CV tips

[FedericoM]

Hi everyone!

Due to the Career Fair organised in my University, I have to attach a CV to my registration form. There will be lots of companies, includin JP Morgan and BofA.
My aim is to collect information about their SpringWeek opportunity, and to present myself as a good "choice" for them.
I have recently finished my high school, so, I cannot mention any undergraduate exam.

I think I should underline:
1) high-school grades (A+Maths, A+Physics)
2) final exam score (100/100 - the best in my school for year 2010) with 15/15 Maths
3) merit-based scholarships (in years 2006-2007-2008-2009-2010): the best student in my class and always among the 3 best students in my school (1200 students)
4) merit-based scholarship: best student in my city (in years 2008-2009-2010)
5) summer internship:
a) 2009: 1 Month in the Netherlands (aluminium dies factory)
b) 2010: 5 Weeks in Germany (steel and iron tools factory)

6) Languages spoken: Italian, English, German
7) extracurricular activities.


Do you think this should be enough?
How do they generally consider a CV "interesting"?
Have I any chances to be accepted at the "Spring Week" event?

Thank you very much.

 

[euroazn]

On my interview for next year's internship with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, my interviewer noted:

1) My Computer Skills
2) My Language Skills
3) My Previous Work Experience

He really didn't care about my test scores/classes, etc.

While good grades in high school subjects are important, you should probably put this near the bottom. Remember, you are competing with more experienced individuals and you will want to give off the aura that you are actually on par with, if not one of, them. Talking too much about your High School experience might make you look like a "kid."

Just my uneducated opinion, as per your request. ;-)

 

[FedericoM]

On my interview for next year's internship with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, my interviewer noted:

1) My Computer Skills
2) My Language Skills
3) My Previous Work Experience

He really didn't care about my test scores/classes, etc.

While good grades in high school subjects are important, you should probably put this near the bottom. Remember, you are competing with more experienced individuals and you will want to give off the aura that you are actually on par with, if not one of, them. Talking too much about your High School experience might make you look like a "kid."

Just my uneducated opinion, as per your request. ;-)

That's interesting.
What do you mean with "Language skills"? How many languages do you speak? If you're able to express your ideas clearly and to build work relationships?
As regards as the computer skills, what did you mentioned? Could you give me some examples?

Thanks

 

[euroazn]

I speak English of course, but I am fluent in Russian; it is actually my native language. I also took some Spanish in school and did sort-of mention it... but I'm far from being truly fluent in Spanish :P

As for computer skills, they consist of: software application skills (Excel is the really important one here), my web-design skills, and finally my programming skills. I think at the time Excel was what he cared about, but hey, who knows, maybe I can work more efficiently if I make a VSTO plug-in for myself :P

 

[FedericoM]

I speak English of course, but I am fluent in Russian; it is actually my native language. I also took some Spanish in school and did sort-of mention it... but I'm far from being truly fluent in Spanish :P

As for computer skills, they consist of: software application skills (Excel is the really important one here), my web-design skills, and finally my programming skills. I think at the time Excel was what he cared about, but hey, who knows, maybe I can work more efficiently if I make a VSTO plug-in for myself :P

Ok. So, you're saying I should focus on spoken languages (for me: Italian, English, German), previous working experiences (I mentioned them before) and computer skills, particularly Office and other programming software.

That's very useful. Thanks.


Any other advice?

 

[Connor]

Ok. So, you're saying I should focus on spoken languages (for me: Italian, English, German), previous working experiences (I mentioned them before) and computer skills, particularly Office and other programming software.

I agree with that, and those are the things you should prioritize. You can also highlight your grades and extracurricular activities, especially those that demonstrate leadership.

Regarding Office skills, I wouldn't bother mentioning Word or PowerPoint but highlight Excel, Access, etc that you know. I had an interview once where they kept asking me if I knew how to do pivot tables in excel, since I have put on my resume "Intermediate Excel skills including pivot tables and VBA macros"

 

[DominiConnor]

Evidence of beating others is good.

Legacy languages are ambiguous, in the mind of the person reading your CV, it can look like your English is not good.
Also, one of the all time tier one interview fuckups of all time was a Physics PhD who mentioned that he was learning Greek.
He was interviewed by a manager who knew it, and asked how far he'd got.

"The alphabet" came the reply.

Given that physics uses Greek letters a lot, this meant he'd basically learned a dozen symbols.
He crashed and burned, so badly that even though the candidate wasn't someone sent forth by P&D, the manager felt it necessary to tell me about it.

Banking is a global sport, so if you say you know a language, be prepared to be spoken to in it.

Same applies to everything on your CV, expect questions to come from that direction, and think whether the risk / return of including it is good.

 

[FedericoM]

Evidence of beating others is good.

Legacy languages are ambiguous, in the mind of the person reading your CV, it can look like your English is not good.
Also, one of the all time tier one interview fuckups of all time was a Physics PhD who mentioned that he was learning Greek.
He was interviewed by a manager who knew it, and asked how far he'd got.

"The alphabet" came the reply.

Given that physics uses Greek letters a lot, this meant he'd basically learned a dozen symbols.
He crashed and burned, so badly that even though the candidate wasn't someone sent forth by P&D, the manager felt it necessary to tell me about it.

Banking is a global sport, so if you say you know a language, be prepared to be spoken to in it.

Same applies to everything on your CV, expect questions to come from that direction, and think whether the risk / return of including it is good.

Of course. In my case, when I write "German: fluent", it is because I've been studying it for 2 years and I worked in Germany for more than a month. I am REALLY able to express myself in German, and my English is even better.
I believe, it is better to be sincere than to lie and then say no words when they ask you questions.

You're a professional headhunter and I would like to ask you an advice.
I 'd like to apply for the next year's SpringWeek organized by JPMorgan and aimed to students at their 1st year undergraduate. What do you recommend to be in my CV? What should I give importance to? Could you please have a look at my CV in the "download" section of Quantnet and then tell me what you think about it?
That would be very useful for me.

Thank you very much.