While this is a great strategy for reducing risk, it carries with it an additional challenge: how to decide on an uncertain offer vs. a certain but “lesser” offer.

Meanwhile, the usual questions on how investment bankers read resumes and whether advanced degrees are actually useful continue to come in.

Hedging Your Bear Stearns Summer Offer

“I got a summer internship offer with Bear Stearns during recruiting season this year. I was nervous about what would happen, so I started hedging my offer and talking to smaller firms and received a summer analyst offer with a regional bank.

Although the internship is unpaid, the office does have good dealflow and has a decent record of sending summer interns to bigger banks.

I still technically have an offer with Bear Stearns, so is there any way I can try to postpone a decision here and wait to see what happens with Bear? It’s not that I don’t want to work at the boutique, but all else being equal, I’d rather get paid a decent amount for the summer rather than earning nothing.”

Inquisitor:

First off, in general I wouldn’t be too concerned about the pay. You should be much more concerned over having an internship at all vs. not having one! Making $12K in one summer sounds nice but in the long run it’s not that much money, especially if you go into finance eventually. With internships you always want to be more focused on the experience rather than the pay.

It’s difficult to postpone your offer decision because they’ll know what you’re doing. So I don’t know how far you can push back the timing here.

It seems likely that at least some Bear Stearns offers will be honored, but I would lean toward going with the smaller bank and be assured of actually getting a banking summer internship rather than having it fall through.

Normally I tell people to avoid boutiques and smaller firms if possible, but it’s a bit different here because:

1. It’s just a summer internship, so it’s not as relevant for future opportunities as the bank where you’re a full-time analyst will be.
2. There is a chance that Bear summer offers will fall through (again, no one knows for sure) and it’s better to have an internship 100% rather than have the chance of losing one, especially at this late stage.

Who Really Reads Resumes?

“I understand that the people who read investment banking resumes are usually analysts who went to the school in question. However, are they usually recent graduates, or have been analysts for a couple years?

For example, if I send my resume in through on-campus-recruiting in Fall 2008, will it likely be reviewed by someone who graduated in 2008, or graduated in 2007 and been in the industry for at least a year?”

Inquisitor:

Analysts at all levels will review resumes - even back when I started a few years ago, I was reviewing resumes a couple months into the job and making interview decisions. Sometimes it’s actually 1st Year Analysts who do the bulk of resume reading since it’s a task that 2nd/3rd year Analysts tend not to want.

It may sound interesting to determine peoples’ fate and who gets interviews based on resumes, but it gets tiring when you have to read hundreds and only have 30 seconds to spend on each one. Reviewing resumes and helping people improve them is much more fun.

It may seem haphazard to allow recent hires to make interview decisions, but you don’t need a lot of deal experience to make interview decisions - you just need recruiting experience.

The Value Of A Master’s Degree

“I’m currently a non-business undergrad looking to get into trading. I graduate in one semester and have been trying to get a summer job at banks, but my best shot may have just imploded with Bear Stearns’ collapse. They probably have no time to worry about interviewing people at this point, even those who made it to final rounds.

If that happens and it falls through, I would be left with no internship and no other offers, giving me almost no shot of getting into finance.

Getting an MBA seems worthless post-graduation since only lower tier schools would even consider someone with no work experience. However, I was thinking a Master’s Degree in Finance or related major could serve as a segway into a finance career. I’m considering such a program at a well-known undergraduate business school currently - do you think this is my best option for getting into finance?”

Inquisitor:

As you said, it would definitely be a mistake to get an MBA without work experience first; it won’t help you get into finance at all if you go to a lower-tier school.

The Master’s program you mention will not give you a significant advantage; although it is at a good school, it’s not equivalent to an MBA.

The main advantage it would give you is time - you would have more time to find jobs because you could take advantage of the full-time recruiting cycle in the fall.

Before doing this, you should check on how many banks recruit there in the fall and how many people get jobs at banks via that program.

But if you don’t have an internship or full-time offer lined up currently, the Master’s program is probably your best option.

As the economy worsens and hiring slows down even more, I suspect more people will make this same decision and head back to school.

