Let’s quickly go through the basics and then hit what appears to be a nerve for many students. I know that there are many interesting courses in marketing, english and the sciences (biology, physics, etc) and while the skills learned in those courses might very well be applicable to banking, they are not relevant to banking as far as bankers are concerned. When I ask for relevant coursework, I am looking for accounting and finance courses first and foremost. Next on the totem pole, I am searching for math courses (including stats), since those will at least show me that you are quantitatively inclined and economics courses. Finally, I am looking for an occasional management course – something displaying some form of decision making, strategy or leadership as a means of potentially expressing your ability to see the big picture, analyze situations, etc. Outside of these types of courses, there is very little extra that I am terribly interested in seeing.

Moving past that, we get into the slightly more painful aspect of this section – the other side of what not to include. While, for example, many students like to include micro and macro economics courses on their resumes, you should not. Intro courses, excluding, perhaps an intro accounting or finance course (if you are not a finance or account major) should not be included on your resume. Showcase more advanced relevant coursework to separate yourself, rather than taking up space with courses every econ/business major has to take.

Moving past coursework, there are a few general resume faux pas that I recommend staying away from and/or correcting before considering adding them to your resume:

Mixing dates: Although there is nothing technically wrong with writing “Summer 2008” for one experience, “Jan. 2009 to May 2009” for another and “August 2009 to December 2009” for a third, simply put, it looks sloppy. Keep your dates consistent – if you want to use “Summer 2008,” then cite each experience as “Season Year.” If you want to write out the dates (which is my preference), then simply write them out – “August 2009 to December 2009” for example. At the risk of being a bit nit-picky, date abbreviations is my least favorite simply because months like May, June and July are rarely abbreviated, while December becomes Dec. – again, it’s just a matter of consistency.

GPAs: There are two quick issues that I have encountered with student GPAs (here’s a few more pointers on reporting your GPAs) that should be avoided. First, unless you are from another country where schools do not typically grade on a 4.0 scale, you do NOT need to include the “/4.0” after your GPA – it will be implied.

Second, and more importantly, there are two types of GPAs that are acceptable on a resume – the cumulative GPA (of course) and the major/concentration GPA. Breaking GPAs down to a more granular level than major GPA – whether that means citing specific courses, excluding certain courses (for whatever silly reason) and making up your own GPA – such as major GPA (plus courses X, Y and Z) – should not be done. The more specific you break down your GPA, the more red flags you will raise in terms of why you needed to break down your GPA in this manner and just how bad is your cumulative GPA. In short, if neither your major nor your cumulative GPAs (and you can list one or the other, not necessarily both) are at least above a 3.0, then don’t even bother listing your GPA at all – just leave it off.

Work Experience Positions: While there are certainly a number of position titles in the professional world, you don’t want to make up a title that is completely off the wall or deceiving. When it comes to listing your function/title for your position on your resume, it is usually best to go with the most basic, albeit descriptive title. For example, if you work in investment banking for a M&A boutique as an intern, then simply put “Investment Banking Intern” or “Investment Banking Intern – Mergers and Acquisitions” – you don’t need to call yourself an analyst (even if they refer to you in that manner), nor do you need to break it down further into industries you work on. Your title should briefly cite your position or your position and function; that’s it. Remember, even if your group refers to you as an analyst, you should still include the word intern in your position. Including the word intern will not hurt you and it will definitely clear up any small confusion that could occur.

Stay tuned for future posts on a Day in the Life, interviews with past bankers and much more! Comments go below and emails can be sent Here.

Although along the same line as many of the GPA questions, I encounter a large amount of questions related to, most commonly, these 3 standardized tests: the SAT, GMAT and LSAT. For those of you that don’t know, the GMAT is the test individuals take when preparing for business school, the LSAT for law school and the SAT, of course, is for undergrads (nothing terribly earth-shattering here, I know). Definitions aside, the most common questions regarding these exams involve their impact on bankers, which scores are high enough and not, and when you should list one, the other, both, all 3, etc.

Let me start off with the LSAT and let me be the first to shout that achieving a 170+ on the LSAT is impressive and well-done without question. Now, let me also be the first to tell you that bankers don’t give a damn. Yes a 170+ is great, but the LSAT, for those of you that forgot what you read a few sentences ago, is for law school, not business school and certainly not undergrad (the 2 places where IB recruits). While the score clearly shows that at the very least you are a good test taker, it also shows that you have an interest in law school, or at least are not certain if you want to go to law school (which also probably would lead them to believe that you don’t know if IB is for you). As a general rule of thumb, I would not include the LSAT in your resume, since it will open up way too many questions without any benefit.

Now let’s move on to the GMAT. With the GMAT, there are two sides to the coin or two situations to consider before we even consider schools. The first situation involves a current business school student (or alum). In this case, the GMAT is perfectly acceptable to put on your resume (provided you’ve got a score good enough to include) and I would definitely advise you to do so.

