Investment Banking Analyst Resume: 2 Free Word Templates, Deal Bullets & Keywords (2026)
Investment banking analyst roles are the most competitive entry-level finance jobs in the world — a Goldman Sachs Summer Analyst class accepts roughly 1.5% of applicants, and Centerview Analyst classes accept under 1%. The bar is set by the resume: a one-page document, deal-experience bullets that read like deal memos, advanced Excel / financial-modelling vocabulary (three-statement, DCF, LBO, M&A accretion-dilution, comparable companies, precedent transactions), and a clearly screenable spike (named leadership, GPA, target-school proxy, finance-specific extracurriculars). This guide gives you the role's responsibilities at Analyst, Associate, VP, Director and MD level, the deal vocabulary recruiters search for, the bulge-bracket vs elite-boutique resume differences, salary by tier and city, and the bullet patterns that pass live Super Day screens at Goldman, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citi, BlackRock, Evercore, Centerview, Lazard, PJT, Moelis, Guggenheim, Qatalyst and Perella Weinberg. Every recommendation is calibrated to a 2026 hiring market where AI-fluency is now a baseline analyst expectation alongside the historic Excel / PowerPoint / Capital IQ / FactSet / Bloomberg stack.
- Lead with deal experience in the bank's own format: transaction type, size, your workstream, and status. '$1.2bn cross-border industrials merger — built the merger model and ran accretion/dilution' is the only opening line that matters.
- Name your group and use process vocabulary — M&A, LevFin, ECM, DCM, Sponsors, Restructuring; CIM, management presentation, data room, fairness opinion, comparable companies, precedent transactions. Group fit is a hard screen at every bank.
- Prove the modelling can be interviewed: three-statement operating model, DCF and DDM, paper LBO, merger model with accretion/dilution, and sensitivity analysis. List them explicitly because the technical screen tests exactly this list.
- Name the terminals and tools: Bloomberg, Capital IQ, FactSet, PitchBook, and advanced Excel worked without a mouse. Generic 'financial analysis' loses to the named terminal in every recruiter search.
- State the school, GPA and any target-programme markers honestly, and keep the resume to one page. Banking screens are format-strict, and a two-page analyst resume signals unfamiliarity with the industry before anything is read.
Investment banking analyst resume examples (free Word templates)
Two complete one-page examples. The first is a New York-format resume for an Analyst two years into M&A making a lateral move; the second is a London-format CV for a student applying to Summer Analyst programmes. Every name, client and number is a placeholder showing the shape of a deal bullet (workstream, deal type, size, outcome), not a real transaction. Each downloads as a Word file in one serif font with no tables or columns; replace every line with your own.
[City, State] · [email] · [phone] · linkedin.com/in/[your-name]
Education
GPA 3.72 / 4.00 (major 3.86). Honors: [scholarship or award].
- Relevant coursework: Corporate Finance, Financial Statement Analysis, Valuation, Mergers & Acquisitions.
- Portfolio Manager, Student Investment Fund: ran the industrials sleeve of a $250K fund and beat its sector benchmark by 3.1% over the year.
Experience
- Staffed on six live sell-side and buy-side M&A mandates and nine pitches in industrial technology and business services; ranked in the top tier of the Analyst class at year-end review.
- Built the operating model, DCF and LBO sensitivities used in management presentations to 14 financial sponsors and 6 strategic buyers.
- Drafted the CIM business section and the management-presentation storyline for a $420M carve-out of an industrial distribution business.
- Screened 120 targets for a sponsor's add-on acquisition strategy and built the ranked list behind three management meetings.
- Trained four incoming Analysts on the group's model template and data-room review process.
- Built comparable-companies and precedent-transactions analyses for two pitches; received a full-time return offer.
- Drafted company profiles and the industry overview section of a pitch to a family-owned manufacturer.
- Ranked first of 12 Summer Analysts in the group's end-of-summer review.
Selected transaction experience
- Built the three-statement model and buyer-by-buyer LBO analysis; drafted the CIM's financial overview; process ran to 11 indications of interest and closed at 10.4x adjusted EBITDA.
