The Investment Banking Cover Letter Template You’ve Been Waiting For

A long time ago I said that we would never post a cover letter template here:

“I was tempted to post a Word template, but I don’t want 5,000 daily visitors to copy it and to start using the same exact cover letter.”

But hey, we already have resume templates that everyone is using, so why not go a step further and give you a cover letter template as well?

Plus, “investment banking cover letter” is one of the top 10 search terms visitors use to find this site – so you must be looking for a template.

The Template & Tutorial

3 Reasons Why Your Investment Banking Cover Letter is Making You Look Like a Fool and What to Do About It

UPDATE: While the information in this article is still good, there is now a full investment banking cover letter template right here. That template, along with the tutorial here should answer all your cover letter questions.

“I have read Monkey Business, Liar’s Poker, and When Genius Failed each 3 times and consider them my collective bible. I know I have the eye for perfection and artistic vision to create truly immaculate pitch books. I am a Microsoft Certified in Excel, and I know all the shortcut keys (alt-i then r, that will insert a new row).”

-RE: Lehman Brothers Recruiting, The Leveraged Sellout

Despite my claims that “we never read cover letters,” some readers have pointed out that almost all banks require them. And some places might even pay attention to them.

I’ve seen lots of cover letters lately – and nearly all of them suffer from the same problems.

Here’s how to avoid these common mistakes and how to structure your cover letters properly, so you can avoid looking like The Joker.

Weekly Reader Q&A: Summer Internships vs. Study Abroad, Low GPAs, Going International AND Local

Yes, you read that headline correctly: this post is NOT about Bear Stearns.

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.