The second situation is a little stickier in that you have not yet attended business school. In this scenario, you might have taken the GMAT as a backup, with the intention of going next year, or with the intention of going in 3 years. In any case, if that GMAT is on your resume, you will often be asked “well are you planning to go to business school soon” during your interview. Remember, if you are applying for jobs after (or during) your initial post-U grad position, many employers will be looking to bring you on for longer than a year or 2 – therefore, you probably don’t want to outright say that you are gunning for business school, even if you are. You will need to develop an answer that puts their fears to rest (even if valid) if you want to have a good shot at landing the position (check this and this out for more help with nailing the interview. That said, if your SAT score is not that great, and/or if your GMAT score is really pretty strong (and you’ve crafted a good answer to the aforementioned question), then you should really consider including your GMAT on your resume in the education section as it will definitely help you to check off that ever-looming standardized test question (SAT or GMAT), especially if you are a few years out of U grad and with a less than top notch SAT score.

Now that you should be able to figure out when to include your GMAT, you need to know whether you should include it. Although you can get into business school with a wide range of scores, and a 650 is a very respectable score, generally speaking, I would recommend that you only include your score if it is a 700 or better (for investment banking – for other fields, I think a 660-670+ would definitely suffice). Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen strong resumes with a 680 GMAT listed, but as a general rule of thumb, the 700 is that magic check-the-box number, where, if a recruiter sees that, they won’t question it – it’s a really good score, check, and move on. As a side note, if you’ve got a 690 GMAT and a weaker SAT, it might not be a bad idea to include the GMAT score since the 690 is more current and still a very good score.

Next, when listing your GMAT score, don’t break out any additional details outside of your AWA IF, and only if, it is a 5.5 or better (personally I don’t think anything lower than a 6 should be listed, but I’ve seen enough 5.5s to know that it isn’t a terribly big deal). By breaking out details I am referring to your individual verbal and math scores. Listing a 720 is good enough – you do not have to go into your 49 in math, since you will be only calling attention to your verbal score that is a bit weaker – instead, just give me the great combined score and if the interviewer has additional questions, let him/her ask them.

Finally, we come to the ever-popular SAT. Where including the GMAT can result in questions, NOT including the SAT can also bring up questions. For students in business school, outside of U grad for several years, or who have taken the GMAT (outside of U grad, that is) and have a strong GMAT score, not including the SAT is not a big deal – occasionally a recruiter will want to know, but it is so long ago that it isn’t going to be a big deal breaker either way, even if you don’t remember. For undergrads, however, the SAT is often a recruiter’s easiest way to weed out several candidates in one push. While many recruiters won’t care about your SAT, many will and not including will raise a flag of “well how bad did he/she do” even if you did not do badly at all and just forgot to include it. That said, including a score that isn’t great for a recruiter that isn’t really looking might provide him/her an easy way to drop a quick ding. Therefore, knowing whether to include your resume is important.

As a general of thumb, scores less than a combined 2100 (1400 or so for those that took the old exam) do not need to be highlighted/included in your resume. In general, these scores are considered the “start” of the highly competitive scores and at this point and above, it would be silly to not include your score, since it will be seen as a positive or at worst a neutral (rather than no score, which could, on occasion, be seen as an implication of a negative). Scores below this threshold do not need to be included in your resume, although borderline scores (mid 2000s or high 1300s) can be included provided that the weaker aspect is not in your math section. Once you dip into the low 2000s (1300s) and below, you are no longer really helping your candidacy much by including your score and could be hurting it. What I mean by hurting it is not that your score is necessarily bad, but it isn’t great either and by giving it up outside of the interview or when they specifically request it, you are giving away non-beneficial information without providing them with as much beneficial information (interview skills, etc) first. In short, a 2100+ can and should be kept on, and anything lower than the low 2000s can be cut from your resume to keep the focus on your, hopefully, strong GPA.

Stay tuned for my next post on what exactly constitutes relevant coursework and titling your summer analyst and FT banking positions, a fresh product on the way and much more! Comments go below and emails can be sent Here!

It’s Only A Summer, Right?

Starting with the second, better scenario first, if you get stuck in a bad group (whether for the future placement, deal flow, hours/balance, team, etc) as a SA you are definitely not screwed here. The big objective in this case is to do your job, do it well and essentially tough it out with a smile on your face for those 2-3 months. Remember the SA position is exactly that, a position for the summer and as long as you stay in everyone’s good graces, you should have a decent enough experience and be able to leverage that into an opportunity with a better group – whether with your SA employer or a different IB.

As a SA, especially if you want to stay at the firm you are currently at, you will need to work hard and land that FT offer. Landing the offer, however, does not usually mean that you HAVE TO stay with your current group – as with most BBs, landing the offer means that you have a FT offer with the bank, not definitely and specifically within your SA group. Yes, if your group likes you and you wanted to stay in your group, you’d definitely have a great shot at that, but for the sake of this article, we will assume that you prefer another group. In order to make this group switch into not just any group, but your group of choice, you should definitely use your time as a SA to not only build experience, but also to build a network or at least network with a few bankers in your top groups of choice. This will definitely help you to land in the group you prefer come the following summer, when you begin your FT analyst career.

It’s Not A Lifetime, But It Can Certainly Feel Like One

Moving past the SA scenario, the other case involves getting place in your less than ideal group as a FT analyst. While in this case you do not have the ability to work a summer and then move on as part of a structured SA program, you are definitely not screwed and doomed to this particular group or industry for all eternity (yes, the exaggeration is completely necessary). In this case you’ve got a few options as to re-branding yourself in a new group/industry, but before I go into those, we need to quickly discuss how to prepare yourself for those options.

