Make sure your contacts are updated and saved in your blackberry and an Excel backup

This sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised by how many people forget to do this, or, worse, forget that their blackberries and corporate laptops actually belong to the corporation, and are taken back upon displacement. If your blackberry is yours, make sure all of the information is up to date, if it is not (either way, really), make sure all of the information is backed up in an excel file and that you’ve got it if you need it. Regarding which information should be saved – think of all of the basics: name, cell and work phone numbers, address (whether office or home), email address (corporate and personal if you have both, but at least corporate), company (especially if it’s a client contact and not a bank contact), position (analyst, VP, etc) and group (Leveraged Finance, M&A, Industrial Growth, etc – if applicable – if it’s a client, it might not be relevant). Additionally, you want to make sure that the spelling of the first and last name and email address is correct as I have spelled names wrong in the past and wonder why the hell the email wasn’t going through. Finally, as one additional point of interest to keep record of, although not by any means essential, for each contact (at least in your Excel file, where you will have more room), you can keep any talking points such as mutual interests, deals you’ve worked on together, and how you know the person (whether through someone, just through deals, etc) just as talking points and points of reconnection for the future.

Slowly get your name back on the street

I stress slowly here for two reason: 1) you don’t know if you are even going to be displaced, and if you are not, you might not be interested in putting out all of the feelers, giving off that impression and then not following through, and, more importantly, 2) you don’t want your current employer to find out that you are looking for other opportunities, leading them to believe that you are interested in leaving, which, needless to say, is a good way to ensure that you are part of the headcount reduction. The best way to slowly get your name out there is to follow a similar procedure as when you are looking to internally Make the Group Switch. Essentially, start slowly and quietly – reach out to contacts at perhaps a few other firms and put out the feelers. However, let your contact know that you are sensing layoffs, so want to get a preliminary interest – in other words, keep it quiet as you don’t want to guarantee a boot in the ass out the door.

Backup your deal-related work on a flash drive

This is sometimes a bit of a touchy topic depending on the bank, and depending on how comfortable you are with this, but if you get the opportunity, I would definitely recommend uploading, if nothing else, the work you’ve done on any of your closed deals. It’s often tough to remember all of the little details of a project, especially 6 months down the line when you are interviewing and asked about cash flows, discount rates, schedules, etc and by backing up your models, pitchbooks, etc on a flash drive you’ve now got the ability to look back on your projects ahead of your interviews to refresh your memory on any important deal-specifics so that you’re not caught off guard if those technical questions come out. I believe in being prepared for any situation and if you don’t have access to the specifics of your closed transactions it will be very hard to articulate exactly what you worked on, how you were able to perform it, and issues that came up and the ultimate resolutions – and all of this is definitely helpful during an interview and will definitely help to set you apart from those candidates that can only provide “high level” summaries of their transactions or less.

Considering this is often an intimidating task for many, there is an alternative. The alternative is to take hard copies of your documents – print out your models, pitchbooks and IMs, if nothing else, and keep them for your records. Of course you don’t need to print everything out at once, but start early, and over time working on printing out your transaction-related relevant docs for your records. Of course, this will require that you can keep the documents together, neatly, and in a safe place so that they aren’t thrown out, ripped up, or mixed up. I’d recommend starting folders at your house, just as you would in your cube, for each transaction. It won’t have the flexibility or convenience of the flash drive, but it is just as good for a quick review at your house ahead of an interview.

Look into filing for unemployment

This is definitely a point that people often ignore either because they assume that they will be able to find another position very quickly, or because they are, well, embarrassed that as an investment banker they would even need to consider unemployment. Put your egos aside and focus on the market and your finances, not your pride. There is nothing wrong with looking into the process, how long it takes to actually kick into action, how much you’d get and how long you’d be entitled to it. All of these issues matter, and if you take the proper steps early on, you will have one less thing to worry about if, in fact, the cut does come. Preparing yourself for the unemployment process can take at least a small measure of the stress off of you if you find yourself out of work and in need of finding a new employer. You may not ever use your new knowledge or need it, but when and if that cut ever comes your way, it is nice to have the knowledge ready to take immediate action and at least get some money into your pockets until you land that next position.