- Ran the data room and the buyer Q&A log for 14 parties through the second round.
- Ran the accretion/dilution and synergy case for the client's board materials; coordinated confirmatory diligence across 3 advisers and 400+ data-room requests.
- Built the sources-and-uses and pro forma capitalisation pages for the announcement materials.
- Built the debt-capacity and covenant analysis; prepared the lender presentation and managed Q&A with nine lenders.
- Prepared the ratings-agency presentation with the sponsor's CFO; the notes priced 25 bps inside initial guidance.
- Wrote the teaser and the CIM's financial section; the process paused after first-round bids came in below the seller's valuation.
- Re-ran the valuation on updated forecasts for a relaunch planned next year.
Skills, certifications & interests
Licences: Series 79 and Series 63.
Technical: Excel (operating, LBO and merger models), PowerPoint, FactSet, Capital IQ, PitchBook.
Leadership: campus recruiting lead for [Bank] at [University] for two cycles; interviewed 40 candidates.
Interests: [one specific interest].
[City] · [email] · [phone] · linkedin.com/in/[your-name] · Right to work: [status] · Languages: English (native), [language] (professional)
Education
- Predicted First Class; second-year average 74% (Corporate Finance 78%, Econometrics 76%, Financial Accounting 72%).
- Dissertation: leverage and deal premiums in UK take-privates, using public offer documents for 40 transactions.
- Relevant modules: Corporate Finance, Financial Accounting, Econometrics, Mergers and Acquisitions.
- Awards: [Scholarship], one of 15 awarded across the faculty; Dean's List 2025.
Mathematics A*, Further Mathematics A, Economics A*. Extended Project (A*): why the 2008 UK bank rescues were priced as they were.
Experience
- Rotated through M&A, Leveraged Finance and ECM; one of four in a cohort of 30 invited to fast-track Summer Analyst interviews.
- Built a trading-comparables table for eight listed UK consumer brands and presented an EV/EBITDA range to a Vice President.
- Prepared a two-page profile of a FTSE 250 retailer for a mock pitch; the team's recommendation was scored first of six.
- Built the precedent-transactions analysis (22 deals) and the football-field valuation page for the pitch on a [sector] business with about £40m of revenue.
- Drafted six pages of the information memorandum's market and competition section from company data and industry reports.
- Researched 60 potential trade buyers from company filings and narrowed the long list to the 18 the deal team approached.
- Trained four new staff on tills and stock processes; the store ranked second of 14 in the region for customer-service scores.
- Run the weekly cash-up and stock reconciliation for a £25,000-a-week store, with no variances raised at the last two audits.
Leadership & activities
- Lead a team of 12 analysts; introduced a two-page pitch template and a weekly model review for the society's paper portfolio.
- Second place of 40 teams in [Competition] stock pitch with a long thesis on a UK mid-cap industrial.
- Write the society's monthly note on announced UK deals over £100m, sent to 900 members.
- Managed a £38,000 annual budget and renegotiated the boathouse hire, saving £4,500 a year.
- Organised the club's first alumni dinner (140 guests), raising £9,000 for new equipment.
Skills & interests
Technical: Excel (three-statement model, DCF, LBO from the [Course] training), PowerPoint, Capital IQ, Python (pandas).
Certifications: Bloomberg Market Concepts; [Course] financial modelling.
Interests: [one specific interest you can talk about for two minutes].
