to investment banking). Does this and the fact that JP Morgan hires Liberal Arts degree holders and offers them pre training coursework and bootcamps to attend mean it does not matter if you have not done a business or economics related degree you will still get into investment banking? Or is it harder to get into Investment Banking without a business or economics related degree?
Secondly why do Investment Banks want only graduates (i.e. degree holders) to join there ranks? If people like Schwarzman can get in and consequently get trained for a investment banking job and the fact that JP Morgan offers a Liberal Arts training program and bootcamp, why is a degree a prerequisite, when people can come into the banking industry knowing nothing about business or finance? Why can’t they take High School Diploma candidates or GCSE or A Level candidates and train them to be Investment Bankers? Or is the degree (whatever the subject) a measure of how intelligent you are as a candidate and a way of measuring how good you will be at investment banking? Or a way of seperating the wheat from the chaff?
Yes you can get into IB w/o a business or econ related degree
Many people who work at IB have degrees from prestigious universities; bankers place high importance on having degrees from a top tier schools.
Having degrees is a pre-requisite not just in banking but in other industries too. Degree can be a measure of how intelligent you are as a candidate even though it is not always an accurate measure.
So basically having a high school diploma by itself means it is virtually impossible to get into investment banking?
What if after you get your high school diploma you go and become a teller at a retail bank and work your way up to bank manager, then apply to a an investment bank, would you get in? Since you have some banking experience, will a investment bank consider taking you on then, even without a degree?
Yes.
I think it will be difficult.
You’d be surprised that resumes from the Vault Guides still have the objective heading.
Hello, thank you for this great template! I have a question about citing Summer School Experience. Should I include it under my Undergraduate education? and if yes, which are the bullet points I should use? Should it be something like this? Should I expand it more? Is it appropriate to list it under a different section such as: Academic Programs?
XYZ University New York, NY/USA
Summer School 06/2008-07/2008
-Coursework: ….
-??
Don’t see why you need to include it.
It is a course in Financial Management from an Ivy League University.
Sure, list it. Follow our template model (like university entry)
Thank you for your reply Nicole! do you think it is better to list it under education or create a separate category like Academic Programs.
Under Education is better I think
This is an arcilte that makes you think “never thought of that!”
Hi,
In the CV, shouldn’t we write at somewhere about our references? I,ve read somewhere else that it is good to put at the end of your CV that “references are available on request”. What do you think about it? Do you think we do not need to talk about it now?
I am applying for some positions in London and I currently have only one reference, but he is famous. Would writing his name increase my chances?
No. When you reach the final stage of your interviewing process, they will ask for references
Maybe, but again depends on how you pitch your story
Hi, I am in my final in a double degree program in Australia – law and accounting. My law grades are much stronger than my accounting grades (should I try to hide my accounting grades, and only state my law average/GPA?
In addition, would it look weird if I only had legal work experience? and not other banking jobs?
Average is fine unless they ask
Not weird but try to have banking experience if you want banking jobs
Hi Brian,
thank you very much for your tutorial!
I still have two questions:
1) I am equally interested in Consulting and IB. Which parts of my IB-CV will I need to change especially if I want to use this CV for consulting, also?
2) I have a number of awards and I struggle a bit about where to put them: Can I list “youngest graduate in the history of the … High School, outstanding student in … and member of the American Honor Society” as part of “honors” received in high school, in the education section?
I am German but graduated during my year abroad from a US High School which is why I´d like to keep that together, even though probably not all of these things are properly considered “honors”.
(I know that you mentioned to not include the High School in education. However, since it´s one of my most interesting points, I have always included it, and it got me quite far).
1. We will have to look at your CV via our resume editing service to see. Can’t help on the comment page here
2. High school info is dated – pls refer to https://mergersandinquisitions.com/free-investment-banking-resume-template/
Hi, it’s me again (sorry for these [maybe stupid] questions.. :p).
I’ve shown this CV to two recruiters, and both said that it is shown quite confusing. So do you recommend using this template exactly THAT way or are you just giving rough guidelines for the CV?
Also the sample CV from from JPM doesnt appeal me at all. (http://careers.jpmorgan.com/cm/BlobServer/Sample_CV.pdf?blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobkey=id&blobwhere=1158550839857&blobheader=application%2Fpdf)
I think the template is fine. Why did they find it confusing? My contacts loved my resume.
The sample CV is standard, not outstanding or special
It was just about style. The font, the space between the lines and last they said: please don’t write in italic. That would not be 2011.
So I changed it to Century Gothic and pushed the bulletpoints with a tab to the right side, so that it is in one vertical line with the Dates, Places, etc. Wish I could show it to you – just the design. :)
Ok. I don’t know if I’ll take them too seriously cause everyone has diff opinions
Hey, Brian.. Thank you for this template, it is really useful, as the rest of your website. I wanted to ask a question..
I am trying to apply to banks in Europe, and I have previous experience in a small VC firm, being the only finance-related experience I have. However, I don’t know if they would provide good references to a prospective employer.
Do banks really ask or email companies to check if the work experience is actual work experience? Should I include this experience then, or just forget about it?
Thank you very much.
Usually they just ask to verify employment dates so you should be safe leaving it on
Hi ! I’m a French student and I’m still in Bachelor program but I need to find a 6 month internship for the end of this year (From next June to december). I was wondering if “Private tutoring” is an acceptable experience apart from my only work experience which is a 4 weeks internship at BNP Paribas (During which I did approximately nothing).
Anyway I’m very grateful for what you did, it really helped me and gave me a little confidence.
Thanks.
Sure, while not relevant, you can try to spin the experience in a positive light
Hi, Thank you very much for providing us with this CV Template. It has made life so much easier. I went to well reputed International schools in Dubai and Cairo where I completed my O and A levels with rather decent grades. So I was wondering if it would be worth mentioning the schools I went to or should I simply list down my grades or none of these would make any difference to my application. Btw, I am targeting only the UK market as I am doing my undergrad studies here. I would highly appreciate any suggestion! Cheers!
O/A levels don’t really matter if you are doing your undergrad already. Financial internship experience, investment club experience matter
Hi,
I’m from the US but I am enrolled in a University in Europe. The GPA scale here is out of 20 points and there is not a widely accepted conversion method. Also the weighting system is different here, the highest GPA in my major was a 15.2 out of 20. Since I got to school in Europe if I leave my GPA out do you think they will interpret that as bad grades?
thanks
Perhaps you can translate your European GPA to a US GPA? I wouldn’t leave your GPA out
The problem is that from the naked eye if I converted my GPA into a US GPA it wouldn’t be interpreted the same way it is interpreted at my school. There is no official conversion system… can I just say that I am in the top percentile?
If you are, yes.
Hi,
I was wondering if it would be OK to use an intensive class investment portfolio project instead of a major club under “Work & Leadership Experience” ? If yes, is there anything wrong with renaming the section title to “Work Experience and Projects”. Right now I have 3 internships listed in the section, and this project is top 2 finance experience.
Thanks.
Yes you can use the intensive class port project under work & leadership experience but I would not change the experience to “Work Experience and Projects”.
Hi. How should the CV be changed for students applying for spring weeks? I’m still freshman. It’s just high school (in Switzerland) which I have finished already.
If I wasn’t in any student club -> delete this section without substituting it with smthg else?
Up to now I have had 3 jobs, one of them in an asset management-firm. I’m still working there, but unfortunately doing anything related to relevant skills you should bring with you. In another firm I was seller in a supermarket. Should I write this for my spring week application?
Thanks!
No need to write student club if you aren’t in any
Write about asset management experience. Unless you dont have anything else to write about I wouldn’t put your supermarket experience there
What about a club, in which I’m just a member and attending some firm-presentations which are organised by this club? Write or not?
In the asset management firm I’m just an admin assistant (assisting Accounting/Controlling team and Office Management). I dont have anything to do with the investment projects. Can you give me tips how to turn this into (creative) relevant experience?
Thanks a lot!
Depends on what other activities you have. If you don’t have other activities, I’d put it in there. I’d also suggest you to join an investment club
Use adjectives like “manage” “coordinate” to make it sound like you were involved in a lot of things. Try to “quantify” or at least write about the “impact” you made on firm.
Thanks!
One more question: my firm wrote a certification for me, and I think its pretty good.
Do you think it will affect my application?
Here’s a citation of the letter: “*** is currently working succesfully as an …. […]
*** deals with all matters in a confidential and professional manner. He works very independently and is absolute discreet and trustworthy. ***’s work results were always precise and accurate. His behavior towards superiors and […]
At this point we would like to thank *** for his achievements and looking forward to a continuing succesful collaboration.” Signed by the Head of HR and the CFO.
What do you think?
Thanks in advance!
Its fine and pretty standard.
Hi,
I am attending a MSc in Finance and I am preparing for investment banking internship applications.In relevant coursework should I refer only the courses I have already attended or all the Master’s courses.(For example advanced valuation is a course of the spring term,should I write down it or not).
Thank you for your time and for your attention.
You can write down future courses but you need to indicate that you’re planning to take them and haven’t actually finished yet.
I go to school in Asia and came to a well-known business school in Europe for exchange. My GPA is not high. Can I put the European school in education?
Yes.
Hi,
You quite often state that analysts will be viewing the CV and will have only 30 seconds to read over the CV and therefore it should be kept to about one page like this template.
What if the position is being advertised by an HR firm, does this still apply? Should the same template be used with more detail or a standard CV template like when applying for any other role?
Cheers.
Yes it still applies – always keep it short. People have ADD and don’t have the time/attention to read a really long (over 1 page) CV.
Hi, I am working on the 3rd bullet point for my past investment banking internship. I am thinking about include either a pitch of conglomerate’s divestiture of its property arm or a internal business development project of power equipment industry. Would you give me some guidance on which to choose? Or they both are too trivial to include? Thanks a lot!
I’d include the two. Try to highlight your role in the two projects and your modelling, leadership, communication, multi-tasking, coordination skills
Should you really add programming languages to your resume, or will that make you look like too much of a nerd (especially if your past work experience is in engineering)?
