I just redid my entire resume, and am looking for some feedback. You can find it here: http://s519.photobucket.com/albums/u357/1234floridagator/anoncv.jpg I’m definitely not a sensitive guy, so please feel free to say whatever you want without a trace of sugar-coating. Three things I have questions about… 1) How would it look if I listed employment in reverse-chronological order? I’d like to highlight my military experience, and don’t want the first impression to come from my sorry ass college jobs. 2) Should I put “Additional Skills and Training” above “Experience”? 3) Can I rename “Additional Skills and Training” to “Professional Development” or will I sound like a douchebag? Many thanks, and I’m looking forward to your scathing remarks
How does being a qualified sharpshooter with a M-16 rifle or M9 pistol qualify you for a finance job??- unless you wanna be a hitman on those structured products guys who made RMBS or the sell guys who sodl you the CDOs… Back to being serious- it seems to me you don’t have a passion to move into finance. Resume alone, Level II CFA doesn’t really seem like a good enough reason to get into investment mgr for example, not to mention you have no experience in financial indtusry Maybe a strong cover letter outlining yoru motivation for a move woudl be great.
I think you need to make it much more related to finance. Also try not to have 77 bullet points for a single job (espeically when that job is not related to your objective). Since your work experience is pretty unrelated to finance, and you have some very relevant training, I would move your training/skills section above experience, right after education.
If I were you were I would expand on your recent finance related education, as that is where you want your life to go now. You’ll need to find more space so I’d roll your bar tending and security jobs into that - as an aside about how you paid for it. I think you can also lose the travelogue (you’ve been in the Navy - it’s safe to assume you’ve travelled) and the personal interest bits at the end, especially for 1-pager. There are some quality generic bits of your military service that would be useful to any employer - I’d highlight those. Yeah, I would call it Professional Development but I would have it after your navy time. I would say on your honourable discharge info that you left to attend university - I do that on my resume and even the military morons you will come across don’t seem to mind you leaving for that reason. It also shows there are no gaps on your CV. Best of British
I wouldn’t say “Dean’s list every semester”, just put Dean’s List or maybe Dean’s List (8) if you really want to show how many times you made it. Your GPA already proves the fact that you made the Dean’s List multiple times.
You don’t need personal interest #2 given that you have your time lived abroad as #1. Get rid of it. Get rid of the fact that you mixed drinks as a bartender. The other stuff shows your work ethic and should stay.
Drop the whole Pub in London from your resume. You can mention it during the interview when you talk about your study abroad experience. Include relevant classes and major projects you worked on at UF.
Bartending while studying is a great conversation piece, but it doesn’t really advance your case, and should be the first to go when you need more space. The military experience says “I can work this guy to death and he’ll come out smiling”. The BA in Finance + CFA Level I says “I know a little about finance”. From a finance person’s perspective, those are probably your two strongest selling points, so try to make them stand out as much as you can at the top of the resume. Also, try to find something that demonstrates real interest and motivation for making good investment decisions (the BA in Finance doesn’t quite do it). Maybe mail a research report you wrote along with your resume as as a sample of work you can do.
You bartended at a bar frequented by market movers, industry titans, beacons of commerce and executive royalty. You can use those exact words.
Big thanks to all who replied… I took your advice and nixed the security & bartender jobs, broke out the study abroad, and broke up the long list under my military experience. Here’s the updated version: http://i519.photobucket.com/albums/u357/1234floridagator/anoncv2-1.jpg Something still looks “off”… any tips on formatting or other remarks would be greatly appreciated!!
Say you went to UGA instead of UF. All right, I’ll be serious… 1) Lose the security and bartender jobs. 2) instead of “passed Level I”, say “Level II Candidate”. Enroll if you haven’t. 3) Put more emphasis on your Naval leadership. From a two second glimpse it’s your biggest strength so it should jump out at you. 4) Your grades and leadership experience are your biggest strengths. You need them both to be on display a little more.
My 34 cents. You have lots of room available, try to fill it up. If your major GPA is greater than your overall GPA, put that as well. I am not a big fan of personal statements or personal information, I think you can use that room for something else. Use the military as your biggest strength, but show the reader your progression. You’ve put great accomplishments on there, but I think it would be better if they were in chronological order and I’d get an idea for how fast you progressed and taken on more responsibility. You speak Japanese? If even a little put novice Japanese If you don’t have too much else to put ( I mean quality of course, not just something to fill up space) I’d maybe put a thin line border around it, so it looks neater. GL
You have great academic achievements…so WHY BE A SECURITY GUARD IN COLLEGE? I’ve never understood why people who were smart as hell but didn’t get job/internship in their field. The work experience would be the icing on the cake if you had it, b/c the GPA, CFA Level 1 passed, and Bloomberg/Factset experience are great. Oh well… If I was reading your resume I’d be intrigued by the GPA and college but would think about stop reading when I saw “Security Guard”, and would defnitely stop after I reached “Bartender” after that. And if I did that I would never get to see that you passed Level 1 and and have Bloomberg Factset. MOVE THAT TO THE TOP OF YOUR RESUME. Put the CFA Level II Candidate or Passed CFA Level 1 under your education. After Education I’d put Skills and Training- Bloomberg, Factset, Excel Certified- as I’m sure you know these are all things employers love to find but rarely do in recent grads. After looking at your resume again, don’t take Security Guard or Bartender off- just put it after your Education/CFA/Bloomberg crap. The Security Guard can show that you’re trustworthy and the Bartender shows that you’re not a nerd and can talk to people… Good luck.