Mastering Your Finance CV & Cover Letter

I was at Bath University. A lot of people were talking to me about, all right, you know, I've got this cover letter. I'm about to submit an application. Can you, can you take a quick look? So I thought I'd kill a few birds with one stone and ask you some questions. So the two big areas that every student needs to nail as a starter for 10 in any application is obviously their CV and their cover letter. So let's start with the CV and do a bit of a quickfire. I've got a bunch of questions that I get asked a lot, and I know that you're very good at this. And so let's do a very quick, quickfire on all things CV. So firstly, how do you talk about your education in a finance-focused CV? And kind of how far back do you go? Do you go back to GCSEs? Do you go further back? What would be, what would you expect to see there?

It depends what your current kind of status is within your academic journey. So if you're a first year, just started going into spring, then yeah, you might have your A-levels plus your GCSEs. If you've already then secured a summer internship or you're a grad, then there's no GCSEs. So it really depends. If you're a master's student, definitely no school and the A-levels are probably there, but in very short form, just literally where you went and the grades. So it evolves over time is the point. Um, is, is the main thing. The other things I see with education, talking with that, is definitely education at the top for anyone in their early careers. I have seen a few students make it, putting it below work experience. I can understand what you're trying to do. You might have some really nice work experiences and you're trying to jump the gun, but you need to conform to the way of which the recruiter's eyes are used to seeing this when they look at these CVs very briefly. So education at the top, and to answer your question, I'd say How far back do you go really depends on where you are at, being either just starting undergrad, a grad, participating in a master's, or if you're in the first few years of your career. The further you go, the, the less you need the earlier stuff.

What happens if— let's— what happens if you have some pretty average A-levels but you've smashed your first year and you've got a first in your first year and you're predicted a first? How do you Do you cover up or do you, do you just put it all out there?

For me, put it all out there. It's going to come out in the wash anyway later on. It's probably going to come up against some resistance from automated systems perhaps that might just see it and it gets lost. But all the, you know, this is a common thing, a challenge that students have. I think the first thing comes with the ownership, like of your, the grades you achieved. You know, you just got to accept that what happened happened. And you've got to put that to bed and you've got to think about, okay, I don't want that to happen again. And hence I'm going to do better. So as you described, I'd be saying in my first year, I actually achieved 80% or whatever it was as an overall grade. And I scored 95% in my statistics module. So you can already start to curate that, that optics of there's been a significant shift. So someone can see. Um, but at the end of the day, I think you just have to be explicit and put it out there.

Yeah, makes, makes total sense. What about extracurricular activities? What kinds of extracurricular activities stand out for you when you're reviewing a CV and how much detail should you go into about these particular experiences you've had, extracurricular activities that you've taken part in?

Yeah, I mean, overall, these are essential. So you have to have them. Now you can get them in a variety of different ways. Some people play sport. Some people get involved in societies at university. Some people do volunteering. All of these are good to do and they're accessible for everyone. When I say sport, that doesn't mean necessarily you have to play football. You could be playing sabutio. So the point is, is that it still involves similar types of things. You need to organize people, you need to communicate, you need to raise funding for your club. And these are the types of then details that you want to be putting in. So for example, I mean, I, I ran a tennis club when I was at university, and I think I put on my CV was how we increased the subscription base of our, our members by X percent, and that led to greater revenue, which allowed more opportunities for the club to travel to new events across the country. So it was kind of like, right, okay, so there's certain metrics which define then my performance. So that's what I would do with any of these. So do think though, there are things that can go wrong with, I'd say, using irrelevant experiences. So as I've described the tennis one, that has a direct translation to many different roles because I'm talking about my ability to go out, talk to businesses, to raise money, to captain a team, to organize socials and all the rest of it. If I was, say, applying to private equity and I'm a big esports junkie and I sit on my PS5 at 2 AM playing FIFA against other people in Japan, right? That's a hard sell, I'd say, from a transition. So I don't think it's just you put everything in anything as an extracurricular activity that's going to be beneficial. You do need to be strategic, and the easiest way is to think about what is it that are the general personalities and job requirements of the sector I want to work in, or the role, and then kind of connecting the dots, a bit of reverse engineering. What have I done and how do I satisfy that requirement?

Yeah, and to that end, do you think that you should tailor your CV for different job roles, is it worth doing something like that?

