Investment Banking Resume: The Format Bankers Actually Read

Bankers screening resumes spend roughly 6–10 seconds per page on the first pass. They scan for school, GPA, brand-name internships, quantitative coursework, and whether your bullets contain numbers. Anything that fights this scan — dense paragraphs, decorative formatting, generic action verbs — pushes your resume into the reject pile before the content even matters.

Build the page so a recruiter can answer three questions in one glance: where you studied, what you have done, and whether you can write a quantified bullet. Pressure-test the result with a real investment banking mock interview before sending.

One page. Single column. No graphics, no photos (regional convention varies — in the US and UK, omit; in Brazil, omit unless explicitly requested), no color other than black on white. Margins 0.5–0.75 inch. Font at 10–11pt.

Section order: Education then Experience then Skills/Activities. Education sits at the top until you have at least 18 months of full-time experience. Each role: company, location, title, dates, then 3–5 bullets.

• Header. Name, phone, email, LinkedIn URL. Nothing else. No address. No objective statement.
• Education. School, location, degree, graduation date, GPA (if competitive), relevant coursework, honors, standardized test scores if differentiating.
• Experience. Reverse chronological. Roles, not companies, do the heavy lifting in the bullets.
• Skills/Activities. Languages, technical tools, certifications, leadership roles, athletics. Be specific — 'fluent Portuguese, conversational Spanish' beats 'languages: PT, ES'.

Every bullet should follow the same structure: action verb, specific scope, quantified output.

Strong action verbs: built, modeled, structured, valued, executed, advised, led, sourced, drafted, presented, negotiated, reconciled, automated. Weak verbs to remove: helped, assisted, supported, participated, was responsible for, worked on.

Action verb + Specific scope + Quantified outcome

Most undergrads applying for IB have not worked a deal. That is fine. Bankers know it. What they want to see is that you have done structured analytical work and can talk about it like a banker would.

• Stock pitches. A written pitch with thesis, valuation methodology, catalyst, and risks counts. Quantify the implied upside or your model's price target.
• Case competitions. Name the case, your team's placement, the recommendation made, and the financial impact you modeled.
• Investment club work. Coverage memos, mock LBOs, sector teardowns. List the company, the analysis, and the takeaway.
• Adjacent internships. Audit, FP&A, corporate development, equity research, consulting. Translate the work into deal-relevant scope and quantify it.

Candidate reports suggest that non-target candidates win seats every recruiting cycle. The resume's job is to neutralize the school question fast so the rest of the page can do the work. For the broader playbook, see how to break into investment banking as a non-target.

Lead with quantitative coursework, a competitive GPA, and one or two pieces of structured analytical work (stock pitch, case competition placement, investment club role). Then load the experience section with quantified bullets.

Lateral resumes from audit, consulting, corporate banking, equity research, transaction services, FP&A, restructuring advisory, and sales & trading need to do one extra job: translate prior work into deal-relevant scope.

Replace task-level language with transaction-relevant language. 'Audited revenue recognition' becomes 'Tested revenue recognition controls across $1.2B portfolio, including purchase accounting work on three completed acquisitions.' Bankers want to see proximity to deals and measurable analytical work. Run a live investment banking mock interview to stress-test how that translation lands out loud.

Format is the same. The localization layer is what changes. For local-coverage seats at houses widely recognized as active in the Brazilian market — including BTG Pactual, Itaú BBA, XP, Bradesco BBI and Santander Brasil — Portuguese fluency is required and the resume is typically submitted in Portuguese. Cross-border desks accept English; hybrid candidates often keep two parallel one-pagers. For the full local landscape, see the Brazil investment banking market overview.

Quantify in BRL where the work was done in BRL, and in USD where the work was cross-border. Reference local instruments precisely (Selic, CDI, IPCA, NTN-B, debêntures incentivadas) when relevant; check Banco Central do Brasil and B3 for current values before any interview conversation.