Investment Banking Resume Template & Examples for 2024

You have cancelled all other commitments and family meetings for the next 10 years. You have summarized and memorized the key points of every issue of the Financial Times since 2001. You’re going to be an investment banker!

All that’s missing is an investment banking resume as polished as your brogues.

In this guide, you will find:

• An investment banking resume template that gets jobs.
• How to ace your investment banker job description on a resume.
• How to write a resume for senior and entry-level investment banking jobs that get the interviews.
• Expert tips and examples to boost your chances of landing a bank job.

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If you’re looking for other resume examples for finance and accounting, see our guides:

• Accounting Assistant Resume Examples
• Accounting Resume Examples
• Accounts Payable Resume Examples
• Accounts Receivable Resume Examples
• Banking Resume Examples
• Business Analyst Resume Examples
• Data Analyst Resume Examples
• Entry-Level Accounting Resume Examples
• Entry-Level Business Analyst Resume Examples
• Entry-Level Financial Analyst Resume Examples
• Financial Advisor Resume Examples
• Financial Analyst Resume Examples
• Manager Resume Examples
• Senior Accountant Resume Examples
• Tax Accountant Resume Examples

Haven't found what you're looking for? Check all our Resume Examples for Any Job.

Investment Banking Analyst Resume Sample You Can Copy and Use

Now here’s how to write an investment banking resume like this:

1. Select the Right Investment Banking Resume Format

Let’s face the reality here: everyone wants this job. Hundreds of candidates spend hours writing their investment banking resumes. Yet nobody calls them. So they’ll have to take their suits back to the store, and cancel their FT subscription. 

This won’t happen to you, as long as you pick the right resume format for your investment banking resume. Here’s how to do it:

Investment Banking Resume Format

• Use a common resume font in at least a size 9 and neat resume margins, such as 0.75”, or 1”. 
• Try to stick to a 1-page resume. In this profession, anything longer won’t be accepted. 
• Use the reverse-chronological resume format, as it’s easily scannable and read. 
• Make sure to save your resume in PDF. This way the formatting will stay intact. 

What you prioritize next will be dictated by the kind of candidate you are.

2. Add a Qualifications Summary or Objective to Your Investment Banking Resume—Or Know When to Skip It

An average recruiter looks at your resume for 7 seconds. A sleep deprived investment associate will not gaze that long. Utilise the very few seconds of attention you have to the best of your advantage by prioritising the most important information.

Most resumes will benefit from having a skillfully written resume profile.
Usually, a qualifications summary or resume objective allows you to tell the whole story right away, in seconds. Your investment banking resume might too—but not in all cases. Many people in the industry will tell you to skip writing your profile entirely. Reason? Time savings.

Too afraid to skip it? Go for bullet points and use your investment banking resume profile section as an opportunity to convey fast and accurate facts. Just like bankers like it. Here’s an example:

Investment Banking Resume Sample: Qualifications Summary

• 3.8 GPA, Economics, Stanford
• Finance Society President
• Goldman Sachs Summer Intern
• Financial Modelling & Valuation Analyst Certification

• Final Year Economics Student
• Interested in game theory and equity financing
• Avid reader of the FT, The Economist, and WSJ.

Expert Hint: Prioritise your best assets. An investment banking analyst resume will differ from an investment banking associate’s resume. If you have full time experience, start your resume with your investment banking job description. If you are a graduate applying for an analyst position, start your with your education section. 

3. Make Your Education Stand Out In The Pile

If you are a fresh graduate, your job is the hardest of all. You are going to be swimming in a sea full of sharks. All wearing Harvard, MIT, and Stanford ties. But fret not. There’s a way around them.

Put your resume education section on top, making sure to list all honors you have received. Most banks simply expect their employees to be A-players.

Did you finish with an average GPA, but achieved top grades in Financial Accounting and Introduction to Economics? Those should be listed right under your GPA as “Relevant Coursework”—along with your grade. 

Also, certain college names will get you further ahead. If you are from a “target” school, it is likely that an alumni from your school already working at the bank will review your resume. And remember—Never underestimate the power of networking at college. 

Investment Banker Resume Example: Education

Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME

Economics, BA: 3.8 GPA

Expected Graduation Date: July 2020

Honors: Sarah and James Bowdoin Scholar

Relevant Coursework: Financial Economics A, Macroeconomics A, Microeconomics A 

If you already have full-time investment banking experience and are building an experienced investment banking resume, you should relegate your education to a secondary mention. 

Experienced Investment Banking Resume Example: Education 

Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME

Economics, BA: 3.8 GPA

September 2012–July 2015

You have actual experience to talk about now. Your college is now something you will reminisce about over dinner with other bankers—not something your job will depend on.

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4. Write An Investment Banking Job Description That Makes People Invest in You

If you’re preparing an investment banking resume with little or no experience, the work experience resume section will be your best bet. 

List anything that shows your enthusiasm and interest in Finance: relevant college clubs and societies, summer internships, and conferences. If the position involves any kind of leadership, make sure to point this out, too. 

Were you on the lacrosse team? Depending on who ends up reading your application, something like this could tip the scales. Why?

Often when recruiting, people look for themselves. Even if the person reviewing the application was not the lacrosse captain, a candidate that plays varsity sports and is involved in running college societies on top of keeping a 3.8 GPA is a hard worker—exactly what they’re looking for. 

If you’re struggling to fill the empty space, relevant volunteering experience is something you can opt for. Make sure you prioritise the most important points. If you had a summer internship at J.P. Morgan, you should devote the majority of your section to this. 