Responsibilities
- Build and maintain three-statement operating models, DCF / DDM / NAV valuations, M&A accretion / dilution analysis, and LBO models in Excel for live transactions and pitch-stage opportunities
- Run comparable-company analysis (trading comps) and precedent-transactions analysis (transaction comps) by screening Capital IQ, FactSet, Bloomberg and PitchBook, and reconciling outputs into football-field valuation summaries
- Draft pitchbook content in PowerPoint — situation analysis, market overview, valuation summary, process and timing, fee proposals — and own the analyst-level pages end-to-end before VP / MD review
- Manage data rooms (Datasite, Intralinks, SecureDocs, FirmRoom), populate Q&A logs, draft management-presentation outlines, and coordinate diligence workstreams across legal, accounting, commercial, tax and ESG advisors
- Lead the analyst workstream on live deals — sell-side M&A, buy-side M&A, LBO financing, IPO / follow-on / convert / block trade ECM, investment-grade and high-yield DCM, restructuring and liability management, and private capital advisory
- Build and update the operating-model assumptions in collaboration with Associate and VP — revenue build, cost build, working-capital schedule, debt schedule, equity waterfall, returns sensitivity, scenario / stress / Monte Carlo overlays
- Author and maintain the deal-team master tracker, deal calendar, signing checklist, closing checklist and post-mortem deck for each live transaction
- Build and own client deliverables on standalone advisory mandates — fairness opinions, board presentations, special committee memos, activist-defense playbooks, dual-track readiness assessments, and shareholder rights plan analyses
- Run sector and company-level research notes for the industry group (TMT, Healthcare, FIG, Natural Resources, Industrials, Consumer & Retail, Real Estate, Power & Utilities, ESG / Energy Transition) and contribute to weekly group commentary
- Operate the modern banking AI stack — Claude / GPT-5 for first-pass memo drafting, Capital IQ Pro / FactSet / Bloomberg Terminal for screens, AlphaSense for transcript and broker-research search, Mosaic / Daloopa / Canalyst for model templates, and Aiera / Fintool / Hebbia for transcript Q&A
- Support the Associate and VP on staffing — track analyst utilisation, contribute to bake-off live-deals decks, prepare kick-off and re-pitch presentations, and turn around comments on a 12-hour cycle from VP / MD
- Maintain compliance with Series 79 / 63 progression, the firm's Chinese-Wall policy, conflicts checks, MNPI controls, and the SEC / FINRA / FCA / SFC / MAS regulatory baseline relevant to the desk and product
Required skills
- Advanced Excel — three-statement modelling, LBO modelling (paper LBO on demand), DCF / WACC / cost-of-equity build, M&A accretion-dilution, sensitivity tables, scenario manager, INDEX/MATCH and dynamic-array formulas, VBA optional
- Pitchbook PowerPoint fluency — sector-overview slides, valuation summary (football field), process timeline, situation analysis, page formatting in Think-Cell or Mekko Graphics, brand-compliant deck builds at IB pace
- Comparable-company and precedent-transactions methodology — trading-multiple selection (EV/EBITDA, EV/Revenue, P/E, EV/Sales), adjustment for non-recurring items, calendarisation, and outlier exclusion
- Capital IQ, FactSet, Bloomberg Terminal, PitchBook and AlphaSense fluency — screens, broker-research pulls, transcript search, comparable export, dataset reconciliation
- Deal-vocabulary literacy — sell-side process, buy-side process, LBO financing structures (TLA / TLB / second-lien / mezzanine / unitranche / OID), high-yield notes, convert structures, IPO mechanics, sponsor coverage, restructuring (DIP, exit financing, Ch 11), activist defense, fairness opinion process
- Quantification and detail — every deal bullet states deal size ($), counterparty (or anonymised descriptor), your specific workstream, the tool / model / memo deliverable, and the outcome (closed / announced / withdrawn / ongoing)
- Client-facing communication — meeting prep, executive-summary writing, fairness-opinion-grade memo drafting, board-deck contributions, calm responses under VP / MD pressure
- Time and stamina — 80–100-hour weeks during live deals, weekend turn-arounds, ability to take and incorporate VP comments on a 12-hour cycle without quality loss
- Series 79 / 63 progression for US roles, FCA SMCR-aware behaviour for UK roles, SFC Type 6 awareness for Hong Kong roles, MAS for Singapore — and the conflicts-and-compliance baseline that comes with each