Regardless of the group you are placed in, in order to highlight yourself in a proper fashion when preparing to make your move, you need to be a star in that group while you are there. Essentially, treat the group as if it were your top choice by pushing for the big projects, getting more work on your current projects, offering to help out on other assignments, doing additional research and generally showcasing yourself as a team player and strong analyst. Yes, it is often hard to motivate yourself for something your heart isn’t in, but remember, it’s still valuable experience and will you to build your candidacy when making a push, especially if pushing for another group within the bank (good news travels fast, but bad news, as in you’re lazy and useless, will travel faster). Additionally, make sure to meet your whole team – this again follows the being a good team member path – and you definitely want to meet analysts, associates and senior bankers of other groups – use deal team contacts and your analyst class as a means of networking both for immediate opportunities and opportunities going forward.

Once you’ve shown yourself as a strong analyst, you can definitely begin to think about your next move. One way you can always go about re-branding yourself is by pursuing an MBA. While this path will definitely require the most time in your current position (as you probably won’t get into a strong business school until you’ve completed the 2-3 year analyst program), it will also open many doors for you in terms of on-campus recruiting, alumni network, as well as provide you with a fresh start as an associate. Additionally, since you’ve demonstrated your ability as a strong analyst, you should be able to land some strong letters of recommendation and ideally have at least one or two interesting deals to discuss.

Since business school is obviously not everyone, or at least not for everyone at one specific time, you might want an additional option. Along the same lines, 2-3 years in your bottom group choice might very be a nightmare for you, regardless of how well you perform during that time. With that in mind, we move onto the most popular alternative –the opportunity to make the Group Switch. Essentially, making the group switch within your bank will require all of the above preparation and work, with an emphasis on, of course, networking. Remember, moving to a new group within your bank is always easier than getting into a new bank – so use that to your advantage. Once you’ve established some sort of a reputation within your bank, it will be easier and preferable for the new group to satisfy its hiring needs internally, rather than by looking outside to a completely new person. Also, generally speaking your current team won’t have much hard feelings, especially since you can talk to them about it when you know you have an opportunity to move into the new group rather than just springing this on them last minute – you can give them a heads up and put in the time to make a smooth transition for everyone involved, even if it requires a little extra work for a few weeks (it’s better than burning bridges).

Finally, you can make the push to move to a new bank through utilizing your network. Of course the key here will be in maintaining discretion in your networking efforts. You don’t want to shout from the roof tops that you are leaving bank X until you know you’ve got something definite (and even then, a little tact still goes a long way in terms of maintaining good relationships). This avenue is most appealing for someone who likes their group/industry, but doesn’t particularly care for their team’s deal flow, work/life balance or doesn’t really get along with a member(s) of their team. In this case, you would love to stay in your industry, just move elsewhere, where you find a better fit. The reason why I say this option is best is because 1) you want to stay in your industry/group, just move to another employer and 2) other banks will have a much easier time taking on an analyst from another bank if they want to stay in the same group, rather than start completely fresh. For example, I knew an analyst who wanted to make a move to another bank that had a stronger footprint in the M&A space after his first year. That analyst was highly ranked and working in leveraged finance space currently. When this person interviewed with 2 or 3 other potential employers (with a bit of network help), the other employers were interested in bringing him on, but not as an M&A analyst, but rather as a leveraged finance analyst. While it is definitely possible to make a fresh start, it is easier to move within your bank.

While two years can definitely feel like a lifetime in IB, remember that you are only starting your career. As an analyst, you definitely have avenues to make a fresh start in a different group or industry. However, just because you have opportunities to make a switch, it does not mean that you should spit all over your current opportunity and just expect something new to come along. Be smart, be tactful, work hard, and keep your eyes open – you’ll find a new opportunity or, at the end of the day, you might actually decide to stay in what was once your bottom group choice.

Comments go below and emails can, as always, be sent Here!

Boutique IB/Advisory

Before anyone attacks me for listing IB as my top option when I just got finished bracing everyone for being prepared to not get into IB, I am not talking about BB, or even MM IB, I am talking about smaller and no-name investment banking and advisory shops (typically focusing on deals <$500mm, often less than $250mm). While these shops don’t carry the prestige or hallmark of far more reputable and larger shops, it is still investment banking and regardless of deal size, the work will be the same, and skill set you acquire can be very strong. These boutiques often allow their interns and junior analysts to play larger roles on transactions and delve into a lot of modeling and analysis considering the absence of experiences resources and necessity for every member of the team to be involved. As a result of this, you will often find yourself gaining solid resume-building/enhancing experience particularly with regards to modeling and active transaction involvement. Therefore, while your shop might not be impressive by name alone, the experience that you can gain (if you work for it, of course), can definitely help your resume to be impressive.

