Copy This Investment Banking Resume Template to Break In (If You’re a University Student)
I get a lot of questions on how to structure your resume, how to write about your experience, what to focus on, and how much to write.
Rather than writing a giant Q&A on all these topics, I’m going to give you a resume/CV template that you can just copy and modify for your own experiences.
But I’ll Have the Same Resume as Everyone Else!
No, because only 0.1% of those who see this template will actually download it and use it. Don’t overestimate the competition.
And even though this site is well-known, only a tiny fraction of those interested in investment banking have visited it.
If you are worried, just modify the formatting and use different fonts, spacing, or margins.
Now let’s get on with the template and video:
- University Student Investment Banking Resume Template (Word 2003)
- University Student Investment Banking Resume Template (Word 2007-2010+)
- University Student Investment Banking Resume Template – PDF
Note: You should always submit your resume in PDF format unless they tell you otherwise.
Here’s the tutorial video:
- View Large Version
- Download Large Version
- Download iPad Version
- Download iPhone Version
- Download iPod Version
- Download the MP3
And if you don’t like to watch or can’t watch, here it is in text:
Overall
Notice how this 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 irrelevant information.
Avoid 0.25″ margins and size 8 font unless you absolutely can’t fit everything – try to 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.
We have 4 main sections: the Header, Education, Work & Leadership Experience and Skills, Activities & Interests.
All the entries are 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 to see how to do this, it’s really hard to explain in text).
1 Page Only, Please (With Some Exceptions…)
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.
For the rest of the world, however, it’s a much safer bet to stick to 1 page unless you are applying to Managing Director-level positions (and if you’re reading this website, that’s not you).
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 picture on your resume in the US, even if one of your “interests” is “professional modeling.”
Education Section
If you’re still in university, this should always be at the top – I can’t think of a good reason why it would be anywhere else.
The key points: where you go to school, what your major is, graduation date, and 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 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.
Work & Leadership Experience – The Rule of 3?
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.
Structure of Each Entry
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 both cases, you 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.”
Project-Centric
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.
Task-Centric
The Task-Centric structure is not that much different – we still have a Summary Sentence at the beginning, but we 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!”
Ready, Fire, Aim: How to Properly Structure Your Bullets
Each bullet 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.
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.
See Also
If you’re not a university student, don’t despair: just look these other resume templates and tutorials:
- Private Equity / Buy-Side Resume Template
- MBA / Experienced Investment Banking Resume Template
- How to Write an Investment Banking Resume with No Real Work Experience
Objections
“But wait,” you say, “this resume 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.
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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.
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
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.
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
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. http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/
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
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.
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?
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banker-resume-template-buy-side-jobs/
http://www.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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/
This guy was almost exactly mirroring you’re no real experience template haha
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.
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.
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.
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
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/ for tips on what to do with non-finance experience
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 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
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.
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
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
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
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 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
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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! :)
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/faq/#networking
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: http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/non-target-bulge-bracket-investment-banking-offers/
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
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
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:
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-diversity-recruiting/
Should I include an objective at the top of my resume?
Never
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
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
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
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
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
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: http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/sales-trading-to-investment-banking/
Should I put on my resume that I am an Eagle Scout?
Yes sure
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
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.
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.
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
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-assessment-centers-competency-questions/
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-case-studies/
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-resume-no-work-experience/
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
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.