3 Best Banking Resume Examples and Templates for 2026
5 Best Investment Banking Resume Examples and Templates for 2026
By Andrew Stoner
, Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach
Andrew Stoner
Last Updated:
July 8, 2026
Tip !
The investment banking resumes that advance share three things: a deal tombstone block above the experience section, modeling work named by type rather than 'financial analysis,' and a target-group fit signal staffers can scan in under thirty seconds.
Featured Example
Why this resume works
- Numbers tied to closed deals: Dollar figures point to specific transactions and outcomes rather than vague deal exposure.
- Shows promotion ahead of schedule: Calling out the early Associate bump signals strong relative ranking within the class.
- Names the tools bankers actually use: Capital IQ, FactSet, and PitchBook show up where recruiters and ATS systems look for them.
Analyst Example
The analyst archetype is 0 to 3 years out of undergrad, often post-internship or in a junior lateral move. This resume needs to prove modeling chops, deal exposure with sizes, and the GPA, school, and SAT/ACT line bulge brackets still scan for.
Why this resume works
- Live deal experience early on: Naming a specific sell-side mandate with deal size shows real reps, not just pitch work.
- Return offer called out: Recruiters scan for return offers as a quality signal from the summer program.
- Tools and licenses spelled out: Series 79 and 63 plus FactSet and Capital IQ hit the exact terms staffing leads look for.
Associate Example
The associate archetype covers post-MBA hires and promoted analysts running process and managing juniors. This resume needs to prove closed mandates with your specific contribution, sector or product depth, and Series 79/63 status.
Why this resume works
- Both pre- and post-MBA reps shown: Calling out the analyst program plus post-MBA work explains the full 6-year arc clearly.
- Closed transactions, not just pitches: Each bullet ties to a deal that announced or printed, which is what staffers care about.
- Mentorship plus execution: Training analysts and rebuilding the LBO template shows readiness for VP-level coordination work.
VP Example
The VP archetype owns execution, client dialogue, and deal team management across multiple live mandates. This resume needs to prove a tombstone-grade deal sheet, fee credit where defensible, and the sectors or sponsors you cover directly.
Why this resume works
- Origination starting to show: Co-leading a sell-side and naming the sponsor coverage book signals the move from pure execution to revenue generation.
- Team management is concrete: Specific staffing numbers (3 associates, 7 analysts) prove VP-level oversight rather than implying it.
- Career arc reads cleanly: Analyst to Associate to VP with promotion timing makes the trajectory obvious to anyone reading top-down.
Managing Director Example
The managing director archetype carries origination targets, sponsor relationships, and P&L for a coverage or product group. This resume needs to prove revenue generated, named client wallet, and the franchise you built or expanded.
Why this resume works
- Built a business, not just deals: Growing the group from 6 to 24 bankers and tripling fees is the MD-level proof point a hiring committee wants.
- Origination percentage stated: Saying 60% of mandates are personally originated puts a real number on rainmaker status.
- Firm leadership roles named: Fairness Opinion Committee and Operating Committee seats show influence beyond a single coverage group.
Jonathan Reeves
Houston, TX | (713) 555-0119 | [email protected] | linkedin.com/in/jonathanreeves
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Investment banking professional with 11 years of progressive experience across Energy and Power coverage, M&A execution, and capital markets. Closed 34 transactions totaling $19.6B in enterprise value, including upstream A&D, midstream MLP simplifications, and renewables project finance advisory. Currently a Vice President leading execution on sell-side mandates and sponsor-driven buy-side processes in the upstream and midstream sectors.
EXPERIENCE
Vice President, Energy Investment Banking
- Lead execution on 9 closed transactions totaling $5.8B, including a $1.3B Permian basin A&D sale and a $470M midstream gathering system divestiture.
- Co-lead sponsor coverage for 14 energy-focused PE firms, including quarterly portfolio reviews and proactive idea generation.
- Manage live staffing for a pod of 2 associates and 5 analysts across 5 to 8 active mandates at any time.
- Authored the group’s updated PDP/PUD reserves valuation template now used on every upstream sell-side and fairness opinion.