- AI fluency — using Claude / GPT-5 for first-pass memo drafting, AlphaSense / Hebbia for transcript Q&A, Daloopa / Canalyst / Mosaic for model templates, while preserving review-by-VP discipline and MNPI handling
Salary range
Bulge bracket (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citi, BAML, Barclays, Deutsche, UBS, Credit Agricole, BNP, HSBC, Wells Fargo, Mizuho, Nomura, RBC, MUFG): NY Analyst Yr1 base $110K + signing $25K + bonus $80K–$120K (≈$215K–$255K total Yr1, $300K–$340K Yr3); Associate base $200K + bonus $130K–$240K ($330K–$440K); VP base $300K + bonus $250K–$500K; Director base $500K + bonus $300K–$700K; MD base $600K–$1M + bonus $1M–$5M+ (book-dependent). London Analyst total Yr1 £110K–£135K (post-bonus); Hong Kong analyst HK$1.4M–$1.8M (post-bonus). Elite boutique (Centerview, Evercore, PJT, Lazard, Moelis, Guggenheim, Perella Weinberg, Qatalyst): Analyst Yr1 NY total $235K–$280K (Centerview Yr1 historically the highest analyst comp on the Street); Associate $400K–$550K; VP $550K–$900K; Partner $1M–$10M+. Restructuring desks (PJT RSSG, Lazard RX, Houlihan Lokey RX, Guggenheim RX, Moelis RX) trend higher in down-cycles. Sponsor coverage and FIG often pay top-of-range within bulge brackets. Bonus pools are paid Jan–Feb based on prior calendar year performance, gated against the firm's franchise bonus pool and the desk's deal cadence.
Typical career path
Summer Analyst (10-week internship, Yr3 university) → Analyst Year 1–3 (model and memo execution) → Associate Year 1–3 (deal-team management, MBA or A2A direct promote) → Vice President Year 1–3 (process leadership, day-to-day client ownership) → Director / Executive Director / Senior VP (client coverage, mandate origination) → Managing Director (book ownership, P&L, fee responsibility) → Group Head / Sector Head / Country Head (franchise leadership, hiring authority) → Partner / Vice Chairman / Head of M&A / Co-Head of Investment Banking
Top resume keywords for this job
Investment banking analyst hiring is gated at five distinct points on the resume, and 2026 has not loosened any of them. Recruiters at Goldman, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citi, BAML, Barclays, UBS, Evercore, Centerview, Lazard, PJT, Moelis, Guggenheim, Perella Weinberg and Qatalyst will read your one page in under 30 seconds and screen against: (1) target school + GPA proxy, (2) named finance leadership and a measurable spike, (3) a finance-relevant prior internship that signals deal exposure, (4) deal-experience bullets that read like deal-memo prose with quantified scope, and (5) the technical / language / certification block at the bottom (advanced Excel, Capital IQ, FactSet, Bloomberg, Series 79 progression, CFA Level 1+).
The single biggest analyst-resume weakness is bullet shape. 'Built models and assisted with valuation' fails the screen — every bullet must state the workstream, the deal type, the deal size, and the outcome. Strong shape: 'Built three-statement operating model and DCF / LBO valuation for the $2.4B sell-side M&A of a confidential mid-cap industrials target; ran six diligence workstreams across commercial, financial, IT, ESG, regulatory and tax; deal closed Nov 2025 at 11.4× LTM EBITDA, 22% above the running football field median.' This shape works at every level — Summer Analyst (intern projects), Analyst (live deals), Associate (process leadership), VP (client ownership) and Director / MD (book and P&L) — what scales with seniority is the 'I' versus 'we' framing and the deal count.
Bulge bracket vs elite boutique resumes diverge on three axes. (1) Length: both expect one page at junior levels, but elite boutiques (especially Centerview and PJT) reject two-page resumes on sight even at A2A-promote stage. (2) Deal-bullet specificity: bulge brackets accept the deal type + size + workstream + outcome pattern; elite boutiques expect deal-memo-grade specificity with EV/EBITDA multiple, leverage multiple, and your exact model deliverable. (3) Spike: bulge brackets reward broad named leadership; elite boutiques reward finance depth — a stock-pitch winning portfolio, named research with a VC / PE fund, or a published industry note outweighs multi-society leadership. PE-recruiting megafunds (Apollo, Blackstone, KKR, Carlyle, Bain Capital, Vista, Silver Lake, Thoma Bravo) read the IB analyst resume against the same axes plus a 'sourcing-and-thesis' lens — your top deal bullet should imply a defensible investment thesis, not just process competence.
