How To Write An Investment Banking Resume
Note: For more detailed and up-to-date information on investment banking resumes please see the following articles:
- University Student Investment Banking Resume Template
- Investment Banker Applying to Buyside Resume Template
- MBA/Experienced Investment Banking Resume Template
99% of investment banking resumes I’ve seen fall into 1 of 2 categories:
- They are already impressive and don’t need much work aside from minor formatting issues.
- They are OK but suffer from common problems.
Most fall into category #2 – but the good news is that it’s not hard to fix these common problems.
Common Problems
The two most common problems:
- Not being specific enough.
- Not focusing on results.
Two of the pre-requisites for investment banking are attention to detail and being able to count.
So if one bullet on your resume reads, “Compiled information on acquisitions,” bankers reviewing it might think that you can neither count nor remember any detail about what you did.
And one way investment bankers distinguish themselves from lawyers and other professionals is getting paid for results rather than hours.
So you need to focus on the results.
Attention To Detail / Are You Sure You Can Count?
Here’s an example of what NOT to write on your resume:
- “Researched acquisition targets in the construction and home-building industries”
It’s an improvement over what I wrote above – but we could still add a lot more detail here.
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?
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 an improved version of the same bullet point:
- “Researched over 100 acquisition targets in the construction and home-building industries and narrowed list down to 10 companies using financial criteria such as revenue growth and EBITDA margins”
This is still not the best it could be, but it’s an improvement over the first attempt.
Results Oriented
We’re still missing one key ingredient: the results of whatever you did.
Sometimes you just don’t have results: you don’t know what happened, or you left the company before anything took place.
If that’s the case and you really don’t know, it’s fine to leave them out.
But I would suggest “stretching” here and trying to come up with something to write about, even if it’s not 100% concrete or did not save or earn the company millions of dollars.
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 and narrowed list down to 10 companies using financial criteria such as revenue growth and EBITDA margins; resulted in private equity firm conducting additional due diligence on 3 companies“
Often there’s no real way to know how many companies they were really interested in – but conjecture is fine, especially if you’re not making any bold claims.
Again, it’s fine not to have results for every single entry, but try to use this structure wherever possible.
Usually if you “stretch” and think about the potential impact of your work – even if it’s small – you can come up with something.
Formatting Issues
I also see quite a few formatting issues with resumes. But if recruiters only spend around 30 seconds reading your resume, what’s the big deal?
Simple: 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, we can see it in 10 seconds or less.
If you want to fix formatting problems on your resume, do the following:
- Use one of the resume templates listed below to fix 90% of the basic problems.
- Once you’re done, let your resume “sit” for a day or two before editing it.
- Print it out, give a copy to a friend, and have your friend review it while you’re also looking at it in detail for mistakes.
Resume Templates
To get 90% of your questions on resumes answered, check out and use the resume templates and tutorials below:
- University Student Investment Banking Resume Template
- Investment Banker Applying to Buyside Resume Template
- MBA/Experienced Investment Banking Resume Template
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Hi! I am just wondering if being leader of a case competition and board member for a non-finance related club is good enough for school activities/leadership. I was involved in another club but it was political (something of a no-no for applications). I have a merger acquisitions internship at a small firm and morgan stanley smith barney as my work experience. I don’t have time to really do something else school-related as time is approaching for summer recruiting so can I just go with these or would it be advisable to go for another club? thanks!
Try to check out investment clubs in your school. Your experience is sufficient but having the investment club on your resume will improve your chances quite significantly
Does the Ibank resume template apply to general analyst jobs? (i.e.: Financial Analyst, Business Analyst, etc.)
Thanks!
Yes.
Hi Brian,
When you are a fresh investment banking analyst and help an experienced analyst on a pitch (a few slides), do you put that on your resume as
“X’s acquisition of Y:
Helped on the pitchbook”
Thanks
Pls refer to http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/mba-experienced-investment-banker-resume-template/
Hi,
Would putting Finance and Business Society be good even if I didn’t hold any leadership position?
IF yes, How should I write the bullet points underneath since all I did was attending events.
