A resume is about telling your life story in a factual, interesting and succinct way. The information presented must define who you are and give some ideas of what you can become.

　　Key Steps and Considerations

　　Develop your career mission statement

　　Select the Industry.

　　Define the nature of the work.

　　Chart your career development path.

　　Set your achievement goals.

　　Using the above-mentioned four aspects as building blocks, draft your career mission statement. As you go through the process, it will help you to gather your thoughts, consider the options and make an informed career choice.

　　Select The Industry

　　This may be obvious to some but not so to others. If you are trained as a computer and electronic engineer, naturally you will be looking to pursue a career with the computer and electronic industry. If you are trained in chemical engineering, you will be looking to the chemical or petrol chemical industry. However, if you studied commerce, marketing, business administration or some other academic disciplines that are more generic and have wider application, selecting an industry will be an important aspect in order to develop vertical depth. If you have chosen investment banking and global financial industry as your career choice, it must be a conscious and dedicated decision. This is a highly competitive industry with tremendous learning opportunities and handsome rewards probably unmatched by any other industries in the first 5 to 10 years of one's career. It has its own business practice, culture, way of life, risk and reward, and challenges that shape the behavior of people in the industry. As such, there will be some values and attributes deemed imperative by people in the industry. Are you aware of them?

　　For the financial industry, the broad categories include fund management (generally referred to as the buy-side), securities sales (generally referred to as the sell-side), Trading (include equity, fixed-income, commodities, FX, derivatives, structured products, etc.), investment research, investment banking (within this there are many sub-categories), and private clients services. Some of the useful sources of information include extensive fact finding through resources available in the placement office, attending career and recruitment talks, company presentations, reading up company annual report, financial journals and newspapers, and talking to seniors and friends who are in the industry.

　　Defining The Nature Of The Work

　　The next level is to determine what is the nature of work within the industry that suits you. For example, you are a marketing major, and decide that you like to work in the consumer goods industry. You are keen to work in product & brand management, or you may choose to work in the field of mass communication. Another example is you are a MBA candidate, majoring in finance. You have read many articles about the investment banking industry, like the glamour, fast-pace and performance driven remuneration system. Your next level of decision is to decide what nature of work really interests you the most. For instance, after your due diligence, you realized that securities sales is something that fits you best. You must be able to articulate the following aspects:

　　1. What aspects of securities sales interests you and why?

　　2. What is it that you have that will allow you to excel in this business?

　　3. Have you recognized the differentiating factors that will enable you to be successful?

　　In some organizations, the respective business units recruit entry-level candidates directly. For this situation, candidates are expected to be specific and know what they want right down to the product and functional area. Whereas in other organizations, candidates of similar functions, say fixed income sales and equity sales, are recruited together and sent for the same basic training program. Under this situation, these new employees will be assigned to specific business units after assessment of their performance during the training program.

　　Charting Your Career Development Path

　　The third dimension is to understand the typical career path development in the type of work within the industry over the next 3 to 5 years. For example, a person may like to stay as a producer, setting new records every year on revenue-generation and receiving financial rewards that commensurate with his performance. Whereas, other people may be aiming for a management career, scale the corporate ladder and eventually be responsible for a business with people and Profit & Loss responsibilities.

　　Setting Your Achievement Goals

　　Employers generally like to see their employees setting ambitious but realistic achievement goals for the next 3 to 5 years. This may set you apart from people that are just merely doing a job. Employees that are goal oriented tend to be highly motivated and conform well to the corporate culture as they wish to rise up in the company.

　　The resume must only be one page in length. However, if you are a very experienced professional writing a curriculum vitae, it can be 2 to 3 pages.

　　You start by writing down your life story and every milestone, in chronological order.

　　Arrange the information in a professional format.

　　Rewriting the above using carefully chosen key words to express them accurately and succinctly.

　　Condense the above by eliminating the less important information.

　　Keep repeating the above step until you fit all the information into one page.

　　Check through the information to ensure accuracy.

　　Check through the dates of all milestones to identify time gaps. Recruiters are generally uncomfortable with time gaps because they think you have something that you do not want them to know upfront. Think through what you are going to say when asked about the time gaps.

　　Key Points To Note

　　You must not state anything that is untrue, or “over-claim?achievements.

　　When you are writing your resume for the first professional career search, do not be afraid to write down the trivial jobs you have held. If stated appropriately, they demonstrate your character-building process.

