CV: University of East London student who wants to work in investment banking or sales and trading. SCORE=37%

Personal Profile

A ‘Finance, Money and Banking’ undergraduate whose prime priority is delivering high-quality performance. Advanced and well experienced in Internet Technologies.

Confident in professional verbal and non-verbal means of communication:  emails, phone calls, first place meetings and networking. Considerate and reliable member of academic and professional teams. Operating personal lifelong learning policy.

Exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency and productivity.

Education and training 

Sept ‘10 – (Jul ‘13)  Royal Docks Business School at UEL

BSc (Hons) Finance, Money & Banking

• First-Class Modules: Statistics for Economists, Finance, Statistics & Computing, Financial Services in the Modern World, Principles of Investment, Studying for Business, Portfolio Analysis & Management, Careers Management in Business, Principles of Intermediation: Banking, Insurance and Pension Funds

Sept ‘05 – Jun ’09, Bulgarian High School for Economics

• Speciality: Economic Informatics (overall band Very Good of a six-grade system)
• Professional subjects studied: English Language, Mathematics, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Law, Business Communication, Economy Enterprise, Economic Informatics, Accounting of the enterprise, General theory of statistics, Computer accounting, Economic Informatics, Programming and Algorithmic languages

Additional Training Undertaken:

Feb ’12 – March ’12                East London Business Alliance: Career Capital

Organisations-led programme administering high quality training sessions:

• Communications Skills at Nomura Group, 1 Angel Lane, City of London, EC4R 3AB
• Handling Information at Morgan Stanley, 25 Cabot Square, Canary Wharf,  E14 4QA
• Managing Your Time at Royal Bank of Scotland, 135 Bishopsgate, City of London, EC2M 3TP
• Curriculum Vitae Prime Tips at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, 5 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, E14 5AQ
• Interview Advice at Canary Wharf Group, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, E14 5AB

Employment History

July ’12 – Present, Electrical company: Office Administrator

• Relieve management of administrative detail, all projects; Coordinate work flow;
• Update and chase delegated tasks to ensure progress to deadlines
•  Take initiative in manager's absence
• Keep projects on schedule

April ‘12  Executive Administrative Assistant  

Main responsibilities:

• To answer the departmental telephone and process messages as required ensuring all information is correct
• Input quantitative data on Microsoft Excel from training evaluation forms
• Sitting in interviews conducted by a member of the Personnel Team
• Helping with Recruitment – discussing CVs, assessing applications, scoring candidates, post-interview discussions and evaluations

Extra-curricular activities:

March ’12 - present, Barclays Capital: Mentoring Scheme

• Identifying career development areas and targeting goals
• Enhancing exposure to financial services, encompassing a wide range of companies

April ’11 – Aug ‘11,  Financial Services Authority: Mentoring Scheme

Responsibilities:

• Taking initiative and being proactive in career development, by completing the mentoring session record sheet at every meeting and reflecting regularly on goals, achievements, and areas for improvement
• Being proactive in establishing alternative ways to communicate with mentor as well as participating in open discussions
• Submitting the reflective log at the end of each month to the University’s Mentoring Coordinator

Skills & Qualities

Technical Skills

• Computer Accounting, Programming and Algorithmic Languages
• Advanced in  Microsoft® Windows XP/Vista/7, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word,  Adobe Software Products – Dreamweaver, Reader , Photoshop
• Skilled with Internet/WWW,HTML, JAVA, PHPBB – developed school website.

Our evaluator’s comments: 

Score=37%

An experienced credit trader who’s participated in the graduate recruitment process, says:

There are some good points to this CV, but there are also a lot of bad points. Starting with the bad (sorry!): in the first place, your university is far from being a target institution and this will count against you. In the second place, your mission statement is far too long - it should only be two lines. You also lack any relevant work experience - a problem now that most banks hire for front office positions through their internship programmes. 

On the plus side, you've chosen a good degree subject and you've done well to get on the BarCap mentoring scheme. However, I think you'll struggle to get a position in the front office- and maybe in the back office too.

What you really need know is some relevant work experience in an investment bank. To improve your application, you could also try an MSc at one of the universities banks do target. We have a list here. 

 

 

 

The mission statement is far too long.  It should be 2-lines.  An undergraduate should only have a one page CV.  The university is weak but the subject is OK.  The student has done well to get on the Barclays Capital mentoring scheme, which stands out on the CV.  Work experience is weak although trying hard.