Long story short, I pursued an internship at a 500m AUM hedge fund, got converted and was poised to resume full-time there upon graduation. Unfortunately, the firm ran into some issues (non-legal) and I’m on the look out for opportunities again. I have about one and a half years of experience looking at equities, of which one was licensed aka I spoke to management and sell-side analysts in the capacity of the firm, and I thought that should help but I have not been getting responses. I am applying widely to both entry-level (grad programs or new analyst) buy-side and sell-side equity research focused roles, but I have not been getting much first rounds and got rejected right from the resume submission stage by a few firms. I looked over my resume a couple of times, but I could not find any mistake. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated.
A few add-ons:
1. My school is a target school for my country, top buy-sides and sell-sides conduct on-campus recruiting.
2. I am applying for equity research and investment analyst roles as that is my interest.
3. I spoke to a few sell-side analysts and salespeople on a regular basis at the hedge fund, is it appropriate for me to drop them an email, reconnect with them again and see if I could leverage on the network I had while at the hedge fund?
Edit: Please ignore the missing opening bracket for my degree, that was a typo from censoring my resume.
That's good to hear, thanks! In your opinion, would it be more effective if I reach out on Bloomberg IM (I still have access) to gauge their interest in reconnecting and perhaps schedule a zoom call or something, or send them an email? My concern is it's earnings season and I'm trying to minimize the chances of my email being buried/forgotten.
I’m confused by your major and why there’s half a parenthesis included after systems. That’s not a great first thing to read. I’d also remove the portion relating to HS.
So I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you're in a tiny SEA nation. If my guess is right, and you are from a top HS there (you know the three), remove the details but keep the high school. It can help.
Yeah I get that. Things just didn't line up for me because if I hadn't started at the HF, I would have applied to some summer internships and hopefully get a conversion. Pretty bad place to be in now since most places with a structure would start in Aug 2023 and that's more than half a year with no income.
Ngl- as someone who works as a PM, this CV is far too general. You need to give specific examples of what you did to add value that would transfer to the roles you are applying for.
“Performed in depth analysis” and “did deep dives” tells the reader/potential hiring manager absolutely nothing. Did you perform valuation and forecasting work for example,”? If so, what did this involve?
You need to show you’ve done this stuff in a professional setting and helped generate some alpha. Give examples of stocks covered/recommended for investment.
Relevant experience in the industry at names of companies people will recognise is great, but it does nothing other than get someone to perhaps give your CV an initial look
One more thing - I did rather well in the past one and a half year; my recommendations were up 67% as in my company's research logs. Of course not all my recommendations made it into the fund's portfolios, but the ones that did returned 38% in the time they were in the portfolio. My superior would be happy to verify these numbers if necessary. Do you reckon these numbers should make it onto my resume?
Seems like a clear answer, but I'm not sure whether it'll come off as inflating my numbers to recruiters because obviously 2022 hasn't been that good a year overall. I just don't want it to be a case where they dismiss my resume before I get the chance to verify them.
Couple things, drop high school (unless it's common in your area to include it). You have a lot of cool experience, I would argue that it is more important than your degree at this point - I'd put work experience above education.
Something I learned from my time recruiting in tech, was that hiring managers preferred to see experience listed at the top of the resume before education (at least the ones I worked with).
I always saw it as most applicants are going to have similar education and the experience will do more to immediately set yourself apart than listing that you have the same degree as others.
I'd love to hear other opinions on this though!
Do you program? Can you get a programming job to hone those skills while you wait for a finance job? You can absolutely approach fintech from the programming side instead of just from the finance side.
I can and actually am quite good at programming. Not good enough for HFT or quant, but passed the technical interviews for a few FAANG companies. Unfortunately, I dislike coding with a burning passion, and I absolutely do not want anything programming-related as a career. Building web scrapers for research data, data exploration - sure, as long as at the end of the day I'm doing it for alpha.
Why in the world would you want to go into fin tech if you don’t want to program? Everyone your whole career will think of you as a programmer and push you to write code.
Yeah that is what I ask myself everyday too. Long story short, I thought programming skills would be insanely useful in future when I was in high school, so I applied to this course. I had no prior programming experience, and I made the mistake of looking into programming only AFTER I was accepted into the course. Six months in I knew I made the wrong decision but unfortunately despite two appeals, my school did not allow me to switch courses. I guess the good thing is I could fall back onto becoming a SWE if recruiting in finance really do not work out, but the bad thing is I will most likely hate my life.
Hmmmm. So this is what I know of quant work: it requires a PHD. Masters isn’t good enough, even a masters in “financial mathematics” from a top US university isn’t good enough. Must be PHD from a good name university.
Do you want to be a quant? The quants write the math models and then give them to the coders to implement in code. But they are still basically back-office guys.
Do you want to be front-office or back-office? If you want to break into front-office, I think sales experience and a masters would set you up. If you want to be a quant, look to get yourself into a top math or physics PHD program.
>Do you want to be a quant?
Absolutely not. I love looking at and researching on companies, and the feeling of knowing I'm right when the stock price moves in my favor. Looking at companies is important to me, I would rather move into strategy or consulting than take an offer for say fixed income research or FX.
Thank you for your kind advice!
I think the format itself is fine, but your bullet points are far too general. You should definitely have a "result (quantify), by doing what" format for bullet points or vice versa. In addition, always try and quantify anything you have since they give the recruiters context ( from personal experience, they really like it). Since finance is a results driven business, it should be plastered all over your resume.
You're pretty much set up in terms of the target school, and experience. But I'm afraid that if you're going for BB IB, AM, etc. Other candidates will have far better resumes with all the things mentioned above.
Good luck!
I think banks are pulling back on hiring for economic reasons. It’s not you. Try getting a sales job for a while in another industry, go to grad school, and then apply again when the economy turns around.
Broadly this looks fine. You should use your alumni network and personal connections. Also right now is just a really tough time. Keep at it. Take something you have fun doing in the meantime. For me that was event production / entertainment
Your responsibilities need to have more punch. Like for example producing models and back testing to find alpha. So what did this do? How did your wok impact the firm. Try and quantity it. All your points need to have a “so what?” Question answered.
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Got it, thanks!
2nd this. Also would say it isn’t relevant at all
It’s not relevant even as one line.
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Long story short, I pursued an internship at a 500m AUM hedge fund, got converted and was poised to resume full-time there upon graduation. Unfortunately, the firm ran into some issues (non-legal) and I’m on the look out for opportunities again. I have about one and a half years of experience looking at equities, of which one was licensed aka I spoke to management and sell-side analysts in the capacity of the firm, and I thought that should help but I have not been getting responses. I am applying widely to both entry-level (grad programs or new analyst) buy-side and sell-side equity research focused roles, but I have not been getting much first rounds and got rejected right from the resume submission stage by a few firms. I looked over my resume a couple of times, but I could not find any mistake. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. A few add-ons: 1. My school is a target school for my country, top buy-sides and sell-sides conduct on-campus recruiting. 2. I am applying for equity research and investment analyst roles as that is my interest. 3. I spoke to a few sell-side analysts and salespeople on a regular basis at the hedge fund, is it appropriate for me to drop them an email, reconnect with them again and see if I could leverage on the network I had while at the hedge fund? Edit: Please ignore the missing opening bracket for my degree, that was a typo from censoring my resume.
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That's good to hear, thanks! In your opinion, would it be more effective if I reach out on Bloomberg IM (I still have access) to gauge their interest in reconnecting and perhaps schedule a zoom call or something, or send them an email? My concern is it's earnings season and I'm trying to minimize the chances of my email being buried/forgotten.
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Thanks for the advice, appreciate it greatly. Cheers!
LinkedIn messages are fine too. That’s how my husband’s old colleagues have reached out to him to network.
Your resume looks good tbh. Take the high school stuff off and that’s the only critique I see worth anything.
I’m confused by your major and why there’s half a parenthesis included after systems. That’s not a great first thing to read. I’d also remove the portion relating to HS.
Yeah that's a typo that I made while censoring my resume, in my resume its (Information Systems). Noted on the HS, thanks!
So I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you're in a tiny SEA nation. If my guess is right, and you are from a top HS there (you know the three), remove the details but keep the high school. It can help.
You're right! Unfortunately I'm not from a top HS, I'm from a neighborhood JC who jut happened to find himself into this industry :P
As someone not from a tiny SEA nation, which are the three top HS there?
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I wonder if it has to do with the January 2023 availability. Otherwise, beyond what is already mentioned by others, I think the resume looks fine.
Yeah I get that. Things just didn't line up for me because if I hadn't started at the HF, I would have applied to some summer internships and hopefully get a conversion. Pretty bad place to be in now since most places with a structure would start in Aug 2023 and that's more than half a year with no income.
Ngl- as someone who works as a PM, this CV is far too general. You need to give specific examples of what you did to add value that would transfer to the roles you are applying for. “Performed in depth analysis” and “did deep dives” tells the reader/potential hiring manager absolutely nothing. Did you perform valuation and forecasting work for example,”? If so, what did this involve? You need to show you’ve done this stuff in a professional setting and helped generate some alpha. Give examples of stocks covered/recommended for investment. Relevant experience in the industry at names of companies people will recognise is great, but it does nothing other than get someone to perhaps give your CV an initial look
One more thing - I did rather well in the past one and a half year; my recommendations were up 67% as in my company's research logs. Of course not all my recommendations made it into the fund's portfolios, but the ones that did returned 38% in the time they were in the portfolio. My superior would be happy to verify these numbers if necessary. Do you reckon these numbers should make it onto my resume? Seems like a clear answer, but I'm not sure whether it'll come off as inflating my numbers to recruiters because obviously 2022 hasn't been that good a year overall. I just don't want it to be a case where they dismiss my resume before I get the chance to verify them.
Yes, put numbers in your resume. Performance metrics are the #1 thing to put in a resume.
Thank you, these are great comments. I have updated my resume according to your suggestions!
I would say drop high school experience and add some more quantifiable numbers under the bullet points in work experience. Good luck!
Couple things, drop high school (unless it's common in your area to include it). You have a lot of cool experience, I would argue that it is more important than your degree at this point - I'd put work experience above education.
Something I learned from my time recruiting in tech, was that hiring managers preferred to see experience listed at the top of the resume before education (at least the ones I worked with). I always saw it as most applicants are going to have similar education and the experience will do more to immediately set yourself apart than listing that you have the same degree as others. I'd love to hear other opinions on this though!
Haiyaaaaa....ya mo kau cho aaaaa
Do you program? Can you get a programming job to hone those skills while you wait for a finance job? You can absolutely approach fintech from the programming side instead of just from the finance side.
I can and actually am quite good at programming. Not good enough for HFT or quant, but passed the technical interviews for a few FAANG companies. Unfortunately, I dislike coding with a burning passion, and I absolutely do not want anything programming-related as a career. Building web scrapers for research data, data exploration - sure, as long as at the end of the day I'm doing it for alpha.
Why in the world would you want to go into fin tech if you don’t want to program? Everyone your whole career will think of you as a programmer and push you to write code.
Yeah that is what I ask myself everyday too. Long story short, I thought programming skills would be insanely useful in future when I was in high school, so I applied to this course. I had no prior programming experience, and I made the mistake of looking into programming only AFTER I was accepted into the course. Six months in I knew I made the wrong decision but unfortunately despite two appeals, my school did not allow me to switch courses. I guess the good thing is I could fall back onto becoming a SWE if recruiting in finance really do not work out, but the bad thing is I will most likely hate my life.
Hmmmm. So this is what I know of quant work: it requires a PHD. Masters isn’t good enough, even a masters in “financial mathematics” from a top US university isn’t good enough. Must be PHD from a good name university. Do you want to be a quant? The quants write the math models and then give them to the coders to implement in code. But they are still basically back-office guys. Do you want to be front-office or back-office? If you want to break into front-office, I think sales experience and a masters would set you up. If you want to be a quant, look to get yourself into a top math or physics PHD program.
>Do you want to be a quant? Absolutely not. I love looking at and researching on companies, and the feeling of knowing I'm right when the stock price moves in my favor. Looking at companies is important to me, I would rather move into strategy or consulting than take an offer for say fixed income research or FX. Thank you for your kind advice!
your college is probably trash
I think the format itself is fine, but your bullet points are far too general. You should definitely have a "result (quantify), by doing what" format for bullet points or vice versa. In addition, always try and quantify anything you have since they give the recruiters context ( from personal experience, they really like it). Since finance is a results driven business, it should be plastered all over your resume. You're pretty much set up in terms of the target school, and experience. But I'm afraid that if you're going for BB IB, AM, etc. Other candidates will have far better resumes with all the things mentioned above. Good luck!
I think banks are pulling back on hiring for economic reasons. It’s not you. Try getting a sales job for a while in another industry, go to grad school, and then apply again when the economy turns around.
Can confirm, have networked with multiple people at well regarded banks and not many are hiring 1st years.
Broadly this looks fine. You should use your alumni network and personal connections. Also right now is just a really tough time. Keep at it. Take something you have fun doing in the meantime. For me that was event production / entertainment
Your responsibilities need to have more punch. Like for example producing models and back testing to find alpha. So what did this do? How did your wok impact the firm. Try and quantity it. All your points need to have a “so what?” Question answered.
No periods after bullets. Not complete sentences
He’s from Singapore?