- Present transaction updates and pipeline reviews to the group head and divisional management on a monthly cadence.
Associate, Energy M&A
- Executed 13 announced transactions including 4 sell-sides and 2 mergers in the upstream and OFS subsectors.
- Built operating, NAV, and merger models for transactions ranging from $90M to $2.1B in enterprise value.
- Trained and reviewed work product for 6 incoming analysts; rated top of associate class in 2020.
- Direct promote to VP after three years on the associate track.
MBA Summer Associate, Investment Banking
- Worked on the modeling team for a $560M midstream sell-side and contributed to two pitches for upstream MLP simplifications.
- Received top return offer rating in the Houston summer associate class.
Investment Banking Analyst, Energy
- Three-year analyst program in Energy coverage; worked on 21 pitches and 7 announced transactions.
- Built and maintained public comps universe for 65 upstream and midstream companies on a weekly basis.
- Selected as one of 4 analysts in the firm’s third-year direct promote program.
- Ranked in the top decile of the analyst class in years two and three.
Energy Research Intern
- Supported a sell-side equity research team covering 18 E&P names.
- Built quarterly earnings models and contributed to two initiation reports.
- Converted internship into the analyst program offer at Whitford Bren the following year.
EDUCATION
- MBA, Finance and Strategy, University of Texas McCombs School of Business, 2018
- BBA, Finance, magna cum laude, Texas A&M University, 2013
- Series 79, Series 63, and Series 24 licensed
SKILLS
- M&A and capital markets execution
- Upstream NAV and reserves modeling
- DCF, LBO, merger, and accretion/dilution analysis
- Sponsor coverage and origination support
- Sell-side and buy-side process management
- Fairness opinion preparation
- Capital IQ, FactSet, PitchBook, Bloomberg, Enverus
- Analyst and associate training and mentorship
- Excel, PowerPoint, Think-Cell, VBA
How to Write an Investment Banking Resume
01 Open with the one thing a staffer cannot Google
Add a single line a deal team cannot pull from your LinkedIn or your school’s recruiting list. That means a closed deal with a real size, a sponsor name you’ve worked across the table from, or a sector coverage depth that matches the group hiring.
Generic openers like ‘finance professional seeking banking role’ get cut on the first pass. Lead with the proof: ‘Modeled the $850M sale of a midstream operator to a strategic acquirer, executed under MD coverage.’ That line tells a managing director you’ve seen a live process through close.
02 Quantify deals, models, and process load
Bullets without a number tend to read as duties. Strong investment banking bullets carry deal size, your role on the deal team, and the outcome: closed, signed, withdrawn, or in market.
Name two or three metrics per role: deal sizes in dollars, number of live mandates run concurrently, hours of model build, or pages of CIM and management presentation drafted. A staffer scans for whether you can carry the model and the materials at once.
03 Group work by modeling, execution, and materials
Cluster your bullets into three categories so the reader can scan them in the order they care about. Modeling covers three-statement builds, LBO, merger models, accretion/dilution, and sensitivity tables.
Execution covers diligence coordination, data room management, working-group calls, and drafting sessions. Materials covers pitchbooks, CIMs, management presentations, and board books. Naming the categories beats a flat list because it mirrors how associates and VPs assign work.
04 Place credentials and licenses on page one
Put Series 79 and Series 63 status, CFA progress, and target school plus GPA in a credentials block at the top of page one. Bank recruiters screen for licensing before reading bullets, and the analyst pool is screened on GPA and SAT/ACT.
List Series exams as ‘Series 79 (passed)’ or ‘Series 79 (scheduled, June 2026).’ Add CFA Level by number passed. Keep the block tight: four to six lines, no certificate numbers.
05 Cut the lines that signal junior
At VP and MD, drop coursework, GPA, and SAT/ACT. Cut bullets that describe model mechanics instead of deal outcomes. A managing director reading your resume wants origination, client coverage, and fees, not a list of LBO assumptions.
Trim early-career analyst bullets to one or two lines per role and reclaim the space for a deal sheet. Move SA internships and student finance clubs off the resume entirely once you have two closed deals to lead with.