Unless you’re looking at IT roles in finance or maybe programming for a tech startup I don’t know how useful listing your knowledge of programming language is to interviewers in investment banking
Should i include my GMAT/GRE scores ??
If you want to include the scores, and you also did really well, then I might include them. However, I don’t know if they will make difference in your resume; your experience is significantly more important.
I go to an Ivy League school, but am from the Midwest. Because of this, I took the ACT rather than the SAT. I did quite well on it and would like to include it on my resume. Should I include an approximate SAT equivalent score (available on the official ACT website), only list my ACT score, or not list it at all?
Yes, think you should list ACT score and then your SAT equiv
ACT score: X/X/X/X / SAT equiv: X/X
Hi,
Im studying maths at a top 20 university and I am on track to gain a 1st.
After school I went into construction and was an asst. site manager for two years before deciding it wasn’t for me, and going to university. I was heavily involved in some large projects, and had sole responsibility for the handover of two.
Further to this I have had an internship at a top insurance broker and was heavily involved in a major deal for the regional office I worked in (I think it was the biggest they had had for 2 years).
I also have had a trading account which I have managed to gain around 20% profits in every year since 2009.
I know my experience and university is not ideal for breaking into investment banking, but I want to give it a shot.
I was wondering whether I should give more emphasis to the internship or my construction experience (spinning it that I was involved with blue chip clients in a leadership role) or to the internship as it is more relevant (although not very relevant).
Thanks
Yes, you can try to spin your insurance experience; I think this experience is more relevant than your construction experience, though both are marginally relevant
You should definitely elaborate on your trading experience (20% profits every year) and look at roles w hedge funds, long onlys – you might find trading more interesting than pure IB
brian,
i am from india and i would be going in for internship next year. i do not have any work experience . how do you suggest i present my resume . and if you could please explain me about relevant course work again .
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/
Brian,
When listing dates on the resume, is it acceptable to write “Summer 2011” and “Summer 2010” or it better to write June 2011-August 2011.
Similarly, for activities during the school year, is “Fall 2011” acceptable or are more specific dates/months better?
Thanks,
Joe
Better to list more specific dates if possible but seasons are fine
Hi Brian,
I did one of those sophomore programs offer at a bulge bracket bank for about a week. How should I include it on my resume since it is different from a regular internship? Do I still format it like your template because it’s more of getting to know people with some opportunities to learn some stuff?
Yes. Yes – focus on tasks you have done and skills you have gained. Remember, keep it punchy and brief.
Should I be listing my home address or school address?
Doesn’t matter. They’ll reach you on your cell/email if they need you. Its only when you have to fill in the “documents”/apps in which you have to enter your home address.
I’m going to be going through full time recruiting starting this Fall, but am wondering how I should include a 4-month IB internship that I’m going to be starting in September?
It’s definitely something that I want to have on my resume as my other work terms have been in back office positions, but since I’ll have only been there for a very short period before applications start coming due, it’s going to be hard to quantify or talk about any results of my work.
Any advice on how I should go about including this? Thanks!
Just give the name and dates and say you’ll be starting soon in 1 line on resume but don’t give details since you haven’t started yet.
Hi Brian,
For summer program experience, if I don’t have enough space, can I combine it with my degree program under ‘undergraduate'(I’m doing Master’s at the moment). So can I make two separate entries for graduate and undergraduate and put school names and GPAs under each entry? Thank you a lot!
Yes, fine
I’m currently working for an AM very prestigious firm. Though its my only work experience; im not really in a heavily investing dept and this is my first work experience, should I list it and kind of jazz it up with the 3 point scheme like you suggested?
Also I’ve heard many recruiters say that they want something new in the ‘Interests’ section. I used to list Competitive Computer Gaming where I’ve attained top3 in the UK, and regularly compete versus the best of Europe. And this got some very good comments and people asked me about it and said that this was a very different interest. Don’t get me wrong I dont continiously go on about it, nor do i mention the time i spend on it. What do you think – Include or do not include?
Yes, still use the 3-point scheme. Computer gaming is fine to list as long as you don’t come across as being too nerdy; something like sports is arguably better but it’s fine if you can tell a good story around it.
How do you add those line breaks into word?
Paragraph –> Border and make sure bottom border is highlighted while you highlight the entire line in Word
Hey Brian,
Since I only have two relevant work experiences, I definitely need to combine them with leadership experiences. However, does this section need to be in perfect chronological order. For example, I am a teaching assistant for intro finance starting in the fall and want to put that on my resume, but feel it should be below my work experience in that section although it is more recent.
Does it matter if the section is slightly out of order, with work experience in order followed by activities in order. I was thinking about making separate sections for work and leadership but I don’t think two internships is enough to stand alone.
Thanks,
Joe
Chronological order not necessary.
Hi,
Thanks for the great template! I started my own business when I was 18 (4 years ago), and have be running it (profitably) ever since. I’m a Junior at an “almost” target-school here in the SF Bay Area. Based on the template, my goal is to use the business I started in the “project based” section–however, it’s not direct financial services work like mentioned in the video. Is it still OK to use “Project #1: finding investors” etc., or would I be better off with the “task based” layout?
Thanks!
Better to use task-based layout for own business
Hi,
Do you have any specific advise for applying to Spring Insight Programs? If you don’t have any finance related work experience, which I guess a lot of people applying at this level won’t have, how much should you talk about the work experience you do have? Also, since the applications open around September-October and they are designed for first year students in three year undergraduate programs, should you just skip listning your grades because at that point you have any?
Thanks,
Filip
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-assessment-centers-competency-questions/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-case-studies/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/
Brian,
I’m interning at BB at the moment, but all I have done so far is creating pitch books… I might get to do valuations and modeling before my internship ends, but if not, what should I write on my resume? Please help me out.
Just go with pitch books if that’s all you have – much better than doing no internship at all.
I added this section to the education section.
Breaking Into Wall Street Online Course
Completed Modules: Financial Modeling Fundamentals, Advanced Financial Modeling, and Excellence with Excel
any thoughts on how to make this seem even better?
Hey if you look at the FAQ (http://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/faq/) under Financial Modeling Programs question #13 there are a few examples there – I would follow one of those.
So do you recommend we keep the [ and ] in our resume. I’m guessing that you do because otherwise you wouldn’t have put them there.
No, those are for the areas where you fill in things… remove the brackets for actual resume
Should I put on my resume that I am an Eagle Scout?
Yes sure
Hey,
I have a dilemma. I had trading work experience before i started university and i am preparing my resume for spring insight programs but i am very much interested in applying to the Investment Banking Division not securities. Do you think I should include my trading work experience and if so, how can I word it in a way that shows i have an interest in Investment Banking?
Thanks!
Yes, still include. See: https://mergersandinquisitions.com/sales-trading-to-investment-banking/
Hi,
Thanks for the great article.
I was wondering if volunteering work should be included in the resume or not.
For example, I was involved in a 3 month volunteering program in South Africa. Should I include that in work experience or do banks just not care about that kind of work?
Thanks.
Yes that’s good to include
One quick question – if I transferred should I include my old school’s info? Both schools are targets so I don’t think it will hurt but I’m running out of space. Thanks!
Yes just have 1 line if no space
Hey
Just a quick question.
T am currently working on Financial Modelling Research. I am thinking of including it in my work experience when applying for FT IB jobs. My question is that Should I give any explanations about the work being done in the project right there or should I just write “Currently Working” in the description esp. if something tangible has not yet been achieved in the project yet and the work is still on.
Thanks.
Just include a sentence or two of description on it
Dear M & I,
Thanks for all your help all your stories are very interesting and quite amusing. Here is my dilemma I currently go to Texas A&M College Station and I am currently working in Stamford, CT for the summer working for AXA advisors doing PWM and learning financial planning. For next year I want to do a program called dream careers which gives you a guaranteed internship and housing etc. etc. Anyways my dilemma is that you can choose to either go do an internship in hong kong or new york. And these would be investment banking internships to note. The hong kong one would probably be with like societe general and the new york one is interesting because it does a week long investment banking class which teaches you investment banking stuff and gives you a Financial Analyst Trainee Certificate at the end of it then you work an internship with like a boutique investment bank. So my question is what would be more valuable to get me into the NY program with the week long program to get the certificate and do an internship or go to hong kong and get the international experience. Keep in mind im already networking in NY right now. this is the website to see what i mean if your confused http://www.nycinternships.com/ibanking/investment-banking/ Thanks for your help
Reply
P.S. which of these options would help me look better for a bulge bracket firm like goldman, jp etc.?
Yes do NY if you want to work in NY otherwise do HK if you want to work in HK full-time
I own a restaurant in which I use much financial work for budgeting, reporting, and analyzing. There are also many more things that I do in there that relate to leadership and team building. On my current resume, I have these in bullets, how would I fit it within your “project based resume”.
Use the task-based bullets instead
Should I include an objective at the top of my resume?
Never
Hi,
I was wondering how relevant it is to touch upon day programs i.e. Goldman Sach’s Leadership Camp for Women or Credit Suisse BA Explorer Program (especially since they claim to be very selective) ? If so, in what section should they be added?
Also, how careful should one be about highlighting these programs if they aren’t from the Investment bank that we are applying for?
Thank You!
Yes it’s good to include them, just follow the instructions here:
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-diversity-recruiting/
Let’s say that one of my internships consisted of advising a small-cap manufacturing firm on their foreign currency exposure. Which sentence do you prefer:
-Advised TRACC Corporation on decreasing its foreign currency exposure; resulted in 1% decrease in transaction cost for the firm.
or
-Advised small-cap manufacturing firm on its foreign currency exposure; resulted in 1% decrease in transaction cost for the firm.
Basically, should I mention a little-known company’s name or just speak about in generally. Is the rest okay?
Sorry, just reread your summary, I’m not suppose to mention individual companies. Is the wording/grammar okay though?
