Investment Banking Resume Keywords

In the post on powerful action verbs for investment banking resumes, I highlighted my favorite action-oriented verbs that can drastically improve the tone of your resume. Let’s continue our quest in brushing up your resume to make sure it stands out from the crowd.

First of all, you have to understand who are going to read your resume, because they are the decision makers for the first round.

Who Read Your Resume — Bankers or HR?

If you are applying to the standard investment banking analyst / associate program, you are screened and interviewed by investment bankers.

If you are hired outside of the program (e.g. a recent graduate, or a lateral hire from competitors or other firms), you will be screened first by HR.

For now, let’s assume that you are aiming for the investment banking analyst / associate program.

In a typical investment bank, a handful of analysts/associates are selected every year to take part in the recruiting program. Their task is to screen the thousands of incoming resumes and carry out the first interviews, either on-campus or at the office.

In short, the decision makers are just like you, only a few years older!

Tactics: Find The Common Ground

You have to find a common ground between you and these decision makers, because this is a subtle yet very effective way to make yourself more likeable and thus more likely to be picked for interview.

An effective way to build this common ground is to shower your investment banking resume with relevant keywords, i.e. words that are familiar to these Investment Banking analysts / associates. The best choices would be words that are related to their everyday job: analysis & research, finance & business, and projects & deals.

Keywords related to Analysis and Research

•  Analysis
• Sensitivity analysis
• Research
• Study
• Report
• Financial modeling
• Financial models
• Excel sheets

 Keywords related to Finance and Business

• Profitability
• Productivity
• Efficiency
• Effective
• Industry
• Success
• Strategy
• Strategic direction
• Cost-cutting
• Industry research
• Competitor landscape
• Company profile
• Pros and cons
• Brand building

 Keywords related to Deals and Projects

• Presentation
• Project
• Transactions
• Comparisons

How Should I Use These Keywords?

Match an action-oriented verb with these relevant keywords and describe your experiences in the resume. Here is an example:

Let’s say you interned at a consumer product industry during the summer. One of the job descriptions could be:

Analyzed the competitive landscape of the food and beverage industry and assessed the pros and cons of the Company’s current strategies.

Of course, it should enhance the sentence with our 5 Golden Rules: insert numbers and details to sharpen the descriptions.

Analyzed in detail 5 competitors in the premium cookie industry and assessed how the pros and cons affect the strategic direction of the Company.

Now the description is more tangible and carry a lot more weight, isn’t it?

Thanks! Do You Have More Tips?

The next thing you should do now is to sign up to my mini-course and receive:

• Great tips
• Practical advice
• Useful links to help you craft your resume, ace the interview and nail the offer!

* Illustration courtesy of Hiking Artist