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I’m not sure there’s much more to say on the topic at this point in time, but as the situation evolves you may well expect another installment in the saga (I think Episode 3: The Return of The Offer would be appropriate, assuming everything goes well for the Bear Stearns summer interns and full-time hires out there).

I’m going to wrap up the week with another installment of reader Q&A covering some of the non-Bear-Stearns related questions I’ve received recently.

Summer Internships vs. Study Abroad

“I’m trying to decide what to do this summer.  Last year I interned at a non-investment-banking financial services/consulting firm (think Deloitte, Standard & Poor, Moody’s) and have the option to go back there this year and work in a different division.  However, I also have the opportunity to do a study abroad program in Europe, study international finance and visit branches of large financial firms.

And in addition to both of those, I’m also interviewing for a rotational program at a bulge bracket bank.  However, I don’t know what my chances are there and I’m still early in the interview process.

Which of these options is best if my goal is to get into investment banking?  And what if I don’t get the rotational program?”   

Inquisitor:

As you alluded to, the bulge bracket internship would be your best option if you want to do investment banking, simply because, well, it’s an investment bank.  If you get that I would take it without hesitation.

If you don’t land that offer, the decision is a bit tougher.  International experience heavily always looks good when applying for finance jobs (I relied heavily on my study abroad experience when I was recruiting), and it would be good to mix things up and get different kinds of experience.

Since you already had an internship at the same financial/consulting firm last summer, going there again may have diminishing returns.  And since it’s not at an investment bank, private equity firm, or hedge fund, it is not going to help you a tremendous amount if you want to get into one of those.

I would lean toward going to Europe, but I don’t think you can go wrong with either one.

How To Cover Up Low GPAs

“I go to a prestigious university, but my performance over my first 2 years there was poor and as a result I had a low-3.0 GPA.  I’m confident I can maintain a 3.5 or better for my last 1.5 years here, but am concerned about my poor initial GPA.

I have been including a statement on my resume explaining that my performance over my first 2 years fell short of my capabilities and I was not serious/focused, but I have since changed and been doing much better.   Going forward, my GPA will be at least a 3.5 and so my overall GPA will be up as well.

Do you think this is unnecessary or should I leave it in?

Inquisitor:

I would not include that statement on your resume itself, for a couple reasons:

1. It seems quite out of place to list that on a resume.  If anything, you would put it in your cover letter (although as I’ve said before, we rarely read them).
2. You do not have any extraordinary circumstances like a death in the immediate family or illness that can easily explain away the low GPA.
3. Your GPA is not yet significantly higher; you just say it will be higher.  Statements like this work best if you did poorly freshman year, for example, but then got a 4.0 your sophomore year.  That proves you experienced a dramatic turnaround.

Your GPA is what it is, and it’s very difficult to hide it from recruiters and others at investment banks reading your resume.  As I’ve written before, the best thing to do with a low GPA is to network and avoid going through the standard recruiting process.  Once you get your foot in the door, all that matters is your investment banking interview performance.

Perhaps if your major GPA is significantly higher, you can list that as well, which may help assuage low GPA fears at the bank.

How To Get Into Banking With A Truly International Background

“I’m from East Asia and currently study abroad in central Europe at a business university there.  While it’s very well-known in the region, internationally it is not a top-tier school.  I will graduate in a year with the equivalent of a Master’s Degree.

I have applied to some bulge bracket jobs but was declined, so now I’m applying to local investment banks here.  Since my university is not a target school for bigger banks and my GPA is not stellar, I have had a difficult time getting interviews.

Do you think someone with my background realistically stands a chance at getting an investment banking job?  Should I do an internship at a local bank?  Should I get a CFA?”

Inquisitor:

You certainly have a unique background.  I think you can get into investment banking with your background, but it would be best to focus on regional and local banks as you have done.  Right now the job market is rather poor so it will be difficult to work at bulge bracket banks, even at the ones that didn’t go out of business in the past week.

A CFA will not help you all that much - getting banking experience, even if it’s a smaller bank, is definitely the way to go.  If you have to, offer to work for free just so you can get the proper experience and start building relationships for a bigger and better job down the line.