Division vocabulary is non-negotiable. M&A bullets use 'sell-side', 'buy-side', 'tuck-in', 'transformational', 'reverse merger', 'tender offer', 'short-form merger', 'long-form merger', 'special committee', 'go-shop', 'no-shop', 'topping bid', 'fairness opinion', 'representations and warranties', 'MAC clause' and the buyer / target / sponsor names where confidentiality permits. Leveraged Finance uses 'TLA', 'TLB', 'second-lien', 'unitranche', 'mezzanine', 'OID', 'tight pricing', 'flex up / flex down', 'ratings advisory'. ECM uses 'IPO', 'follow-on', 'block', 'PIPE', 'convert', 'green shoe', 'lock-up', 'stabilisation', 'price talk', 'demand book'. DCM uses 'investment grade', 'high yield', '144A', 'Reg S', 'covenant package', 'maturity wall', 'tender / consent solicitation'. Sponsors and PE coverage use 'add-on', 'platform', 'continuation vehicle', 'GP-led secondary', 'NAV financing', 'tax distribution'. Restructuring uses 'DIP', 'exit financing', 'Ch 11 / Ch 15', 'plan support agreement', 'cramdown', 'absolute priority', 'liability management exercise', 'creditor-on-creditor violence'. Industry groups (TMT, Healthcare, FIG, Natural Resources, Industrials, Consumer & Retail, Real Estate, Power & Utilities, ESG / Energy Transition) layer their own sector vocabulary on top.
AI fluency is the 2026 differentiator. The senior bankers reading your resume are now using Claude / GPT-5 for first-pass memo drafts, AlphaSense and Hebbia for transcript and broker-research Q&A, Daloopa / Canalyst / Mosaic for templated three-statement scaffolds, and Cursor for any analyst who codes on the side. The right resume signal is *not* 'familiar with ChatGPT' — it is a named workflow: 'Operated a Claude-driven first-draft memo pipeline for sector-coverage screens, cutting analyst memo turnaround from 14 to 4 hours while maintaining the VP-review discipline; pipeline now adopted across the TMT analyst class.' The implicit message — 'I will give you 3.5 FTEs of analyst output per analyst seat without violating MNPI handling or VP-review' — is what differentiates an Analyst-2 to Associate-direct candidate from an Analyst-1 lateral.
WadeCV tailors your investment banking resume against any Goldman, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Evercore, Centerview, Lazard, PJT, Moelis, Guggenheim, Perella Weinberg or Qatalyst job description in a few minutes. Paste the description, or the job link for a Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan or Morgan Stanley posting, and WadeCV rewrites your deal bullets against it, in its own wording where your experience supports it, and fits the result to one page. Free to start, no credit card.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Two-page resumes at Analyst, Summer Analyst or A2A-promote level — automatic deprioritisation at Centerview, PJT, Evercore and most bulge brackets
- Deal bullets written as 'helped with valuation' or 'supported M&A' — every bullet must state deal type, deal size, your specific workstream, and the closing outcome
- Generic technical-skills block ('Microsoft Office, financial modelling, teamwork') instead of the deal vocabulary recruiters search ('three-statement model, LBO, DCF, M&A accretion-dilution, Capital IQ, FactSet, Bloomberg Terminal, Series 79 in progress')
- Quoting GPA without the institution context, transcript classification, or honours — '3.6 GPA, Wharton concentration in Finance, Joseph Wharton Scholar' beats '3.6 GPA' on its own
- Padding leadership with single-meeting attendance — recruiters screen for sustained, named, multi-year roles with measurable outcomes (President, Portfolio Manager, Captain, Founder)
- Listing 'AI / ChatGPT familiarity' instead of a named banking workflow with the FTE-equivalent productivity gain or memo-turnaround reduction
- Mixing US and UK / EU spelling conventions on the same page — pick the version that matches the office (NY uses 'organization', London uses 'organisation')
- Burying the deal experience below academics on an Analyst-2 lateral resume — once you have 4+ live transactions, deal experience leads
Interview tips for this role
- Walk-me-through-your-resume answer in 90 seconds: name, school, internship, technical highlight, why this firm — practise to the second; bulge brackets and elite boutiques both screen on cadence
- Paper LBO on demand: 5×5 standard (5x leverage, 5-year hold, exit at entry multiple) — know the IRR / MOIC math without a calculator (≈20% IRR / 2.5× MOIC at default assumptions)
- Three-statement walkthrough: starting from depreciation +$10, walk all three statements with tax rate, cash impact, debt schedule and equity rollforward — every analyst interview will ask
- Accretion-dilution intuition: cash deal vs stock deal, P/E spread, synergies as % of target market cap, expected accretion in Year 1 — Lazard, Evercore and Centerview test this in detail
- DCF intuition: WACC sensitivity, terminal value as % of enterprise value (>70% is a warning sign), reverse-DCF ('what growth does the share price imply?') — Senior bankers test this for client-readiness
- Restructuring-track interviews (PJT RSSG, Lazard RX, Houlihan Lokey RX): know waterfall, fulcrum security, Ch 11 timeline, DIP mechanics, plan-support-agreement structure
Frequently asked questions
What does an investment banking analyst actually do day-to-day?
