Powerful Words In A Cover Letter

I receive a beautiful summary essay recently. Let’s analysis what elements are good and how we can transfer these into an amazing cover letter and generate interviews.

I began my career in the finance industry 18 years ago as an intern at Goldman Sachs in New York. Since then, I honed my statistics and economics training at Stanford, implemented sophisticated quantitative strategies in emerging market currencies at ABC Partners, and helped bring my current employer, PQR, to the top of the industry in several areas from quantitative models to algorithmic trading. Over the past two years, I have been the Head of Sales and Trading in Asia ex-Japan for PQR, a global technology-focused broker-dealer. In this role, I have transformed PQR in Asia from a small outpost of an American company to a formidable brokerage with a large and growing footprint in the region. Throughout my career, I have developed strong relationships with clients and colleagues on the buyside and sellside of the finance industry in North America, Europe and Asia.

Analysis

Experience: clear – 18 years in finance industry
Skills: implemented sophisticated quantitative strategies in emerging market currencies; sales & trading
Geographic knowledge: North America, Europe and Asia ex-Japan
Achievements: transformed PQR in Asia from a small outpost of an American company to a formidable brokerage with a large and growing footprint in the region
Value added: strong relationships with clients and colleagues on the buyside and sellside
Choice of powerful words: see my highlighting.

Usually when writing a cover letter, you would need a paragraph to describe yourself. Many failed in this section by writing too long which caused the hiring manager to give up reading.

If you are writing to apply for an entry role, you might have only 18 months of intern experience. Use the above sample, specified what experience you have and where you gained them, together with the appropriate choice of powerful words (make sure to avoid exaggeration). Of course you won’t have much achievement to describe but you can describe how you achieve or exceed your target.

From the 20-second point of view, the above sample paragraph is a bit too long. Try to make it short and precise and make sure it will take about 20 seconds to finish reading.

amazing cover letter - more tips from Jimmy Sweeney

Investment Banking Resume Cover Letter

What Value Can You Add to Investment Banking?

Successful bankers are not born to be, they can be trained to be. If you are able to bring additional value to a banking role, investment banks are willing to train you.

Maria Leung is an outstanding female in her career change from advertising to investment banking. After graduating from the University of Hong Kong, Maria held a number account servicing roles at a couple of top ranked advertising agencies. At her late 20s, she joined Citibank and started her banking career at their Card Business. She joined ABN AMRO in 2004 as Head of Wealth Management. She was soon promoted to SVP and pioneered the Bank’s Van Gogh Preferred Banking Domestic Business.

What has advertising and banking in common? What has lured each other to make Maria’s career change? Advertising clients are among those toughest and most demanding clients in the world, especially those who spends huge amount of money in adverting campaigns. Likewise, rich people looking for people to manage their money are equally demanding. You would need to be confident in dealing with and satisfying these extremely demanding clients. Analytical skills and strategic thinking, together with the ability to make decisions and execute them timely and accurately are all necessary in servicing private banking clients.

What other skills can you bring to investment banking from your field of business? Review what you are doing. Are you able to motivate, influence and manage others? You would need these skills to work with a pool of talented staff like researchers and analysts while you work your way up.

After all, if you want to build a banking career, there is a basic element you need – a flair for numbers – be able to read spreadsheets and earnings reports and be able to take those numbers and crunch them into financial models and projections. So you would need to love numbers and not afraid of them.

How to Generate Interviews with a Relatively Weak Resume?

Investment banks always look for best of the best. What if you have a relatively weak resume, with your GPA below 4 and not graduating from famous institutes like Harvard or INSEAD? Though 'to hire the best' is the rule, but sometimes people don't work to rule. Some very senior bankers do have only a basic degree without much outstanding academic credentials. And in my other posts, you would find some very senior executives even had no qualification at all.

To start your investment banking career, personality fit is more a determining factor rather than skill sets or academic results. However to persuade the hiring manager to grant you an interview and to find out more on your personality is a separate issue.

My peer, Jimmy Sweeny, always reiterate that an amazing cover letter will generate interviews, even with a relatively weak resume. You might want to browse his website and get some insights from him. Of course you can browse through my blog for more tips about writing an effective cover letter.

Investment Banking Cover Letter