Most Popular Skills on Investment Banking Resumes for 2026
The investment banking resumes that get callbacks share a specific skill mix. The lists below come from our user-built investment banking resumes. Bank recruiters and staffers scan for these patterns first, not generic finance language like ‘strong analytical skills.’ Hard skills like LBO modeling and Series 79 get parsed before soft skills are read.
Match the hard skills against the exact group posting, and treat the soft skills as evidence to back the bullets, not stand-alone claims.
| Soft Skills | % of resumes with this skill |
|---|---|
| Analytical thinking | 77% |
| Attention to detail | 69% |
| Communication | 44% |
| Time management | 37% |
| Teamwork | 29% |
And here are the top hard skills showing up most often.
| Hard Skills | % of resumes with this skill |
|---|---|
| Financial modeling | 78% |
| Valuation analysis | 65% |
| Microsoft Excel | 48% |
| Mergers and acquisitions | 40% |
| Financial statement analysis | 30% |
Based on data from thousands of investment bankers’ resumes built on ResumeTemplates.com, May 2026.
Must Have on an Investment Banking Resume
The items below are what separate an investment banking resume from one that gets put back in the pile.
Niche Keywords for ATS Checkers
Bank recruiters expect to see the exact product, modeling, and coverage terms a group uses internally. Group your keywords by sub-niche so the parser hits each cluster cleanly.
| Niche | Keywords ATS scans for |
|---|---|
| M&A execution | sell-side m&a, buy-side m&a, merger model, accretion/dilution |
| Leveraged finance and LBO | lbo model, leveraged buyout, sponsor coverage, debt capacity analysis |
| Capital markets | equity capital markets, debt capital markets, ipo execution, follow-on offering |
| Valuation toolkit | dcf valuation, trading comps, precedent transactions, sum-of-the-parts |
| Deal materials | pitchbook drafting, cim drafting, management presentation, board book |
AI Skills to Add
AI use on an investment banking resume can go three ways: claim you ‘leveraged AI to revolutionize valuation’ (which staffers screen out), leave it off entirely (which reads as out of touch in 2026), or describe the workflow as it actually runs on a live deal. The third is what managing directors and bank recruiters can validate.
What AI is actually changing for this role
Pitchbook drafting
AI tools generate first-pass company overviews and market sections, but the precedent transactions table still needs a human check.
Comps and screening
Capital IQ and FactSet now ship AI search features that pull comps faster, shifting analyst hours toward judgment on inclusion criteria.
Model audit
AI assistants flag formula breaks and circular references in three-statement and LBO models, but tie-outs still need analyst review.
Diligence Q&A
AI tools summarize data room documents and draft management Q&A responses, accelerating diligence cycles on sell-side mandates.
AI tools to name
-
Microsoft Copilot in Excel and PowerPoint: Used for first-pass model formatting, comps table builds, and pitchbook slide drafting under analyst review.
-
Capital IQ Pro AI search: Used to screen comparable transactions and pull financials faster on live coverage and pitch work.
How to phrase AI on your resume
Do
- Used Copilot to draft initial company overview slides on a $1.2B sell-side mandate, reducing pitchbook turnaround by half a day per revision cycle.
- Built three-statement model with AI-assisted formula audit on a $400M buy-side mandate, flagging two circular references before MD review.
Skip
- AI-powered investment banker driving next-generation deal execution
- Leveraged cutting-edge AI to revolutionize financial modeling and valuation
Financial Credentials Bank Recruiters Look For
Bank recruiters parse the credentials block before reading bullets. List Series exams, CFA progress, and target school in a tight block at the top of page one.
-
Series 79 (Investment Banking Representative): list as passed, scheduled with date, or sponsored
-
Series 63 (Uniform Securities Agent): list alongside Series 79, since groups expect both
-
SIE (Securities Industry Essentials): list if Series 79 is not yet completed
-
CFA: list the level passed and the date, or charterholder status if complete
-
CPA: list if relevant to restructuring or transaction advisory crossover
Investment Banking Credentials That Get You the Job
Series 79 and Series 63 keep you eligible to work deals once sponsored. The certifications below are what move an investment banking resume from the qualified-but-typical stack into a managing director’s shortlist for analyst or associate seats. List the issuing body, the level or status, and the date passed or expected.
