EFINANCIAL, 23 May 2024: ‘How to write a banking CV’
Getting an investment banking job isn’t easy.
JPMorgan said yesterday that it accepted less than 1% of applicants to its summer internship programs, and Goldman Sachs last year said that it had 300 applicants for each open position, an acceptance rate of 0.33%. How do you stand out from such a big crowd?
Your first step is your CV/resume. Although some banks have their own little preferences during an application process (we have a whole article on Goldman’s quirks here, and we’ve included their CV template at the bottom of this article, too), the keystone of any good job application is a high-quality CV. Here’s how to write one.
“If you are applying for your first graduate role,” McLean says, “and you don’t have any experience, the first thing to say is don’t worry about it. What the banks are looking for is potential and passion.” It’s more important to demonstrate commitment to the field (and role) than it is to tick every past experience box directly.
Besides, your unique experience might be more useful to a bank than you think. McLean gives the example of a client of hers who worked for a major supermarket chain and (separately) as a kitchen appliance salesperson, and then got an internship at a “top tier” US investment bank.
“What he did was put a lot of spin on those two roles. At the electrical retailer organization where he was working, he talked about the fact that he got involved in merchandising. He increased customer service ratings by a particular amount. He wrote about the kind of impact it had on sales,” McLean explained.
“What you need to be thinking about really is what skills is that organization looking for. If I’m looking forward to working at Goldman Sachs, what do I know they’re looking for, and what are their core values or their core principles?” That sort of information is readily available on their website, she notes. “How can I match my experience to show that I have the skills and the values that align with what they need? And secondarily, what might I have learned from my experience that might be relevant to that organization?”
The article can be read in full here.