　　You should be concise in stating your ability. For example, on your English language skill, you should be definitive regarding your standard; specify whether “as good as a native speaker? “fluent? “proficient? or “conversational?

　　Resume Formats

　　For resume format, the following are the key points to note:

　　Name and personal contacts are placed clearly at the top. Note that they are organized in a neat manner.

　　The following are the key items to be listed at the beginning of the resume, in ascending order.

　　-Objective

　　-Education Background

　　- Work Experience

　　The following items can then be listed in order of significance and importance.

　　- Other qualifications/Awards and Scholarships

　　- Interests/Hobbies

　　- Language Skills

　　- References

　　It is advised that a resume be kept to one page. Thus it is paramount to organize all these varied information in a proper manner, to ensure that the key points are clearly presented.

　　The key rule for formatting is to ensure that the alignment of the all the various subject titles such as “Time Period? “Institution? “Location?and respective paragraphs are in place.

　　Sample Resume Format

　　MARTIN CHEN

　　175 Xiang Yang Road South, APT#301

　　Shanghai, 200031

　　Mobile: 86-13601881222

　　Fax: 810-774-0970

　　E-mail: martinchen@hbs.harvard.edu

　　EDUCATION

　　HARVARD UNIVERSITY, GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESSBoston, Massachusetts

　　Master of Business Administration: Concentration in Finance and Marketing 1999

　　- Graduated with Honors (Top 15% of Class)

　　- Member of Marketing Group, Investment Banking Group and Investment Management Group

　　- Member of Management Lab, participated in a 3-month consulting project for JP Morgan Chase

　　Jiao Tong UNIVERSTIY Shanghai

　　Bachelor of Science: Major in Mathematics, Minor in Economics.1994

　　EXPERIENCE

　　MAJOR SYSTEMSShanghai & San Jose, California

　　Marketing Director8/2000-6/2002

　　Responsible for marketing, business development, and strategy setting initiatives at the VC backed software venture.

　　- Transformed the company from a content provider to a large-scale web application developer.

　　- Organized cross-function task force to rollout product offerings, and successfully enlisted top telecom operators as customers.

　　- Engaged in aspects of venture financing including investment pitch, due diligence, term sheet negotiation.

　　- Led a team of 15 marketing professionals in product management, public relation, and promotional roles.

　　GATSBY SYSTEMSShenzhen & San Jose, California

　　Director, Strategic Business Units9/1999-8/2000

　　Member of founding management team. Helped raise $40 million in venture financing.

　　- Created and operated three Internet portals: personal finance, career, and membership services.

　　- Developed a portfolio of over 50 international and domestic content and technology partners.

　　- Managed more than 40 staff, in marketing, sales, content and customer service functions.

　　JP MORGANHong Kong,China

　　Summer Associate, Fixed Income Group 6/1999-8/1999

　　Rotated through Asset Liability Management, Derivatives Trading, and Fixed Income Investment Groups.

　　- Constructed a model to price floating rate commercial mortgages.

　　- Updated and initiated research on numerous retail, transportation and banking credits.

　　- Completed an industry report on supermarket chains, focusing on the changing risk profiles in the new economy.

　　DLJ CONSULTINGGuangzhou,China

　　Consultant12/1996-8/1998

　　Advised multinational and local clients on entry, partnering, distribution, and JV feasibility. Significant work includes:

　　- Marketing and distribution strategy: developed channel adaptation models in a highly regulated industry.

　　- Joint venture feasibility study: performed due diligence on qualified local partners and developed financial projection models.

　　- Market entry strategy and implementation: led an engagement team of 5 consultants to pilot test service offerings.

　　MSD CHINA PARTNERS, LPShenzhen & San Jose, California

　　Financial Analyst / Project Manager6/1994-8/1996

　　Assessed private equity opportunities in Chinese enterprises for a US partnership fund of S75 million.

　　- Generated and screened deal flows, made recommendations to the investment committee.

　　- Managed relationship with industry associations, government organizations, and professional services firms.

　　- Performed market, management and financial due diligence on target companies.

　　- Developed valuation models using discounted cash flow and multiples.

　　ADDITIONAL

　　- Native speaker: Mandarin and Cantonese

　　- Candidate for CFA Level II exam in June 2002

　　- Proficient with PowerPoint, EXCEL, ACCESS, and Visual Basic

　　- Contributing writer for Experts vs. Darts, a stock picking column of Boston Business

　　- Enjoy personal portfolio management. Avid golfer