Bank on Banking

I work for a boutique shop. Should I list the company’s details (depending on field: AUM, industry, and other details) on my resume? If so, where would I put it?

First, in terms of “other details” that really depends on the details – if you are referring to number of employees, for example, you don’t need that on your resume – use your best judgment here.

Moving past that, in terms of industry and AUM, you can include those if you’d like to, but the only place you should list them in is in the brief description you give for the company below your position title, but above your bullet points for said position. If you don’t include a brief summary of the company (don’t want to, don’t have room, etc), then don’t bother including them since it really won’t make much of a difference one way or the other – your personal experiences matter much more than a few details on a small shop. Additionally, if the prospective employer cares, he/she will either look it up or simply ask you during the interview.

Should I apply to BB SA internships as a sophomore or is it a waste of time? Also, will it hurt me if I reapply next year as a junior?

While your time might be better of spent elsewhere – depending on how long it takes you to put together and submit an application, it definitely won’t hurt you to apply to BB SA internships as a sophomore, although you will obviously be a long shot. Additionally, as can be implied from not hurting you, it will not have an influence at all on your applications for SA positions during your junior year. In short, if you’ve got the time, go for it. I wouldn’t exhaust my contact list until junior and then senior years, but it definitely won’t hurt to apply – and if you get an offer, awesome. If not, no harm done.

I’m currently in the process of updating my resume to include this past summer’s experience. I interned at a BB and got a return offer, so should I put that I “received a return offer in the Investment Banking Division” as one of my bullet points?

This question has been asked quite often, but essentially there is nothing wrong with putting it in your resume, but there is also nothing great about it. It is perfectly understandable that you want to showcase your success and that you received an offer – as well as not wanting to leave it to chance that an interviewer just assumes that you didn’t get the return offer and draws his/her own conclusions.

However, if you are coming from a good shop, it doesn’t matter if you got the return offer or not, as long as the new group likes you – additionally, if the new group cares, they WILL just ask you and ask you about your experiences with the old group.

If you are coming from an unknown shop, then it won’t matter either way, as your experience – modeling, transaction and such will be the only things that matter – and again, if they care what happened with the old shop, they WILL ask.

Remember, by putting it on your resume you are inviting the interview follow-up questions of: what was your response (did you accept or reject), why are you interviewing elsewhere, what didn’t you like about the shop, and so forth.

Although it looks good to show that you are in demand, you don’t want to end up backing yourself into a corner – where you’ve accepted an offer and are now looking to renege or that you’ve got poor things to say about your past bosses.

If you’ve got the room on your resume and don’t mind fielding the questions, then go ahead and put it on there. If not, then leave it off and if your new employer wants to know, they will just ask. Additionally, once something is in writing it is there, to be proved or disproved, to help you or hurt you.

Either way, you landed a return offer – it’s a job well done and congrats – now focus on landing that FT offer.

As a SA, I worked in a group where offers were made on a group-specific basis, not for an incoming class. I didn’t end up getting the FT offer – am I screwed come FT recruiting or is there a way to explain it?

While it definitely helps to get the return offer, it doesn’t necessarily hurt you to not, especially since your group was only giving offers to certain groups and for that specific group (in other words, no mobility). In this case, you will want to focus on your experiences and essentially let interviewers know that when speaking with your group, it was understood that you weren’t interested in coming back FT and since the offer was group-specific, it made sense to not extend an offer to you and instead give an offer to someone interested in coming back to the group. Then be ready to explain why you didn’t want to work in the group FT and what you’re looking for out of a FT employer (and a FT industry – ideally the new employer will be in a different industry as well).

This should help you to alleviate your lack of an offer, while still highlighting your candidacy. Additionally, this point of an offer or no offer should only come up during an interview – in other words, there should be no mention of this in your cover letter or resume – why give non-positive news without being in person where you’d have the opportunity to defend and explain it.

I’ve taken definitely a bit of a break over the past month or so to catch up on things outside of my site. That said, I am back, beginning to ramp up again and will certainly be firing out everything that all of you have come to expect of me. Leave your comments below and send me some emails – let me know what you want to see, what you need to see and what’s missing!