Thanks
Yes. Just say you are a member
I’m a freshman and I’m very interested in investment banking. However, I go to a non-target school and I just had a question about setting myself up to receive an internship.
You stress having prior internships with boutique banks or other finance experience on your resume before applying as a summer intern, but, this is problematic for me. I’m in a program where I’ll be spending two years in Hong Kong and my Freshman and Sophomore summers will be spent acquiring Mandarin. Basically, the first time I’ll have a chance to receive a summer internship will be my Junior year.
Would focusing on networking and developing contacts these next two years potentially work out? Or, should I consider leaving the program after a year and getting an internship my Sophomore year if I’m set on investment banking?
Or would a third option be trying to work for a local boutique bank during my Junior year in the US?
You can spend the 1st 2 years studying and interning w a financial firm/bank in HK too. I don’t know if you should leave the program after one year just to secure an internship your sophomore year.
Third option is a good one. Do try to intern your sophomore year (either in HK or back home) so its easier for you to land an internship your 3rd year then a job after graduation
I am starting my 3 week internship with a consulting firm soon (next week) but i am sending out my resume now. How should I put this on my resume? Or I should leave this out?
Thanks
Leave it on but indicate that the start date is in the future and say that you are set to begin an internship at such and such consulting firm.
You mean all I need to do is listing the date and the name of the firm? and no bullet points underneath?
Thanks a lot. This site is amazing! i really appreciate it!
Hi Brian,
Moreover, I am apply for investment management and sales and trading summer internships. Is putting a consulting internship offsetting?
Furthermore, is there much of conflicting interests regarding IMD and S&T? Both are heavy in the the market. Would employers see applying to both as not sure of what I want to do?
You just need to know how to spin the consulting internship
Not necessarily – both involve the public markets. Of course the pace of both are different etc. You can just say one is your first choice the other is your second. If you haven’t worked in either, I believe it is demanding for employers to expect you to know what to do. You should have a rough idea though
Hi Nicole,
Thank you so much for replying. With regards to how I should write my consulting internship on the resume, should I just put it there without any bullet point?
Just a bullet point or two detailing what projects you will be working on and your responsibilities
What if you have no set duties and all you do is shadowing another member? How should you spin this on the resume? Or I should leave it out?
Thanks!
I’d still put that in if you don’t have experience in finance because this shows your interest in the field
Hi Nicole,
Is putting Corporate valuation and overview of Investment Banking by Training the Street on the resume good? Moreover, should I also put like case Study Workshop by Deloitte and Financial Series by BOA? Or this sounds like a laundry list.
Thanks alot!
You can put it at the bottom under Skills, Activities & Interests. Say: Certifications: XX
I should put the Training the Street as certification? I am not entirely sure this is a certified course, though. Same goes for the BOA financial modeling series and Deloitte Case study.
Does putting this on my resume make it better?
Thanks so much for your help, Nicole!
Its your call really. I’d put them under certifications
Hey M&I,
If I’m currently working as an IBD analyst and majored in Economics and info systems in college, will the IS concentration look negatively to PE recruiters since it might be more focused toward back/middle office roles, or does it even matter at this point?
Thnx for the feedback
No. Doesn’t matter at this pt. Your work/deal experience matters
Hi Brian,
Hope all good on your end.
I do have some questions please but before that I just wanna extend my appreciation to all the effort & time you’re investing in making our goals easier to achieve.
After my relocation to North America, I was able to secure an internship in quant finance at a big 4, I know that’s not what I wanted since I am into IB as a career path but at least now I am gaining local experience to boost my resume.
I am still trying to secure an IB (M&A, ECM, DCM…) internship or full-time position after my contract ends and while networking (abiding by the networking ninja protocol ‘great indeed’) an IB director offered to have a look at my resume which is based on the university student M&I template. The result was good n bad. Good in the sense that he pointed out that the wording is very complex and overall it’s more tailored to quantitative finance as I talked about stochastic processes, regression analyses and alike, literally he said “I didn’t understand anything on your resume”. The bad thing is that I have to modify it now but not sure where to start. He stressed on making it more i-banking focused.