Use #2 but include their name, then a comma for the description, then the rest
I will be taking important finance and accounting classes the first semester of my senior year when I will be applying/interviewing for full time analyst positions. Is it ok to list these finance and accounting classes under relevant coursework even if I have not completed them?
Yes but you have to indicate that they’re in progress
What’s the best way to do that?
let’s say… I’m going to be taking advanced corp fin and have already taken corporate valuation and financial accounting:
Advanced Corporate Finance (in progress), Corporate valuation, financial accounting…
Also, to what extent is a class relevant? I go to an undergraduate business school so I have taken management, marketing, operations, entrepreneurship, etc. Is there a certain number of classes I should limit it to?
Thanks
Yes that is fine. Do not go beyond 2 lines or it starts to look odd
I currently work at a very well-known wealth management firm, but I would like to find an internship as an investment banking analyst. Most of my tasks were minor or clerical. How would I play up this work experience in a resume/interview?
There are some tips here: https://mergersandinquisitions.com/non-target-bulge-bracket-investment-banking-offers/
Hi Brian,
Thanks for all the great posts and material on the site. I have a question about the resume formatting. Since i graduated from college 2 years ago, I have been working in Corporate finance in a 2 year rotational financial leadership program. The way this is structured is that I rotate to a new role every 6 months so that by the end of two years the candidate has great diverse experiences. Now that I am nearing the end of my program I am considering going into investment banking. How do I list these 6 month rotations in the resume? does each count as a separate job experience, or do I just add each rotation as a bullet point within the same entry? My issue mostly related to space in the page as I have several other experiences and activities to add as well.
I would probably focus on the rotation that is most relevant to IB (or whatever you want to go into); maybe include the other rotations as bullet points but have the main bullet point be about the most relevant rotation and then for sub-bullets use deals/clients/projects from that rotation.
My rotations where, Billing Credit & Collections; Pricing Profitability & Analysis; Financial Planing & Analysis, Accounting Manager. Which of these would be more relevant to IB, in your opinion?
FP&A
They were standard corporate finance roles. Managing the business from a financial perspective. They all had a ton to learn so its tough to choose? Maybe you can help me?
I would just pick the best projects you have then and focus on those
Thanks Brian.
Any chance you can give me a few names I can call to get some interviews? There is at least a bottle of Blue Label (or something equally good or better) in it for you if it works out! :)
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/get-started/
Hi,
I am surprised there is no birth date on the template.
Is it something specific to the US?
Cheers
Yes in the US you do not list your birth date on the resume. In some countries you do but it depends on the country so I didn’t want to include it on the universal template here.
Would you insert your date of Birth into your resume? Same for any references from previous work experience.
If yes, where?
Thank you!
No and no if you’re applying in North America. In some Asian and European countries you do include those but it varies by country; in the UK I don’t think you need either.
Hey,
Would this template be good for a S&T job in University as well – do you plan on making S&T templates in the future?
Yes it applies to S&T as well. I will probably not make S&T templates because it is 99% the same so it would just cause confusion.
Hi,
I am a third year Commerce student wondering whether I should include a Teaching Assistant position on my resume. The course is not finance related (Intro to Managing People – basically an organizational behaviour course) but I feel like it demonstrates accountability, responsibility, leadership, initiative, etc… Do you think I should include it? I already have 3 strictly finance/accounting positions on my resume, if that has any influence.
Thanks!
Maybe just list it as a line at the bottom; with 3 finance-related roles the TA position won’t add much.
Since you posted this template up, you do realize EVERY SINGLE DAMN person has the same template right? There is no way to stand out or distinguish oneself now and everything resume looks the same. I was using this template way since 2004 but now EVERY single kid, student, recent grads, and their mothers has this format.
So? You stand out with the quality of your experience, not the template you use.
Hi Brian,
Thanks again for the post. I have a question about “interests”. If under work and leadership experience, I mentioned leadership experience in a varsity sports team, let’s say the varsity fencing team. can I mention fencing again as an interest under the skills, activities and interests section, focusing on the practice hours, competitions results? Does that look a little repetitive?
Thanks,
M
No it’s fine
Hello,
I’m in the midst of revising my resume and I would like to know what I should put as the end date of a position I continue to hold. Such as President of a club, should I write start date, 1/2010 – Present, or 1/2010 – 1/2013, if I were to graduate the year 2013?
Also I forgot to mention that I paid for three day seminar sessions for off campus Finance training programs. In these sessions I learned the basics of financial modeling and tips in the business. Similar to Wall Street Prep, these programs are basically offered to corporate professionals and to university students to refine their skills.
So this leaves me to ask:
Where on the resume should I put this info? Work & Leadership? Activities? Education?
Should I include bullet points of the material I learned?
How should I date this program since it was only for 3 days and my other experiences are in month/year – month/year format.
And one last comment…
I see on the template it says “Selected Project/Client/Transaction Experience:”
Does this mean to list specific occurrences of my job, or can I list overall duties such as “worked in a team of xxxx to increase xxxx”
Depends whether you had specific projects or not… if yes, list those specific projects, otherwise just use task-based bullets
Depends what the rest of your resume looks like… if not a lot of work experience list it under Work & Leadership, otherwise include it in a few lines under Education and yes list bullet points of material learned. Just list the month and year for the program.
1/2010 – Present
Thank you so much!
Hi,
Thanks for the post. I am wondering whether research experience, and activity such as federal reserve challenge competition could be listed under work and leadership experience?
Yes it can
Hi,
I’m a 4th year undergrad and have attended two universities so far. Should I list them both or just the one I am graduating from? Thanks, and thanks for the very informative article.
List both
Hey Brian,
Just a quick question about dates on resumes – for financial activities that lasted only 1 day (like a company sponsored trading game), should we leave the date off or put the exact date (I originally had October 2010 written down, but was informed that this isn’t optimal since I’m sending the impression to recruiters that it lasted at least a few days).
I would just list October 2010… if they ask you can say that it was a 1-day competition but took planning and strategy beforehand
Great post!
After an undergraduate degree from a college like Wharton (uPENN) or Sloan (MIT), how good are one’s chances at a good investment bank?
Also, is it a wise career to stay in considering the amount of working hours?
It depends on your grades, internships, and networking… school name by itself doesn’t mean that much. Read the rest of this site for the second question.
Hi Brian:
First, thank you for maintaining this site, it’s a life-saver. Second, I recently graduated with high Latin honors as an undergraduate and am wondering where/how to show this on my resume. Any help you can lend will be most appreciated.
Thank you.
Add as a second bullet in education
Under the Work and Leadership Experience section, I have a club that I listed (only starting out in college). I’ve held two positions in this club that are noteworthy. Do I format that like so:
Club Name (bold)
Position 1 (italicize)
–
–
Position 2 (italicize)
–
–
Thanks for all of your help! Great site!
Yes that’s fine
Thank you!
Also, would it be acceptable to use this template for other jobs or is this primarily just for IB?
You could use it for other things but people like to argue that it should be much different in other fields, which I don’t agree with, so I did not mention that
Hi there,
I m undergraduate student ill try to get an internship this summer, however i dont have any related work experience I did much sports and have lots of achievments is there any way to express my cv through the sport what other things should I include?
Thanks
Tas
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/ for tips on what to do with non-finance experience
Hey Brian,
In a nutshell I studied Medicine from ’04 to ’08, finished all my classes and had one year left (intern year) when I decided to change to business. I began my BBA undergrad in summer of ’08 and am scheduled to finish in about 3 weeks time. My overall GPA will be a 3.3 with like 200-thousand credits on my back, but my question is this: How should I put those 4 years in my CV to let them (recruiters) know what I was doing with my life during that time? Attempted Bachelor in Medicine? Medical Intern? Lost here.
I gathered a decent amount of leadership experience and have an above 3.5GPA if we only account the ’08-’10 years complemented with a good 2 years in the financial consulting area. I’m scheduled to leave to Dubai in 27 days and need to get my CV top-notch, HALP!
Thanks in advance.
Just include 1 or 2 lines in Education under your current entry and say that you made progressed toward a medical degree but did not actually complete it. Progress toward [Degree Name] or something like that is fine.
being an engineer just graduating from college, what are the things that will help me to bag a ibs job. if i have good academics and good interest in finance with some basic concepts of it, will it suffice. how do i get to know the openings or pass my resume if the company’s website shows no vacancy all the time.
any particular course here in mumbai or through correspondence that might help in ur knowledge?
Network, network, network, do a Master’s in Finance program or study abroad.
Brian,
You mentioned that we can “hide” our overall GPA with our better 2nd/3rd Year GPA.
In my case, I screwed up badly with a 2.X GPA during my freshman year, but improved significantly with an average of 3.8 in my 2nd and 3rd year (I am currently a senior).
How should I present this in the resume? E.g. “2nd&3rd Year GPA: 3.8/4.0; Overall GPA: 3.X……..” (Use “/” or “&” to represent “and”?)
Could I put the better GPA in front of my overall GPA?
Appreciate the help!
Yes, what you suggested there is fine.
Hey, your website has given me a lot of insight.
I’m currently a sophomore with a GPA of 3.78 at a US news top twenty university(however, not known for its business/econ program)
I am currently applying to a Merrill Lynch non-paid internship next semester specifically targeted towards students at our school. The competition for this is not particularly fierce but I know that it is very important for me to get this internship. However, I have no real work experience whatsoever. I did an internship at a small IT company overseas last summer, had an on campus job, and tutored some kids back in high school. I wasn’t in any clubs except for the school newspaper back in high school. Got a pretty good SAT score and is on my university’s honor roll for one semester(is it ok to put it under Honor’s even though it was only one semester?).
I wonder how I can polish up my resume with so little to say. My only shot at improving my resume is to actually get this internship so I can have something to put on my resume later on. What would you suggest for me to put on my resume and what to leave out?
Sorry, if my comment seemed unfocused.
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/
This guy was almost exactly mirroring you’re no real experience template haha
do big companies like GS or JP morgan or morgan stanley check my GPA while i am in college because my current GPA is 3.0 and most of these big banks need atleast 3.2 to be eligible. can i just write 3.3 on my cv and expected GPA 3.5. would that be ok.
