Yea the dates not aligning happened after I uploaded it to Razume. On my resume they are all on the left hand side, all the formatting issues are basically related to uploading. Ok, but I will go more in depth on bullet points, any specific advice around this? Should I talk about specific deals?

Array
 
Best Response
  • Since you're already working, you should list your Experience section above your Education
  • Change "Concentration" to "Coursework" or "Relevant Coursework"
  • Get rid of the period at the end of the Concentration bullet since you're not using periods anywhere else
  • Add your GPA, you only graduated seven months ago so it's still relevant
  • Missing space after "Statement of Risk" in second bullet of third experience
  • Date hyphen convention is inconsistent on fourth experience (change to long hyphen)
  • Missing comma after "derivatives" on third bullet of fifth experience
  • Change the title of your last section to "Skills & Certifications" or something else since you don't list any activities or interests
  • Come up with some better computer skills, but at least change "Office" to "Word" since it's redundant to list Office along with Excel and PowerPoint

In general, I think your bullets are pretty nondescript as far as what you did in each role. Focus less on trying to describe the overall process and more on detailing exactly what you did to contribute to the end product; and try to include results whenever you can. Each bullet should read more like a narrative and less like a bullet point, if that makes sense.

There's a lot of white space in your resume, try to fill it up. Bullet points that are half a line long are either under-developed or too insignificant to be included.

Make the first bullet point of each experience impactful - reorder your bullets if necessary to do this. You want to make it easy for the reader who is skimming your resume to be drawn in/impressed by each experience. For example, the first bullet of your first experience starts off as "Part of an analyst program designed to help us gain strong analytical and decision skills..." That's like starting a book with "Once upon a time..."; it just feels flat and sets a pretty boring tone. Whereas if you lead with the fourth or fifth bullets "Conducted thorough analysis of companies..." it's a lot more engaging to the reader. If you're applying to IBs, the people looking at your resume are reading it to find out what you did at your previous position that might make you qualified for their firm; they're not reading your resume to get a description of what analyst programs are, they already know that.

I think you have good experiences and will be able to get into a MM IBD - you just have to build out your bullet points to reflect that.

 
TeddyTheBear:
+1

My GPA is not good, wouldn't it be better to leave it off? Hypothetically, if i leave it on, when should i get rid of it?

How bad is not good? Under 3.0? A lot of job postings require a GPA, so not listing one might get your resume tossed for not reading directions.

There are many schools of thought on how to present low GPAs. Personally, I had a 3.0 and listed it anyway because I knew it would come up at some point. I decided that I would rather be upfront about it than potentially appear to be evasive by not listing it. Conversely, some people told me to leave off my GPA just to get to the interview phase and try to impress them then. I had been out of school for over two years though when I applied to IBs, so I could sort of justify leaving off my GPA. In general, I think your undergraduate GPA becomes irrelevant once you have an MBA or are directly promoted to associate.

In your case, since you're a fresh graduate I think listing it is almost mandatory. The only scenario where you could potentially leave it off IMO is if you're lateraling from GS/JPM/MS where a MM firm might think, "Ok he got past their recruiting process, his GPA must be at least passable." You said that you're coming from a top 10 bank, so this may apply to you, though you probably would have said top 3 if that was the case.

 

[quote=TeddyTheBear]Looking to eventually transfer from my current job to MM IBD or PE. Thanks.

http://www.razume.com/documents/28522[/quote]

WSO Resume Review Score*: 8.5 (out of 15 possible)

  1. Wording/Bullets: 3
  2. Layout/Format: 3
  3. Overall: 2.5 (maily due to low GPA)
  • Note: This score is based on a subjective assessment of three different criteria all on a 1 to 5 scale (1 = poor, 2 = below avg, 3 = average, 4 = very good, 5 = excellent) based on my own experience reviewing thousands of resumes in the past and based on the current state of the posted resume.

Some explanation of the grading:

1, Wording/Bullets: This score represents the overall wording of the bullets and content throughout the resume. Are there action words? are the experiences explained clearly? Does the candidate quantify their impact where possible?

  1. Layout/Format: This score represents to overall layout and format. Finance professionals are notorious for being anal. Although this score is somewhat subjective, there are certain things we look for including consistency, spacing, clean look, clear sections, proper order, etc.

  2. Overall: This score represents the experiences and school of the candidate and is the hardest to change in the short term. Improving the Wording/Bullets and Layout/Format scores can bump this grade up (usually by 1 grade at most), however, this grade depends largely on the School, GPA, Internships, Leadership, Extracurriculars of the applicant, etc.

We are going to try to provide a candid / direct grading system for as many resumes as we can in this Public Resume Review forum, with the hopes that it will lead candidates that need help on #1. and #2 criteria to consider the WSO Resume Review service that has experienced professionals ready to help bring the #1 and #2 score as close to a 4 or 5 as possible. Due to time contraints, I can't provide more detail and I can only provide this grade to each candidate once (if you try to repost and updated version under a different username, i will recognize it and ignore). What I will say is that if you aren't at a 4 or 5 in Wording and Layout, we can probably help you make significant improvments.

Some more guidelines for total overall score:

3 - 6: Needs MAJOR help / improvements in several areas 7 - 8: Has some major flaws but also has some good areas 9 - 11: An average to slightly above average resume that could still use some help but it is on "ok" shape 12 - 13: A competitive resume that should be able to land some competitive interviews 14 - 15: An impressive resume on all or almost all levels. Wording/Bullets/Layout/format and overall experience, grades, school, etc are all excellent or very good.

We suggest if you score in the bottom 3 categories listed above that you strongly consider the WSO Resume Review service. Whatever you decide, best of luck!

Thanks, Patrick

 

Yea well I have a very good reason for the low GPA, but yea its low and since it would probably auto-ding me in many places, I won't even have a shot at an interview to explain why its low. I guess my best bet would be to stick it out here for another year or two that way my GPA will become less relevant.

Array
 
TeddyTheBear:
Yea well I have a very good reason for the low GPA, but yea its low and since it would probably auto-ding me in many places, I won't even have a shot at an interview to explain why its low. I guess my best bet would be to stick it out here for another year or two that way my GPA will become less relevant.

If you are interested in moving now you might as well apply and see what comes of it. If you are willing to stay for another year, trying is not going to hurt. Worst case you don't get a bite and try again in a year. I have a low GPA ( under 3.0) as well but being at a good BB (outside top 3) right now, I hope any future transition may be slightly easier.

To comment on the resume, try to customize it slightly rather than following the M&I template so ridigily... such as header names. And agreed with changing up the bullet points, rather unappealing at the moment despite being good experience.

Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
 

Keep in mind that only HR will auto-ding you for GPA. Friends and networking contacts don't ignore you because you have a low GPA. Since you're already in the industry, keep your ear to the ground and let your closer contacts (who will be discreet about your job search) know that you are looking around. If you know other bankers who have a high opinion of you, they may go to bat for you with the HR gatekeepers when openings pop up in their groups. Recruiting is pretty slow this time of year, so don't get discouraged nothing comes back the next month and a half.

 

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Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."

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