Additionally, unlike when you strictly focus on the top shops, you are now targeting a far wider array of employers and giving yourself many new avenues to pursue – the trick is in how you pursue them. Although there are many shops of this caliber out there, unlike the BB, top boutiques and MM shops, most of these firms won’t actively post for interns on college boards, or, for that matter, even actively search for interns in general. Therefore, you will need to do your own homework and actively pursue them. In other words, get online and start hunting down these shops. Go through their websites, find contact information, recent deals, conversation points and points of interest about the shop. Additionally, you will have to be ready to showcase your talents and your skill set – essentially sell yourself with each conversation. Don’t expect it to be easy and be prepared to be told “no” many times before finding a bit of interest. With internships especially, you will need to be persistent as interns are often seen as an extravagance, or, worse, as a burden – considering they often need to teach interns everything and just when they start to be useful, they go back to school and pursue a better shop with their new skill set and experience – show them that you won’t be a burden and that you are ready to hit the ground running and interested in contributing to the team, while learning about the business. Finally, be prepared to take a hit in salary as opposed to the prorated BB SA salaries you all probably know about – remember, it’s just a few months, but the payoff can be huge for the next few years – plus, some money and strong experience is better than no money or relevant experience if you end up finding nothing of quality.

Boutique P/E

So, you weren’t able to find a solid internship opportunity anywhere in IB – where to go now. While many people assume that finding something in P/E would be harder than landing anything in IB, that’s not always the case. You need to explore all of your options and I know of at least a few people that found P/E internships, but couldn’t land IB internships. It’s all about finding the opportunities, and since P/E is often the next step after IB, the skill set you will acquire as a P/E intern will definitely be applicable to IB – so don’t simply jump to back office opportunities just yet.

Consulting and Corporate Development

While IB and P/E go hand-in-hand, there are other opportunities that call on the same skill sets, are very competitive, and will definitely help to enhance your resume ahead of FT IB recruiting. Among these opportunities you will find two very solid avenues in consulting and corporate development. Both of these opportunities are seen as front office roles and are quite competitive in nature. Furthermore, the analytical aspects of the position and attention to detail required definitely stand out as interesting and relevant to investment bankers. With either of these positions, the biggest challenge here will be in convincing IB interviewers (next year, when applying for FT positions) that you are indeed interested in IB and not one of the other two fields (whichever field you land the internship in, that is). Essentially, you will be undoubtedly faced with the “why banking and not consulting/corp development” question during your interview and will be expected to have an answer that highlights your interest in banking without: 1) disparaging the previous position or 2) stating that you pretty much had no other options.

Sales and Trading

On a similar level to Consulting and Corporate Development (as it relates to the level of appeal the position has to bankers) is Sales and Trading. By sales and trading I am not referring to dime-a-dozen prop shops in NYC, but rather S&T internships with BBs and the like – often rotational programs and opportunities to work on S&T desks generally running some simple modeling and working on pitch books. Since S&T requires an analytical skill set, interest in the markets, attention to detail and is highly competitive in terms of earning an opportunity, S&T is often the internship chosen among students who do not land IB internships their junior year, and those who ultimately pursue IB FT the following year. Furthermore, although IB and S&T are quite different, many people often see them as quite similar (for a variety of reasons) and pursue S&T as an intern to test the waters, only to decide that IB is indeed the path for them (or at least that S&T is not the path for them).

The BIG issue here will be in convincing interviewers next year, when applying for FT IB, that you are interested in IB only, or at least much more so than S&T. Since S&T and IB go hand-in-hand (at least in terms of eager and aspiring student BB applications), it is essential that you are prepared to answer not only why IB, but also why not S&T – again, without attacking S&T in the process. If you can do this and do it well, S&T can definitely be a solid internship to keep you on the competitive footing for FT IB recruiting. That said, S&T is also very competitive, so don’t assume that you will be able to walk in an S&T interview and land the job much easier than an IB internship position – in short, always bring your “A” game.

Operations/Mid Office

While mid and back office often get the short end of the stuck and take a fair share of abuse, the opportunities can still be very solid and can definitely offer resume-building experience (especially when the alternative is no experience at all – being a waiter or salesperson at a shopping mall doesn’t count as relevant experience). Depending on whether you are working back office at a BB or at an independent corporation (a F500 company, for example), will determine what kind of experience you get. One of my first internships was a back office role with a F500 company and although I spent a lot of my time doing accounting work, checking budgets, etc, I also spent some time on more interesting projects including a few cannibalization studies and promotional event analyses – not earth-shattering by any means, but definitely looked decent on the resume, gave me an opportunity to work in both excel and powerpoint and was more interesting than most of my other work. In short – don’t assume that a BO position will be completely useless and that you will not learn anything or do anything even remotely interesting. There are definitely worse opportunities to take on than an operations/control position for a summer. Any internship is what you make of it, and just as with any other opportunity, work towards taking on as much responsibility and interesting projects as you can and try to meet as many people as possible – especially if working in a BB.

The one caveat, just as with S&T and consulting, is that you will need to prove that you are interested in operations (or at least fake it well). Although back office isn’t as competitive as front office, back office as a whole is known to have a bit of a chip on their shoulder when it comes to very talented young individuals who do have exposure to IB and S&T opportunities. They know that they are often the back-up and don’t like it. So while you might know that IB is for you, you definitely don’t want the interviewers to get that same impression. Learn about the position and sell your interest in it – again, an operations internship is definitely better than nothing.

Stay tuned for future posts on not breaking into IB, what an analyst really does and more! As always, comments go below and questions can be sent Here!

