“I’ve been getting a lot of tips on how to write it, mostly from my staff. They really seem to be up on this stuff. They tell me I have to use the active voice for the resume. You know, things like “Commanded U.S. Armed Forces,” “Ordered air strikes,” “Served three terms as President.” Everybody embellishes a little.”

-President Bill Clinton, White House Correspondents Dinner, April 29, 2000

(Yes, I know I’ve used this one before in my guide to getting investment banking jobs, but it’s good and I still like it)

Over the past week I’ve reviewed a flood of resumes from my readers and those on Wall Street Oasis interested in having an “expert” (if that’s what you want to call me) give feedback on the one document that determines your entire future (no, not really, just whether or not you get an investment banking summer internship).

Generally the resumes I’ve seen fall into 1 of 2 categories: they are either very impressive and don’t need much work aside from minor formatting issues, or they are good but suffer from a few common problems (yes, this means I haven’t seen anything that was truly bad so far).

Common Problems

The two most common problems I’ve seen are not being specific enough and not focusing on results. Two of the pre-requisites for doing investment banking are attention to detail and being able to count. So if your resume reads, “Compiled information on acquisitions,” the bankers reviewing your resume might rightfully think that you can neither count how many acquisitions you researched nor be attentive to details such as the kinds of companies you investigated.

And one way investment bankers distinguish themselves from lawyers and other professionals is getting paid for results rather than hours (ok, and nothing can touch those investment banking salaries either). So it’s important to focus on the results.

Attention To Detail / Are You Sure You Can Count?

Going back to my previous example on researching acquisition targets, here’s an example of what NOT to write on your resume:

• “Researched acquisition targets in the construction and home-building industries.”

It’s a bit of an improvement what I wrote above. But there’s still not much detail here. How did you research these targets? What sources did you use? Did you read the Wall Street Journal? Did you use Capital IQ or Factset or an internal database? Did you speak to experts in the industry?

What criteria did you use for selecting the acquisition targets? Was it based on their revenue/market cap/profitability/valuation? How did you narrow down the list from hundreds to tens? What weight did you place on the management team and market dynamics?

Beyond just the detail, there’s also the problem of counting. How many targets did you research? How many interested the buyers you pitched them to?

Here’s a much better version of the same bullet point:

• “Researched over 100 acquisition targets in the construction and home-building industries using Capital IQ and internal databases and narrowed list down to 10 best companies. Used financial screening criteria such as revenue growth and EBITDA margins. Also used qualitative criteria such as market dynamics in construction sub-segments, strength of management teams and exposure to subprime mortgage.”

This is still not quite the best it could be, but it’s an improvement over the first attempt. The point is not to show that you’re an expert on acquisition candidates in the construction and home-building industries; the point is to show that you did substantial work and can intelligently speak to it in the language of finance.

Results Oriented

In our hypothetical example, we’re still missing one key ingredient that I’ve seen missing from many resumes as well: the results of whatever you did.

The most common reason I’ve seen for not listing results on a resume is not knowing what the results were or not being able to directly tie anything to your work. If this is the case, be creative and come up with results. I’m not suggesting that you lie, but as Bill Clinton points out above, sometimes you do have to play up what happened. Don’t go suggesting your beautiful Excel graph resulted in $1 million of additional revenue, but claiming improved efficiency or time/money saved is fine.

The result doesn’t have to be something earth-shattering: it can be relatively simple. Here’s how we might add a result to the example of acquisition target research above:

• “Researched over 100 acquisition targets in the construction and home-building industries using Capital IQ and internal databases and narrowed list down to 10 best companies. Used financial screening criteria such as revenue growth, EBITDA margins and assets owned. Also used qualitative criteria such as market dynamics in construction sub-segments, strength of management teams and exposure to mortgage problems. Resulted in private equity firm doing additional diligence on 3 of the companies.“

This example is a bit of a stretch because there’s often no real way to know how many companies they were truly interested in. And often it may actually be impossible to state what the results of your work were.

My point, though, is that there must be at least a few times in your previous work experience where you COULD link a result to your work. It’s fine not to have results for every single entry, but when I read a resume that has absolutely 0 results, I wonder if the person could have done better.

Usually, the answer is yes.

Formatting Issues

As an aside, I also saw quite a few formatting issues with resumes. I’ve said before that recruiters only spend around 30 seconds reading your resume, so what’s the big deal?

Well, the Analysts and Associates who review your resume can find formatting errors very quickly. Practically half the job of an investment banking analyst is to locate formatting mistakes in PowerPoint and fix them. So when your dates are not aligned or you italicize text incorrectly or make a blatant spelling mistake, there is a chance we could find it (even in the span of 30 seconds).

With something as important as your resume, you might as well take the time to make sure the formatting is perfect. Don’t go overboard and try to decorate your resume, but print it out and spend 10 minutes fixing inconsistencies.

Resume Reviews

For resume reviews, please refer to our investment banking resume review service. Make sure the problems listed here are corrected before sending any resumes.

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Tags: attention to detail, investment banker, investment banking, investment banking analyst, investment banking resume

Posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 4:00 am.