14 Resume Rules for Investment Banking

May 25, 2025

Bankers only spend 30 seconds reading your resume.

They’re extremely picky and look for a very particular style -

So if they notice anything unusual (poor formatting, layout, etc) it’ll get trashed immediately.

When I was President of my school’s academy, I helped revise the resumes of over 150 sophomores.

These are “The Rules” you need to follow to meet the strict standards bankers judge you on.

Because without a perfect resume, you’ll never get your foot in the door for a first round interview.

GENERAL FORMATTING RULES

1 ★ FONT - Garamond Size 10 - 12 ★
2 ★ SQUARE BULLET POINTS (NOT Round) ★
3 ★ REMOVE OXFORD COMMAS ★
4 ★ ABBREVIATIONS - Do NOT Mix Styles ★

  • MONTHS - Either “November” or “Nov.”

  • LARGE NUMBERS - Either “200+” or “Over 200”

  • METRICS (MILLIONS/BILLIONS/ETC) - Either “MM/BN”, “M/B” or “m/b”

5 ★ DASHES - Do NOT Mix Sizes ★

  • OPTION 1 - LARGE DASHES such as “Sep. 2020 – Present”

  • OPTION 2 - SHORT DASHES such as “Sep. 2020 - Present”

6 ★ ALIGNMENT - Consistent Indents & Line Spacing (Use MSFT Word Ruler) ★
7 ★ CAPITALIZATION/BOLD/ITALICS - Consistent Headers, Sub-Headers etc ★

BULLET POINT RULES

8 ★ ACHIEVEMENT-BASED BULLETS ★

Every bullet on your resume should follow a simple three-part formula.

[ACTION WORD] + [DETAILED ACTION DESCRIPTION] + [ACCOMPLISHED RESULT]

They also need to clearly show you’ve built the skills needed to succeed in banking including

  • Quantitative & Analytical Ability

  • Initiative & Motivation

  • Communication Skills

  • Teamwork & Leadership Skills

The achievement-based framework helps you prove you have these skills using tangible evidence.

Part 1 - [ACTION WORD]

Here’s a list of powerful verbs that’ll make you sound impressive.

Just don’t use the same verb twice and make sure it’s in past tense form.

Part 2 - [DETAILED ACTION DESCRIPTION]

Most resumes I fixed were way too vague.

In the example below, this student does an excellent job using specifics.

He does this by detailing the exact methods he used (DCF, Comps & Precedents) to value the company.

This allows him to clearly show the relevant skillset he built as a part of that experience.

Soft skills like “communication” require just as much specific detail.

The example below does a great job showing communication skills.

Part 3 - [ACCOMPLISHED RESULT]

Each experience should have at least one bullet that quantifies the impact with cold, hard numbers.

If you raised money as fundraising chair, give a dollar amount! Or at least an estimate.

Flipped burgers at McDonalds? How many a day? Resulting in what customer satisfaction score?

Here’s a stellar example that makes this frat boy look like an all-star.

9 ★ MINIMIZE WHITE SPACE ★

Every bullet should span the entire width of the page from left to right.

Aesthetically, it makes you appear much more accomplished if can fill the whole page.

However - this DOES NOT mean you should add a bunch of meaningless fluff.

Fill that space with detailed descriptions (as discussed above) that further show off your best qualities.

10 ★ REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER - Most Recent Top Each Section by End ★

OTHER RULES

11 ★ NO BORING INTERESTS ★

In interviews, bankers are testing whether or not you have a personality.

They’re trying to gauge whether they’d enjoy working 80 hr/wk at the desk next to you.

That’s why you’re GUARANTEED to get asked about an interest or two at the end of every interview.

Most kids make the mistake listing general interests like “Sports”, “Music” & “Food”

To make them actually interesting, you need to niche down and make them way more specific.

Here’s how you can change those three general interests to instantly seem more interesting.

  • SPORTS → Iron Man Triathlons | Chicago Blackhawks Hockey | Fantasy Football | Extreme Powder Snow Skiing

  • MUSIC → Taylor Swift | Country Music Festivals | Playing Guitar | Music Production

  • FOOD → Deep Dish Pizza | Chipotle | Baking Cookies | Hot Dog Eating Contests

Here are five examples of unique interests sections I've seen that may help spark some ideas for you.

12 ★ ALWAYS SUBMIT AS PDF - Name the File “LastName_FirstName_Resume” ★
13 ★ REMOVE HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCES & GRADES ★
14 ★ REMOVE SKILLS SECTION ★

Your “Skills” section is more likely to hurt you than help you.

I saw the same two mistakes over and over again with this.

  • MISTAKE #1 - Listing Soft Skills. Kids who put “time management”, “hard worker” or anything similar will get laughed at

  • MISTAKE #2 - Exaggerating Hard Skills. Everyone took entry-level Spanish in high school and is “conversational”. We also all know how to use PPT, Excel, Python etc from basic coursework - so DO NOT include any of these unless you have a ridiculously advanced skillset. If you’re fluent in Spanish, you can put it under the “Activities” line

Cheers 🥂

- Jack