How to tell whether your CV's good enough for an investment bank

If you're thinking of applying for a job in an investment bank, but aren't sure whether you're in with a chance, the questionnaire below should prove helpful.

Derived from the website www.ResumeRebrand.com (where it's available in electronic format), it provides a score indicating your eligibility for a front office programme at entry level in an investment bank, based on academics, work experience, fluency in foreign languages etc.

It's not infallible - you'll often be asked to put yourself in recruiters' shoes and consider your achievements objectively (which you may find hard). There are also no extra points to be had for fluency in hot languages (eg. Russian in 2008).

The simple rule of thumb is that if you get 85 points plus, you'll almost certainly get an interview. If you get 70-80 you'll probably get an interview. If you get 60-70 you're almost good enough, but not quite. And if you get less than 50 you're weak (ie. are unlikely to get anywhere).

1) What is the perceived quality of your university on a scale of 1-10?

If you're unsure how to score, here's a guide -

· Top ranked universities/colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge= 10 points

· Imperial, LSE, Warwick= 8 points

· Kings, UCL, Bristol, Durham= 7 points

· Sheffield Hallam= 3 points

· Westminster= 2 points

2) What grades did you get at A level (excluding general studies)?

· AAAA= 20 points

· AAA=15 points

· AAB=12 points

· ABB=9 points

· BBB=7 points

· EEE=1 points

3) What grade did you get in your undergraduate degree?

· First class=10 points

· 2/1=3 points

· 2/2=1 point

4) Do you have any of the following postgraduate qualifications?

· Top business school MBA=20 points

· British PhD= 6 points

· Medical postgraduate= 6 points

· Masters= 3 points

5) On a scale of 1-5, how relevant is your undergraduate or postgraduate degree to the job you're applying for?

· Very relevant (Eg. Economics and statistics for a job in trading)= 5 points

· Not relevant at all (Eg. Degree in English Literature for a job in trading) = 1 point

6) Have you held any positions of responsibility or achieved anything outstanding? Try and put yourself in the position of recruiters and how they might react to your claims. You can grade up to 5 achievements/positions of responsibility here and gain up to 25 points.

· "Wow - this achievement is amazing and truly unique. Few could have done this!= 5 points

· "Very good. That's really impressive and a cut above the other candidates."= 4 points

· "Good. That genuinely differentiates this candidate from the other resumes I looked at." = 3 points

· "The usual stuff - society official, organised a social event, captained a sports team, class representative."= 2 points

· "This does not really impress me."= 1 point

7) What about the personal things like interests, hobbies and sports that make you sound an interesting person to meet. Put yourself in recruiters' shoes and imagine how they'd react to your interests. You can only score up to 5 points on this one.

· "Wow - I would love to meet this person. He/she sound like one of a kind!"= 5 points

· "Very, very interesting. This person might be fun to meet." = 4 points

· "Quite interesting. This person participates in a variety of interesting things."= 3

points

· "Not bad. At least I can picture what the person is like from this section."= 2 points

· "The usual garbage. Watch movies, cook, read, and worst of all - likes to travel!"= 1 point

8) What kind of work experience have you had? Grade each employer on a scale of 1-5 based on the directions below, up to a maximum of 20 points.

· Summer internship in (eg.) Deutsche Bank corporate finance and advisory business etc.= 5 points

· Summer internship with (eg) KPMG tax, Morgan Stanley operations etc. = 4 points

· Summer internship with X company which will be familiar to graduate recruiters= 3 points

· Summer internship with Y company which recruiters have never heard of, although work experience there sounds quite good= 2 points

· Summer internship with McDonalds or my university department=1 point

9) On a scale of 1-5, how good are your IT skills?

· C++ programming skills= 5 points

· Microsoft Office= 1 point

10) How many languages do you speak fluently (there are no marks for conversational ability)? You can get a maximum of 24 points for this question.

· Fluency in mother tongue European language= 6 points (increase this to 10 if German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch or French are your first language. Reduce to zero if your firsts language is English)

· Fluency in a second European language= 5 points

· Fluency in a third European language= 4 points

· Fluency in a first non-EU language=2 points

· Fluency in a second non-EU language=2 points

11) How much foreign travel have you done?

· Lots= 1 point (Just to prove that employers are not impressed by foreign travel)

· Not much= 0 points

12) Are you authorized to work in the EU?

· I have EU citizenship or are authorized to remain in the UK indefinitely= 5 points

· Any other status= 0 points

13) On a scale of 1-6, how well presented is your CV?

· Succinct and easy to grasp (implying attention to detail) = 6 points

· Rambling, with spelling mistakes and poorly aligned headings= 0 points