Bank on Banking

One of the most common interview questions is “Walk me through your resume,” which, although, grammatically speaking, is not an actual question, is commonly required. The twist on the question is in the time constraints. Let’s be honest, anyone can walk through his/her resume if given 45 minutes to do it. The person can touch on every bullet, explore every detail and succeed in boring the interviewer to tears. It is because of this last nuance that it is not recommended to take 45 minutes, or even 4-5 minutes to walk through your resume. The key is to keep the interviewer interested, while expressing all of the most important details. As such, it is not just important to thoroughly know the content of your resume, but also, to be able to deliver the highlights and important details in a succinct and articulate fashion. To help you do just that, I have put together a quick article highlighting some of the biggest mistakes that I have seen interviewers make (and have personally made as well) when walking through their resumes, followed by a general strategy/guidelines to follow (to be adjusted with your own personal touches, of course) so that the next time you are face to face with this interview juggernaut you too can vanquish it! (Disclaimer: I’ve watched a few too many action movies on my weekends lately and yes, a few war movies – i.e. 300 – happened to creep into the mix)

Big Mistakes

The Speed Demon

Don’t be the guy (or girl) who is so interested in getting through every detail on your resume that you rocket through your response without even taking a breath. Sure, you will have gotten through your resume, possibly in record time, but you will have done no good for your candidacy, and will leave the impression of being disorganized and unable to articulate major points. On top of that, the interviewer will probably not even process most of what you’ve said. Bottom line, don’t speed through the answer. I know that I said you should be concise and not spend 45 minutes, but I also said to be articulate – and running off at the mouth at 150mph is anything but that. Your interviewer will get a much better impression of your candidacy if you focus on the highlights and smoothly walk him/her through each of them.

The Bird Watcher

Also known as the floor watcher, or floor talker, this person walks through his resume and looks anywhere and everywhere excluding the interviewer’s eyes. Eye contact goes a long way in an interview, and this question especially lends itself to eye contact and attention to body language as people have a tendency to run on, or go astray. Maintaining eye contact can show your interest in the interview, your confidence in both your candidacy and yourself and can even help you to stay focused and remember that this person is actually listening to this monologue and he/she probably has plans for later that day…or week – so keep it moving.

The Marathon Man

People often treat this question as a marathon. You have to pace yourself, go through each step properly, and end on a high note. The problem is, this marathon isn’t a cross country marathon, it’s a 5 mile road race. In other words, just as you shouldn’t speed through your answer, you shouldn’t take 5, 7, or even 10 minutes to answer this question either. If the interviewer starts interrupting you with continuing questions to move you forward in your response, you know that you’re probably going too long, if you haven’t gone too long already. Watch your rambling, watch the amount of details and experiences that you site from each experience – if you don’t have much experience, you can probably site a few more experiences from school and your work experience, than if you have had 2 internships and a full time position for the past year and are interviewing as a lateral mover. I know that you want to get your point across, but remember, highlights are the key. If the interviewer has follow-up questions, great, more opportunity to expand on those highlights, if not, you’ve still navigated the “walk me through your resume” question without chewing up 10 minutes of the interview and putting your interviewer to bed.

The ADD Victim

This is definitely one of the most common errors that interviewees make when answering this question. Many people have nailed the timing down and can deliver a smooth response, filled with highlights, in a short amount of time. And many people realize the benefit of good posture and eye contact throughout the interview. The problem arises not in the details, or the pace, but the order. While there is no particular “correct” order in which to go through your resume when answering this question, you do not want to jump around from position to position, section of the resume to section of the resume. This looks completely disorganized and is often borderline incoherent – whether or not you have an even, relaxed pace throughout the response. Regardless of whether you start with education, move to work experience, and then to extra curricular activities, or any other combination, the most important thing is to go in order and to finish each position/opportunity before moving on to the next one, and to finish each section before jumping to the next.

While I know that many people will already know this, the fact remains that many of you will still fall victim to it. Practice your response, and practice it often. Remember, you’re not practicing it for the purpose of landing on a word-for-word response, but rather, just to make sure you don’t speed, take too long, or jump from section to section.

General Strategy

As I mentioned before, since everyone is different/has had different experiences and a different number of said experiences, adjustments will need to be made – for example, a candidate with very little work experience but a strong educational background and solid club involvement vs a candidate with a lot of internship/work experience, but not nearly as much extracurricular involvement.

Generally speaking, I like to plan on roughly 30 seconds or so per collective experience/opportunity/position. In other words, assuming you are a college senior, 30 seconds to 1 minute for education and school clubs/etc, 30 seconds for each of your work experiences and l minute or so total for any volunteering efforts/extras – total roughly 3-4 minutes (again, depending on both number and breadth of experiences and candidate – some sound rushed using just 3 minutes, others have the smooth transitions and highlights down pat and can coast through it in 3 minutes).

While this is all helpful, hopefully, I still have one more thing to cover – actually running through the answer. Breaking down the answer, this is how I would usually tackle the question, and in this order: To lead off, I would introduce my school, my major, and mention my involvement (highlights, of course) in any noteworthy clubs or competitions and mention any noteworthy awards that I have received.

Next, I would jump into my first internship on my resume, whether or not it occurred in my sophomore, junior or senior year. I would touch on the highlights, and, if it is NOT in banking, I would discuss how aspects of the job – i.e. some of the skills necessary – were useful to investment banking and how the internship helped to shape my interest in banking/my career goals. If the position was in investment banking, then discuss how the experience has helped to affirm your interest in the field. Repeat the process for your other past internships.

Next I would follow the same procedure for my current or most recent position, in my case it is a FT position, but it can just as easily be a current internship, or your most recent summer internship. For this position, it is ok to spend an extra few seconds to get into just a bit more detail regarding your highlights, or throw in an extra accomplishment, if you have one, as this should be, ideally, your flagship internship/position and should be the anchor of your professional resume. Whether in investment banking specifically or not, whether for a BB or a tiny boutique, this position should be described in such a way as to highlight your skill set and highlight your candidacy as a capable, valuable, aspiring analyst.

Note: As the internships progress, try to articulate a sense of increased responsibility and more interesting projects/assignments in your highlights, as with each internship you should be growing and earning better, or at least equally-footed positions/opportunities.

Finally, if there is time, I would touch on any of my volunteering efforts, the impact that I made, and again, any of my highlights or accomplishments in the position as well as why that particular non-profit is of importance to me. This would also be the place where you throw in any other little extra that are on the bottom of your resume that you feel are interesting or nice talking points – for example, I may bring up my powerlifting competitions, again, if there is time, and if the interviewer is “attentive, and nodding and smiling along” (you know what I mean).

Note: Regarding the phrase, “if there is time,” I am referring to your ability/your sense of how long you have taken, how interested the interviewer seems to be, whether or not you have run on a little bit at one particular spot, etc – essentially, all of the clues/implications that you need to learn to pick up on that signal the need to “wrap it up,” and move on with the rest of the interview. Remember, if you interviewer has any other/further questions specifically about your resume he/she can and will ask, so don’t feel the need to toss the kitchen sink at the person.

That should pretty much cover it. As always, any other suggestions, helpful tips, or comments in general, just leave them below. Stay tuned for upcoming posts on Landing the FT Offer, The Business School Application Part 2, Part 2 of my series covering “What an Analyst Really Does,” and much more! Sign up for RSS and/or Email updates so that you can stay informed and Stay Tuned!