Scotty Pippen's FT IBD Resume Review
Please be harsh and nit-picky. I appreciate all advice :).
Thanks guys, Scotty
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| pdf_wso_9.3.15.pdf 142.97 KB | 142.97 KB |
Trending Content - Resume Advice Forum
| +26 | Please degrade my CV! LDN SA '27 | 12 | 2w |
| +24 | How to include deal experience on resume? | 2 | 1w |
| +12 | Post-IB Resume Help | 1 | 2w |
| +10 | Critique my CV for UK Spring Weeks | 1 | 2w |
| +9 | How to showcase deal experience? | 1 | 2d |
| +9 | Resume Review: MS Financial Management grad targeting trade support / middle office roles | 1 | 1d |
| +6 | Levfin CV review | 2 | 1w |
Career Resources
You may very well be fully bilingual, in which case feel free to ignore this, but I would be very, very careful with describing yourself as "fluent" in anything on your CV. A lot of times people actually mean "conversational" when they write fluent (even then, I've yet to meet someone who majored in Chinese at University who was even close to something I'd describe as conversational). Unless you grew up going to school in China or pulled in 250+ on the HSK6 (assuming you didn't just pass it through sheer rote memorization like the rest of us), you're probably going to end up in trouble when they decide to conduct the interview in Mandarin and you suddenly realize you can't talk about accruals or WACC in Chinese.
Bankers have to trudge through bullshit-stuffed CVs all day during recruiting season and love nothing more than catching people out on stuff. It's like the mega no-no of putting "Advanced abilities with Microsoft Office" because you took a modelling course, and then spending your interview getting grilled on workarounds for errors with nested excel IF functions (or better yet, the ever-classic fucking "Avid reader of The Economist" line and then getting asked to critique last month's special report on gene therapy).
Anyway sorry for the long blowhard rant and it's not even directed at you in particular, for all I know you could actually be a native speaker, but from my experiences the F word is one of the "big mistakes" for banking resumes that candidates haven't caught onto yet.
Drummond, Thanks for the comment. My parents are from China, I speak at home, and visit China often. I feel comfortable considering myself fluent but I'll take your advice because I don't know if I can bust out financial language in Chinese on the spot.
Do you have any critique on other sections of the resume?
Thanks again man.
-Peter
Personally, I would bankify the experiences more by putting in numbers. Don't just say you did something, say why and what resulted from it.
Also, how seriously did the Big 4 take your Chinese internships before accepting you? I've talked to recruiters who told me that they don't take foreign internships seriously if a kid is an American but parents are from that foreign country. Usually, it's parents hooking up their kids with BS under the table internships where the supervisor reference will be 100% positive even if the kid didn't go to work at all, due to parental relationship. I'm assuming your internship was parental and you didn't do anything, since you just said that you "don't know if you can bust out financial terms in Chinese on the spot", even though your resume claims that you reviewed loan contracts and stuff at a Chinese bank.
I want to know because I myself have that kind of foreign opportunity, but don't know if it's worth it due to what a recruiter friend said to me. Thanks.
Hi wanttobreakin111,
Thanks for the advice. I'm going to add hard numbers to my resume.
In terms of gaining a Big 4 internship, I think my China experience played a key role. I was able to talk about my interest in China, its banking system, and overall economy. With behavioral questions, I could always refer back to my China internship with questions like "describe overcoming a difficult obstacle".
You were spot on with parental relations hooking up kids with an internship. I was in that boat, but I still gained valuable knowledge in the limited tasks my group assigned me. Ultimately I would recommend focusing on a few tasks you did, and then study up on the complexities of it if you did not learn it during the internship.
I think putting your foreign experience on your resume could not hurt, especially if you would have a gap in your work experience.
Hope that was helpful.
-Pete (Scotty Pippen)
Thanks, that was helpful. For the China Bank internship, were you on the books officially or was this under the table (not registered on payroll/with HR)? If you were under the table, how did the Big 4 verify your employment/do the background check? Sorry for more questions.
Minima consequuntur odio consequuntur a. Asperiores sapiente velit et voluptatem ipsum dolor molestiae praesentium. Est deleniti inventore quod. Accusamus quasi consectetur est provident accusamus dolorem eveniet et.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...