Student mathematician with limited investment banking and management consulting experience seeking analyst/associate position
Edit: resume has been updated in response to sound criticisms received, below.
Hi all, how's it going?
Recently took an indefinite leave of absence from graduate studies in abstract mathematics. Looking for an analyst or associate position in investment banking or perhaps private equity. More background is available at the end of this post; it is simply a copy of the text from a parallel post on a different forum.
Here is a copy of my atypical resume. I am very interested to hear any sharp critiques from current bankers, financiers, or consultants.
Thanks for your help!
Cheers,
Anthony
Background, as promised:
Recently received an unsolicited call from a recruiter at a second tier consulting firm. The proposed offer was uninspiring but, after a few casual conversions with friends in consulting and finance, it seemed that the time might be right to depart from academia. I just took an indefinite leave of absence from a second tier abstract mathematics doctoral program to campaign for full time work in mathematical or strategic corp. fin..
I have limited prior consulting, ib, capital markets, and computational geology experience, including internship positions with FTI and Lehman Brothers. I have undergrad degrees in abstract math and management, as well as a masters degree in abstract math: a representative list of relevant studies can be found on my resume, which has been uploaded with this post.
I am compelled to find work with an aggressive banking or investment group: the limited client, senior management, and senior research faculty exposure I have had has been the highlight of my career thus far; I am excited about the prospect of analyzing and negotiation large deals.
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A few things that struck me, why are you listing authors in your studied material? What are you listing every math area you studied? This coursework area is huge and should be reduced massively. Check mergers and inquisition template for how they suggest presenting this.
No grades, awards or scholarships listed? Consulting firms like to see you excelling everywhere not just studying hard material. All firms want a GPA, if you don't give it I'll assume it's low.
Your experience points are longgggg and aren't written like a consultant. Remember that consultants are paid to solve a problem and convey the solution in a very digestible form. Show that you have this skill, write your engagement experience at FTI something more like "Worked with a leading Oil & Gas company to develop an integrated growth strategy across multiple business units and geographies". Don't name drop clients it's not classy - consultants sell the credit for their work along with the engagements intellectual property.
You have some good experience just rethink how to present the info for non academic opportunities.
Thanks!
I really appreciate the sharp reply. May I test a few of your critiques?
Sorry in advance for posting more for you to read: your criticisms hit on many things I was already nervous about; I want to try and understand your perspective before I work on the next draft.
Regarding grades: I have a 3.3 in the phd program and a 3.95+ in the masters and both bachelors; didn't list any because I didn't want to list the 3.3. However, I bolded the fact that I received scholarships/fellowships from every program I attended: is the high level of academic performance not implied?
Regarding the listing of specific books. The list is supposed to serve two purposes: 1) show that I have had no exposure to measure theoretic or functional analytic options pricing; and 2) to show that I am familiar with the models presented in all of the standard business school texts. Really, I am trying to highlight the fact that I am best prepared for and most interested in analytical corporate finance, and not prepared for or interested in things like high frequency trading (most people tend to assume otherwise, given the math background). I would rather not list specific books; is there a better way to get these points across?
Regarding the name dropping. most of the names/engagements referenced specifically are public knowledge (those from FTI were announced in WSJ; the paula dean foods deal was anounced in the Buffalo News; only exception was the GE Capital refinancing); furthermore, all of the senior managing directors at FTI list specific transactions in their bios; and lastly, despite the crassness of namedropping, Lehman Summer, FTI Summer, Lehman Bankruptcy, Madoff Investigation, and GE Capital Refinancing, and Paula Deen Foods Negotiations are always the first things people ask about -- it is rare that anyone asks any specific questions about any of the other projects I have done. Are you confident that the net impact of name dropping is negative; in other words, are you confident that it is not a necessary evil?
Regarding the length of the bullet points. You suggested the following: "Worked with a leading Oil & Gas company to develop an integrated growth strategy across multiple business units and geographies." Now, I concede that this is the sort of language I often see on other resumes. However, that sentence is completely vacuous: it does not reference how the development was achieved not does it reference the commercial implications of the development. I really hate that the resume is so long, but three years ago a recruiter at BCG said that the thoroughness of my bullet points (on my resume at the time) was refreshing. So the question is: are recruiters going to try and skim each bullet and get nothing out of it, or will they read one or two bullets completely and extrapolate?
Nothing is implied. I read it and didn't pick it up. Maybe someone from your school who recognises the names of the awards would. I wouldn't count on it.
No one cares if you haven't done options pricing. If you are a smart kid they will teach you what you need. Every student with decent marks will be familiar with those authors it adds nothing in value and chews space.
If your comfortable they are public then sure do what you feel. I would however be concerned that I read your Cv and couldn't tell that the Lehman and madoff jobs were real and not fluff intern research projects.
That is language from a top tier firm Port Jackson Partners taken from their people website. So either you can follow the advice of this recruiter or you can do some research on what real consultants use as language. Results and implications are good if you have them.
Thanks for another detailed reply, carbie!
I think I have a better understanding of your criticisms. I wonder how your suggestions translate from consulting in the Commonwealth to ibanking in the us?
Are there any other readers, especially current bankers, who might be able to weigh in?
Also, regarding the second respondant: in the 2 years following business school I received 2 bb ib offers, 2 mm pe offers, and 2 2nd tier consulting offers; perhaps you can understand the survivorship bias in my perspective.
...maybe you should taken one of those offers
I love when people on this site come here, ask for advice, then go line by line disagreeing with all the advice they're given. Seriously, why ask in the first place?
Terrible format please redo according to M&I format.
Entire resume needs rewrite.
No one will read this in current form I promise you that.
List your grades (obviously). Low PhD GPA is not a big deal given high UG and master's GPA. It can actually help your story ie, "I always liked math, did you really well, then got to the PhD level and wasn't enjoying it anymore and was not performing to the high level to which I am accustomed and now I want to move to finance because of that and also...".
Your background is much more in line with quant/trading roles. If you really want to be in a transactions role you need to sell it big time.
Did I read correctly that you are currently unemployed? Bad move to leave the program without something else lined up.
If you want to go into detail on each experience use sub-bullets in outline format rather than three lines per bullet.
I agree with the above poster that the format needs to be changed. It is not very professional looking. If you need more space, perhaps expand to two pages and/or use a font like arial narrow.
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