-
CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst): Signals valuation depth at the associate and VP level; list the level passed and the date, since charterholder status carries weight in coverage groups.
-
Series 79 (Investment Banking Representative): Required to work deals at a FINRA-member firm; list as passed or scheduled, since unsponsored candidates often sit the SIE first.
-
Series 63 (Uniform Securities Agent): Pairs with Series 79 for client-facing work; staffers expect both for associates and above, so list them together.
-
Wall Street Prep or Training The Street modeling certificate: Useful for lateral candidates and career changers without a target-school finance pedigree; name the specific track completed.
Latest BLS Statistics for Investment Bankers
Investment banking sits in a narrow occupation code with a wide pay spread, since the BLS bucket pulls in agents and intermediaries across capital markets and corporate finance. The median pulls down because it includes non-deal-team variants, while bulge bracket and middle-market analyst comp sits well above it.
To position above the median, lead the resume with closed deals, sponsor names, and Series 79 status rather than the analytics tools you’ve used.
Where you stand
Entry tier
$47,080 to $78,140 At the entry tier, lead with your target school, GPA, SAT/ACT, and the SA internship deals you supported by name and size.Mid band
$78,140 to $215,210 At the mid band, your resume needs to show three to five closed deals with sizes and roles, plus Series 79/63 and sector or sponsor coverage.Top decile
$215,210+ At the top decile, lead with revenue generated, named sponsor and corporate relationships, and the franchise you've built within a coverage or product group.Top-paying states
| # | State | Avg. Annual |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | $167,040 |
| 2 | Connecticut | $130,990 |
| 3 | South Dakota | $96,960 |
| 4 | New Jersey | $96,470 |
| 5 | Massachusetts | $82,490 |
| 6 | Illinois | $82,130 |
| 7 | Vermont | $80,260 |
| 8 | Delaware | $79,800 |
| 9 | Minnesota | $79,640 |
| 10 | California | $79,140 |
Highest-employment states
| # | State | Workers | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | 60,430 | $167,040 |
| 2 | California | 54,170 | $79,140 |
| 3 | Florida | 45,570 | $60,430 |
| 4 | Texas | 39,900 | $74,250 |
| 5 | Illinois | 25,290 | $82,130 |
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Frequently Asked Questions
How should an investment banking resume be formatted?
One page, ten-point font minimum, with half-inch margins. Use a credentials block at the top covering school, GPA, SAT/ACT, Series 79/63, and CFA status.
Group the experience section by employer, then by deal or workstream. At VP and MD, replace early-career bullets with a deal sheet block listing tombstones, sizes, and your role.
How do you put an investment banking internship on a resume?
List the firm, group, and dates on the first line. Add two to four bullets naming the live or pitched deals you supported, with sector, size, and the modeling or materials work you owned.
If the deal was announced, name the parties. If it was confidential, write 'undisclosed $500M sponsor-backed software target' and describe your contribution.
Should you include references on an investment banking resume?
No. References take space the deal sheet needs, and bank recruiters request them later in the process anyway.
Keep a separate one-page reference sheet with three names, titles, and contact details. Send it when the firm asks, usually after a superday or final round.
How do you answer 'walk me through your resume' in an investment banking interview?
Move chronologically in about 90 seconds. Start with school and why you picked finance, then internships with one deal anchor each, then your current role.
Land on why this group at this firm: the sector, the product, the recent deal you read about. Bankers want a clean narrative that tracks with the resume in front of them.
Which resume template works best for an investment banker?
For an investment banker, a professional template is the safest pick, because it signals the polish hiring managers in this field expect. An ATS-friendly template is a solid alternative. Whichever you choose, keep the formatting clean and easy to parse: clear section headings, a standard font, and no graphics a parser can choke on.
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Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach
Andrew Stoner is an executive career coach and resume writer with 17 years of experience as a hiring manager and operations leader at two Fortune 500 Financial Services companies, and as the career services director at two major university business schools.
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