That is the most critical thing that has to be done. If that is not done, your chance of success is severely hampered. Now, this then brings about a real key question that you must confront, and it is, what do I want to do? Like, and you know, this is certainly where AmplifyMe fits in. Super excited, something we've been working on in the background that everyone's going to see in a few weeks is an ability to kind of try before you buy, free way to experience different elements of banking, quant and trading, things like that. So you just need to experience that. You need to talk to people. You need to start formulating ultimately, what are your skills? What are you naturally good at? And what do you enjoy doing? And I always say to students, write that down. If you try to have that as a mental invisible conversation in your head, you will every day wake up and feel different. But when you physically write something down, it's almost like that pattern of behavior commits you to a course of action. And so write down what you're good and you're bad at. And the advice I can give for myself is that when I was young, in my kind of 18, 19, I thought it's good to be good at everything and it's bad to be bad at anything. Actually, as I've got older, I've learned to recognize that I'm really good at this and I'm not so good at that. So actually, I need to lean into what I'm really good at and absolutely maximize that. And going through these simulation experiences, talking to people to get an inside track, and actually being honest with yourself and what you're good at and not so good at, I think is a, is a healthy process to go through.

Yeah, that's fantastic advice. And the earlier you can do that, the better for sure. And it takes people, it takes people a long time.

I'd just like to add though, as well, you don't need to crack it, nail on the head. I'm going to be specifically working in this role in this area of finance. No one, no one is working in the same job they started in 20 years later. I can guarantee it. And so you can always, you know, I know there's a lot of pressure now because you see everyone living their best life that you've got to make the right decision from day one. And that is not true. A lot of the skills that you're going to get through any of these opportunities, they're going to be useful for other pursuits. Maybe that's in the same domain, maybe it isn't. You can always change even within a, as you will know, more than anyone, Stephen, when you describe banking, banking is not just M&A. There's so many different pockets within it. And so yet there's going to be lateral movement throughout. And it's actually in those early years where you get to feel and experience and really get to live it that you can make then the most informed decisions. So don't feel like— you just need to eliminate that difference between not just applying to banking and markets. That's wrong as an approach. They're very different. But if you say, I want to just focus on banking because I like numbers and I like modeling, I like valuation, I like strategy, all these sorts of things, then fine, that opens up a selection of roles for your, your, your CV to focus on.

Yeah, that makes, that makes total sense. And again, a lot of people ask me, again, it's quite hard to build up good a good body of work experience as you're going into application season. And often your work experience is not necessarily perfectly aligned to the role that you're applying in. Maybe you've done a couple of days in wealth management, but you're trying to apply for a job in IBD. Do you put those experiences of adjacent finance work experiences on?

Yes, you do. I mean, again, it does depend on the individual and their, their general background. You want— what you're aiming for is a very consistent narrative that runs throughout your CV. I always say to students that if I come in cold and read your CV, I should be able to read it from top to bottom and then go, 'This person is ideal for this role.' If I'm in any way confused, then that CV's not hitting the mark quite right. The way I'd like you to think then, if you had wealth management but you were going for banking, it's like, okay, so what am I doing in a wealth management role that could be applicable in banking? So wealth management, uh, and it's the same with trading. Perhaps you are having to have half an eye on looking at the market and understanding the global macro environment for the benefit of advising people and to be able to articulate that into your thinking. Whereas if I was working in banking, this is a key component for me understanding the interest rate environment, which is going to define then a part of the model I'm looking at or the timing of an acquisition or a deal. So you can extract certain points. There's obviously communication skills and things like that, which are highly desired in almost all roles in financial services. So try to move away from specifics that are, say, when someone says, I traded the S&P 500 and I placed 5 out of 100 students, and then they're applying for banking. That doesn't make sense. However, within trading, when you formulate a trading strategy, there's that macro component or that micro component of understanding a single stock, for example, and that would, that would apply.

Yeah, I'd also add to that, yeah, try and avoid being overly specific, but also Try and avoid talking, and this may refer more to the COVID letter, in total generalities. And something that I see quite often is people talking about their work experience as if they've run the company. So, "I led a multi-stakeholder, high, you know, multi-million dollar project over the course of my 2 days of virtual work experience working for a world-famous—" No, you didn't. You got some really good experience, but you didn't do that. So don't, you know, don't try to over-engineer what you've done because people will see right through it. My last question on CVs. Let's say I've got an internship or some work experience coming up. Should I put it in or do I just leave it out?

