How Investment Bankers Read Your Resume
There are plenty of resume tips out there – and even investment banking resume templates and tutorials for all levels, whether you’re an undergraduate, a current banker, or you’re at the MBA-level.
But one question that rarely gets addressed is who reads investment banking resumes in the first place.
Who actually takes time out of their day to read what you scribbled down? How much time do they spend on it?
And how can you get selected for an interview?
Who Reads Your Resume
If you’re applying for analyst-level positions, other investment banking analysts will review your resume.
If you’re from a “target school” that many banks recruit at – such as the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Duke, and so on – then analyst alumni from your school will review your resume.
Otherwise it’s more random and HR might just hand it off to whoever “has bandwidth” at the moment.
For associate-level positions – at the MBA-level and beyond – Associates will review your resume and decide who gets an interview. Once again, alumni from your school will do it if they’re available.
Who Does NOT Read Your Resume
HR is rarely involved – they just hand off resumes to bankers. So when you’re networking into investment banking, go for the bankers rather than HR.
Senior bankers such as Managing Directors, Vice Presidents, and Directors are also not involved – their time is too valuable to waste pouring over 500 resumes each week.
The Cold, Hard Numbers
How many resumes a bank receives and how many interviews they conduct are highly dependent on the bank, the region, and the specific group.
Financial centers like New York, Hong Kong, and London tend to receive more resumes than regional offices, and bulge bracket banks tend to receive more resumes than boutiques.
As a rough estimate, banks might grant 20 interviews for every 100 resumes they receive. The odds may decrease at larger banks and may increase at smaller firms.
Large banks might hire anywhere from 100 new analysts per year on up.
If you assume that only a few of those 20 interviewees actually land offers, you can get a sense of the rough numbers: large banks receive thousands of resumes each year, conduct hundreds of interviews, and then give offers to a small percentage of those interviewees.
Timing, Timing, Timing
There are 2 questions here:
- When do bankers read your resume relative to when they receive it?
- How long do they spend reading it?
#1 is easy: at the last-minute.
In investment banking, everything is done at the last-minute and bankers rush around hours before the deadline to select interviewees.
#2 is also easy: 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 thousands of resumes received each year, no one has time to spend scrutinizing every last detail.
The analysts and associates who read your resume do so in sleep-deprived states when they’re behind on other work – so they focus on the main 2 or 3 points that you convey.
What Bankers Look For In Resumes
There are numerous resume templates and tutorials on this site already, so I’m not going to repeat everything here – take a look at the links below for some inspiration:
- How to Write an Investment Banking Resume
- University Student Investment Banking Resume Template
- Investment Banker Resume Template
- MBA/Experienced Investment Banker Resume Template
- Investment Banking Resume With No Finance Experience
Those links should answer 99% of your questions. But since we’re talking about how bankers actually read your resume, I’ll add the following points:
They Scan For Names, GPAs, and Interests
When a sleep-deprived banker is looking at your resume, he wants to make things as easy as possible.
If you’re an undergraduate, your university name, employer names, and GPA all stand out because you usually make them bold or use larger-sized text.
So having a brand-name university and brand-name internships helps a lot – as does a good GPA.
Bankers also pay attention to your Interests because it’s at the end and therefore easy to skip to – and because they’re often bored themselves and want to interview “interesting” people.
Don’t Revise Your Resume 537 Times
Resist the temptation to edit your resume hundreds of times – it’s just not worth it because bankers spend so little time reading it.
Use one of the templates I linked to above, then make 2 or 3 rounds of edits to create a finished draft.
Your time is much better spent networking.
…But a Second Pair of Eyes Is Always Good
On the other hand, you do not want typos or other mistakes because those stick out like a sore thumb.
Bankers are trained to “catch” tiny mistakes – it’s what they do all day.
So before submitting your final version, print it out, let it sit, and have a friend look it over.
Closing Thoughts
Bankers spend barely any time reviewing your resume, but you need to have a good one to get interviews.
So use one of the templates offered on this site, focus on the 2 or 3 key experiences you want to highlight, and get another pair of eyes on it before you submit anything.
After all, you only have 30 seconds to impress.
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I am a rising senior and am currently interning at a Big Four accounting firm. Though accounting is fine, I am more interested in finance. Will working at a Big Four give me any advantage (or a better chance, which may be a better way to put it)? I do not attend a target school like an Ivy or MIT, but I do attend a smaller, liberal arts college with a very strong accounting department as well as numerous alumni spread out across finance, from the bulge firms to the smaller players. I know that the easiest way in the door is an internship, but I was smart (stupid) enough to accept the offer from the Big 4 firm because… well… they offered it to me very early – plus, they were more than generous with the wage.
Essentially – will working at an accounting firm give me a leg up, or will they toss me into the “non-banking experience” category?
By the way, I just discovered your site and it’s pretty fixating – I have a bunch of shit to do today but I just can’t quit reading.
Glad you like the site. Working at Big 4 gives you an advantage over someone with no business/finance experience (e.g. someone who just worked at non-profits or did technical work) but it doesn’t put you on par with those who have had previous banking/PE experience. Definitely still worth applying as accounting is actually more relevant to banking than “finance” is – most of what we do is accounting-related.
“rising senior” sounds so cliched and dated. You should not use the phrase or risk having your resume pushed aside.
I don’t think he was referring to using it on his resume…
Do languages help?
Do you recommend me putting:
“Additional languages: Spanish, German, Pirate”
(the last one as a way to stand out?)