Number to Ask

Many people have asked me at what point should I stop asking questions and how many questions crosses the line between interested candidate and blindly annoying rambler. Unfortunately there is no magic number of questions you should automatically ask and no sudden bell that goes off when you’re at the interviewer’s recommended limit. That said, there are some general guidelines to follow when it comes to how many questions to ask. Generally speaking, 2-3 (I try to stick closer to 2 unless one of the interviewer’s answers was really short and left an opening for a follow-up question or such) solid questions are enough to leave a pleasant closing impression and appear genuinely interested without annoying the interviewer.

There are of course exceptions to this rule such as casual conversation. If the dialogue between the interviewer and you has become a bit more casual/comfortable, then you can allow it to play out for a few minutes. In this case, however, it is no longer the number of questions, but rather the time that should guide your moves. As the dialogue appears to wind down and you’ve covered a few topics in the closing questions, if the interviewer asks for if you have any other questions or leaves an opening, use that opportunity to close the interview for yourself to avoid the risk of taking your interviewer’s courtesy and turning it into his/her mistake.

Another exception to the rule runs closer to the extremes in terms of available time. If you are in the middle of a superday interview, for example, and there are other applicants in the middle of the process, you need to be aware of the time constraints on the interviews. In other words, if the interview comes to an end with just a few minutes before the time expires, do not try to squeeze 2 or 3 questions in – instead, ask 1 solid question and then excuse yourself and thank them for their time citing the time and the other interviewees – being aware of your situation and courteous of the interviewer’s time and process will definitely help you more than squeezing in 1 more rushed question. On the other side of the coin, if there is a lot of time left over, rather than speeding out of the interview, you can use this time to ask an extra question – ideally something that can stir up some sort of conversation and create more of a casual atmosphere – perhaps something hobby-related, or group activity related – this is not an opportunity to leave the interview and rest, but rather an opportunity to show your fit with team.

Topics to Cover and Not Cover

Just as you should not as 30 questions of your interviewer, you should also keep in mind that this is still an interview, and, as such, there are certain topics that you can and should cover and certain topics that you generally should try to avoid (unless of course, the interviewer brings them up in conversation).

When asking your interviewer questions, some of the best questions come from topics including his/her background – such as how and why he/she got into banking, how he/she chose that particular industry or product, etc. Besides background, ask questions on his/her team such as team dynamic, group activities, etc and the popular “what-if” questions meaning those questions that put the interviewer in a particular scenario or ask him/her to recount on events of his/her past and if he/she would do anything differently. For example, you can ask the interviewer what the one thing that he/she wishes he/she knew before getting into the business and whether that point would have changed his/her mind on entering the business. Beyond those questions, you can also ask about his/her most enjoyable moments/deals were in banking, what the most important qualities are for analysts, what mistakes he/she has seen analysts make, etc.

Of course for all of the interview topics that are acceptable and recommended, there is also a list of topics/ideas that it is generally better to stay away from. The most popular questions that I have heard from topics that you should try to avoid involve making the closing questions sound like a news reporter from CNBC interviewing him/her by grilling the interviewer on specifics on deals and market analysis (where do you see the market going in the next year or so, for example). Additionally, stay away from topics that can easily be found through a simple google search such as bank specifics, general questions on investment banking, etc (and of course questions on religion and politics – this should be assumed, but I figure it is better to mention it than leave it out and have someone walk down that path). Stay away from league table questions and street reputation questioning as this can both be found online and can be a bit offensive. Finally, stay away from exit opps questions such as “what P/E firms have you sent your analysts to” before actually landing the job and checking out the sellday – some of you might be laughing at this, but trust me, I have heard it before.

Pitfalls

I’ve went through a few things that you should be doing and covered a bit of material on what you should not be doing, but there are also some common pitfalls to avoid that relate to the past points and enter some new territory as well. First and foremost, avoid asking too many questions – yes, I mentioned it in a roundabout way before, but it needs to be mentioned again as it is the most common pitfall that I encounter. Remember, some interviewers will end the interview for you, while others will keep asking if you have any other questions even after time has expired – it is up to you to know the situation and be prepared to bring the interview to a close. Along the same lines as the previous point, try not to ask multiple part questions. In other words, it is one thing to ask a 2-part question, but I have heard candidates ask 3,4, or even 5-part questions that run about a paragraph long. Frankly, by the time you get to the end of the question I can barely remember where you started. Keep the questions interesting, but also simple. Don’t assume that asking two questions means you ask 1 question and then a giant 4-part question requiring a 20-minute response – the closing questions should leave a relaxed and enjoyable impression, not a tense and stressed feeling.

Beyond that, do not ignore the answers the interviewer provides to your questions and avoid spacing out during his/her responses. I have heard candidates ask a good question, then after a few moments the interviewer answers the question only to have the candidate ask a follow-up that the interviewer literally just answered in his/her previous response. I’ve also seen candidates space out, lose eye contact, yawn, fumble around with keys, etc, during an interview – this is just silly and something that you should have no problem avoiding.

The last pitfall that you need to avoid is subtle, but definitely real – cutting the interviewer off mid-response. I have had candidates ask me a question and then halfway through my response they (I assume) think of a follow-up question and just cut me off to ask it. Sometimes they apologize for cutting me off and sometimes they don’t – either way, don’t do it. If you think of a follow-up question just store it in your head for a few seconds and then when the interviewer has finished his/her response, ask it (this does not, however, mean that you should tune out the rest of the interviewer’s response when you’ve thought of the follow-up question – stay in the conversation!). Cutting off an interviewer is rude, creates a bit of that interrogation-room feel and is, simply put, not the impression that you want to leave just before closing the interview.