It does depend on how full your CV is already. If you've interned, done a spring week at Jefferies, and then went to Evercore for summer, well then you've probably got enough ammunition there, I would say, to be classified as a desirable candidate at that stage. If that's not the case, then I would put it there, but I would be again very explicit and say incoming, or I've been selected for, or some degree of qualification that has meant that there's been a selection process and you've earned that through merit to get there. Then I would say just, but I would only have one line describing what it is that you'll actually be doing. And then obviously the dates accordingly of when you'll be there. So yes, I would put it on. Nice.

All right. Quickfire on cover letter. There's so much more that we can talk about here, but let's, uh, well, actually let's start with, can you describe to me the perfect cover letter? You receive it, it comes through via email and you're just smiling and you're nodding your head and going, This person has really nailed it.

Does perfection exist? I'm not sure, but yeah, I get your point. I think, well, nowadays I, you, every hiring manager can tell if something has been ChatGPT'd, particularly when you see high volume and you see lots of similarities. So I think the perfect cover letter is Um, clear, concise, and demonstrates something that other people haven't mentioned. That then demonstrates in itself, um, a real keen passion for the area or subject, um, or some sort of intelligence about the firm that isn't so publicly known that shows that you've acquired that somehow through networking. Listening to podcasts, reading bank earnings reports. I mean, remember, we're— this is going out on Monday. JPMorgan, BlackRock earnings came out on Friday. So if I receive a cover letter on Monday, that's a good thing to drop in. And maybe there was something that you saw, a statistic, a comment from the CFO, or something that just shows me you're paying attention and you know our business. I always think if you strip it back, if you were the employer of a business and then you had a bunch of really talented students and you ask them, why do you want to come work for me? And they can't describe your business model and generally how it's composed and how are you performing, why on earth would you give that person a job? Uh, but I would say only a fraction of students can do that. From my interactions.

Yeah. Well, I totally agree. It's a really, really hard thing to get right, the COVID letter, especially if you're trying to apply to a number of different firms and get it right for each and every firm. There's nothing worse than a very, very generic, okay, all right, what you've done is you've just Ctrl+F and replaced the name of the company. That will never get you very, very far. What about, again, maybe taking the flip side, What are some real no-nos in terms of COVID letters, things that are going to turn you off as a recruiter, as a campus recruitment manager straight away?

Well, if I'm applying to Goldman Sachs, it kind of helps if I don't put Morgan Stanley or JP Morgan. That's point one. You'd be surprised by how often we hear that, which is just incredible. But goes to show the sort of approach that a lot of students take. The other things are, personally, I'm not so keen on culture. Like, people always lean into cover letters too heavily into culture. And I remember one student was talking about how they wanted to join this US bank because they really felt that they could change the world and change people's lives. And I was like, Okay, I kind of get that. So in terms of, okay, so you are allowing people to access credit and money and that allows businesses to operate and that allows job creation, which allows wealth. And it's like, I'm not sure saying that the way it was phrased, I'm not sure that's what the pursuit of these banks completely is. I think as an offshoot, sure, they grease the mechanics of an economy. I get it. But also just taking like the 4 pillars of a corporate, corporate promise. I just don't like that. It to me strikes me as very lazy. Um, what I want to know is that side should be a given. I want to know, what do you know about my business and my products? Because I want to be the best business in the market and I want to be a success and I want successful people with the same mindset. So I think that that's a bit of a bugbear that I have because it's the most common thing that people tend to do.

Yeah, no, I definitely see that. Yeah, most banks have a relatively similar culture when you actually strip it back and their outcomes that they want to achieve are all pretty uniform. So, uh, yeah, so if we can move beyond that, that would be great. One question I get asked quite a lot is, you know, you want to stand out in your cover letter and standing out, you can be really, really good at the specifics of the role and know something unique about the business, but how and should you bring through your own personality or a kind of narrative of how you've got to this application or a story about what has linked your past to where you're at today? You know, can you bring through that personality whilst also remaining professional? I guess that, that, that's a really, really hard thing to do.