Most of the time they check it right before you start working so they expect GPA to change somewhat.
thanks for your help
I am currently a Finance student at UBC. My GPA was really high before I got into my major. After I got into my major, I focused a lot more on other extracurricular activities (i.e. building a financial website,starting an investment partnership, joining stocks competition). I have been pretty successful in most of the those activities, but my GPA has dropped to 2.4. I was wondering if i should still mention my GPA in my resume.
You have to or else they will assume it is a 1.0.
Hi
Thank You for answering my question
If I did really well in my finance courses (75%-80%), can I just put those instead? and leave out my overall GPA.
No, you need to leave in overall GPA somewhere. It’s fine to add a finance-only GPA though.
Being an engineering student I’ve completed a technical internship at a transformer manufacturing plant. Should I include this in the resume?
Yes, but don’t focus on it unless you have nothing more relevant.
Hi there,
Would it be seen as arrogant/irrelevant to mention Mensa membership in interests? Equally would Toastmasters membership be seen as irrelevant?
Would it be advisable not to mention amateur boxing under interests, or would it come under the category of quirky hobbies which are likely to get me remembered?
Thanks so much.
TJ
Leave out Mensa, keep in Toastmasters and amateur boxing
Do you reckon its important that we explicitly write the skills we acquired in the work experience entry? For instance, interned in IBD, analysed xx and so forth. Result: raised this amount of xx, boosted my confidence and sociability…??
No, that actually sounds unprofessional… specifics and results only, don’t write about becoming more sociable or they’ll wonder if something is wrong with you.
Thanks so much for your advice. They helped so much on getting my first ibanking internship.
I have now finished my ibanking internship in Asia and is trying to update my resume to include this experience. However, my job was mostly qualitative(can’t come up with any actual number to put on the resume). I did get to work on some deals, but I only did pitch books, management presentations, the plans/summaries/schedules of the deals, looking up some data/comparable with bloomberg when the senior bankers needed them and a comprehensive report on a specific industry. It seems to me that I can’t really make them sound result oriented since the things I did were too minor for the deals. I am just wondering if you can give me an example on how I can make what I have here sound nicer?
Btw, should I include things like “constructing pitch books” and “preparing management presentations” for this banking experience?
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/private-equity-resume/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/
You can still write what you did even if there are no numbers; see those tutorials above.
Hi,
Thanks for all the great advice. I was wondering about adding a reference to your resume. I got a reference from a CEO of major company whom I have worked for. Can I add it? And if so, should I make an additional header?
It doesn’t make a huge difference because banks are not going to call your reference beforehand… just not enough time with hundreds / thousands of resumes. You could list it at the bottom.
Hi!
Say, if I come from one of the few western-european countries that still have mandatory military service for young men, do you think I should mention my 8-month experience as an observer in a tank artillery bataillion on my resume?
It left me with some pretty cool experiences such as ‘Measured coordinates of tank positions for artillery shootouts’, which meant some actual responsibility, because lives potentially were in danger. But I don’t want to come round like a gun nut (because I most certainly am not) and the accomplishments may be somewhat diminished by the fact that I didn’t choose to do it in the first place (except for the fact of choosing military over civil service).
What’s your feeling about putting something like that under work & leadership experience?
Thanks for your articles and your replies, they helped a lot to demystify the IB recruiting process for me.
Sounds fine
Let’s say I don’t have any relevant experience or positions held in finance internships/school clubs etc. Should I then include coursework/school projects in, for example, an investment analysis course? Would that be given more consideration as compared to listing a sales rep job?
Yes. https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/
Hey,
For positions that you currently occupy, should you use present tense for the bulletpoints? Or should everything be kept to one tense?
Thanks
Doesn’t matter but I prefer to keep everything past
Thanks for making such a detailed template! I have a few questions regarding languages.
If I can speak almost at a conversational level in a language, what level of proficiency should I write it as on my resume? Proficient? Or should I not even bother putting it on my resume at all?
Also, if I’m looking to work in Hong Kong in IB, do you know how good my Mandarin needs to be? It says fluent on certain banks’ websites but what exactly does that entail?
Thanks again!
I would write “Conversational ability in [Language]” – set expectations low unless you are a native speaker or at the native speaker level. For HK Mandarin is valued very highly, you don’t need to be perfect necessarily but you are competing against people from mainland China… so if you’re not at least in the same range it’s tough.
What would you say is the minimum font size we should be using on our resume in case there is a lot that we want to put on it.
I would not go below 10 and even that is pushing it; otherwise it’s too hard to read
First of all thanks for all the useful info you are giving!
I have one question: I’m fluent in other three languages (besides English, obviously), do you think Investment Banks value that a lot? In my CV “Fluent in….” only takes one line, do you think I should emphasize that more and give the languages part more space?
Yes banks value that but you need to be good enough to write 100-page financial reports perfectly in that language, I would still keep it to 1 line.
Great Site! Question, in college I was The Student Government Association President for a year. How should I note that in my resume?
Additionally Ive been in automotive sales for about two and half years now and I come across many investment banking executives. They all tell me that sales is a great place to start my career. I graduated college with a B.S. degree in business administration and a concentration in finance, May 2010. I’m actively look for a position within a bank or hedge fund. I really have no experience in Investment Banking. Do you think auto sales is something I can “Bankify” on my resume?
I deal with banks in order to qualify people for car loans but its more retail banking than any thing else. Also I was told to mention gross profit on my resume because its something that would catch they eyes of potential employers. What do you think?
Put it under activities. Auto sales you could try to spin on your resume but it’s still not going to work as well as a real finance internship. You can mention profit and other metrics, but honestly you will still be at a disadvantage because bankers value banking / finance experience over all else.
I’ve went on a few interviews and received some some offers…2 proprietary trader positions and a jr. broker position…are these good positions to start in?
Yes, though proprietary trading offers are viewed as “better” than broker positions
Hey M&I,
I am an undergrad applying for FT positions, a few Qs:
1. If I have a good internship experience (though not brand name bank) that takes up 70% of the page, should I reduce this and include some non-finance activities to diversify the resume a bit?
2. Would “Relevant Courses” even matter if I already have them listed as part of my project description?
3. Does the same apply for PE firms as well?
As usual, your comments are invaluable,
Thanks,
Mack
Maybe use 50% of the page for the internship; relevant courses don’t matter much to begin with; if applying to PE with no full-time experience, yes, otherwise do a search for private equity resume on the site and use that template.
I took a look at your website and the sample resume and compared it to my own, I want to make a few changes.
Unlike your format, I had two lines for Honors and two lines for relevant coursework. All are relevant since I am going into my senior year. I also have three internship experiences and two leadership experiences. My resume currently is structured so that I have my identifying information, then Education, Honors, Relevant Coursework, Experience (recent first), Leadership (by importance), and Additional (language, skills, interests).
I was thinking of restructuring my resume and having honors and relevant coursework under Leadership, or at least move coursework down. What order would you recommend?
All three companies I interned in are well known and have brand value, and I was thinking that the higher they are in my resume, the more time my resume might be given.
It doesn’t really matter, shorten honors and coursework to 2 single-line bullets and put them under Education… moving to leadership doesn’t make sense
Would promoting night clubs be worth putting on the resume
Sure.
I have been working with the IT Services as an analyst for over 2 years. The work was mostly centred around Corporate Finance, though very technical in nature. I currently hold a Bachelors in Info-Tech and was hoping for some inputs from you on the chances of breaking into IB with my kind of profile.
At this stage you would have to go to a boutique or go back to business school to have a real shot – 2 years in IT won’t help much with getting into the largest banks.
Hi M&I,
Thanks for your prompt response.
I have been inquiring about MBA as an option too. But with my level of experience <3 Yrs, only people with banking or consultancy experience are able to make it to the top B-Schools where banks participate for recruiting. Thus to me it seems some kind of catch-22.
Please advise.
So you would wait until you have more experience and network in the meantime to see if anything turns up there
will they actually check your GPA?
Before you start working, yes
Im going into my second year in the UK and am applying for internships.
If i started an investment club at my high school, introducing people to the world of trading, and also have been trading for a few years. Should i put that in the work and leadership experience section or the skills… section?
If it’s high school I would list it at the bottom of your CV.
First, thanks for the recommendations!
I self-published a 300-page novel, but should I include that in my resume under “interests”? Would this work against me since the book is self-published?
Thanks!
Doesn’t make a difference either way, you’re fine listing it
Hi:
What are your thoughts on an “Objective” part on the resume — needed for specific positions or not necessary?
Thanks!
Don’t include it
Hi Brian,
I’m double majoring in management science (finance concentration) and chemistry at MIT, and I’m not sure whether I should put both of my majors on my resume. Should I just leave out the chemistry major since it is irrelevant? Would a double major look more impressive on a resume?
Many thanks!
leave both on
Hi Brian,
So according to the video, to include or not to include HS seems to be region-dependent… In general the guideline seems to be that if you’re past freshman year in the US –> omit high school, but what if you’re an international student in the US but applying for Asia Pacific offices? Is it customary to include HS information?
Thanks.
For Asia Pac yes I would leave it off, I think it’s only common to include in Europe / UK
Hey Brian.
1st of all, great site. ++++++ Kudos!!
In my CV, in the Skills, Activities & Interests part, do I mention that I was nominated as “Sports Personality Of The Year”?? (I didn’t win, but was 2nd to winning) Just wanted to know if nominations are good enough.
Thanks in advance!!!
Also, if I’m currently teaching myself or taking classes in learning another language… do I add that to the list of Languages (but just state that i’m currently learning it)??
TIA again!!!
You can but again marginal difference unless fluent
Will leave it out then… Thanks
You can but it makes a 0.0000001% difference either way
So I’m guessing they want to hear about awards achieved/obtained, not nominations.
(thanks for the response)
Yes, but again unless it is a spectacular award like the Nobel Prize it won’t make much of a difference
Hi Brian,
Recently, I won a BB IB challenge. Where does that fit into? Is there a section which I can highlight this?
