Investment Banking Resumes
When the interviewer is faced with the daunting task of shifting though a stack of a hundred resumes to whittle that pile down to 10 or 12 candidates to interview, they need an efficient manner in which to do so. They are several criteria they are looking for in a resume. If one person really shines in one area, it can compensate for other areas that are lacking.
Remember: The person looking at your resume is only going to spend 30 seconds looking at it and making a decision. A good way to see if your resume is memorable: hand your friend your resume and have him look at it for 30 seconds (time him!) and find out what he remembers from the resume. If he can’t remember much, then you need to work on the formatting. If he remembers things that aren’t remarkable, then you need to work on the presentation and the content.
Formatting
Everything must be properly formatted in a clear manner, or at least consistently. There are no misspellings, everything is lined up perfectly. It also needs to be in an easy-to-read format.
Description of work experience
What did you actually do at Morgan Stanley? Did you just grab coffee for the MD or were you actually given substantive work assignments? Go into detail of what you did at work and what kind of assignments. Also, if you can quantify your achievements, do so. Did your project increase productivity for your team? By how much percent? How much time did it save? How much money did it save?
Here’s an example of how you can change the perspective of what you did:
XXX Securities, Summer Intern:
-- Got coffee four times daily.
-- Made the advisors' daily appointments with utmost precision.
-- Filed customer data in the right folders with 99.5% accuracy.
-- Cleaned out filing cabinet.
-- Always knew where the Dow was trading.
Or this:
XXX Securities, Summer Intern:
-- Revolutionized data retrieval system, resulting in 30% more efficient retrieval process.
-- Studied for Series 7 exam (for exam date next semester).
-- Prepared all client presentations using PowerPoint while negotiating difficult Compliance deadlines.
-- Modeled client portfolios in Excel, including Black-Scholes modeling for efficient valuation of derivative securities within each portfolio.
-- Extensive contact with clients and senior management in both meetings and informal lunch and dinner settings.
Which one sounds more impressive?
Criteria:
Good GPA
For most schools, this is usually (> 3.7), target school students can get away with lower. A good GPA is correlated with learning ability, how well are you able to pick up things on the fly. There is also a certain element of work ethic. Harder-working students usually have higher GPAs.
Work experience
Solid work experience will differentiate you from your peers. Many sophomores have not had any financial services work experience so if you can snag any work , related to accounting, consulting, anywhere you will given substantive work and a good learning experience would be optimal. Private wealth management is not valued as highly as other positions because interns are basically stuffing envelopes and getting coffee. It’s difficult to secure an internship as a sophomore but shows you can function in office environment, given real work to do. It’s still possible. Email contacts in the alumni database, talk to people, resume drop. Try INROADS, ask your parents’ friends, basically try all avenues possible. Be willing to work for free sophomore year if it means a meaningful learning experience.
Extracurriculars
Some EC’s – involved in leadership on campus on in campus activities, not one sided, shows multi-dimensional personality
Kicker
Something that stands out from everyone else, makes person unique e.g. Israeli Defense Forces, Chess Champion, interned at White House, runs 80 miles week during summer to train for cross country—shows you are the best at something, willing to do whatever it takes to win, also something to talk about in the interview, might just pique their interest. For example, someone I knew learned how to do the Rubik’s Cube so that they could put on their resume that they could do the Rubik’s Cube in under two minutes. It’s unique and interesting…enough so that it might give someone an edge. The person brought in the cube and did it during the interview. He ended up getting the position.
One strong area can compensate in the other—Campus Body President can have a 3.5 GPA
Tell the truth, but tell it slant
For the resumes, you always want to tell the truth. If HR finds out that you lied on your resume, they can rescind your offer. Someone I knew was actually working in the position when they were promptly fired because they did not complete some course requirements for graduation.
That being said, you want to present yourself in the best manner possible.
Remember: The person looking at your resume is only going to spend 30 seconds looking at it and making a decision. A good way to see if your resume is memorable: hand your friend your resume and have him look at it for 30 seconds (time him!) and find out what he remembers from the resume. If he can’t remember much, then you need to work on the formatting. If he remembers things that aren’t remarkable, then you need to work on the presentation and the content.
Formatting
Everything must be properly formatted in a clear manner, or at least consistently. There are no misspellings, everything is lined up perfectly. It also needs to be in an easy-to-read format.
Description of work experience
What did you actually do at Morgan Stanley? Did you just grab coffee for the MD or were you actually given substantive work assignments? Go into detail of what you did at work and what kind of assignments. Also, if you can quantify your achievements, do so. Did your project increase productivity for your team? By how much percent? How much time did it save? How much money did it save?
Here’s an example of how you can change the perspective of what you did:
XXX Securities, Summer Intern:
-- Got coffee four times daily.
-- Made the advisors' daily appointments with utmost precision.
-- Filed customer data in the right folders with 99.5% accuracy.
-- Cleaned out filing cabinet.
-- Always knew where the Dow was trading.
Or this:
XXX Securities, Summer Intern:
-- Revolutionized data retrieval system, resulting in 30% more efficient retrieval process.
-- Studied for Series 7 exam (for exam date next semester).
-- Prepared all client presentations using PowerPoint while negotiating difficult Compliance deadlines.
-- Modeled client portfolios in Excel, including Black-Scholes modeling for efficient valuation of derivative securities within each portfolio.
-- Extensive contact with clients and senior management in both meetings and informal lunch and dinner settings.
Which one sounds more impressive?
Criteria:
Good GPA
For most schools, this is usually (> 3.7), target school students can get away with lower. A good GPA is correlated with learning ability, how well are you able to pick up things on the fly. There is also a certain element of work ethic. Harder-working students usually have higher GPAs.
Work experience
Solid work experience will differentiate you from your peers. Many sophomores have not had any financial services work experience so if you can snag any work , related to accounting, consulting, anywhere you will given substantive work and a good learning experience would be optimal. Private wealth management is not valued as highly as other positions because interns are basically stuffing envelopes and getting coffee. It’s difficult to secure an internship as a sophomore but shows you can function in office environment, given real work to do. It’s still possible. Email contacts in the alumni database, talk to people, resume drop. Try INROADS, ask your parents’ friends, basically try all avenues possible. Be willing to work for free sophomore year if it means a meaningful learning experience.
Extracurriculars
Some EC’s – involved in leadership on campus on in campus activities, not one sided, shows multi-dimensional personality
Kicker
Something that stands out from everyone else, makes person unique e.g. Israeli Defense Forces, Chess Champion, interned at White House, runs 80 miles week during summer to train for cross country—shows you are the best at something, willing to do whatever it takes to win, also something to talk about in the interview, might just pique their interest. For example, someone I knew learned how to do the Rubik’s Cube so that they could put on their resume that they could do the Rubik’s Cube in under two minutes. It’s unique and interesting…enough so that it might give someone an edge. The person brought in the cube and did it during the interview. He ended up getting the position.
One strong area can compensate in the other—Campus Body President can have a 3.5 GPA
Tell the truth, but tell it slant
For the resumes, you always want to tell the truth. If HR finds out that you lied on your resume, they can rescind your offer. Someone I knew was actually working in the position when they were promptly fired because they did not complete some course requirements for graduation.
That being said, you want to present yourself in the best manner possible.