I would also reach out to alumni of your university who work in finance or investment banking and see how they can help you find jobs or refer you to regional banks looking to hire.  Alumni networking is by far the best way to break into investment banking for those with a non-traditional background.

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What can background checks actually reveal about you?  Should you be afraid if you told a slight fib and they find out?  Who will these background check agencies actually speak with?

Background Check Timing

Background checks are always done after you’ve already accepted an offer at an investment bank, never before or during the banking interview process.  It’s simply too costly to justify doing before you accept an offer.

For full-time hires, background checks are usually done before you receive your signing bonus in the winter or spring, but that’s not always the case; some banks do it just after you start training in the summer.

Background checks are conducted on summer interns a few months before they start, although I’ve heard that some banks (generally boutiques and smaller firms) don’t do it at all (!).

The Scope Of Background Checks

The scope of these background checks depends greatly on the bank.  Some take it very seriously and go into detail on everything in your past, while others just make sure you weren’t one of the founders of Enron.

The general rule of thumb is simple: don’t lie and don’t put any lies in writing on your banking resume or on the background check form.

Generally background check agencies will run a credit check on you, verify your employment history, and check your criminal/police records.  They may also request or gain access to your academic records, and often they will request your transcript.

Medical records are one notable exception - banks cannot legally obtain them without your explicit consent and should not make them part of a background check.

One final note - pretty much all banks will require a drug test as well so you should be prepared for that!

Credit Check

This is one area where you don’t have much to worry about.  Missing a few credit card payments will not sink you, nor will having a low credit score (e.g. under 600).

They will care if you’ve declared bankruptcy before, and this is the one thing to watch for with credit checks.  In some states it is illegal to discriminate against employees who have declared bankruptcy, but this doesn’t mean it won’t be flagged and brought to their attention

If you have declared bankruptcy, simply list it and provide an explanation.  It’s highly unlikely anything will actually happen to you, but better safe than sorry.

Employment History

The agency will speak with each of your former employers that you list on your resume and on your background check forms to verify that you worked the dates you listed.

Does it matter if you’re off by a month or a few weeks?  No.

It does matter if you’re off by a year or completely fabricate a position you never had.

You don’t need to worry about every part-time ice cream shop job you’ve ever had.  Just list the major jobs and internships - no one is going to fault you for not listing that 10-hour a week part-time job at the university library your freshman year.

Aside from verifying the employment dates, there’s not much information they can get very easily… at most, they might verify your reason for leaving and salary, but aside from that employers are not likely to say too much.

References

Along with your employment history, banks will typically ask you to list 3-4 references who know you well and can speak about your personal qualities as well as your work ethic, teamwork, etc.  Basically the qualities that any investment banker needs.

You should be careful to pick the appropriate references here.  I listed a combination of family friends who knew me through the years and previous summer internship bosses I had.

Before I submitted the background check form, I spoke with each of my references briefly to give a heads up about the background check and let them know what to expect.

I strongly recommend you do this, simply as a courtesy to all your references and so they can give more informed “testimonials.”

Other People They May Contact

Aside from your references, be aware that the background check firm may contact people involved with any other activity listed on your resume.

Right before I started, they contacted some of the organizations I was in and emailed people to verify that I had been involved with the organization on the dates listed on my resume.

This caught me off guard - I did not expect them to look into my activities as well.

Be careful of what you list and consider everyone they might potentially contact.

Work Experience Outside The US

This is one area where background check firms are relatively weak.  Especially in non-English-speaking countries (e.g. most of Asia), it is difficult to contact companies and verify exactly what you did and when you did it.

It’s much easier to get away with something questionable if it happened outside the US.

This doesn’t apply quite as much to experience in the UK, Australia, or Canada; it’s more the case in Central/Eastern Europe and Japan, China, and Korea where companies are more difficult to contact and cultural differences can prevent them background check firms from getting anywhere.

Criminal And Police Records

The general rule of thumb still applies here: don’t lie and don’t omit information.  If you have a DUI on your record or some other entanglements with the law, you have to list them and explain each incident.