Analyst days at Goldman, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citi, BAML, Barclays, UBS, Evercore, Centerview, Lazard, PJT, Moelis or Guggenheim follow three repeating workstreams: live-deal execution (modelling, comps, decks, data-room management, diligence Q&A), pitch-stage prep (sector screens, valuation summaries, fee proposals), and deal-team admin (trackers, calendars, conflicts checks). Hours run 80–100/week during live deals, drop to 60–70 in dry-pitch weeks, and spike to 100+ at signing. The analyst owns the model, the comps and the analyst-pages of the deck end-to-end before VP / MD review; comments are turned around in 12-hour cycles. Modern analyst stacks include Claude / GPT-5 for first-pass drafting, AlphaSense / Hebbia for transcript Q&A, Daloopa / Canalyst / Mosaic for templated models, and Cursor for analysts who code; senior bankers expect you to operate this stack while preserving MNPI handling and VP-review discipline.
What is the difference between bulge bracket and elite boutique investment banking on a resume?
Bulge brackets (Goldman, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citi, BAML, Barclays, UBS, Deutsche, Wells Fargo) value broad division coverage — your resume should signal optionality across M&A, ECM, DCM, LevFin and Sponsors. Elite boutiques (Centerview, Evercore, PJT, Lazard, Moelis, Guggenheim, Perella Weinberg, Qatalyst, Allen & Company, BDT, M Klein) value pure-advisory depth — your resume should signal M&A and restructuring obsession with deal-memo-grade specificity. Both expect one page at Analyst level; elite boutiques are stricter (Centerview and PJT will reject two-page resumes on sight). Centerview, Qatalyst and Perella Weinberg historically pay the highest analyst comp on the Street; PJT RSSG and Lazard RX pay top-of-Street for restructuring. Both bulge brackets and elite boutiques screen on target-school / GPA / named-leadership signal at the resume stage.
Which investment banking divisions should I target on my resume?
Choose the division that matches your spike. M&A is the broadest path and the largest bulge-bracket pool; LevFin is for analysts comfortable with debt structures, capital markets and sponsor coverage; ECM is the path to capital-markets and equity-research adjacent careers; DCM is the path to credit, ratings and fixed-income; Sponsors / PEG coverage feeds private-equity recruiting; Restructuring (PJT RSSG, Lazard RX, Houlihan Lokey RX, Guggenheim RX, Moelis RX) is counter-cyclical and pays top-of-Street in down markets. Industry groups (TMT, Healthcare, FIG, Natural Resources, Industrials, Consumer & Retail, Real Estate, Power & Utilities, ESG / Energy Transition) layer on top. Your resume should name the division and the industry-group vocabulary explicitly — recruiters use boolean search and a generic 'investment banking' candidate loses to a 'TMT M&A' or 'Sponsors LevFin' candidate.
How long should an investment banking analyst resume be?