Investment Banking Job Description

Summer Intern

Goldman Sachs, June 2019–August 2019, New York, NY

• Evaluated telecommunications investment opportunities, identifying a $10M deal and assisting senior colleagues with preparing the LBO.
• Analysed statements of portfolio companies to identify the causes of declining profitability. In the case of Company X, this allowed us to address the purchasing and IT Hosting costs and restore annual profits to $7.2m, from $-0.3m the previous year. 
• Streamlined the due diligence process for a $5m LBO by reorganising files and removing duplicate documents.
• Prepared 10+ presentation decks for senior colleagues. 

President

Finance Society, October 2018–Current, Bowdoin College

• Actively recruited 38 new members from Economics, Finance and Maths departments, an 85% increase over the previous year. 
• Organised society meetings and a monthly presentation on the most relevant trends, topics and tools in the Finance world today.
• Organised a two-day conference attended by students and professors from NYU, Columbia, Harvard and Duke.

Summer Intern

Goldman Sachs, June 2019-August 2019, New York, NY

• Helped the team by doing equity research for companies in the telecommunications industry
• Entered financial statements into Excel and performed basic analysis
• Gained experience using Bloomberg, Excel and STATA

President

Finance Society, October 2018 - Current, Bowdoin College

• Managed the day to day operations of the society
• Organised meetings and presentations on a range of subjects
• Held a conference for other colleges

It’s easy to see the difference. Instead of using empty statements describing actions and responsibilities, the good example focused on quantifiable achievements. An experienced investment banking resume needs to have a different focus.

Let’s face it, the experiences and investment banking skills you have are similar to those of other candidates So you really need to nail your investment banking job description to stand out from this crowd. How to do it?

Most of candidates will write about what they did. You will write about what you achieved. Selling and buying is the meat of the investment banking world. Everything else is supplementary. 

That’s why in your investment banking resume work experience section you’ll list your transaction history. Look at the examples below:

Experienced Investment Banking Resume Job Description

Investment Analyst

UBS, October 2013–August 2019, New York, NY 

• Crucial member of sales team that has added $150 million to assets under management this year, managing $1.2 billion total.
• Buy-side lead analyst in the acquisition of Company A for the portfolio. My analysis showed the company was overvalued by 15%, allowing us to negotiate the purchase price down to $82m from $97m.
• Personally identified an undervalued prospect in Company X, which resulted in a $50M acquisition deal. The value of this asset has grown by an average 9.2% per annum since.

Investment Analyst

UBS, October 2013 - August 2019, New York, NY 

• Part of the Financial Product Sales Division.
• In this position, I developed an understanding of financial statement analysis and company valuation techniques.
• Provided investment advice to prospective clients of the team.

By quantifying what you have already achieved, you are allowing your prospective employer to see clearly what you can do for them. That’s why the good example is so powerful.

Expert Hint: Look through the projects you have collaborated on in the past and find the numbers and figures. Any numbers you can take even partial credit for are good. If you’re going to use them, you can be sure to be grilled on them, so tread lightly!

5. Finish Your Investment Banking Resume with a Powerful Skills Section

The last section of your investment banker resume should contain your certifications, skills, and RELEVANT interests. The amount and specificity of these will of course depend on your seniority level. 

Combining the Skills, Certifications and Hobbies & Interests sections will allow you to save space on headings and spacing, since we know how important staying on one page is. Languages are always useful, but there is a specific group of languages that is worth its weight in gold.

Programming languages. If you have done little projects in Python, C++, R; if you have worked with specialist software like MATLAB and STATA, make sure to list this on your investment banking resume. 

If you are going to list your interests, make sure they display you as hard working, dedicated, and disciplined.

Here’s a list of investment banking skills to use as a reference:

Key Skills for an Investment Banking Resume:

• Advanced Excel
• Any programming language, especially R, Python, Java, C++
• Data Analysis Software such as MATLAB, STATA
• Analytical Thinking
• Teamwork and Team Leadership
• Communication & Interpersonal Skills
• Language Skills
• Resilience

And here’s how to put your skills in your investment banking resume:

Investment Banking Resume Skills Section

Certifications, Skills & Additional Information

• 2016 - Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA Institute)
• 2015 - Financial Modelling & Valuation Analyst Certification (Corporate Finance Institute)
• 2015 – Bloomberg BMC
• 2015 - FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses
• Advanced Excel skills – working with financial statements of $200m+ companies; Macros, Pivot tables, VLOOKUP, XNPV and XIRR, PMT and IPMT; Intermediate MATLAB
• Programming languages: basics of Python, advanced R
• Fluent Spanish, Basic French
• A keen runner – having completed 17 marathons in the past 5 years

Expert Hint: For investment banking analyst resumes, try to avoid empty statements and generic skills. Everyone here is detail-oriented.

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Key Points

It is not easy to get your investment banking resume picked out of the pile.

Use these tips to write a perfect investment banking resume:

• Prioritise your best assets. If you are a graduate applying for an analyst position, start your investment banking resume the education section. If you already have full time experience, start with a work experience section.
• If you decide to use aresume summary, keep it concise and factual.
• For investment banking jobs, submit a1-pageresume. Anything longer goes in the trash.
• Write about your workachievements, not tasks
• Sprinkle it with numbers: GPA, assets under management, transaction history. 
• Save space to save their time: combine Certifications and Hobbies into one resume section.
• Write a matching investment banking cover letter. 

Got questions on how to write a great resume for investment banking jobs? Leave a comment. We’ll be happy to help.

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