A DUI is not going to be enough for a firm to rescind an offer; being convicted of murder or embezzlement, of course, would probably result in a rescinded offer.

Other crimes fall somewhere in the middle; you definitely want to`disclose everything, but it’s questionable whether or not these incidents could get you un-hired.

If you have any offense more serious than speeding tickets or a DUI, get yourself a lawyer and get it removed from your record or at least reduced in severity ASAP.

Academic Records And GPA

I’ve seen arguments go both ways on this.  Some claim that by signing the release forms and agreeing to a background check, you give the firm the right to access to your university and high school records; others claim that there’s no way they can do this unless you submit your transcript.

It also depends somewhat on the state and university, but in general it’s safe to assume your college transcript will be examined.

If you inflated your GPA slightly, as in stating 3.5 when it was really 3.44, that’s not enough to get you flagged.

But if you said 4.0 when you had a 2.8, that’s a completely different story.

Bottom line is don’t lie about GPA as it’s not even that important anyway… writing a 3.9 when you had a 3.7 is just plain silly, so why take the chance?

Drug Tests

One of my co-workers once remarked that drug tests are just stupidity tests.  If you’ve done any drugs recently, figure out a way to push back the drug test.

If you’re a regular drug user, though, there’s no way you can do this job.  There’s always that old running joke people make about investment bankers all being cocaine addicts, but you will not survive in this job if you do drugs on a regular basis.

Written vs. Spoken Words

There’s a big difference between what you write on a resume and background check forms vs. what you say in investment banking interviews.

I’ve received some questions to the effect of, “Well, I mentioned a slightly higher GPA or SAT score in an interview… am I going to get arrested and lose my job now?”

The answer is no, for two distinct reasons:

1. Those interviewing you will not be in contact with the background check firm, only HR will.  They don’t have the time to worry about this stuff nor will they even remember what you said.
2. There is nothing in writing, so long as you listed the correct GPA/SAT/GMAT score on your resume.

There is a small, small chance that something could happen here but it’s not worth losing sleep over.

Your Experience With Background Checks

I’m curious to hear your experience with background checks.  Am I off on anything written here?  Did a background check at a particular firm catch you by surprise?

Leave a comment or email me and let me know.

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The investment banking internship recruiting season continued in full force in February 2008, and many readers asked questions on how to decide on summer internship offers and also how to get them in the first place.

I covered a good amount of investment banking lifestyle material as well, as including the perennial question of just how high investment banking salaries are.

Getting An Investment Banking Job / Getting A Private Equity Job

For those seeking investment banking jobs or summer internships, I wrote the most detailed, freely available guide to superday interviews out there. Why bother with an over-priced Vault guide when you have this? (Well, assuming Vault guide isn’t free for you anyway).

And for those struggling to get investment banking interviews in the first place, either because they are from non-target schools or are trying to break in from other industries, I wrote a guide on using networking to get into investment banking.

Beyond just investment banking summer recruiting, private equity recruiting for the summer of 2009 is also starting up. For those looking to break into the industry, I wrote a guide on how to write the ideal private equity resume and how to write about your investment banking and deal experience.

Finally, beyond just the usual resume advice, I also launched a resume review service at the start of this month for those who are looking to improve their resumes. Those who have used the service so far have been very pleased with the results and I’ll add some testimonials to the page eventually.

Deciding On Investment Banking Summer Internships

I also received many questions on how to decide on summer internship offers this month, so decided to run 2 reader Q&A columns.

One was focused on how to choose an investment banking summer internship, while the other focused on breaking into investment banking with a Ph.D. background, whether to choose a boutique or bulge bracket summer internship, and how to handle informational interviews.

I hope these have answered many of your questions in these Q&A features, but as always, contact me if anything else comes up.

Investment Banking Lifestyle And Investment Banking Salaries

I did not focus on lifestyle questions as much this month, but did manage to cover the worst time to be an investment banker: Friday at 4 PM. That’s when everything bad happens and when the investment banking analyst gets his weekend work. And if you’ve ever wondered why attention to detail is so important as one of the qualities a banker needs, I covered that as well.

