Recent college graduate trying to break into finance post-graduation

Hi, first time poster, long-time lurker.

Recent college graduate seeking to enter finance. Realize I missed the boat in some aspects, but am currently networking as much as possible, interning at no-name PE, and going to grad school (probably Duke Fuqua MMS) in the Fall.

I haven't had trouble getting people in the industry to forward around my resume, but I'm having trouble converting the resume into interviews (which of course comes with its own set of challenges entirely).

Looking for any help I can get--be as harsh and realistic as necessary.

http://www.razume.com/documents/24488

8 Comments
 

Either have periods at the end of your bullet points or don't, but pick one and stick to it.

Sorry, that's about as far as my resume critiques go.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

GREs, SATs, GPA are good. Switch to better resume template. Add quantitative data points about your jobs if at all possible.

"When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is." - Oscar Wilde "Seriously, psychology is for those with two x chromosomes." - RagnarDanneskjold
 

1) Switch to better format

2) Trim down your Education section. By a lot. Remove GRE scores, it serves no purpose.

3) Your only legit finance internship (PE) has no numerical data points. Fix that.

4) Change your 2nd bullet point in your PE internship from "Helped" to "Took part in".

5) Change the Date format to "Feb 2011-Aug 2011" instead of "02/2011-082011".

6) Unless you're applying to S&T, cut your "Professional Skills" to ~3 items.

7) Unless you're a native French speaker, I would suggest downgrading it to "Intermediate fluency". Otherwise, you are going to have to answer technicals in French. For example, you could be asked to walk them through a DCF in French.

Calling Ron Paul an isolationist is like calling your neighbor a hermit because he doesn't come over to your property and break your windows.
 
jshen2011Insanely helpful, Leonidas. Thanks so much.

I would eliminate your relevant coursework - no offense, but most of it isn't relevant. Anything with "Principles" in front of it isn't looked upon favorably. Also, I know Hopkins is a great school, but the "Thinking ______" courses sound pretty weird.

PE Firm experience - looks real good

Change "Published award-winning news letter for 170+ subscribers, increasing subscriber base by 72%" to "Published award-winning news letter for 170+ subscribers; resulted in an increase in subscriber base by 72%"

Consolidate Fraternity stuff into one section, preferably 2-3 bullet points.

Have you been to China? I took 4 semesters of Chinese before studying/interning in China for 8 months - once you get over there, you realize that Chinese learned in the classroom is much different than actually speaking it.

"Some things are believed because they are demonstrably true. But many other things are believed simply because they have been asserted repeatedly—and repetition has been accepted as a substitute for evidence." - Thomas Sowell
 
Best Response

1) Keep your GPA uniform. Replace it with "3.57/4.00" or better yet, make it "3.6/4.0".

2) Didn't I already tell you to remove the GRE?

3) Write graduated "cum laude" beside/below your degree.

4) (a) "Radio DJ" is not an interest... unless you like stalking them. Replace it with "music" and elaborate when asked about it on your interview.

(b) Remove "poetry". To be brutally honest, it sounds like you're in the OWS hippy crowd. Get rid of it. (c) "Cooking" is fine, but don't you play/ obsessively follow any sport?

5) On your first bullet point on your PE gig, replace "centered" to "centering". On the 4th line, replace "Eurozone" with "EU countries". On the 5th line, replace "hedges" to "a hedge". On the 10th line, put an "and" before "other metrics".

6) On your second experience point, on the 1st line, replace "Developed" instead of "Produced". On the 2nd line, write "resulting" instead of "resulted"

7) on your third experience point, on the 2nd line, write "political and economic" instead of putting a comma in between.

8) Award Leonidas 2 Silver Bananas; one for each of his posts.

Calling Ron Paul an isolationist is like calling your neighbor a hermit because he doesn't come over to your property and break your windows.
 

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