Knowing When to Close

This is a short point, but an important one – know when to close the interview. Whether it is because you have asked 2-3 questions, the interviewer is clearly becoming ready to end (by gauging his/her body language, he/she is checking the clock, he/she is closing answers quickly), or even just because you’re out of good questions (I know it sounds funny, but some people will try to force questions when they don’t have anything left to say to avoid ending the interview). In any case, you need to be prepared to end the interview. Simply decline to ask any further questions, thank the interviewer for his/her time, ask for a card or email address if he/she hasn’t already given you one, shake ends, and make your way out. Don’t be afraid to end the interview – it will hurt you more to ramble on and on or show a complete disregard for the interviewer’s time than to simply end the interview on a high note – a bit of showmanship (thank you George Costanza for those Seinfeld fans – ending on a high note).

Don’t Forget the Follow-Up Email

The last point that I will leave you with is regarding the follow-up email. I’m not going to give you guidelines or a sample follow-up/thank you email (maybe another time), but rather just remind you that you do indeed have a thank you email to utilize – so utilize it. In other words, use the thank you email to not just thank the interviewer and continue to express your interest in the opportunity, but also to ask another quick question if you have one and happened to run out of time during your interview or just to keep a dialogue between the 2 of you going. Remember, you’ve always got the follow-up thank you email to toss out another question – don’t hesitate to use it if for no other reason than to avoid running on during the interview.

That about covers it – stay tuned for more articles coming soon! As always, comment go below, and emails can be sent HERE.

Make the most out of a resume

Without a strong support network and a lot of closer friends on the inside, without a well-designed and well-articulated resume, you will have a very difficult time getting to the second stage of the process, the interviews, where, yes, the importance of the resume will diminish. As a SA candidate you are not expected to have a wealth of internship experience, nor are you expected to have banking experience – if you do, you will clearly stand above the rest and have an initial advantage over the competition (I say initial since, as I mentioned before, the resume diminishes in importance once you begin the interview process – here your experience will still absolutely help, but you’ll need the interview skills as well to keep your edge).

If you happen to have some highly relevant experience, if not actual banking experience, then the job of putting together your resume becomes more a matter of expressing your internship responsibilities well, highlighting select other aspects of your candidacy (such as involvement in a club or two) and making sure there are no obvious/grammatical errors throughout. This is not a problem that most SA candidates face – most SA candidates face the opposite problem – not having the clearly relevant or actual banking internship experience and need to overcome that issue.

As I mentioned before, you don’t need to have clearly relevant experience to get into a SA program – it helps, but you can do it without it as well. With some work experience, your best bet will be to first and foremost sell your school’s brand, your GPA, relevant coursework – essentially some relevant and impressive factors from your educational background. From there, you will want to craft your limited work experience bullet points to be as relevant to banking as you can – working in operations/accounting can sound relevant if you focus on some analysis and even number crunching, even non-profit work or tutoring can sound relevant. If you have little-to-no work experience (and for those with some work experience after they’ve highlighted said work experience) after highlighting your school, GPA, coursework and so forth, you will absolutely need to sell your undergraduate club/organization involvement as both interesting and relevant to recruiters. Holding officer positions in clubs and having a visible impact on the organization can be a selling point as strong as most work experience, especially when it comes to SA recruiting. The key with selling club involvement on your resume is in selling the relevance of your work as it pertains to banking, while demonstrating how you’ve stepped up as a leader, whether of the club, a sub committee or just of the tasks your office is responsible for. Leadership, coupled with a relevant experience base is definitely going to impress recruiters, especially when lacking directly relevant work experience.

Working the interview

Everything is looking up and after all of the networking, resume editing, applying and hoping (if you’ve done any of this), you’ve made it – you’ve received the first round interview invitation. Walking into that first round interview is a welcome sight for many since the interview is now the focal point of the application (not the resume, background, etc – although they all still matter) and fate, in a matter of speaking, is once again in your hands – for a little while. Once you get past the excitement of getting the interview call/email, it’s time to start your preparation. While the SA and FT interviews are similar, especially for those SA candidates that have past internship experience or are finance/accounting majors, there are still some differences that need to be touched on.

Exceptions aside, the SA interview will often rely heavily on fit given the lack of a technical background in the applicant pool – meaning a lack of strong internship experience (that requires a comparable skill set to IB, if not IB) and/or a lack of technical coursework in Finance and Accounting. For many candidates, this internship would be their first “real” finance/technical internship – they may have had club involvement or other unrelated internships, but nothing of this caliber – not the worst internship to lead off with – that’s for sure.

SA candidates need to be prepared for all of the behavioral questions (check out my interview guide for more on the types of the questions and, of course, explanations) from background to goals, from strengths to failures and everything in between. Although the manner in which you respond to these questions will generally be similar to FT applicants, SA candidates need to be especially prepared for them since interviewers are going to rely heavily on these responses when assessing your candidacy.