I also settled a longstanding question over whether or not investment bankers or McDonald’s employees earned a higher salary. It turns out, contrary to popular belief and a widely circulated email several years ago, investment banking salaries are indeed higher than what you could earn at McDonald’s, even on an hourly basis.

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-Steve Schwarzman, Fortune Magazine Interview (March 5, 2007)

If you want to be like Steve here and become King Of Wall Street, your first step will be tailoring your resume to get those private equity interviews and break into the industry.

Sure, you did a great job with your investment banking resume. You got into a top group on Wall Street, or even if you didn’t, you at least managed to land a job at a boutique investment bank.

But if you want to be King, you have to think about your resume once again.

And with private equity recruiting season having just started, I figured a discussion of private equity resumes would be a good way to start the week.

In many ways tailoring your resume for buyside jobs is similar to crafting the perfect investment banking resume.

But it’s different in one critical aspect: you have to focus entirely on your investment banking experience rather than trying to be inclusive of everything else you’ve done.

Sure, for MBA admissions or jobs outside finance, show the whole picture. But for private equity jobs, your investment banking and deal experience are all that matter.

Private Equity Resume Structure

About half your resume should be comprised of your current investment banking job. Minimize your pre-banking experience. Yes, they will cover this during interviews, but the purpose of a resume is to get your foot in the door.

Education should be at the bottom of your resume now (unlike with investment banking analyst resumes), and the top of your resume should start with your contact information and then immediately jump into your Work Experience, starting with your investment banking job.

Writing About Your Investment Banking Job

Start this section with one or two brief sentences about your overall responsibilities and the types of deals you’ve worked on thus far. You could also include information on any special projects that were not deal-related but nevertheless contributed to the firm in some way.

There should be three key pieces of information you relay in this introductory sentence:

1. Number of deals worked on
2. Types of deals worked on - M&A (sellside and buyside), IPOs, Follow-Ons, Convertibles, Debt
3. Skills gained - LBO modeling, accretion/dilution modeling, DCF skills, valuation

I hesitate to give a sample sentence here because I don’t want every single investment banker out there to have an identical resume.

Once you’ve picked this as your summary, you need to decide on deals to write about and then go into detail on your transaction experience - this is the heart of your private equity resume.

Choosing Your Deals

An experienced banker once told me that it would be “difficult to get a private equity job without closed deals on your resume.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth. When private equity firms recruit in between the middle of your first year and beginning of your second year, they don’t expect that everyone will have closed deals by then. Some analysts never even close deals at all!

When picking deals to write about, what you personally contributed to the deal is more important than the size or “prestige” of the deal. Yes, it’s nice to have $50 billion M&A deals under your name, but if all you did was a simple valuation or basic research for the other team members, don’t make it a focal point of your resume.

Always lean toward picking the deals where you learned the most and were the most unusual vs. choosing larger deals that were pretty standard and didn’t give you much unique experience.

For private equity jobs, also try to write about M&A deals rather than capital markets transactions - what you do on a daily basis is MUCH closer to M&A than anything else. Debt might be ok to write about as well, but avoid IPOs and FOs if at all possible.

Writing About Your Deals

This will be very M&A-biased because that is what private equity firms look for. I’ll start by giving an example of how NOT to write about a deal, much like I did with investment banking resumes and internship experience.

How NOT To Write About A Deal

• $5B Sale Of Company Y To Company X
  • Drafted Offering Memorandum and Management Presentation and tracked status of deal with potential buyers
  • Managed due diligence process between Company Y and different buyers and responded to all inquiries

So what’s the problem with this? It’s too generic. The two items listed here would be expected of any investment banking analyst working on a sellside M&A deal. That’s what you as an Investment Banking Analyst do - you write the sales documents, maintain buyer logs, and send documents to interested parties.

There’s nothing here that makes me think, “This deal looks like a great experience!” And it commits the cardinal sin of not being results-oriented and specific.

The Right Way To Write About A Deal

You need to focus on what was unique about the deal. Did you influence the negotiation process somehow? Did an analysis you created result in a lower/higher price or get new buyers interested? Did you analyze the market in a way that led to more interest or a better price?