One page at Summer Analyst, Analyst Year 1–3, and A2A-promote Associate level — no exceptions across bulge bracket and elite boutique. Two pages are acceptable from VP / Director onwards, and only when the additional page lists named live transactions. Centerview, PJT and Qatalyst reject two-page Analyst resumes on sight; Goldman, Morgan Stanley and Evercore deprioritise them. The one-page constraint forces the resume to communicate scope through bullet specificity rather than length — recruiters at all firms read one page in under 30 seconds, and the screening-pass / deprioritisation decision is made in that window.
How do I quantify deals on an investment banking resume without violating confidentiality?
Use the masked-deal pattern: 'Built three-statement operating model and LBO valuation for the $1.6B sell-side M&A of a confidential mid-cap industrials target; ran six diligence workstreams across commercial, financial, IT, ESG, regulatory and tax; deal closed Q3 2025 at 9.8× LTM EBITDA.' Keep the deal size, deal type, your specific workstream, and the outcome (closed / announced / withdrawn / ongoing). Anonymise the counterparty as 'a confidential [size] [sector] target' or 'a global [sector] sponsor portfolio company'. Public deals (announced or closed and disclosed) can name buyer / target / sponsor explicitly. Restructuring bullets can name the debtor once Ch 11 has been filed. Always keep MNPI inside the firm's Chinese-Wall policy — the resume is read externally and any pre-announcement detail is a compliance violation.
What technical skills should I list on an investment banking resume?
Lead with advanced Excel and the modelling fluency block (three-statement, DCF, LBO, M&A accretion-dilution, comparable company analysis, precedent transactions), then PowerPoint (pitchbook, Think-Cell or Mekko Graphics), then named data tools (Capital IQ Pro, FactSet, Bloomberg Terminal, PitchBook, Refinitiv Eikon, AlphaSense), then VDR / data-room tools (Datasite, Intralinks, SecureDocs, FirmRoom). Add Series 79 / 63 / 7 progression for US roles, FCA SMCR awareness for UK, SFC for Hong Kong, MAS for Singapore. Add CFA Level 1+ as a plus. Add VBA, Python (pandas, numpy, openpyxl), and SQL for the analysts who code. Add the 2026 AI stack (Claude, GPT-5, AlphaSense, Hebbia, Daloopa, Canalyst, Mosaic) as named workflows, not as familiarity statements.
What salary should I expect as an investment banking analyst in 2026?
Bulge bracket NY Analyst Year 1: base $110K + signing $25K + bonus $80K–$120K = $215K–$255K total (some firms eliminated signing bonuses; check the firm-specific 2026 number). Year 3 total $300K–$340K before A2A promote. London Year 1 total £110K–£135K post-bonus; Hong Kong Year 1 HK$1.4M–$1.8M post-bonus. Elite boutiques pay 10–35% above bulge bracket at Analyst level: Centerview Year 1 has historically been the highest single-firm analyst comp on the Street ($235K–$280K total); Evercore, PJT, Lazard, Moelis, Guggenheim, Perella Weinberg and Qatalyst trend in the same band. Restructuring desks (PJT RSSG, Lazard RX, Houlihan Lokey RX, Guggenheim RX, Moelis RX) trend higher in down-cycles. Bonuses are paid Jan–Feb based on prior calendar-year performance and the firm's franchise pool. Ranges are stylised and shift each year — confirm against the live H1B disclosure database, Wall Street Oasis 2026 compensation report and recruiter-confirmed base for the specific firm and office.
Should I use 'CV' or 'resume' for an investment banking application?
Match the office and the local convention. NY, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Houston, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney offices use 'resume'. London, Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Zurich, Mumbai, Johannesburg and Dubai use 'CV'. The structure is identical at one page — contact, education, professional experience with deal bullets, leadership / extracurriculars, technical / language / certification block — but the spelling conventions diverge: 'organize / specialize' (NY) vs 'organise / specialise' (London); MM/YYYY (NY) vs Mar 2024 (London); $ (NY) vs £ / € (London). For dual NY-London applications, two file versions with the matching convention is the standard analyst approach. Mismatching the convention is a small but screening-relevant signal at MD-level review.
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