One fit question in particular that a SA candidate should pay attention to is the goals question – whether phrased in the form of intermediate (3-5 year) goals, next step (post SA goals), or something else entirely. For FT candidates this question is usually not as dangerous since FT analysts need only to express an interest in IB and can then have various longer/intermediate-term goals – whether move to a boutique, buy side, etc. FT associate candidates on the other hand need to show an interest in growing with the firm (or at least they should since the associate position is essentially used to shape the next VPs). SA candidates need to think of the goals question more as associates do than analysts. Specifically, going for a SA position, you should know that next year you plan to accept a FT position with the bank and in the next few years you will be working towards completing the FT analyst program. Remember, the SA program is a grooming and interview tool used by banks to gauge who they want to become a part of their next incoming FT analyst class and if that’s not what you at least say you want, you’ll definitely be in a bit of trouble – no bank wants to hear that you are going to use them for their SA program to land at a better bank – or that you are only accepting this SA position because the better bank you applied to dinged you.

Getting beyond the fit questions, some applicants will be faced with technical questions. Some candidates will be faced with the highest level questions such as “what are the 3 financial statements,” while others will be asked more complex questions on transaction impact on the statements, discounted cash flow, and so on – depending, of course, on your level of aptitude in these fields. Additionally, due to a common gap in technical knowledge, brain teasers can often become a headline of the SA interview (especially for more quant-inclined candidates such as math, stat, econ, etc majors). Brain teasers come in 2 main types – those questions that have a specific answer (degrees between the two hands on a clock at time X) and those questions that do not have a definitive answer (bowling bowls in a large building). In either case, the more important aspect of your response is in how you arrive at your answer, not the answer itself. In other words, candidates need to be comfortable enough to walk the interview through their thought process even if they arrive at the wrong answer – showing an articulate and lucid thought process will carry much more weight than just sitting quietly, or with your head buried in a piece of paper and delivering an answer (whether correct or incorrect). It’s fine to take a few moments and think, or write down some steps, but just remember to keep the interviewer engaged and aware of your thought process and the way in which you are working out your problem – these questions are to test how you think and solve problems (as well as your confidence and ability to communicate) – use these questions to sell your candidacy, not shoot it in the foot.

Forward-Looking Thoughts

Well thank heavens! You earned the interviews, nailed them and managed to land yourself a SA position – congratulations! Instead of being excited, however, you’re wondering if you should hold out for another opportunity and look for something better (such as a better name brand bank or if you are hired into 1 group but wanted another) – maybe push a few other contacts, keep networking, prep for a few more interviews, etc. The answer is: unless you are really close to landing another position and will find out before this deadline passes, absolutely not!

If you have to “settle” for your second or third choice of bank for IB, that’s not a problem at all. Remember, the SA program is nothing more than an opportunity to build experience/your resume for a few months and then earn a FT offer and/or leverage that experience into an offer with a better bank. Utilize your expanded list of contacts for the FT employment search in a few months with a much stronger resume. Additionally, you might find that you really like the bank you interned with over the summer and want to stay – in this case, if you’ve earned the FT return offer, you can relax during your senior year and not go through all of the stress of recruiting, interviewing, planning and praying all over again. Finally, keep in mind that landing a SA position with this bank, does not mean you will have the same fortune with a better bank, or even a lower-ranked bank – this bank liked you, you might not interview as well, a different reviewer might not like your resume as well, etc – you never know – for a 3-month program, take the experience and then worry about your next move – you do not want to end up accepting an offer with a lesser company, let alone in a lesser or even unrelated group because you held out for a better IB SA internship – IB SA is better than Operations SA (and most things in between) when it comes to FT IB recruiting.

On a similar note, if you have to “settle” for a group outside of your main group(s) of interest, that is alright as well. Again, it is only a summer position, and at the end of the program, if you are offered FT employment, you can then discuss other group opportunities. Throughout your SA internship, you will also want to network with as many bankers as you can in your favorite groups – this will certainly give you an upper hand when it comes time to request the move for FT. Connect with the bankers in your favorite groups, find out about FT opportunities, etc – they will be your best allies when it comes to your pitch to make the move. Remember, it is much easier to change groups once you are in, have a capable reputation and have networked with some of the group, than if you are applying blind, with no connections from another bank, school, etc.

Stay tuned for future posts, products and much more! If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, drop them below or send me an email HERE!

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!

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!

Check, check, recheck, and, if need be, recheck again

A pain in the ass is better than a pain in the wallet (read: a pain in the rating/offer). When it comes to work, repeated mistakes are one of the most common ways to really get under your senior analyst’s/associate’s skin. Attention to detail is one of the most important qualities that an analyst should possess, and making frequent, repeat mistakes is a good way to show your team members that you missed that memo. Mistakes are going to happen – everyone messes up, but you need to try your best to minimize these occurrences. Check, recheck and repeat, all of your work before passing it up the chain. Taking a few extra minutes to check your work may seem like a waste of time, but catching those errors that you would have otherwise passed up to your analyst/associate is definitely time well spent. The better your work is and the less errors your seniors find when checking it over, the more freedom and interesting projects you will be ultimately given, and the better overall impression you will leave on the team.