If you can’t think of anything unique to write about, pick a different deal. Sometimes it just isn’t possible, and there are many generic deals that are not good material to talk or write about.

Here’s how I would re-write my example above:

• $5B Sale Of Company Y To Company X
  • Worked directly with CFO to build complex operating model of company involving 40 different properties across multiple states
  • Created market analysis showing favorable trends in casino construction despite subprime-related problems; led to 2 private equity buyers remaining in the auction process until the final round

It is still the same length as the previous attempt, but this one is about 500 times better. It shows what you did that was specific to the deal, and what some of the results of your work were. And it skips all the generic stuff that is part of any sellside M&A process.

I would actually try to expand on what I’ve written above and go into even more detail, assuming that’s possible.

Writing About Unannounced Or Dead Deals

This is fine. Just don’t mention any names or anything that could be tied directly to the specific deal. You’ll more than likely have to do this anyway when applying for private equity jobs.

Sometimes this can be tricky if it’s a very large or well-known deal that everyone has speculated on but has not been announced yet (e.g. Yahoo / Microsoft before the bid became official). In these cases I would avoid mentioning specific numbers or dollar amounts and instead use percentages and be a bit more general (without being generic) to make sure you’re not disclosing anything confidential.

Parting Thoughts

Successfully tailoring your resume for private equity jobs is similar to creating a successful investment banking resume. Be specific, quantify, and focus on results. Focus on deals, whether announced or unannounced, and what you contributed that was unique to each deal.

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Over the past few months, I’ve received countless requests to review readers’ resumes.

However, due to my schedule at work, maintaining and updating this site, and working on other projects, I have been unable to respond to most readers in a timely fashion. And when I do respond I can only take a quick 5-minute look at the resume and provide only basic comments on what to fix.

Instead of responding to requests for resume critiques in a 2-3 weeks, my new service will allow me to respond in 3-5 days.

And I can actually give detailed, line-by-line feedback on what needs fixing, rather than just saying, “Looks good!” or “Be more specific and quantify what you do more!”

Read more about my new resume review service.

January was the second full month of operation for Mergers & Inquisitions, and I’m proud to say that visitors and pageviews more than doubled over December levels! I hope you’re continuing to find the site useful. Some of you have sent emails and resume review requests and I will get back to you, it just takes awhile to respond based on my schedule and how much else is going on at the time.

In terms of content, I focused on tips for resumes, internships and getting those investment banking jobs you’ve been after.

Investment Banking Resumes

I wrote 2 articles on resumes - one covering common mistakes in investment banking resumes, and one on how investment bankers read resumes and decide who gets interviews and who doesn’t.

If you want to send me your resume, please make sure to read those 2 articles first as many of your questions will be answered already. If your resume suffers from problems mentioned in those it may take me longer to respond to you as well.

Investment Banking Summer Internship Tips

With recruiting season in full swing, everyone was also very focused on getting investment banking summer internships. To address reader questions, I wrote articles on how the investment banking interview selection process works and on how to improve your offer success rate.

These were both in addition to my already existing guide to getting an investment banking job, published back in November. If you haven’t already read it and want to break into investment banking, be sure to check it out!

Some readers have also asked me about how to do well in their summer internships and improve their chances of getting full-time offers, so I wrote another article about that - How To Dominate Your Investment Banking Summer Internship.

Other Reader Questions And Investment Banking Lifestyle Posts

With all the news of layoffs and the downturn in the economy, some have also asked me if it’s even a good time to get into banking. The short answer: you really have no choice, so do it now anyway. For the longer answer, see my post on signs of a recession in the financial services world.

A couple readers also asked about the “best” groups (despite my insistence that your team matters more than the prestige of your group) and specifically about UBS LA, so I addressed that in a brief post outlining the rise and fall of UBS LA.

Although it was not a commonly asked question, I also looked at a bulge bracket vs. a boutique and went through some of the reasons why I strongly recommend going to the best name you can.

Finally, in another reader Q&A post I covered questions about sales & trading resumes, breaking in from the pharmaceutical industry and the relevance of international experience in China when applying to investment banking jobs.