The IB competition involved university students from the entire country, so its not like a ‘within the university’ kind of competition.
Thanks for the help!
Just list under education or make a separate entry under work experience and write a few lines on it
Hi Brian,
just got a few question regarding the education section. I just wonder why you don’t include the start date of each entry. Further I obtained my intermediate diploma in business Administration, stopped after because I didn’t like it, went to a language school abroad for almost a year, started an apprenticeship in finance after that but I realised that it won’t be enough for me and I finished my studies by distance learning and obtained a BSc. How would you put this into the CV? I don’t want to seem too old on my CV (I’m 27), however I don’t want to lie either. I have the impression that my CV will be rather long…
Thanks mate
You could include a start date but it makes it a bit harder to read so I left it out. I would just devote 1 line at most to your other degree / internship and minimize the space used for those on your CV.
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the helpful tips. I have pursued a Master’s degree right after my undergraduate degree and my master’s is unrelated to finance whereas my undergraduate degree was in business administration.
I was wondering how I should structure my education section.
You still need to list both of them, just put the Master’s degree above the undergraduate degree and emphasize the undergrad one more
Hi Brian,
I’ve recently completed your Breaking Into Wall Street financial modeling and PPT program. I was thinking of putting it under Work & Leadership Experience and go into detail of what I did, instead of talking about my freshman internship at Merrill Wealth Management. I feel that if I list it under Certifications & Training, it will be overlooked and I won’t get my knowledge across very well.
Do you think it’s fine if I go into detail of the prep program and list Merrill internship at the bottom somewhere?
Thank you and I’d appreciate your advice.
I would not do that – Merrill is a good name and should be listed at the top of your resume. If you really want you can list BIWS below that but I would never put any training program above a bulge bracket bank name on your resume.
Excellent template, thanks. I have a problem though:
I’ve transferred course/uni twice (carrying credit each time), which makes my education section large, with 3 different GPAs.
Are three education entries necessary, or should I simply list the latest and not mention the others?
The GPA for the latest course only spans 3 subjects so far; should I just list the overall GPA over everything I’ve completed?
Just consolidate and list the other 2 universities on 1 line each. List your overall GPA.
should I put “presidential scholar” on my application even though that was only in high school?
Also, I also won a presidential award in music in high school…should I include that as well?
No, nothing from high school
brian,
i was a caddy for my sophomore summer and initially didnt put this on my resume until an associate at bofa asked me what i did that specific summer. she said i should put caddy on my resume because it shows ive done the dirty work and many mds have sympathy for the applicants who’ve had waiter-type jobs. what’s your opinion on this? sure its not banking-relevant, but if i dont keep it, then there is a blank summer. thanks for your help
Maybe include a 1-2 lines on it just to show what you did over a particular summer
hey brian
excellent site
after my bachelors I started a subway franchise, it was my dads investment, I overlooked the project and was responsible for smooth start up and running of the business.
After that i worked in a local commercial bank corporate dept and currently doing my mba, i just finished my internship in citibank……..
i am not sure if i should include subway experience on my resume, as i am strugling to spin off the experience and show it as finance related……..
I would just say that’s what got you interested in business initially and devote a few lines to it… and then say you wanted to delve into finance more specifically and go from there
I understand bankers are sticklers for formatting. In your template resume, it has in bold, GPA: xx/4.0. Then SAT is on the same line, but not in bold. At the same time, bolding it would also kind of mess it up.
Doesn’t matter as GPA is more important and should receive the emphasis
Should I include that I’m an AP State Scholar?
My worry is that it doesn’t sound very impressive (not even as much as the significantly less prestigious “National AP Scholar” distinction) – will HR people know what it is?
I wouldn’t bother, it’s quite common
I am currently interning at a startup boutique bank as a research associate, but otherwise have no other relevant finance experience. I’m a polisci major with a low GPA (2.94 overall, 3.15 major) at an Ivy League school. Had an SAT of 2300+. What are the odds that I would get interviews for full-time positions through the conventional channels?
Very low with a 2.94 / 3.15 GPA – you’ll need to network and focus on boutiques instead.
Thanks for the reply – aside from it generally being easier to bank at a boutique, does the fact that I go to a “prestigious” school cushion the blow more at boutiques?
Yes, it does
Brian,
I really hate to ask you this question, but still need to ask. I recently talked to a former analyst who went to top school and worked at top-tier BB (GS/MS). He said with my 3.6 cum/3.9 econs major from a complete non-target, there would be really no chance at BBs and that I should just aim for boutiques and MMs. I don’t aim for GS/MS/JP Morgan either but is mine really that hopeless for the rest of BBs?
I wouldn’t listen, just apply to everything anyway. Plenty of people with 3.6 GPAs get in, he is probably exaggerating.
Great article, I have a question.
Is it possible to ‘overdo’ your resume for IBD positions? I have a MM i banking internship going into sophomore year and I have read that sometimes having too many different firms / internships / activities on your resume can hurt you.
Thanks a bunch.
Yes, that’s why I recommend sticking to 2-4 entries at the most. Otherwise it looks too scattered and no one remembers you.
What’s your opinion on rounding a 3.98? Do I write 3.98 or can I round to a 4.0?
For that one I would leave it as 3.98 since 4.0 is a special case.
Holy, you’ve basically overthrown everything I was taught to do with my resume for the past year.
One thing I was told was that I should not only list the honor program but also expand on what I’ve done so far within the program (in our case, extra independent research work). The program is a business one, though I’ve gone into specific industries from of a macro standpoint. So I’m not sure where it would be placed in the resume structure above–if it has a place at all…? (I only have minimal finance-related items to put down)
If you have no work experience you could make the Honors program into a work/activity entry. I would only do that if you’re a 1st/2nd year and have no major internships to write about though.
P.S. Will be a 2nd year this coming fall.
I guess the other ‘experience’ I have is investing in a 3-year investment-linked insurance policy when I first opened my own bank account…the underlying stocks were already fixed by the gurus at Citi, so I didn’t technically pick these stocks myself. But I do sort of follow their movement since I have a minor stake in them.
Too paltry for another work experience entry?
You could list that as work experience as long as you can talk about what you did and make it sound impressive.
I know you warn against putting stuff from high school, but as an incoming college freshman, I really have nothing else for education. I know leadership and SAT can be kept on, but where is the line drawn? Should I keep my high school GPA on until I finish my first semester in college? I will not have finished my first semester before the application deadlines for summer internships next year.
Yes it is fine if you are still only 1-2 years into college, I would start removing HS as soon as you get a real internship or activity though.
Hi,
My 1600 SAT score is a 1410, and my 2400 SAT score is a 2090. Should I list either of these scores? Thanks!
I would list the 1410
Hi,
I am the Winner team of my university Entrepreneurs week Innovator’s Challenge. Should I place it under ‘honors’ in the University section or activities section. Thanks
It really depends how much other experience you have. If you don’t have much, list it as an activity, otherwise if you have solid internships list it under honors.
Why do you call “useless information” for Australian resumes?
1 page resume sounds extremely narrow to me.
Just my personal informations and photo take the first page.
Referees at the bottom of the resume is half a page.
Font 8: hated by most HR staff , 12 is the way to go.
The template you show on the video is absolutely boring, no life, no excitement to read.
Don’t get me wrong, I like this site but am wondering why in the US they would like such a plain resume. Yes it’s quick to read but it could be quick to be thrown in the bin too.
Thanks
America is a utilitarian culture. Banks receive hundreds if not thousands of resumes – they don’t have time to decipher your resume as if it’s a work of art. They want to see the main highlights and that’s it.
I understand where you’re coming from, but a multi-page resume for a 22-year old graduate would be thrown in the trash in the US.
Think about when you meet someone new at a party – do you give a 15 minute speech about what you’ve done? No, you hit on the main 2-3 points to pique their interest and take it from there. It’s the same with resumes.
As I mentioned, you would not use this template in Australia and I really don’t want to get in a debate about cultural differences – it is what it is.
Thanks for your reply, how about someone who is no longer in their 20s? (I’m 35).
Cheers.
In industries outside of finance/consulting you can sometimes use multi-page resumes for entry-level positions.
For entry-level Analyst/Associate positions in the finance/consulting industries in the US, having a multi-page resume is a bad idea even if you’re 35.
Within investment banking specifically you should only have multiple pages to list deal experience if you’re at the mid-level or up and have dozens of deals to write about.
The focus of this site is on entry-level Analyst/Associate positions in investment banking, so I use the 1-page template above.
Hey, great template, currently comparing it to my own, I think I can see already where I’ve been making mistakes.
I’m in the UK, main query I have is that you say ideally we should keep it to 1 page, however, I completed my BSc 2 years ago, have some work experience (non-financial) and am now about to complete a Masters, should I include both degrees (considering it will probably push the resume to 2 pages, but both are quantitative/mathematical)?
Secondly, I’m applying now, however once exams are finished (this month) I have a thesis to complete on my own, due in September – I have the title already, but should I make it clear that I still have this to finish – I am prepared to complete this whilst integrating into a new job.
Thirdly (sorry), I am about to begin studying for unit 1 of the IMC (Investment Management Certificate), would it be best to incorporate that in to the “Skills”?
Honestly there is no reason to go over 1 page if you’re under the age of 50. Include both degrees but cut the parts that are less relevant and focus on your full-time experience. You should say the thesis is pending or that you expect to complete it in September. I would put IMC under Skills.
Ok, thanks very much. I went ahead and done that and kept it all to one page. I’ll keep you posted if I have much success wth it!
I have a few questions for you:
For Honors under Education, should I include Dean’s List if it’s High Honors (4.0 for a semester)? If so, should I mention what High Honors means? That’s about the only thing I can think of since I’m a freshman. So, if not, should I just omit the Honors section?
I’m a Economics major, so do I need to list the coursework I have done like Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, and Econometrics? Do statistical courses matter?
In the Work Experience section, I started my own business (computer maintenance). I emphasized heavily the business and financial aspect of it. Do I need to mention that it was a computer maintenance business at all, and should I put “Owner”, “Business Manager”, or “Owner and Business Manager” for the title?