In brief about my background, I have a master in accounting and then pursued another finance/Qfinance master degree to better position myself on the market as I was not able to secure a FT. The reason my resume is heavily focused on Q finance is because, honestly, that’s where all the interesting stuff took place, I can’t even compare it to my accounting degree as it was dull and nothing really major worked on. I did a consulting internship at a Tax revenue government agency before and another internship in consulting at Big 4, and now an internship in derivatives valuation.
I have read some IB stuff on M&I etc… but I don’t see something very specific to my credentials which I can stress upon in my resume. For instance, my tax internship was more into tax law and contracts; it did involve comparing tax cases and rulings but was mainly for individuals rather than corporates. My consulting internship may be applicable as I was into researching markets, forecasting CF, market analysis, QA, simple financial modelling etc… And now my Qfinance internship involves contract valuations and some little exposure to derivative models and pricing methods etc… monte carlo simulation, brownian motion etc…
My questions please:
1- How can I reword my resume to make it more IB aligned (following director’s POV). I know without having a look at my resume is hard to judge but generally speaking should I wipe-off all Quant finance technicalities … and focus on simple things like usual market analysis…? OR leave the technicalities and try to illustrate further as how they may benefit me in applying simple modeling techniques for instance etc…
2- Any tips on how to incorporate my derivatives internship into IB perspective? Part of it is pure quantitative while the other involves fetching data from Bloomberg, comparing risky assets, data input, reading contracts etc…
3- Good idea to send X-mas letters to those I met while networking or that’s old-fashioned and won’t add up to anything?
Thank you again and apologies for the stretched intro
Hopefully one day I’ll be one of your success stories.
Regards.
While we appreciate your comment, can you please limit your comment to one paragraph?
Regarding your 1,2 question I’d suggest you to check out our resume editing services.
I don’t think sending X-Mas letters help too much but you can always give it a try.
Hi Brian
This was a great article, thank you for it. For about 7 months I’ve been working in the valuation group of a big 4, now I’m looking to make the move into IB. I’ve had some experience in Transaction Opinion as well as some Corporate Finance Advisory, but no real “results.” How do I leverage this into a strong IB Resume?
Highlight your work in corporate finance advisory…
Hello M&I,
On a resume; it is acceptable to use semi-colons instead of commas for words separation in 1 bullet sentence, Dummy example:
examining micro/macro-economic factors; SWOT analysis; share performance analysis; comparable company analysis; Porter’s 5 forces analysis; financial performance analysis
Keeping in mind, those are minor tasks for a univ project. I have quite few bullets with lots of independent words like the above example, not sure if that’s okay or I should revert to the comma instead.
Appreciated
All the best for the New Year
Comma is better. Use semicolon where there are comas in a phrase already
Hi M&I,
A quick question: In applying for an investment banking internship (rather than an S&T internship), would it make sense to mention the mock portfolio I run through Investopedia? I recognize that M&A work involves less direct interaction with the markets, but as an undergrad applying for summer internships, would it be helpful?
Thanks.
Hi M&I,
I’m wondering how would you put your audit internship into the resume. As you mentioned in the article, it should be result oriented, so how would you incorporate that in the resume.
Thanks
Focus on the results and achievements you made and quantify them
Hi, thanks for the great tips on the site.
I’m a freshman applying to an OCR IB summer analyst position for freshmen and sophomores. I don’t have any previous finance experience though I just got an internship position for the Spring semester (starting towards the end of January) in a firm that deals with financial services and research. Should I include this in my resume even if I haven’t started the position yet?
Yes you can do so
Hi,
Thanks for this very awesome site, I have been an avid reader. I have one question. I am actually a freshman in college and but last winter I have done an internship in Citibank (Equities Investment Unit, which basically means brokerage house) as an operations intern. My day to day job involves just updating the spreadsheets of client details and ensure that the questionnaires that they have filled in for the customer account reviews are right. How can I beautify this piece of experience and place it as a selling point in my resume?
Thanks! (:
Try to quantify your impact and highlight your analytical skills
Hi Martin – just sent you some feedback.