To me, this is fundamentally what a cover letter is. This is your opportunity to tell your story. Telling a good story is incredibly powerful, incredibly difficult, particularly when you come from the world of academia where everything is written in long form. The purpose of this document is, is concise and short form. So this is what you You know, you said earlier, if you're applying to lots of places and you're doing lots of COVID letters, where do you find the time? So there is a bit of a marriage between, you know, quality and quantity and being quite specific on how you approach these. Um, so, so yeah, I think, um, yeah, storytelling is key. Showing who— it's an opportunity to demonstrate your uniqueness. To go beyond just the stats and more like impact and skills-based nature of a CV. And so, yeah, this is what takes time. This is where you can use ChatGPT. And it's not ChatGPT to solve your problem, to describe your story. But it's what I tend to do is write quite quickly in rough copy, and then I'll talk to ChatGPT. And say like, okay, so how, what are your suggestions to refining this? This is my purpose and this is what I'm trying to convey. It'll spit out a response. It will write it in a language that's definitely not my own because it's far too articulate than the way I speak or write. And then I'll kind of dumb it down into ant level, uh, if you like. And then we'll go back and forth a little bit. So this is where you can use these, these tools. You know, writing a cover letter, you know, ChatGPT has damaged it quite a lot, I would say, in terms of now the relevance of that document. But that doesn't mean you can't use it. It's just got to be used in the right way. So yeah, I think definitely show some of your personality. You, again, you're trying to ultimately demonstrate your passion, and that should come through in your language. Whereas the CV, I think, is much more formal.

So it's hard to convey that. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And I would recommend, because that bit of personality, that actually can be put into many different cover letters. So spend time getting that bit right and socialise it, you know, put it in front of your parents, put it in front of a few people, because you want to get that balance of, all right, this is individual, personal, and it stands out, but it's not too informal and not erroneous. So definitely spend time on that and, and get a kind of second and maybe third opinion. So that's CVs and covers— cover letters. Is there anything I missed? Any other bits of advice that you want to give the audience as they're going through this, uh, pretty stressful phase of their, their university journey?

Yeah, I guess the one thing I would say is that I was doing a session earlier this week and I said to them, right, we're going to do a live CV review session. And everyone's like, great. And there's, you know, there's a decent enough size audience. And I was like, right, take your name off your CV and what I'll do is you privately DM me, I'll bring it up on the screen and we'll critique it together. Now In this exercise, what I tend to find is the only people who share their CV with me are the ones who have excellent CVs and the ones who have excellent backgrounds. They've, they go to the top uni, they've got the top grades. And so I guess what I want to say is that, um, for all the other people, which is actually the majority of people who aren't at that gold standard just yet, is that just don't be intimidated. Just because you might look at a peer and go, oh, but they've done this finance experience. All I've done is, um, worked at Sainsbury's. Like, there was one, the CV where the guy was the rugby social secretary at Bath Uni, worked at Waitrose, and he'd done another service sector job. Whereas the other candidates I looked at, had done all of the banking spring weeks, the internships. But I was like, okay, so look, his CV looked quite different, but it was almost like he was somewhat embarrassed when looked comparably with the others. But there was so much quality there that he could have talked about. I said to him, hang about, you're the social secretary for rugby at Bath University? Surely that's the biggest club within your university, surely. And he was like, yeah, by far. And it's like, okay, so Bath's one of the top schools for rugby, right, with Loughborough? Yes. Okay, so all you've put is you're social secretary for Bath Rugby Club. Like, that makes no sense to me. You are so modest. These other people are so proud. It's like, you just— we just need to find that middle ground. So I think it's just about not being intimidated that if you have finance experience and you're applying to finance jobs, fantastic. If you don't, that's still more than usable and you can still shape that absolutely into a strong, um, CV and a strong application. You just need to think a bit more laterally about A, how can I re-pitch the experience and transferable skills? And then B, What can I be doing to actively pick up and acquire all the necessary skills that I don't have that I can access? Free courses, Coursera, AmplifyMe simulations, doing charitable work, all the extracurricular stuff. Like, all of that is within your control. It's a lot of work, but that's what it takes.

What a way to, uh, what a way to end. Thank you so much. And that was Absolutely invaluable. Really, really good for you to share your experience and for anyone that's listening and probably, well, Anne has probably seen thousands, thousands and thousands of CVs and cover letters and has spoken to hundreds of students and thousands of students about this type of thing. So it's definitely worth paying attention to this episode and getting, getting your CV and getting your cover letter in order because it's the hygiene stage, but a lot of people can trip up at this stage and feel like this is a very futile application process because they keep getting rejected, because something's not quite right in those initial CVs or those initial cover letters. Uh, so thank you so much, Ant.

Yeah, feel free if anyone has a question on Spotify, I know you can leave a comment and I'll happily respond.

Nice one. Thank you so much, Ant, for your time. All right, take care.

Thanks, Stephen.