How to properly add boutique experience to a resume?

I'm current interning for a small financial consulting boutique (around 5 employees) and was wondering about how i should have it marked down on my resume.

Should I have it as:
FIRM NAME

or

FIRM NAME, FINANCIAL CONSULTING

or

FIRM NAME (Financial Consulting Boutique)

or what would be best?

Thanks in advance.

 

How about just the firm name, and then in the job title area you put something like "financial consulting analyst" or in the description you get the point across...I think putting financial consulting after a comma or in parenthesis just comes across as desperate for recognition

 
 
sa4hire:

How about just the firm name, and then in the job title area you put something like "financial consulting analyst" or in the description you get the point across...I think putting financial consulting after a comma or in parenthesis just comes across as desperate for recognition

True. It's just that my title is "Financial Analyst", which is a position that exists at almost any type of firm. My thinking if that if an unknown firm name is seen, and then below my title as "Financial Analyst", no one will have any idea as to what kind of place it is that I garnered that experience at.

 

honestly man, it should be fine. People do "XXX Securities, Investment Banking Department-M&A Group" then on the next line "Summer Analyst" all the time.

The "Financial consulting analyst" recommendation is a good option as well but I think thats getting a little creative with respect to your title. Maybe some bankers who are involved in the interview selection process can chime in.

 
My thinking if that if an unknown firm name is seen, and then below my title as "Financial Analyst", no one will have any idea as to what kind of place it is that I garnered that experience at

They're not going to have an idea either way. This is a great opportunity for you to explain how much you did, since they won't shoehorn you into a specific role. I worked at a boutique investment bank and put:

FIRM NAME Investment Banking Summer Analyst

Don't do the bracket thing, i.e. FIRM NAME (boutique consultancy), it looks weird.

 

MMmonkey: Financial Analyst for a financial consulting boutique sounds a bit long.

CDN: The place has only 4-5 employees and so there isn't a specific department I can mark down. (with regards to Investment Banking Department, M&A, etc.)

Thank you both for your comments. And, as CDN mentioned, anyone directly involved in the interviewing process would be greatly appreciated. As well as anyone else.

Thanks again everyone - greatly appreciated.

 

Yeah interviewers care about bullet points/explanations. They can easily see through titles, especially in more boutique/private setting where they can call their juniors whatever they want. I think

Firm Position bullets on your skills

is the most logical and coherent way of presenting it.

 
Best Response

"Investment Banking Summer Analyst"

Everyone understands that. I would not put anything in brackets, just put the firm name... that looks weird and makes people think it's a non-legit place (because why else would you have to explain what it is?)

Just write the name and explain in interviews, they will figure it out beforehand if they desire.

I would worry more about the actual structure of the resume - for more on this see my article on writing about deals/banking experience on a resume - although I say "private equity resumes" it really applies to any summer banking experience you need to write about as well.

If you do banking and then go into consulting or something different you may want to make the resume less deal-focused, but for any finance jobs it's all about the deals.

 
dosk17:
"Investment Banking Summer Analyst"

Everyone understands that. I would not put anything in brackets, just put the firm name... that looks weird and makes people think it's a non-legit place (because why else would you have to explain what it is?)

Just write the name and explain in interviews, they will figure it out beforehand if they desire.

I would worry more about the actual structure of the resume - for more on this see my article on writing about deals/banking experience on a resume - although I say "private equity resumes" it really applies to any summer banking experience you need to write about as well.

If you do banking and then go into consulting or something different you may want to make the resume less deal-focused, but for any finance jobs it's all about the deals.

Thanks for chiming in, dosk. I have in fact read that link of yours some time ago (as well as most of your others). This firm is not an investment bank boutique, though. It is a financial consulting boutique that doesn't do any banking. Therefore I cannot put "Investment Banking Analyst" under the title.

What I have been doing is looking at financial statements of small firms and pulling information out, putting it in Excel, calculating ratios, and comparing/analyzing them.

This is why I'm not quite sure what to put as my title - and no one will know the name of the firm although if they do "see through to the bullet points" as was earlier mentioned, then I will have to concentrate on how to phrase my responsibility in the bullet points and just have 'Financial Analyst' as my title.

I'm not quite sure, though.

 

You need to put in exactly what you would put in for any other job. You put in things that you did that created value for the firm you worked for.

Ex. instead of pitched stock. you could put "pitched a stock that obtained 15% returns in 3 months"

One rule of thumb that I use, is I don't put anything on my resume that one wouldn't assume that I did just by looking at my job title. If you say that you were an equity research analyst, everyone and their mother knows that you did financial modeling and equity research.

make it hard to spot the general by working like a soldier
 

I am no CV guru but as a candidate who also interned at a boutique and got a few IBD FT interview invites from BB, I'd say this is too lengthy. I summarised what i did in 5 short sentences.

Points like the first one and "Screened a comparable companies universe in the digital media sector to find a potential buyer for a 15-22% growth equity stake in a $40mm enterprise value company" are way too detailed. Will it come across as a weakness of you not being able to get your message across in a concise manner? Just my 2cent. By the way im from the UK so may be it's a bit different here.

 

The first point is too wordy- cut it down. Second and third are both okay, although all of these should have 'effects'- what did your work actually accomplish? If anything came of all the stuff you did you should put it down. I don't think you need to write out LOI, but that's a small point. It might be better to cut the 5th point and put equity research analysis into skills, or something- I think this might be too much overall.

 

It's like winning a mini resume lottery.

When a plumber from Hoboken tells you he has a good feeling about a reverse iron condor spread on the Japanese Yen, you really have no choice. If you don’t do it to him, somebody else surely will. -Eddie B.
 

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"I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature."
 

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