The non-negotiable format
| Element | Standard | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Length | One page | Two pages signal poor prioritisation at analyst level |
| Sections | Education, Experience, Skills & Interests | The order recruiters scan in |
| Order | Reverse chronological | Anything else reads as hiding a gap |
| Font | 10-11pt serif or clean sans | Legibility when printed |
| File | PDF, named Firstname_Lastname_CV.pdf | Preserves layout, parses cleanly |
| Graphics | None | Columns, icons and photos break parsers |
The bullet formula
Action verb + what you did + tool or method + quantified outcome. Every bullet should survive the question "so what?" without a follow-up.
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| Assisted with financial analysis for clients | Built a three-statement model for a £40m manufacturing target, identifying a 1.8x working capital swing that changed the bid structure |
| Responsible for society finances | Managed a £12,400 annual budget across 9 events, closing the year 6% under budget |
| Helped with research reports | Wrote two sector notes on European utilities, one of which was circulated to the full desk |
Education, when you have little experience
- Lead with grades if they are strong; state the actual percentage or classification.
- List relevant modules only, with marks, and only if above average.
- Include competitions, case comps and scholarships with the size of the field.
- Do not pad with school prizes older than five years unless nationally notable.
Skills and interests, done properly
Skills should be verifiable and specific: Excel to the level of index-match and data tables, Python for pandas-based analysis, Bloomberg terminal basics, a language with a stated level. Interests should be specific enough to be a conversation, not a category. "Reading" is dead weight. "Distance running, two marathons, current PB 3:21" is an interview question you get to answer well.
Final checklist
- 1One page, PDF, correctly named.
- 2Every bullet has a number or a named outcome.
- 3No first-person pronouns, no full stops mid-bullet inconsistency.
- 4Dates align, no unexplained gaps over three months.
- 5Bank name and role in your motivation are correct, every time.
- 6Read aloud once, backwards once, and by a second person once.
Who actually reads your CV, and how
Your CV has two readers with different needs. The first is a parsing system that extracts text and matches keywords; it will silently mangle anything set in columns, tables, headers or graphics. The second is a person scanning under time pressure, usually top-left first, then down the left edge, then across anything visually distinctive. Writing for both means a plain single-column layout with the most important content in the top third.
This is also why design-heavy templates hurt candidates in finance. A designed CV signals unfamiliarity with the convention, and it frequently arrives at the reviewer partly scrambled. The convention is boring on purpose, and following it is itself a small signal that you understand the environment.
Turning duties into evidence
The single largest improvement most students can make is converting responsibilities into outcomes. Responsibilities describe what you were given; outcomes describe what changed because you were there. Most bullets can be rewritten by asking three questions: what did I do, how did I do it, and what was the measurable result? If the third answer is missing, find a proxy such as scale, frequency, time saved, money handled or people affected.
- Weak: responsible for maintaining the society's finances.
- Better: managed a 12,000 GBP budget across eight events, closing the year 4% under budget.
- Weak: helped with market research for a small business.
- Better: analysed 40 competitor listings and recommended a pricing change adopted for 3 products.
What to do with a thin experience section
Many strong candidates apply with no finance internship, and that is not disqualifying. What matters is evidence of the underlying behaviours: accuracy under pressure, ownership, numeracy, and commercial curiosity. A retail job with a till discrepancy record, a tutoring role with student outcomes, or a self-directed project where you built and tested something all provide that evidence, and they read as honest in a way that inflated society titles do not.
Use a short interests line to give the interviewer something specific and true to open with. Two named, concrete interests are worth more than a list of generic ones, because they create the human moment at the start of an interview that makes the rest of the conversation easier.
The final pass before you submit
Read the document aloud once. Read it backwards, bullet by bullet, to catch typos your eye skips. Check every date aligns and every tense is consistent. Then send it to one person who has never seen it and ask them to tell you, in one sentence, what you are applying for. If they cannot, the top third of your CV is not doing its job.
Key takeaways
| Point | Detail |
|---|---|
| One page, always | At analyst entry, length signals judgement |
| Quantify or cut | Unmeasured bullets read as filler |
| Keep it parseable | No columns, tables, icons or photos |
| Tailor the top third | That is all most reviewers read |
Frequently asked questions
How long should an investment banking CV be?
One page for students and graduates, without exception. Additional detail belongs in the interview, not the document.
Should you include a photo on a finance CV?
No for the UK and US. Photos break parsers and introduce bias concerns; only include one where local market convention explicitly requires it.