Ok i was kidding about ‘Pirate.’
Yes, languages always help. Make sure you actually know them, though, or you may be surprised by an interviewer who catches you off-guard…
Brian,
I hope you can answer my question;
Do banks generally start reviewing applications as they come in before the resume drop period ends (4 January) ? I am able to update my resume or cancel my request at university’s career centre website, but it’s no use doing that if banks have already downloaded my original resume that I’ve submitted when the resume submission period opened up in the early autumn. But since they spend only 30 seconds reviewing each one, I reckon they do it in one burst.
Thanks and I wish you wherever you may be a very happy new year!
Usually they review them just before sending out interview notifications. But not sure when they actually download it, if you have something major you could try to add it.
When a company posts a job on their website and you apply for that job, how long do recruiters wait before reviewing each resume and coordinating with the manager of the job?
Could be anywhere from hours to months. See this interview:
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-private-equity-recruiter-interview/
I am looking to get my resume “professionally reviewed” by an ex-banker as I will be applying to banks in the near future. Can you recommend any places/small, few-people firms that might be best to go to? It’s hard to tell via the internet who is really reputable.
Yes – we recommend the services of Management Consulted, which you can sign up for right here:
http://managementconsulted.com/finance-and-consulting-resumes/
Although the site is consulting-focused, there are several bankers and former financiers helping out with resumes and they have an excellent reputation for quality resumes and cover letters.
Hi there,
Im working for big 4 in the Corporate finance team and we do quite a few smaller scaled M&A. Before crossing over to the advisory, i was in audit for 2 years (same big 4 firm of course). I wonder if big 4 CF experience would be an advantage for investment banking (specifically with large banks)?
Thanks in advance.
PS. Your site is very helpful!
It definitely helps, though obviously it’s not as good as doing banking at a bank or something else related like PE.
I am curious if I am wasting my time in pursuing my dream of becoming an investment banker doing M&A work. Currently, I am a Process / Research consultant for an insurance company. At the same time, I am getting my MBA from a decent state school (Not top 20 though). I excelled in my undergrad and have been doig well in grad school. Also, I have been reading and focusing on all technical aspects to investment banking.
I guess I am hung up on the fact that I am not in an Ivy League school nor live in an area that has a huge i-bank network (Southeast).
So, back to my question, am I most likely wasting my time? I thought one thing that may be to my advantage was that I dont live in the Northeast with all the Ivy Leaguers…
The problem is you don’t have a good avenue into banking recruiting right now – you need that to have a good shot. That will require either a lot of networking, a school that banks recruit at, or cold-calling, though cold-calling doesn’t work well at the senior levels.
I appreciate the reply and your site. Thanks!
Thank you so much for your posts!
I am curious though, is the resume reviewing process in S&T similar to what is described here for IB?
Yes, though they may focus a bit more on your interest in the markets
Hi, you talk about ‘brand name’ Universities.
I currently attend Imperial College London. It’s ranked 5th in the world and 3rd in Europe but the general public aren’t aware of this.
It’s an all science institution and I’m wondering how well is it known in the states for say a banking job (As I want to apply for New york)
Thanks for your time! :)
It is well-known in some circles but less so than LSE / Oxford / Cambridge. Bankers will still be familiar with it though.
Thanks for the speedy response! Makes sense I guess.
Looking on Goldman sachs website, I see some of their current Analysts are ex alumni! :D
Would it be a good idea to contact those people directly.
btw I am getting ready to apply for an Investment banking analyst summer intern position.
Any key tips, companies to apply for, networking advice..?
I don’t know anyone in banking my only real contact is the Dean of Management at NYU… (family friend)
Yes I would contact them directly. For recruiting tips see the “Recruiting” link at the top of the page – all the networking, resume, and interview-related articles are there.
What’s the best way of getting current analysts to help you get an internship (or even higher people say VP’s)?
I have joined the Alumni network at my university but I’m having problems with that (it’s not working! emailed tech).
What can I google to get Analysts emails/no’s.
They’re not on Google. You have to build a relationship with them to get anywhere… see all the articles on networking, The Banker Blueprint, Networking program etc. etc.
Also, I’m a second year biologist so my financial knowledge is very basic!
For the 2nd year undergrad Summer internships, how much financial knowledge is actually needed?
If so, what core Finance books would you recommend?
Thankfully I have a while to learn more!
Just basic accounting and knowledge of valuation techniques
So I guess that would be knowing what is on an income statement? some of the ratios etc.
And for the models do you mean by ‘knowledge’ that I know of them and how they work…
They wouldn’t expect me to know how to do model?
I thought for a Summer internship and having a non-financial background they’d focus more on my background and why i want to do Investment banking..
And I have read most of your site, it’s a brilliant help! :)
Yes, just basic things, they would not expect you to build models for them in the interview.
Useful post, cheers.
Are HR involved in any culling processes prior to giving resumes to bankers (based on the application forms/scores entered)?
Rarely, other than maybe a very simple GPA cut
Sorry one other point; would you happen to know how common it is for banks (or consulting firms for that matter) to keep a blacklist that auto-rejects previously unsuccessful applicants?
It’s a myth, bankers are too lazy / HR is too disorganized to do this… only in extreme cases where someone actually remembers you would it happen
I’m trying to update my resume and I currently have a position on there that I am thinking about taking off. It’s a part-time job as a tutor. Obviously it has nothing to do with banking, but it’s not like it’s a Best Buy job either. What would you recommend?
I would take it off unless you need to fill the space