Finally, would it be okay to put something like “Went undefeated in USTA Team Tennis as 1st singles.” under Interests? Should I try and think of something more unique?
Thanks for all your help. You run a fantastic website.
Most of these details don’t really matter. Dean’s List is ok to include, so are courses but don’t go over 2 lines for these or it looks crowded. Owner and Business Manager is fine. That line for tennis is fine
This is probably asinine, but would being an Eagle Scout be appropriate to list for a 1st/2nd year university student?
Sure but don’t write more than a line on it
Hi M&I,
This is a great site and it helped me a lot. I’m from the UK and I think what you guys do is incredible. Two things I’d like to ask:
I went to a university for 2 years and then stopped and decided to go to another university to pursue property management and investment before I was doing banking and finance. I just couldn’t do the mathematics so I failed a couple of classes but I still want to get into this field of work. Should I mention my past attempt?
Second question I started a small business but it has nothing to do with banking, its events management. should I put this under work experience and leadership?
thank you.
No, definitely don’t mention a failure like that. You do have to list the university but I would not say why you switched. You can list the business under work experience / leadership.
I attended an international school in Taiwan for a semester in junior year of high school, should I put that in my resume since it is similar to going abroad?
Sure
I have the following questions/problems:
1) I come from a prestigious (no.1 europe no.1 country) medical school, but I’m quite sure banks don’t realise the quality and rigor of education here.
Should I describe this in my cover letter (which most BBs won’t read) or should I include it on my resume: “University of X” (#1 Research, Europe; #1 Medical School, Country)?
(I have to add: the management faculty of my university actually ranks top 5 in europe (non-mba), but still not as good as the medical faculty)
2) Should I add percentile to my GPA? I say this because the GPAs in our medical school in particular are quite low; while for most studies in my country 70% is actually 70th percentile (3.5 GPA equivalent). I currently have a 70% which is about 85-90th percentile.
3) I’ve funded my studies with scholarships and work, no loans at all (even have some capital in the range of a couple ten thousand $, self-made money). Do you think this is worthwile adding?
NOTE: Really love your site btw, it has really opened my eyes on many subjects, definately looking into buying some of your guides looking at the quality of articles posted here.
Regards
1. You can do both, but don’t go overboard with emphasizing it because bankers don’t care about medical school / anything other than finance for the most part.
2. Sure you can add the percentile.
3. Yes you can add a line on this.
Thanks a lot for the format! But I got a question here~
Do you list all those “work and leadership experience” in chronological order or seperately? I mean under the circumstance that maybe one or two “leadership experience” is the most important think that one has?
Either one is fine, chronological iff all same importance or do order of importance otherwise
What do you mean by top business school? Are you only thinking Harvand/Stanford/IVY? Would you Consider Boston University/Boston College/Babson University Great Schools?
Yes, Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, etc. The others you listed are not top schools because most banks don’t recruit there.
Hi there, I do have a question about which format to use. I went to Suffolk University for undergrad, and what kills me is the cumulative (2.3) due to the first two years, 1.8-2.0 but last two years I got 3.0+ on average per semester and for my relevant coursework:
Business Finance B, Operations Management B, Multinational financial management B+, MIS A-, Intro in international business, International Management B, Export management B+, and principles of investments A-. business communication A-.
Now work experience wise I started senior year an internship which was mostly administrative/took on a few projects which were leadership in a real estate representative of the Boston MBTA (the only representative allowed.)
Following college I did State Street fund accounting for about 6 months (1.5billion+ worth of funds.)
Following that I went home to Romania for a little over a year to get married to my gf of 6 years and while there I was the person under the general manager for a family run ecologic dry cleaning firm overseeing 30 employees, handling everything from HR, to accounting/finance to whatever else needed to be taken care of, clients ranged from the parliament to hotels/restaurants, to collection points.
Coming back here april of 2009 I entered real estate after seeing how the job market was terrible in anything accounting/finance related (after 1 month looking) which I am currently doing pretty good in, I seem to get a lot of clients and I work on a lot of deals.
But I’d like to break into something finance oriented, Financial Analyst for a Bank or boutique boston Ibank. I am also working on GMAT (trying to go 700ish but that is hard) and have CFA lvl 1 scheduled for december 4th 2010.
What’s my outlook like for finance?
I’m not sure what your question is, but you shouldn’t be using this resume format… see the more experienced ones. I think the main problem getting into finance is that your background is just too random – at this stage a top business school is your best bet
Is there a way to send you my resume and give a look at it and let me know what you think?
I guess what I am getting at is that with my back ground I am trying to break into a boutique investment bank around the boston area, I know until I get my CFA level 1 exam and enter an MBA program (am shooting for northeastern/babson/bentley or BU/BC, I know those are good schools and not impossible ones to get in.)
I’m not offering resume editing at the moment, but you can ask Kevin and Jerry on Management Consulted (see their finance resume service).
I do have a question about listing a certain type of leadership experience, which is a little out of the box and not really mainstream yet so I do expect some folks to raise their eyebrows at this.
Would it be bad or good to list MMO experience? Leadership in a top tier guild (officer status) for two years? I have noticed an article in a business mag (it was either Time or Newsweek) which said that jobs are starting to require on the fly adaptivity in leadership.
I would definitely consider leadership in MMO top tier raid/pvp experience as adaptive, and it does become difficult when leading 40, 50 or a few hundred people (in some cases) to success in some of these games these days. I would definitely say it is much more difficult than say “a quarterback” on a football team because you deal with many more variables which can go wrong at any time.
Variables can include communication, intelligence about the enemy, scouting, capabilities of your team vs theirs, how do you adapt in a fall, strategic placement, etc.
In case anyone is wondering, the game experience I am talking about is Eve Online.
DO NOT LIST THAT.
Seriously, do not do it under any circumstances.
Awesome website, thank you for helping us all out.
A quick question..where would we put our concentration? For example, I majored in Business Administration but have a concentration in Finance/IT.
Thank you!
Under or next to major separated by semi-colon
Hi brian, thanks for your article.
You mentioned that in Australia the resume is much different and can be 2-3 pages, do you know what they include?
because im in australia and i’ve got a 4 page resume with no formal banking experience, so after reading your article i’m deciding to rewrite it.
I’m not sure offhand, but I would probably just eliminate 1 page of older experiences.
Awesome website!
Just a question about putting start/end dates on the resume. I’m a student in a co-op program and have alternating semesters as study terms or work terms. So I did a co-op term at ABC Firm in summer 08, they liked me and wanted me back for summer 09 and I accepted. The thing is that I also worked (not a co-op job) during my study term at XYZ Bank in between.
Currently I have my dates set as [may 08 – august 09] for ABC Firm and [january 09 – april 09] for XYZ Bank on the resume. Notice the overlap? Should I break it up have two separate start/end dates for ABC firm [may 08 – aug 08, may 09 – aug09]? Sorry if it sounds super confusing, I don’t know how else to explain it!
Thank you so much!
I would just do separate dates [may 08 – aug 08, may 09 – aug09] as you have there
Hi Brian!
I am from one of the top unis in Singapore (Singapore Management University). Unfortunately it seems like it is still hard to break into IBD (we have a handfull number of students who get into IBD, but only the top students).
Now I get a chance to go to Cornell University for an exchange programme (1 semester), however, I need to pay USD 18,000 on top of my education here. My parents are all for it, but I am kind of wondering the chance of breaking into IBD after I attend this kind of programme.
What do you say? Thanks!
If its just for that program, probably not $18K and definitely not worth it if you don’t get to participate in on-campus recruiting. If you do get to participate in on-campus recruiting it could be worth it but you need to ask them about that first.
what kind of project should I be focusing on to write in the project-centric template out of my equity research internship?
Should I be focusing more on financial modeling? Because I don’t get to write much research reports during my last stint..
Thanks for such an amazing site!
Yes, either financial modeling or report writing.
I got a 34 on math and verbal section on ACT but didn’t take SAT cause i was in the midwest for high school. Should I put that on my resume?
Yes ACT is fine
When adding a current position on a resume is it ok to mix past and present tense. For example, I put together the 2010 operating budget for my current employer. This is in the past but many of my current functions are present.
I would use only past to keep it consistent
Hey Brian,
What do you think about having a “Highlight of Qualifications” up at the very top after the Name Section? Our university teaches us that listing maybe 4-5 bullets under there before everything else to catch the reader’s attention. However, obviously our univ template is not focused on IB. What’s your opinion?
thanks
Nope, never include a Summary or Highlights section on IB resumes.
Just curious about the idea behind this… Wouldn’t it make it easier for the recruiter to skim over it in “30 secs” or less?
No, because all they really care about is where you went to school and the names of the companies you worked at. “Team player” and listing other skills like that at the top is useless and they just ignore it – they want to see a high GPA and brand-name schools/companies.
Are there any situations where you would list a Highlight/Summary of Qualifications section at the top of your resume for other finance jobs besides IB? Or do you exclude it altogether when applying at a bank? Thanks.
Maybe if you’re very senior (20+ years) and you have a long history that you want to summarize briefly, but other than that, no.
do you think it’s a good idea to change the label “work experience” as “finance experience”?
No.
How would banks read a sophomore rotational program in securities at a BB given that I now want to do banking? This is my only experience in finance so I feel like it should be featured at the top of my resume…
Definitely put it at the top, it’s relevant esp. if you’re only going for internships.
it looks like u overlooked my post..
I am about to apply to an IB division of a BB, and found out these questions on their application form:
1. Describe what would you consider as your greatest non-academic achievement and why (not more than 200 words).
2. Describe a valuable work experience where you were able to achieve your objective because you were persistent (not more than 200 words).
What type of answers are they actually seeking for? I am trying to relate whatever I’m about to write to numbers or other analytical ability, but am having quite some trouble with it.
Thanks always for your help!
The answers don’t matter that much – just pick something specific and write a few sentences about each one. The key is specificity – you need to have 1 particular incident that shows each one… but these answers really don’t matter much vs. your CV / interview.
