Ten Tips for CV Writing for Investment Banks
by Alessandro
When applying for an Investment Bank, your Curriculum Vitae should be flawless.
Even more, it should be attractive, and the choice of the typeface is very important.
For a review of the steps required to typeset this CV, please refer to this post.
In this post, we will go over ten tips to help you build your perfect curriculum vitae, with emphasis on the Investment Banking industry.
- Your FULL NAME should be centered and BIG.
Nothing on the CV page should be bigger than your name!
Feel free to emphasize your last name in Small Caps. If you use Fontin, you’re good to go. - A Personal Data Section should follow.
It should include your contacts, most importantly your mobile phone and your email.
Most of the times an Investment Bank HR person will call you on your mobile, or send you an email.
You can make the email clickable, i.e. mailto:yourname@domain.com
- If you have Work Experience, this absolutely goes before the Education Section.
Start with your most recent occupation, your recent work experience will obviously matter most to the reader. - A brief description of your previous work is fundamental.
Names like volatility trading, derivatives, prime services, product structuring and development mean very different things to different people.
You don’t want to mislead the reader. Be clear and precise. - Education is another key section. Make sure you outline at least which College you attended, and your Grade Point Average.
Very important for some employers is your final thesis or dissertation: it is a good indicator of which kind of things you are interested in (e.g. Quantitative Finance? Mergers and Acquisitions? Ballet?) - Any Exchange Program abroad has to be emphasized.
This is a great signal that you are open to other cultures, able to adapt quickly to new environments and, above all, that you know the language of the place you have been to! - Put a link, possibly an internal hyperlink, to all of your exams: this will show self-confidence and it will allow a better analysis and review of your studies from the reader.
- International Certificates like TOEFL, GMAT, IELTS, GRE are objective representations of your learning potential and knowledge of the English language.
They are in great esteem because they are standardized and internationally recognized at most levels!
If you haven’t got any of them, I’ll suggest you start with the TOEFL and then move either to the GMAT or to the GRE. - If you can’t compete on some areas, improve the others.
Are you behind other guys on your GPA? Don’t worry.
Broaden your view of the world:
a) learn a programming language: JAVA, VBA for Excel, C++;
b) learn a foreign language (for real!);
c) participate in social events, clubs, associations and the likes;
d) develop a project for yourself (and yes, everyone’s sick of reading that you manage your portfolio of stocks) - Use Microsoft Word only if it’s impossible for you to do otherwise.
LaTeX (free) and InDesign (not free!) will help you develop a CV which stands out.
Can you imagine someone reading thousands of CVs always with the same typeface, same structure, same formatting?
XeLaTeX is your friend, the Web is your friends with all OpenType Free Fonts you can imagine!
Don’t be too fancy, but don’t be boring: try out LaTeX (google it!) and you will make an impact!
In the screenshot that follows, a recap of what we have seen so far.
The Top Half of a CV
Got anymore tips? Share them in the comments!
Second Half of a CV
[/caption]
Related posts: