Resume for Investment Banking Internships
IB recruiting is brutal and learnable. Brutal because the timeline is compressed, the pool is hyper-credentialed, and the format expectations are non-negotiable. Learnable because once you accept the rules, your resume stops fighting you.
The format banks expect
There is one dominant template — the Wharton/Stern/Booth-style one-pager. Use it. Times New Roman 11pt body, single column, sections in order: Education → Experience → Leadership → Skills/Interests. Date range right-aligned, job title bold left, company in italics below. Banks pattern-match this format instantly. Anything else reads as inexperience.
Deal blocks are the centerpiece
Even if you've never worked at a bank, a school M&A pitch or an investment club deal counts. Format: target / acquirer / size / your specific contribution / outcome. The specifics matter more than the prestige of the project.
- Built three-statement DCF for $850M mid-cap industrial target
- Ran sensitivity analysis on WACC, terminal growth, EBITDA margin assumptions
- Modeled three financing scenarios (60/30/10, 70/30, 100% sponsor equity)
- Pitched to faculty + Goldman MD; placed 2nd of 18 teams
Prestige and leadership signals
Bank screening still weights prestige cues heavily — target school, GPA ≥3.5, SAT ≥1500 (yes, still on resumes for sophomore IB recruiting). Leadership in a finance club, a varsity sport, or a substantive part-time role rounds out the page. Don't pad with general clubs you barely attended.
Examples
IB deal block — before vs. after
- Before: Worked on M&A pitch for school finance club.
- After: Led 4-person team pitching $1.2B sponsor-to-sponsor sale of mid-cap SaaS target; built LBO with 3 financing scenarios; presented to Goldman + Morgan Stanley alumni judges; placed 1st of 22 teams.
FAQ
How early should I start IB recruiting?
Sophomore fall for summer-after-junior-year SA roles at most BBs. Earlier than people think. The resume needs to be ready by then.
Do banks really still want SAT scores?
Yes for SA recruiting, especially BBs and EBs, if your composite is 1500+. It's the rare track where standardized scores still belong on a college resume.
How important is a stock pitch?
Very. Even if it's not on the resume, you'll be asked to walk through one in nearly every superday. Have one company you can pitch in 90 seconds.
Related reading
Resume for Finance Internships: What Recruiters Actually Want
Finance recruiting is the most format-strict track in the job market. Your resume has 30 seconds to clear the screen — and within those seconds, recruiters look for very specific signals.
StudentsBest Resume for Students With No Experience
You haven't had a 'real' job. Half your friends are in the same boat. You don't need to fake experience — you need to surface what you actually have, and cut the filler that makes a thin resume look thinner.
StrategyWhy Sending the Same Resume Everywhere Doesn't Work
Two hundred applications. Four callbacks. Sound familiar? Mass-applying feels like progress because each Easy Apply gives a tiny dopamine hit. The math is brutal.
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