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Tailoring A Resume For Sales & Trading

“Found your website through ibankingoasis forums and it has definitely helped me shape up my resume. Before I read this site, I did not have any of the “bankify” qualities you mentioned. Definitely top notch.

I’m currently a junior in college and am still deciding between investment banking and sales & trading. I’m wondering, do you have any expertise on what a more sales & trading oriented resume should include? I am reading through my resume now and it lacks numbers. Most of the work I have done in the past cannot be quantified.

Finally, would you recommend a resume editing service such as the one provided by Vault?”

Inquisitor:

Thanks for your comments - I’m glad you have found my site helpful.

There’s not much of a difference between sales & trading resumes and investment banking resumes for entry-level positions. If you are just out of school and have only had internships for work experience, sales & trading recruiters would look for the same qualities that investment banking recruiters look for: leadership, ability to work hard, and interest in finance/business.

The key difference is that sales & trading is more numbers-oriented than investment banking is. When I interviewed for hedge fund jobs they all asked me if I had experience gambling, playing poker, etc. because the gambling and trading skillsets are very similar. In sales & trading interviews they will ask probability questions, whereas in investment banking interviews this is rare unless you get a brain teaser.

If you can’t quantify much of your previous work experience, I would either think creatively for a way to do so, or get across your comfort/familiarity with numbers and finance in some other way, using either your interests or coursework.

You also want to express that you can “think like a trader” - e.g., weigh risk and reward properly. This is another big question that will come up in interviews. Even if you can’t quantify your previous work, is there a way you could express your ability to properly consider risk and reward? If so, I would add this theme to your resume.

In my experience most resume editing services are not worth it - they can make very generic/basic improvements, certainly, but the best way to improve is to contact your friends in finance and ask them to review your resume and offer suggestions.

That said, my own investment banking resume review service is definitely worth it, and comes with a 100% money-back guarantee.

Breaking Into Investment Banking From Pharmaceuticals

“Thank you for a wonderful blog. It is a tremendous resources and I really appreciate you taking the time out to answer everyone’s questions. I have a question that is more specific than those covered on your blog, and I would really appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

My short-term goal obviously is to enter investment banking. I love to read about deals. I want to do deals. My background is in Biochemistry and Biotechnology, and I have 2 years of experience doing Business Development in the pharmaceutical industry. I do some valuation work and deal structuring, similar to what investment bankers do, but not to that scale.

What is my next step to enter investment banking or private equity? Should I get an MBA or do I already have enough experience? Thanks in advance!”

Inquisitor:

Thanks for your kind words. I think you have a good background to break into investment banking. Having done Business Development, you understand valuations and forecasting, both of which are very important in finance.

However, since you’ve already done the job for 2 years, banks may be hesitant to hire you as a 1st year investment banking analyst, but may not be ready to hire you as a 2nd or 3rd year given that you haven’t worked in the industry before.

With your background, getting an MBA and then going into banking from there is definitely one route you could take - you would be out of work for 2 years, but could come in as an Associate instead.

If you want to work at a bulge bracket, you should probably do this and get an MBA. However, if you want to get into banking as soon as possible, I would recommend starting to contact headhunters and friends in the industry and focus on getting hired at a middle-market or boutique investment bank, for several reasons:

1. It’s easier to work at one of those places and they hire far more people from non-standard backgrounds.
2. They haven’t been affected by the credit crunch as much as the bulge brackets and are still hiring people.
3. You can easily lateral from one of these to a bigger bank after a year there if you’ve done well. Or you can stay if you like it there.

It’s a tradeoff between time and prestige - do you wait for a few more years of experience plus an MBA to have a good shot at getting into a bulge bracket, or do you jump in now at the risk of not having as prestigious a name?

That’s one that I can’t answer for you because it depends on your goals and background.

Do Investment Bankers Place Importance On International (China) Experience?

“Thanks very much for all your helpful and informative posts. I’m looking for summer internships at bulge brackets, but it’s tough because my GPA is only around 3.5. I’m really worried that I’m not going to get first rounds as a result. This past summer I worked in China and it’s clear that I know the language and Chinese business well, but I’m not sure if this is enough to help.

