Sunday, July 29, 2007

Why is this best Sample Resume?

Yesterday I promised to tell you why I grade Henry Hunter's resume as a sample resume. To be honest, it is not easy, as there are lots of criteria to fulfil. Henry's is one of my most admired sample resumes throughout my eight-year investment banking headhunting life. These are the reasons.

Consider the reader: The reader of this resume is a headhunter or a hiring manager looking to hire a quantitative strategist. At the first glance, they want to find out what the candidate is doing, with who and for how long. At a prominent position, Henry laid out his strength and achievements, which encourages the hiring manager to continue reading. Remember, hiring managers at the investment banks are extremely busy, they spend on average 30 seconds reading a resume. If they have to surf through your resume to look for information, they’ll just choose to file yours and go on to the next.
Layout: Clean and tidy, easy to read.
Length: Just right, one page.
Education: Solid and unusually outstanding.
- Henry obtained dual bachelor degrees in 1993 at MIT.
- In the next four years, he obtained two master’s degrees - from famous institutes of MIT and INSEAD.
- In the following year, he qualified as a CFA. All his qualifications are highly desired by investment banks – computer science, management, finance, CPA.
Perfect job history: This is what I described as ‘off page criteria’ in the early stage of my blog.
- Henry spent a considerable amount of time with each of his employers. He is proven to be stable and at the same time aggressive.
- International vision. Henry has worked in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and New York – three among the four most important financial centres in the world.
- As hedge fund is the rising star in the field of investment, he is likely to be one of the most wanted strategiest/analyst in the market.

Exercise: writing your own sample resume:
Let’s date back to 1993 and assume you were Henry.
1. How would you write your resume?
2. How would you target a prospective employer?



Recommended career tools:
Amazing Resume Creator
a DIY resume is good enough for an entry level job. Investment bankers always want the best out of the best. To stand out from the crowd, get Jimmy Sweeney’s help to craft a best resume for yourself.
Amazing Cover Letter
A powerful cover letter is the perfect partner of your resume. Personalize and customize your amazing cover letter with Jimmy Sweeney’s help.

Sample Resume

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Best Sample Resume – Investment Banking

I would want you to read this sample resume which I consider one of my most admired resumes in my investment banking headhunting life. Read it today and come back tomorrow. I’ll tell you why.

HENRY HUNTER CFA
Phone: +81-90-1234-5678 Email: henryhunter@email.com

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
GARTMORE, Tokyo, 2002 – present
Quantitative Strategist - Alphagen Hokuto hedge fund
- Applied multiple investment styles incorporating fundamental valuation, event-driven, thematic, and quantitative analyses; dynamically re-weighted to optimize performance
- Communicated fundamental and tactical ideas to the fund manager, and tracked performance with a sector neutral portfolio on which incentives are based
- Developed investment decision systems including automated financial model, multi-stock valuation monitor, factor screening matrix, and performance tracking system

- Identified and back-tested multi-factor strategies applicable to the Japanese market to generate additional sources of alpha for the fund
- Created a real-time alpha model to track price movements, valuation ratios, earnings quality & revisions, and technical factors of all covered stocks through live data links


HEDGECASHFUND, Silicon Valley, 2000 – 2002
Director, Product Management and Strategy
- Managed the product lifecycle of the financial data aggregation product line
- Acted as product evangelist to close sales with key financial institution clients


McKINSEY & COMPANY, New York / Hong Kong, 1994 – 2000
Engagement Manager, FIG / E-Business, New York (1999-2000)
Senior Associate, FIG, New York (1998-1999)
Business Analyst, Telecom Group, Hong Kong, (1994-1996)

As Engagement Manager, led consulting project teams in various client engagements:
- Investment due diligence – evaluated the business model and revenue stream of an enterprise software company and recommended target price to a top private equity firm
- Market entry strategy in financial services in Asia – evaluated market potential, financial viability, and legal implications of an in-store banking concept in Asian markets
- Product strategy for an online bank in the U.S. – developed and launched investment and loan products for one of the largest online banking businesses to double its revenue
- Business unit strategy in European securities operations – created a market leading strategy for the securities processing and custody business of a top-5 global bank
- Competitive analysis of the ECN sector – predicted market evolution of the U.S. electronic trading sector and recommended tactical options to a top-5 investment bank
- Profit improvement in asset management business – restructured financial advisor teams and commission structure to achieve 30% profit improvement


PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
1998 CFA
2002 JSDA REGISTERED SALES REPRESENTATIVE, Sales representative registration approved by the Japan Securities Dealers Association

EDUCATION
1997 MBA in Finance, Dean’s List - INSEAD, Fontainebleau
1994 Masters in Computer Science - MIT, Cambridge, MA
1993 Bachelors in Computer Science / Bachelors in Management - MIT, Cambridge, MA

LANGUAGES
Fluent in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, proficient in Japanese

***End of sample resume. Come back tomorrow for my analysis.***

Recommended career tools:
Amazing Resume Creator
a DIY resume is good enough for an entry level job. Investment bankers always want the best out of the best. To stand out from the crowd, get Jimmy Sweeney’s help to craft a best resume for yourself.
Amazing Cover Letter
A powerful cover letter is the perfect partner of your resume. Personalize and customize your amazing cover letter with Jimmy Sweeney’s help.


Answer to my previous question: What is Alternative Investment?
An alternative investment is regarded as an investment product other than traditional investments such as stocks, bonds, money markets and/or cash.

As the definition of Institutional Investor magazine's Alternative Investment Newsletter, alternative investments include: commodities, financial derivatives, hedge Strategies (or absolute return strategies), real estate and private equity, as well as venture capital. They are supposed to have very low correlation with traditional investment products. However, this definition may not be suitable due to a fast-changing investment environment, and should be re-considered over time.

Some Alternative Investment managers, such as Hedge Funds, cannot advertise or announce their performance under U.S. and European law. Most Hedge Funds or Private Equity Groups only accept investment from high-net-worth individuals or institutions.

Source:
Wikipedia


AIMA – The Alternative Investment Management Association - The Global, Not-for-Profit Trade Association for Hedge Funds, Managed Futures and Managed Currency Funds

Sample Resume, Resume Writing

Monday, July 23, 2007

Retire Young Retire Rich - 30 Under 30 – David Wertentheil

David Wertentheil, Carlin Financial, New York
Age: 27
Trades: Event-driven equity, spreads


If you think that managerial positions are not meant for young people, you’ve got to change your mind. Here’s what David Wertentheil says:


“When you’re helping people make money, they don’t really care how old you are”.

To continue with the retire young and retire rich series, I am going to introduce David Wertentheil. At the age of 27, he is the Head of Trading at Carlin Financial in New York.

David not only manages complex equity trades for a wide range of institutional investors, he oversees a team of more than 12 – many older than he is. Do they mind being managed by a 27-year-old? “Not really,” David says. “When you’re helping people make money, they don’t really care how old you are”.

Test of your investment knowledge:

Nearly half of the 30 Under 30 in the world of financial trading come from alternative investments firms. Do you know what is alternative investment?

Subscribe now to Forbes Magazine!
Retire Young Retire Rich

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Executive Search Online

Executives & Professionals: Changing Jobs?

If you happen to land on my blog seeking for some career help, here is a link I want to recommend to you. Though my blog is dedicated to investment bankers, this link however is useful regardless of your profession.

As I work on top level executive searches everyday, I was thinking if mid to high level executive searches could be done online. Here is a service which I find interesting.

Unlike other resume posting websites, Executive Search Online targets for those who want to look for an income between $80,000 and $500,000. You are assured that you won’t post your resume to irrelevant job boards.


Quote from Executive Search Online

Complete Your Personal Career Profile – With Privacy Assured


Once completed your profile information will be instantly available to over 3,000 recruitment decision makers. Importantly, your profile information will only be matched against openings for "specific job titles"... that would interest you. You will also be able to search over 1 million openings with hundreds of job boards, 2,000 trade journals, 3,000 newspapers, Fortune 1000, the Inc. 500 and more.

For confidentiality, specify at the end of the form that your name and e-mail address be blocked.

Create a profile at Executive Search Online