Hi,
thanks for the quick response!
okay, so we exclude the club activity, can I replace it with another work experience?
however, the only problem is that my next work experience entry has nothing to do with the finance field, i’m a head chef in an Italian restaurant.
You could include something like that but I’d minimize it because it’s not that relevant.
Hi there! congratulations on such an awesome website!
Quick questions though.
I am about to apply to an IB division of a BB, and found out these questions on their application form:
1. Describe what would you consider as your greatest non-academic achievement and why (not more than 200 words).
2. Describe a valuable work experience where you were able to achieve your objective because you were persistent (not more than 200 words).
What type of answers are they actually seeking for? I am trying to relate whatever I’m about to write to numbers or other analytical ability, but am having quite some trouble with it.
Thanks always for your help!
By the way I am thinking of writing about my self-learned modelling skills, but not quite sure where to put it..
Also, in this kind of questions, should I actually tweak the facts a bit to “sell” me more?
Hi, great guide above!
I have one question though, under the section “student club”, I have no relevant student club experience at university which I can relate to the finance field.
Is it okay for me to put my high school club experience instead?
e.g. The Interact Club of School ABC
Vice President
Eh I would not put HS unless you’re 1st or 2nd year in university still.
Hi, very good guide! Brief question, how would you deal with GPA scores from different grading systems? Explain them somehow or leave it up to the recruiter? I got grades in three systems for instance, 1 (excellent) to 5 (failed) from Austria, the exact opposite from Finland and 6 (excellent) to <4 (failed) from Switzerland, which may be somehow confusing.
Just say what your grade is out of… so don’t just write “GPA: 5” write “GPA: 5 / 6” or you could convert it to the US 4.0 system and write in parentheses that you converted it.
If I am accepted in an equity research internship (in Singapore) and an IB internship but in an emerging market, which one should I take in terms of breaking into IB next time?
IB internship
any particular reason? what do I expect to do in an equity research internship? I have read in your web on what to expect from an IB internship..
any particular reason? what do I expect to do in an equity research internship? I have read in your web on what to expect from an IB internship..
Also, what kind of job should I be focusing on doing in an equity research internship?
Investment Banking is closer to Investment Banking than Equity Research. So your chances are better with IB. For ER internship I would expect similar tasks to IB but more writing of reports and such rather than working on deals. I would focus on the same things – make everyone like you, don’t screw up, and don’t try to seem smarter than the other interns.
Really helpful post!
Just wondering, sir. Does this template apply to a research analyst position? I am intending to apply to the equity research dept of a large investment bank. Does the 1-page template rule apply in Singapore?
Yes, 1-page applies anywhere except Australia. And it applies to equity research as well.
By the way, how do you think does an equity research internship experience going to help my application for an IB internship in the future?
Also, do you suggest listing the work experience in reverse-chronological order? (the newer the more to the top) or listing according to the relative strength of the experience?
It will definitely help, though not as much as IB/PE.
Reverse chronological is usually best unless your most relevant experience occurred 1-2 years before your most recent one.
Another question, M&I. I work at a boutique bank so some of our clients are small and not well known. In this case, rather just writing the name of the company, would it be better to write ‘XXX’s $100mm IPO (a software company)’? Or do I need to write the name of the company at all even if the reader would probably not know (just write ‘A XX-based software company’s $100mm IPO’)?
You could just write the name of the company and then in parenthesis put the industry name. But only do this if it has publicly announced going public.
Thanks for a very informative posting. I have one question. How would you describe an unsuccessful M&A deal in a title for one of the projects that I want to list in my resume? Normally it would be [XXX’s $XXM acquisition on XXX] but I’m not sure where I include the fact that the deal didn’t close.
The deal didn’t work out in the end, but nevertheless I have worked on it for an extensive amount of time and have a lot to show, I think. Thanks.
Just say “Pending Acquisition” rather than “Acquisition.”
Wouldn’t ‘pending acquisition’ misleading when the seller or buyer walked away at the end and the deal blew up?
Nope. How would anyone ever know unless it was very public (e.g. Microsoft / Yahoo)? Plus, deals come back to life all the time.
Thanks for your opinion!
How would you recommend formatting multiple positions within the same organization (such as two positions within one firm or student organization)? The first position name in italics, followed by the bullet points…insert a space and put the second position in italics, followed by the bullet points for that position? Thanks
That should be fine and that’s how I’d do it – leave the org name and place the same and in bold at the top, then separate position titles and dates after it, bullets, then another line, then the other position and dates and the accompanying bullets.
What if they tell you to send your resume via email? Should we use the ASCII version instead of the PDF attachment?
If it’s actually sending via email PDF is fine but for submitting online sometimes you need to paste in plain-text form i.e. ASCII.
Thank you for your post.
I’m in the Accounting master’s program but wanting to break into banking. Since all my school and work experiences are accounting, I’m in trouble to write a good resume for banking industry.
My experiences are;
1. An audit intern with one of Big 4
2. A webmaster/club member in a school investment club
3. Military experience
4. Multiple Finance/Accounting projects at a college/grad school
Do you think I should I include all of my experiences on my resume?
I would cut the webmaster experience and only list #1, #3, and #4 on your resume. For the audit / accounting experience spin it to sound more like finance and focus on any financial statement analysis you did or how your work impacted the company.
What tense should we use for currently held positions? Past tense seems to be the obvious tense for past experience, but what about a current position?
I would still use past tense to make things consistent.
quick question on the “student club section”, i went to a non US university where clubs and societies were not as popular so i dont have any experience of this
However i did do a very interesting FYP(thesis) which involved using complex mathematical and statistical methods to analyze stocks of banks… do you think i could replace the clubs section with this under work/leadership experience and elaborate on the project which is more relevant and a good conversation topic?
You don’t need a “club” section to begin with, but yes you could add in your project there
hi,
another thing I’d like to ask. I have internships that I wanna include:
1. part-time internship (work on some M&A deal) in boutique IB
2. full-time intern at startup as business developer
3. summer intern at a bulge-bracket, but back office
wondering how I should order these 3..(1 is most recent, 3 least recent)
should I put 3 bfore all the rest bcoz it has “great name”? or should I just list according to the date?
I would order them in reverse chronological order – even though #3 is a better name, it’s back office so not as relevant as #1 and #2.
Hi,
wondering what I should put after Honours?
is it just yes or no?
? You just put what specific awards you won.
Does this article apply to people appyling to London as well as the US?
I know this seems like an obvious question but I wanted to be sure?
Yes
Hi, I have a question here.
What should I do if I don’t have much work & leadership experience?
All my part time jobs have nothing to do with banking.
This really bothers me since Im already a Junior.
Then spin some finance-related clubs or workshops you’ve done into sounding like work experience, or try to get a school-year internship. Otherwise you just need to write about what you have.
I have 2 studies on my resume in physics that I didn’t finish, because I didn’t like it and the grades aren’t good. So I switched to Economics and majored in it. There I took off, with good grades. Should I include my physics history? It is somewhat relevant, because it is quite quantitative.
No, just include your overall GPA and Economics GPA.
It’s not that I didn’t finish the courses, but that I had to switch universities (Dutch system is different from US system) entirely. So also 3 different GPA’s, 2 for physics, 1 for Econ. So it bloats my resume (2 more universities), with not so good averages, and it is barely relevant, other than I have also knowledge in other areas that might be usefull for choosing a sector in investment banking
You should still list the other university, but you can just include your most recent/relevant grades
Hi,
I am applying for a position as Institutional Sale Analyst at a BB and I was just wondering if the resume is similar to a ‘normal’ IB position and if I should follow the same format as in the sample resume. I have had internships in engineering, should I include that as well or not because its not ‘relevant’ to the job(but I had to do a lot of people to people interaction) and that is important in sales.
I go to a ‘brand name school’ in my country (all leading national IBs and American banks like GS,JP, ML, MS etc recruit/used to recruit here). I graduated in electrical engineering with a CGPA of….2.59 and a final year gpa of 2.9. I know its incredibly low and I have 0 chance of getting in, but I want to apply nonetheless ( atleast I have the opportunity for applying by going to a target school so I don’t want to regret not applying). Should I include only my final year GPA or my CGPA?
I also led a team of 4 win the Business Case Competition at the university, with judges present from M/B/B and other consulting companies as well as HBS. Infact during the awards ceremony, the presenter remarked that “that’s how we would analyze the case in real life” before presenting the award. So should I include this under ‘work and leadership experience’? I know I can come up with enough bullet points, but am not sure if this award goes under the category.
I also have many other awards (this is what I was doing instead of focusing on my gpa :( ). Should I create a new Awards and Achievements section?
Sorry to bother you but I would much appreciate your help!!!
Thanks!
Yes, include internships in engineering but obviously any business internships should take precedence over technical ones. You need to include both GPAs.
You can include the case competition under work experience if you have nothing better. But honestly don’t go crazy with Awards, they are pretty much irrelevant.
With a GPA that low, you’re going to need to do a ton of cold-calling and/or very aggressive networking with alumni to get in – your resume should be your last concern.
Hi Brian,
Unfortunately I’m one of those people who interned for a bank (Lehman Brothers!!) in the “Back Office”, IT to be exact. It was so mundane I cut my losses at the end, graduated with a 3.3 GPA (not great and non-target) and have just finished a masters in finance (with massive debts), which turned out better at a 3.7 GPA (but still non-target business school).
The problem is that if I’m applying to any investment bank, whether BB or boutique, is having an IT internship going to count against me? If not, do I try and spin what I did on my resume as best I can to relate it to the “Front Office”, or do I just demonstrate analytical ability?
Thanks,
Dave
I would try to spin what you did and make it seem relevant to the front office. Obviously you can’t lie about your title or anything, but try to make it seem like you interacted with front office people a lot, did a lot of analytical work, had some leadership roles, etc.
Can we use the project-centric form for 1 experience and task-centric for another one? Also, I had an internship in import/export with a commercial bank last summer. Should I try to elaborate on that, knowing it may be of less relevance to IB than consulting, accounting, and IB itself (for those who’ve had IB experience)?