Polish the resume and cover letter

I’m thinking that this is a no-brainer, but in my experience it is often the “no-brainers” that I need to remind people of the most. By polish the resume and cover letter, I don’t just mean make or edits, or add a line to your current position, I mean fully revise your resume. In other words, look into your past deals, current projects, responsibilities, and so forth, and make sure your new resume fully explains all of these aspects of your current position. Next, look to all of your past experiences and see if anything there can use some rephrasing, some tweaking, or some deleting – if you are adding new experiences, you will probably have to cut some of the old – start with college-related activities and those not directly related to banking that may have helped you get the gig 2-3 years ago, but don’t matter nearly as much as your current projects. A past internship in a different field, college club involvement can be truncated to fit on a single bullet point towards the bottom of your resume (Organization – Dates – Position, such as Finance Club of XXXX – September XXXX to May XXXX – Treasurer) instead of 3-5 lines on your resume in your “Leadership” section where you describe your activities, etc. Remember, after a few years of experience your resume should usually be leading off with a strong work experience section, then move on to your education section (which is not already full, can be the new home of your club involvement as described above) and then whatever is left such as Hobbies, Skills, Interests, Volunteer Work, etc, depending on how much room you have left – but don’t short-change your professional experience to fit an extra Leadership or Hobbies bullet point.

Beyond the resume, your cover letters will have to be redone as well. Essentially, take the same approach here as with your resume. You should have much more strong work experience here than before, so you need to incorporate all of that into the body of your letter to demonstrate your strength as a candidate. Even if your cover letter is not read, at least it’s there and illustrates all of your capabilities as an outstanding analyst/associate, rather than having some outdated or sloppy letter that doesn’t, in all honest, do your candidacy any justice. Take the time while you’ve got it and are still getting paid to put together a strong cover letter – you can always come back and fine-tune it whenever you need it, but you need to clearly articulate your new experiences and skill set.

I know that reworking the resume and cover letter can often be difficult. Sometimes adding new experiences, etc is hard – finding the right phrasing and such, but many times deleting past experiences, etc is harder in that we are all connected to out experiences and can see the merit in them and how they have enhanced and continue to shape who we are. If you’re having difficulty letting go or finding the right way to express something, feel free to drop me an email Here and let me know. No, I’m not pitching my resume revision service by any means, but I can definitely understand the difficulty and have no problem helping you along with cleaning up a few points on your resumes (as I already do, so I guess that it’s really nothing new).

As always, comments go below and emails can be sent right Here. There are many more articles coming so stay tuned and if you have any suggestions for my articles or for the site in general, let me know!

Rather than surprise everyone, I have decided to let everyone know that starting early January, my resume and cover letter services will be taking a small step up in price. I haven’t made a final decision yet on the specifics of the resume, cover letter and combination package, but I know that the price will be going up. When I first released the service, I had mentioned that the price was going to step up at some point in the near future, and have decided that the New Year shall be the start of the new price. It will not be a large jump, as I understand that funds are often tight for students and career switchers (my readers in general), but a small boost is essential. I was initially going to just raise the price, but I have decided to give all of you the heads up and about a week’s notice or so, before setting the new price into motion.

In addition to the price increase for the service, I will also offer a higher cost service that will allow purchasers to have their resumes/cover letters completed in an expedited fashion. In other words, if the normal queue is about 2-3 weekends at that time, the expedited purchaser will have their queue times dropped to about 1 weekend or so. Rather than buy this service, if you are interested, I would recommend that you first shoot me an email to find out what the queue time is for regular and expedited services as there will be down times when standard queue is roughly one weekend, and others when I am backed up with standard queue times at 3+ weekends, or expedited queue times of 2 weekends or so. Hopefully this doesn’t complicate the process much and will allow people that need the service done quicker for a resume drop deadline, to meet their deadline.

Also, bear in mind that the expedited queue time will not push everyone on the standard queue back. The times that I quote generally provide me with sufficient time to complete your resumes, so an expedited resume would be moved up, but not in front of someone who is already approaching their due date – in other words, I will not tell someone that their resume will be ready by next week and then back them up 3 weeks for an expedited purchaser – I probably don’t have to say it, but I don’t want anyone to worry that purchasing the regular service will yield a lesser product or be continuously delayed – my quoted times will still hold true and the quality will absolutely not diminish.

Now, getting beyond all of the product junk, let’s get into the meat of the article, a few quick notes for holiday readers:

1. Don’t reach out to your new contacts, make cold calls or inquire into potential opportunities during these two weeks (meaning before the week of Monday January 4th). Yes, it is definitely exciting to have opportunities, email addresses, etc, ready to go, but let them burn a hole in your pocket for a few more days. There are two reasons for this: 1) most people that are important to the decision making/interview processes are out of the office, and 2) those that are stuck in the office are definitely busy and are probably not in the best mood to deal with new people, cold calling, etc. If there is one thing worse than being forced to work over the holidays, it is getting networking or cold calls when all you are trying to do is finish up and get home. Wait for the New Year and, in my opinion, wait until about Tuesday or so of that week back to give your new contacts a bit of time to get back into the swing of things.

