UK
As we’ve observed, M&A hiring is on the up in 2010. If you work in the profession, now may therefore be the time to spruce up your CV in preparation for increasing interest in your skills.
Based on conversations with M&A-focused headhunters and recruiters, here’s a template/ step by step guide to M&A CV joy. We’ve included the basics on the basis that these are as likely to be wrongly presented as more complex elements like deal lists.
Your name
Postal Address
Telephone Number, Email Address
Personal statement (this is entirely optional. If you decide to include one, make sure it says something meaningful instead of offering generic clichés). Eg. ‘A top ranked analyst with experience of working on numerous large deals across the leisure sector’. Or, ‘A senior originator with key relationships across the European leisure centre. Responsible for generating Xbn of fees in 2009.’
NATIONALITY:
MARITAL STATUS:
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:
· Eg. ACA, qualified lawyer
EDUCATION (List postgraduate qualifications first. If you have more than three years’ full time work experience, list your experience before your qualifications)
· Name of university attended, city and country it was located in
· Degree in X. Degree class (1st 2/1 2/2). Date of graduation.
· If you’re a recent graduate, add relevant coursework: Emphasise anything related to business, accounting, or economics.
· A Levels: Only add A levels if you graduated within the past five years. Specify grades. If you graduated more than two years ago and have relevant work experience, it is not necessary to specify A level subjects.
· GCSEs: Only add GCSEs if you graduated within the past five years. Specify grades. It is not necessary to state subjects studied.
WORK EXPERIENCE
· Name of the company you worked for, plus the city and country you were based in.
· Your position and the business area you worked in.
· Start date- end date
· Add a very brief description of your role. Eg. Executing transactions across multiple sectors with a recent focus on leisure and tourism. Or: Originating transactions across the leisure and tourism sector. Increased fees X%, following the addition of three new clients.
· Mention one or two key transactions. Refer to the deal list in the appendix for further information.
INTERESTS, SKILLS & ACTIVITIES
Languages: Eg. Fluent in French; Conversationally proficient in Italian.
Technical Skills: Don’t mention Microsoft Office!
Interests and activities: Be brief. Don’t mention international travel or reading!
APPENDIX: DEAL LIST – Try and restrict this to two sides. If necessary, refer only to key transactions only!
· Client company: Eg. Anheuser-Busch Cos
· Transaction, transaction size and date: Eg. $60.4bn Acquisition of InBev NV, August 2008
· Brief description of your role in the transaction: Eg. Origination, execution, modeling, due diligence
Sarah, what about those who want to switch to M&A? any trick / advice?
Thanks,
Kolabrou
marital status…you have got to be kidding me…are we wriitng CVs for a 1980s audience!?
You are also advised to include information on your hairstyle.
@Kolabrou – at this stage, I think you’ll still find it difficult to get into M&A if you don’t have any direct experience, no matter how well structured your CV. However, to increase your chances in theory you should highlight any vaguely relevant experience – eg. Have you worked on company valuations/due diligence/strategy reports? Have you got any experience of working on any part of the M&A process – eg. in a corporate or law firm?
Marital status??
And all the CVs will look like exactly the same.
So nobody really stands out; this means that if you get an interview, it is just by pure luck as we all have excellent academics, relevant professional accreditations, right skills and work experience.
It seems straight forward, but what about the soon to be graduates?
I think this is a nice style, i m pretty sure if u make your cv accordingly it will get sort listed…..
Kolabrou – right now, you can you forget about trying to get into M&A with absolutely no relevant experience. Banks are NOT interested.
To mention age and marital status on the CV/resume is illegal in many countries. Violation of discrimination laws.
Bad advice…
Work experience should always come top and def before academics (unless you are a grad). Employers are not legally allowed to ask about race, age, etc so putting marital status just makes you look totally out of touch…. Nationality is irrelevant – if you have a work permit then state that but again companies are not allowed to discriminate based on nationality
Sarah – you need to talk to better headhunters….!
We have responded to popular demand and put a strike-through on marital status.
some people seem to tjhink the marital status question is redundant nowadays. Wrong..it is still important as employers should always go for the young married male ( and rightly so ) as they are likely to be more centred and stable. As an employer i dont want to attract youngsters who will go out every night and come in hungover..lets be honest..thats what the young do
Apologies, I asked a question in the answers section but should have put it here. The article states that after 5 years experience there is no need to list A-level results. My A-levels weren’t great but still managed to get a place at a red brick. Graduated in in 2004, 3 years of financial services experience before I got a place on a bank grad scheme in 2008. Coming to the end of the scheme now and would like to make a move to another institution should the markets pick up. Question is can I / should I leave off my A-levels or does it just raise a flag to an employer who will ask for them anyway? Plus with my experience would you put education or work experience first? Thanks
what about females? Should we write our marital status? is that going to have an effect on the application?
@ baringshrvet… your comment “employers should always go for the young married male” was totally ridiculous and discriminatory… I’m a female, have worked almost all my 11 years of experience in banking (IB M&A, PB) in several countries; I’m not married but live with my boyfriend; just changed countries again recently and managed to land a Senior M&A job and I NEVER write neither my marital status nor my date of birth on my resume… Sarah’s template looks pretty similar to my CV, so I guess she’s on the right track. Please stop having prejudices about males/females in the 21st century. It’s true we have our limitations if we want to have babies, but not all of us do – or if we do we not always expect to be able to take a 4 months maternity leave. I intend to do an EMBA next year, so that proves you’ve got the male/female issue all wrong…
Well the tips arr good to create a new cv
adding the deals list / projects details is a really nice idea…going to add one to my cv definitely
Education should precede Work Experience as it is short & sharp, a handful of key lines, whereas workexperience is a page+ of relatively bulky detailed reading.
Pull the deals list (or track record etc) out to a separate document. Some people flatly reject long CVs, no matter their makeup.
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also: “To mention age and marital status on the CV/resume is illegal in many countries. Violation of discrimination laws.” — this is not correct. It is [typically] illegal for *Employers* to discriminate on these bases; it is not illegal to provide the information. Having said that, we leave it off, to give candidates max.chance of not being knocked out prematurely.
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also: Nationality is key, as many countries (especially UK and CH) are pulling up the drawbridges very emphatically to prevent hiring foreign professionals. But you should also add any Work Permits or Visas you have, in this section.
Hi,
I am an ACCA & BSc (Hons) graduate but haven’t been able to gain any major work experience since my graduation in October 2008. Just a little bit of part time here and there. Any bit of advice would be great.
sarah, can you provide one for other areas such as back office, front office in hedge funds, investment managements
I thought , the CV should be fit with local style.
If including age and marital status is a crime, what about organisations that state age limit.