Edgy Resume? Yes or No?

A friend of mine is applying for positions in finance now. She is a sophomore at an Ivy and trying to get experience in finance. She is targeting mostly office assistant positions.

She showed me a resume template that is really cool and edgy. It's a non-traditional but very clean template.

Any advice if anyone was in a similar position and had success submitting a non-traditional resume for finance jobs?

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54 Comments
 

If she's applying for a SA position, I would NOT suggest using something edgy and advice sticking to the standard format. However, if she is going for an office assistant position it may catch someone's eye and prove to be a positive aspect.

I would air on the side of caution and remind your friend that banking is a conservative field. People going through resumes want to be able to find the relevant information fast, particularly at BB and MM banks. It may be more acceptable at Boutiques, but that's just a guess.

If that's her resume, she shouldn't have any issues finding an office assistant job, but I would honestly suggest leveraging the university's network and try to get a shadowing/externship at a boutique bank/hf/pe. I think that will be much more effective/educational than an office assistant job.

Best of luck!

 

When I'm processing 150+ resumes, I want to be efficient. I want the key information to be roughly on the same place on each page.

If you're going edgy, non-standard template, you're slowing down my process and making me think more than I should have to.

If your resume content (ie your GPA, your experience, your interests) is hit-it-out-of-the-park fantastic, you may be able to get away with it. But if the content is that great, it will be just as great in standard template.

Chances are, it's not that great. So all you've done with your edgy template is annoyed me. Maybe only a little bit. But I'm looking for reasons to whittle 150 resumes down to 4 or 5. An edgy template pushes me closer to putting it onto the "no pile".

Those who can, do. Those who can't, post threads about how to do it on WSO.
 

Oh for heaven's sake, just put it in a traditional format.

Here's what I think reading this resume: Why does a ballet student want to work in finance? To begin with, she is probably used to exercising 4 hours a day and will certainly feel the difference between exercising and sitting down all day.

Also, seeing that she has done ballet and gone through the process of taking the time to put together a creative resume, it strikes me that perhaps a more creative field in general would be better suited to her. I'm not saying she can't work in finance, I am saying that maybe she might enjoy herself more if she worked in a different kind of finance (film, non-profit fundraising, tech). The most creative one gets in finance is choosing which blue you're going to have as text and moving around little text bubbles on a powerpoint presentation.

Office assistant jobs for pretty girls are a dime a dozen, she will have no problem ever, during most of her life, getting an office assistant job in finance. Maybe she should try for something more challenging to get. Such as an internship.

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