2. Although not the best time to reach out to new contacts, now is a great time to reach out to your current contacts and wish them a happy and safe holiday (as well as catch them up on a few quick things in your life). Even if you are afraid that the contact has gone a bit cold, this is the perfect avenue to reach back out and warm it up again. If you don’t get a response, who cares, you weren’t going to get one anyway. If you do, then even better, now the contact is back and fresh, and if you need anything in the near future, you can begin to massage it again. A quick happy holiday email is a great way to talk about your updates briefly, wish them a happy holiday, and then ask a few questions to keep the email going (not necessarily internship or opportunity questions, but rather questions on how things are going with them, the group, etc).

3. And finally, save the presents for your friends and family. I have been asked, quite a few times, whether it is acceptable to send high up bankers, senior professionals, etc small presents or the like (such as coffee mugs, a holiday basket or other trinkets) along with a resume and cover letter. Although this might sound like a good idea, I would keep this one on the shelf. You are much better off sending the holiday email, perhaps sending a personal hand-written card (if you really want to send something concrete to the office), or just waiting until after the holidays to try and get the networking phone call. Sending gifts often sends the wrong message and leaves a bad impression, if it even reaches the person you are trying to send it to in the first place. Stick to the phone calls and emails – leave the coffee mugs for your distant cousins.

That about covers it for this installment; stay tuned for upcoming articles on what to do when sensing layoffs, a day in the life, more reader questions and much more! I hope everyone has a very happy New Year and, of course, keep reading!

A successful resume will impress the reviewer through a subtle placement of powerful action language, clearly convey your career progression and accomplishments in an organized manner, and depict your ability to excel in and contribute to each position that you have held. A bad resume will all but guarantee that you never get that shot, and, ultimately, never get the job that you really want and deserve. I’m not promising you an offer with every employer to whom you send your resume, but I am offering you a tool to land more interviews and better opportunities, which should result in more job offers (assuming your interview skills are on par, but that’s another topic). Can you really afford to turn your back on job offers, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, yes hundreds of thousands of dollars, in foregone salaries because you chose to settle for your 2nd, or more realistically, 5th or 9th job choice?

[Do the math – assume in an average banking year (think modest bonuses, instead of huge or zero levels), a 1st year will take down $90k, a 2nd year earns $105k and a 3rd year earns $135k, which totals $330k. Now assume you don’t get the IB job and accept a back office style role in a small shop paying $50k per year – after 3 years, that would be $150k. While $50k per year is definitely a solid salary, the difference between the two is $180k – even if you assume worse numbers in banking, you are still looking at a difference, all in, of about $150k over just 3 years.]

Below is a sample resume I received, before and after revision, for your consideration.

Sample Resume Before Revision

Sample Pre Revision

Sample Resume After Revision

Sample Post Revision

I know that times are tight right now, and everyone is trying to cut a few corners and save some cash, which is why when I revamp your resume I am including free checks and tweaks. If you don’t like something, or want to add a few stats, a hobby, change some language, adjust an experience or the like, just send it back, let me know what’s bothering you, and I’ll take care of it – no problem. So rather than dance around the specifics, here is the approach and process when revamping your resume/cover letter.

Specific process:

1. You buy the service through the Paypal link below (or on the resume product page, Here).

2. You send your current resume and/or cover letter, name, email address and receipt number (if you have it) to me at IBanker@BankonBanking.com.

3. You send any additional attributes, work experiences, responsibilities, education credentials, hobbies, skills, etc, that you want to see in your new resume.

4. I will combine everything given to me, reformat the template on which your resume is built, and then revamp the language, sentence structure, descriptions and overall presentation of your resume.

5. I will send it back to you for review, and then the fun begins – we will now go through it together via a short consultation to discuss your thoughts and opinion and where you’d like to see a few more tweaks and edits, if any.

6. Your resume will be sent back to you with the aforementioned changes, and you are ready to send it out to recruiters, staffers and potential employers. If in the future, or even immediately after receiving it, you decide you want to add something else, or change something, you can ask me to review your changes or have me make the changes (although the former will generally be much quicker – as it will not be placed in the queue for resumes and other future products to be completed).

7. Enjoy! Now start sending it out, and realize your full potential; achieve your goals; break into investment banking…and thrive!

For this all-encompassing resume service, I am only charging $105, but keep in mind, as more people continue to take advantage of this opportunity, I may have to adjust the price so that the quality of work isn’t lessened due to the increase in quantity of demand. Additionally, I will offer my cover letter service for just $95. As an added bonus, I will revamp your resume and cover letter as a package for just $175 if purchased at the same time. A resume is often your one shot to impress the people responsible for offering you employment. In this market, you cannot afford to leave things to chance and blindly send out an ineffective resume – you just won’t receive the attention that you will need to break into this business. So dust off your resume, send me an email, and get ready to break into investment banking!

Resume Revision – $105

Cover Letter Revision – $95

Resume PLUS Cover Letter Revision – $175

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