Mixing the formats is fine. If you can spin the import/export internship to make it sound relevant, I would do so esp. if you have nothing better to write about it.
Make aussie template lol
Just make it into 2-3 pages and you have the Australian template…
Great post. What about if I only have one deal in my summer intern? Do I still use the project format? You said don’t just put down one porject there as it would be odd.
If you have just one deal I would list that with your other bullets rather than using this format. You can write about it the same way but don’t have a separate transaction experience section.
Off topic.
Will there be a similar write-up of cover letter for University Graduates soon?
There is already an article on cover letters that covers all of this – there may be a template as well but I don’t think you would learn anything new with it.
Great Article,
For experienced dudes, when putting Education on bottom section, do we leave in GPA or take out? 3.2 GPA non target here (not best i know)..
Since its been about 6 years since college grad does it make sense to take the GPA line out and just leave school, major, 1 or 2 associations?? Thanks.
I would leave out GPA if that’s the case, no point if it has been 6 years
What if you’ve been out of school for 2 years and don’t have much finance related work experience (short stint at a top 5 accounting firm before layoffs and retail banking for the last year), do I still put Education at the bottom? Do I still add my GPA (3.4)?
If it’s a well-known school list Education at the top. I would not add GPA unless they ask for it.
Thanks for the tips about project/task centric formatting. You da man.
I was wondering though if you have more than one internship, but can only apply the task-centric formatting to the most recent internship (because of fewer responsibilities at the other internships) – do you still suggest to format the experience like that and for the other ones just have 3 bullet points? Or is it more important to be consistent and just have all experiences listed with the simple bullet point format?
yes it’s fine to do what you suggested don’t need the same format for everything
quick question.
I had interned at Wachovia Sec back in 2007 before the merger w/ Wells Fargo.
On resume, should I put down Wachovia or can I go with Wells Fargo?
let me know..
either one doesn’t matter
really useful post! i was wondering, when the first year analyst review the resumes to decide who to invite for an interview, do they look at the other questions that are included in the online application form? or is it only solely on the resume within 30 seconds? i am an applicant in the uk, and these questions are a common part of the online application process. thanks!
In the UK those questions are more important so I think they actually read them… resume/CV weighs more heavily of course, but those questions do come into play. I wouldn’t spend a lot of time on them, but make sure you give coherent answers.
Where would one put information about, say, a senior honors thesis? Or is that not even something that’s relevant to I-Banking?
Put it under Education on a separate line
“Completed Senior Honors Thesis on….”
I would only include if its related to economics/finance/business or if it looks “interesting” (good discussion topic in interviews)
Great post! I had a question though. I’m at an economic consulting firm which provides economic and financial analysis for law firms, primarily those representing defendants. So I’ve, for instance, worked on a case relating to the collapse of a major hedge fund. How would I list that in the project portion?
Thanks!
$xx Hedge Fund Collapse – Economic Consulting Case
When will templates for ppl already working full-time be posted?
let me know
It’s basically the same, except you flip Education and put it below Work Experience instead.
Since 90% of it is the same, I probably won’t do a separate article on it – I am going to create something on a template for current bankers applying to the buy-side since that can be a bit more detailed.
M&I or Anyone,
If your working on raising debt for lets just say a subsidiary of major company say Caterpillar for sake of argument, and its not finalized but you worked on it in your internship how would I account for this?
[Company Industry] Company – $xx MM Debt Financing (Pending)
I really like this article, and this whole website in general is excellent. However, I do have a question about the education requirements. I have a high schools GPA of 3.5, and for the SAT’s I scored 560 on Reading, 510 on Math, and 510 on Writing. I am retaking them but don’t except any miracles. The bottom line is I am not the most book smart guy in the world, and I will not be attending any ivy league institutions.
I will most likely be attending a CUNY school, such as Baruch. I will not be leavening NYC because I know I will need to network like a mad man to get a job in I-banking without a degree from Harvard. Do I have any realistic shot of landing a job in I-banking with my educational background? Or do I have to make it big in finance as a salesman? Gordon Gekko went to a City College ;)
Yeah I mean like everyone else with lower grades and a non-brand-name school, you will have to network like crazy to get in. If you’re fine spending several hours per day calling people and you don’t mind that kind of “work” then go ahead – going to NYU or another top school in the area would certainly make it a lot easier, but if you feel you can’t get your scores up to par and would prefer to network instead, you can go that route.
Nice post, I plan on using the resume with a few changes here and there. I was just recently accepted as a transfer student at a top university where these banks recruit, how do you think this would affect my chances. I am also studying engineering so I would be interested in joining the technology division. I have read some of your posts about how to get in as in engineer and I think they are quite helpful, however I want to leave my options open. I might eventually go on to grad school for a masters, would this affect it in any way.
One last thing, how difficult is it to get private equity analyst positions directly from undergrad, I don’t really have any finance experience, all I have been doing is research even though I am starting to find ways to gain finance experience.
Transfer will help you
PE without any finance experience is near impossible – you need at least an internship in PE/IBD to have more than a 0% chance. PE recruits 99% from former PE/IB guys
Does ‘Conversational Proficiency’ mean “I can do this entire interview in [language]” or “I can generally understand what you are saying and can explain myself sufficiently in [language]?”
When in doubt, be conservative. Usually they expect you to be able to answer basic questions if you list that – if it comes up, just explain you don’t know the necessary business vocab. to do an interview in that language. Just make sure you don’t write “Fluent” unless you can read newspapers and understand astrophysics lectures…
Also, where would you throw in second majors/minors?
Add a line to the Education section and list it under GPA / SAT.
Hi,
Thanks for posting the template, I think it really helped my resume. I have a question about having 5 different experiences in the work and leadership section. I know 5 (3 work, 2 student groups) is a bit overkill, but of the 3 work exp’s, only 2 are finance related and both only lasted for a week each (sophomore rotational program at a BB and a job shadowing-type internship at a F500). I want to emphasize them as much as possible though, but not at the expense of my student group experiences (my best two). I am leaning towards removing the F500 experience, but is the name brand enough to justify the space (2 bullets)? I also can’t remove the other work exp because it’s what i am doing this summer (math research fellowship). I would really appreciate any advice you can give me here.
Thanks in advance,
Max
I would still keep them all in in that case but maybe just have 1 bullet on the F500 experience.
Hi,
Thanks for all the posts…they help a lot.
My questions is: for Why XXX bank questions or Why XXX position questions, what are they looking for??
Thanks,
You need to tell them you’ve spoken with someone or know someone there, mention their name, and say that’s why you want to do it… written about this before numerous times and it’s in the interview guide.
One thing you didn’t mention: no one will really care if your resume looks similar to everyone else’s as long as it looks good. When I read resumes, the only time I really notice or remember the formatting is when it’s terrible. Personally, I would love it if everyone used this template.
True. Though if you saw 50 in a row using the exact same template, you might get suspicious…
I can’t download the templates haha. Taken it off or technical problem?
should be up again
If we manage a portfolio and devote a fair amount of time to it (~10 hours a week) and have had a pretty decent return, would that be eligible for the work/leadership experience section? Or is that better left for the Skill, Activities and Interests type section?
If you don’t have anything better (for example, all the rest of your activities are school-related and you have no real internships), then I would list it as a “work experience entry” – but if you already have solid internships then I would just put it in the Skills/Activities/Interests section.
I don’t have any IB experience so I’m trying to supplement that by adding some relevant course projects I’ve completed to my resume. So stuff like “analyzed financial ratios of company A and made stock recommendation…” Is it even worth putting this on my resume, and if so, where is the best place to put it. Would it make sense to create bullet points under “relevant coursework”?
I would just put it under relevant coursework and briefly explain what you did. If something is major enough to be considered “work experience” then you could make a separate entry for it there.
Should you include both your permanent (home) address as well as your college (mailing) address?
I don’t think it’s necessary because 99% of communication is done via email/phone. If you’re going to be gone for a long time and you’re expecting to get mail from them, just email or call them to let you know your address changed.
Great post, as usual. This is off topic, but I still have not found it somewhere. Can you write some sort of framework for what a good answer to “tell me about yourself is”. I’ve seen many different suggestions in different guides, and I’m still not sure what is a good answer. Of course each person will be different, but what would a typical structure of the answer be (for a college student going for a SA / FT position in IBD).
“tell me about yourself” = “walk me through your resume”
As 1st Year said, it’s just a “walk me through your resume” question. I covered the most common mistakes a long time ago but I might do something in the fall and give more of a “formula” (though to have the most success with anything, you never follow someone else’s formula…).
Hey, that’s my resume!
Great minds…
this is great article! thanks for posting it. I have a quick question for SAT score. I have a high quant score 790 but a low verbal around 500 since I was intl student and I took it 4 years ago. But now I am currently studying in US for undergrad and my english is much better. so should I just list my quant score? also do i need to list gre, gmat score, or if i am taking actuarial exams? would these help too? Thanks a lot!
In that case I would probably not list your SAT score at all – just listing the math score will raise questions.
Listing GRE or GMAT instead is probably a better idea assuming your scores there are good (for the GMAT, over 700).
I badly can wait for this article regarding the guys who alread has 1year and a half experience with M&A.
Congrats… Your website is amazing.
M&A resumes are actually easier than university student ones… fewer decisions to make on what to include / not include.
Amazing Tutorial. Quick Question: As a recent graduate (trying to recruit again for the upcoming Fall), should I also follow this similar pattern? I have been in contact with some companies and they seem to be okay with the fact that I have graduated (this past spring) and will apply with the same “student” pool. Any help would be greatly appreciated. By the way, is Kevin going to post a similar tutorial for consulting? Or is this somewhat similar for both industries?
Yeah I would use the same pattern if you don’t have any (or much) full-time work experience.
Not sure what Kevin will do, but the ideal resume looks very similar for banking and consulting. Main difference is that my “Project-Centric” structure is not as helpful or necessary with consulting.