I only want to work in New York, not Asia. I know that for NY, Chinese doesn’t really matter. I’m just wondering if there’s any need to play up my Chinese background in order to get interviews for summer internships.”

Inquisitor:

Hi there, I’m glad you have found my posts helpful.

I think you’re overly concerned about getting first-round interviews for summer internships. Your GPA is fine - the bigger concern is the market this year, as many firms have slowed down on hiring with the looming recession. Investment banking summer internships should stay relatively safe, though.

That said, your international experience in China will help you a great deal in the recruiting process - you need to play up your China background with everything you’ve got. Make sure everything on your resume says “China”, “Chinese business,” “fluent in Mandarin/Cantonese” in some shape or form.

Bankers, just like anyone else, follow trends and do whatever’s hot at the time (witness the massive LBO boom in the first half of 2007). Right now, China is the hottest area internationally and if you can convince them you’re the expert, you will stand a much higher chance of getting interviews/offers.

One of my friends at work was similar to yourself - he was born and raised in China, came to the US when he was young and is fluent in written/spoken Mandarin. He has used this background to get a whole host of positions he didn’t really deserve based on his own merits, all because he played the “China angle” successfully.

Even if you want to work in NY, it doesn’t matter because any language and international experience is a positive and Chinese is a HUGE positive right now.

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Who reads resumes? Do the Managing Directors ever get involved? How do they decide who to grant an interview to? How much time do they spend on your resume?

Even those who are very well-informed and have read the Vault guide thrice over don’t seem to have a good sense of the resume review process. So sit back and watch as I reveal the secrets of how we evaluate and select resumes.

Who Reads Your Resume

Pretty much every bank will have investment banking analysts from your university review your resume. Occasionally Associates will get involved, but typically it’s a task assigned to Analysts simply because there are so many resumes to go through, especially at “target” schools (the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Duke, and the rest of the top 20 or so schools in the nation).

We might receive 100-150 resumes for only 20-30 interview spots. Even if we only spend 30 seconds reviewing each one (see below), the process still takes considerable time and resources.

VPs, Directors, and MDs generally do not become involved at all until interviews actually begin. Even then, MDs rarely do on-campus 1st round interviews, instead sticking only to superday interviews.  So you won’t see Navid Mahmoodzadegan (formerly of UBS LA) reviewing your resume anytime soon.

Their time is worth $1,000 per hour; ours is worth around $30 per hour (investment banking salaries are high, but not on an hourly basis).

How Much Time Is Spent Reading Your Resume

30 seconds.

As Anna writes on her Investment Banking Resumes blog, you have a golden 30 seconds to impress the Analysts reviewing your resume.

With hundreds of resumes to review on top of our own work, we don’t have time to go through everything in detail and look at your beautifully-composed prose, no matter how splendid it is.

30 seconds may actually be high; sometimes when a group of us is looking at resumes, it might be closer to 10-15. Either way, you have very little time to make a positive impression.

So make sure your resume is good to avoid wasting those 30 seconds.

What Bankers Look For In Resumes

I covered much of this when I explained how to get an investment banking job, but for those who missed it the first time around, you want to “bankify” your resume as much as possible by making what you did sound more business/finance-oriented. You can refer to my guide to getting a banking job for some detailed examples on that.  This same advice also applies to private equity resumes, and really anything else business-related.

While finance experience is officially not required to get the job, don’t kid yourself into thinking that it doesn’t give you a huge advantage: when we review resumes, we basically separate them into the “banking experience” and “non-banking experience” categories and most of the interviews will be given to the first group.

For investment banking summer internships, though, a previous finance internship is less important since most will not have prior experience. Just make sure your resume is detailed, result-oriented and formatted properly, and that will go a long way toward ensuring you get selected.

I’m constantly amazed at how bad many resumes are: with all the resources out there, you would think they would be great, but that’s rarely the case (note: this does not apply to readers of this site :).

Parting Thoughts

Above all else, remember those Golden 30 Seconds. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make a great resume. It means you need to focus on grabbing our attention instead of being detail-oriented about every single thing you’ve ever done. Get our attention and you get an interview.

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-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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