Investment Banking Resume Screening – How do bankers screen resumes?
How do bankers screen your investment banking resume?
The investment banking resume screening process is usually done by one group of bankers – the ‘recruiting team’ for that year.
It differs from team to team, but it’s quite likely the whole group will sit down and judge your resume together. If that’s the case your resume may simply be skimmed over aloud, followed by a chorus of “yay” or “nay”.
Naturally everyone present will be invited to come up with ‘witty’ one-liners.
[FYI When you start working 7 nights a week fueled solely by cheap ramen and copious amounts of caffeine you'll find this funny too].
Alternatively, each analyst could be in charge of a pile of resumes and be tasked with presenting to the group the 10 second ‘story’ and 3 reasons ‘why’ and ‘why not’ for each resume.
Clearly then having a banking resume with an easy-to-decipher story will make you easy to green light in group settings. Similarly, making your resume readable in the blink of an eye by using cutting edge presentation principles will also ensure your success in group settings.
Outside of a group setting there’s the ‘alone time’ review.
Picture an analyst at their desk with a stack of papers sorting through them like they are playing cards – i.e. lightning fast reviews where they simply check off 3 or 4 qualities (school name, GPA, internship experience, and ‘not a nut job’) before moving on.
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As you can see no matter how your banking resume is read, it’s read fast. Knowing how to turn this apparent problem to our advantage is something we’re going to look at further below.
What about keyword scans by computers?
This one is rare. Maybe even an urban legend.
After all, what are ‘keywords’ and how do they correlate with quality?
Fortunately we’ve never heard whispers about banks using this technique to shortlist resumes, so skip writing “banking internship” 18 times on your resume; it’s just not necessary.
And don’t forget that /hour analysts – yes that will be your wage on an hourly basis! – can burn through a pile of 150 resumes in under 40 minutes. So why would banks even need ridiculous shortcuts like keyword scans?
How long do analysts really spend reading your investment banking resume and cover letter?
15 seconds. Max 30 if you are lucky.
Are we serious? Extremely. Do we think it’s right? Most certainly.
Think about the bondage filled day of a young banker who’s been tasked with sifting through ‘some’ resumes.
After a 12 hour slog through an assortment of ‘random shit’, the young 20-something analyst sits down to a dinner of cold chicken teriyaki whilst scrolling through some emails requesting “one more thing” – it’s going to be a late one.
Come 11pm he (or she!) has finally finished the “will only take a minute” tasks their Associate requested, and now they have a couple pounds of resumes to sort through. Say 200.
How long would you spend on each resume if you planned a midnight departure?
You’re sleep deprived, slightly bitter and who cares whether some kid from Wyoming plays club tennis in his spare time.
In other words, when bankers finally do get around to screening your resume they are usually exhausted and not in the mood to read your investment banking resume in much detail. Your ‘audience’ is just like you around exam time…hunched over their desk, caffeinated to the wall, and fatigued as hell. So take our insider advice and write your resume with your 3am night-before-the-exam Red Bull-crashing self in mind!
PS As for your cover letter for investment banking…you would be lucky if the analyst physically picked it up. If they do, maybe one paragraph might enjoy a skim read. All up though, a cover letter’s lifespan is about 4 seconds.
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