You will screw up; the key is in the bounce back

Like I said before, no matter how many times you check and recheck your work, you will make mistakes, screw things up, and generally look like an idiot – if you never have, then you need to get more responsibility (read: step up). The key lesson to be learned when making mistakes is in your recovery. Mistakes are quickly forgiven and forgotten as long as you 1) learn from them, and don’t frequently repeat them, 2) don’t make a big deal out of them – i.e. don’t dwell, don’t stew – move past it, and 3) correct them – don’t let other people correct your errors (a small typo in a pitch is not a big deal for your associate to correct if he’s in the pitch, but bigger mistakes should be corrected by you), and even if your analyst/associate says don’t worry about it, you should always ask to make the correction for him/her – don’t just blow it off and wait for it to be fixed.

Go the Extra Mile

Whether helping a colleague, volunteering to take on a new project or putting a little something extra into a current project, going the extra mile is a great way to earn yourself some points. I know I’ve mentioned this before in a few of my previous articles, but it is worth repeating, as so many analysts, both FT and SA, do what they are told without putting any additional thought or effort into the task. Be better than that – be the person who shows initiative, the SA who thinks about the next steps, and goes that extra mile to do a little extra work and help the team. The effort will be appreciated, even if it is not immediately stated.

Casting a wide net (both within, and outside of your group)

In case you, for some reason, haven’t yet realized this point, investment banking is all about networking (as is most of the business world for that matter), and once you have the position, that really doesn’t change. The task at hand here will be to get yourself out there, meet as many fellow bankers as you can – other interns, FT analysts, associates, even senior guys if you get the opportunity. When an assignment comes up that requires a phone call to be made to the other group, either make the call, or head over to their cube – introduce yourself, get the docs, thank them, and move on. Its not a difficult process by any means, but it is highly valuable. The more people that know you by name and are at least social in passing with, the better your chances are of not only getting a FT offer, but also of getting your pick of the groups when it comes time for FT group selections (in the event that you are interested in working in another group, whether you like your SA group or not).

Of course, you want to absolutely get to know as many members of your group as possible (whether a small team, or a large corporate group). These people are inevitably the gate keepers, the decision makers, and making a great impression on them, and putting forth the effort to get to know them and speak with them definitely says a lot for your candidacy. Remember, casting the wide net (both within and outside of your group) allows others to put a face with the name, and when it comes time to review and make decisions, you definitely want people to know your name (although not for being a screw up – being social and likeable are great reasons though). I know of people who worked in a group for a full summer, and probably only knew by name 20% or so of their group (THEIR group) – how the hell can that candidate expect the group members, the decision makers, to know him – this is an extreme example, but it does happen – don’t let it happen to you – make the effort.

Being social, friendly, and easygoing

Remember, a huge portion of the selection process, and job in general, is in getting along with your senior guys. Although this is related to networking, this is far more geared towards your direct group and involves a greater effort on your part. Working long hours with an analyst who complains, clams up with a sour puss, or is just generally cranky past 6pm or so is not conducive to a great banking atmosphere (especially when in many groups most of the work gets cranking and done past 5, 6, 7pm), which translates into…no offer for you…don’t come back next year (in the voice of the Soup Nazi – Seinfeld). In order to survive both your SA, and then the FT positions, you need to learn to take things in stride, and generally take it easy. The job is obviously stressful, and will push you on many, many occasions, but you can’t let it break you – especially during the SA time (it’s only 3 months!). Being the guy who is up for a laugh, and easy to get along with will definitely do your candidacy a lot of good – especially at 11pm when you know you’re nowhere near done – keep your eyes on the prize and a smile on your face.

Stay positive

Although related to the last tip, staying positive is such an important aspect that I felt it deserved its own callout. The summer internship is no more than 3 months, so I don’t care how many hours you are working, how much you dislike Lev Fin and wish you were placed in M&A, or how big of a tool your analyst/associate/VP happens to be, tough it out, suck it up, get a smile on that face, and stay positive. You can always change groups after receiving the FT offer, you can always take another offer from another employer (if you find one), but what you cannot do, is blame a lack of an offer on a mean analyst, or some long hours, or a “stupid” group (note the sarcasm, and childlike complaints I am using to illustrate my point – I don’t think Lev Fin is stupid, I actually think quite highly of the group). Now I understand that it would be completely contrived to stay positive all of the time, and to be happy all of the time – that’s not my point. No one should be happy and a bright ray of sunshine all of the time, because, let’s be honest, at 2am it sucks to be at the desk – period. The point here, however, is that although it may suck, or kill your evening plans, etc, you don’t have to dwell on it, complain about it, and spread the gloomy attitude around. It’s happened to all of us before, and it’ll happen to all of us again (regarding botched plans, etc) – the key is to just roll with it, and make the best of it. Again, it’s only a 3 month run, so keep positive, or, perhaps more appropriately phrased, don’t become negative.

Remember, evaluations are tricky, mysterious beasts that are generally more about fit than anything else (yes work obviously matters, but good work alone is often not enough as many SAs are good, with only so many positions open) – if you’re in the seat and lasted the whole summer, you can probably do the job. The question, then, becomes whether they want you doing the job with them. Follow these guidelines, work your butt off, stay optimistic and interested, and work towards being part of the team. At the end of the day, the process is usually based on a little luck, it’s often a bit absurd, but it’s always…yes, always…a part of investment banking.