How is a finance CV scored?

Your CV is scored 0–100 across six weighted criteria: metrics & quantification (25%), bullet point quality (20%), role-fit alignment (20%), structure & formatting (15%), education (10%), and skills & keywords (10%). Each is benchmarked against successful candidates at firms like Goldman Sachs, Citadel, and KKR.

Is this just generic CV advice?

No. Every point is specific to your CV — it quotes your actual bullets and explains exactly why each one is weak. The rubric also adapts to your target role, so an investment banking CV and a quantitative research CV are judged against entirely different criteria.

How is this different from my university careers service?

Careers services give general guidance like "use strong verbs". This gives you firm-specific feedback: your exact bullets rewritten in top-tier analyst voice, the precise ATS keywords your CV is missing, and a ranked action plan — all benchmarked to bulge-bracket and top-fund standards.

How long should a finance CV be?

One page for students and recent graduates; up to two pages once you have a few years of relevant experience. Bulge-bracket recruiters treat a two-page student CV as a red flag — fitting everything onto one page is itself part of the test.

What do I get for £19?

The full report: a scored breakdown of all six sections, three of your weakest bullets rewritten in top-firm voice, a role-specific list of missing keywords, a ranked action plan, and a benchmark against a successful candidate at your target firm tier. The score preview is always free.

Is there a money-back guarantee?

Yes — a 30-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee. If the full report does not help you improve your CV, email us within 30 days and we will refund the £19 in full.

Is my CV kept private?

Yes. Your CV is analysed in real time and is not stored after the analysis, never sold, and never shared for marketing. We keep only the email you provide to send your report and a short series of follow-up tips, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. See our Privacy Policy for full detail.

What file types do you support?

PDF and Word (.docx), up to 10MB. The PDF must be text-based rather than a scanned image, so the analysis can read your actual CV text. Upload takes about five seconds.

15 June 2026·8 min read

Spring Weeks: The Most Underrated Pipeline to Your Dream Finance Job

Spring weeks are the highest-leverage, lowest-competition entry point in finance recruiting — and most students miss them. A complete guide to how they work, when to apply, and how to convert one into a summer internship.

If you are a first-year student serious about finance, the single highest-leverage thing you can do this year is land a spring week. Spring weeks (also called insight weeks or spring internships) are one-to-two-week programmes run by banks in March and April for first-year students — and they are the most underused pipeline into a full summer internship at a top firm.

Why spring weeks are the cheat code

Here is what most students do not realise: attending a spring week at a firm dramatically increases your chance of converting to a summer internship there. Many banks fast-track spring week attendees directly to final rounds for their summer programme — bypassing the standard online tests, HireVue, and first-round interviews that everyone else has to clear. You are, in effect, being interviewed for the summer over the course of a week, with far less competition than the summer applicant pool.

The competition for spring weeks themselves is also lower than for summer internships, because most students do not even know to apply in their first year. That asymmetry — lower competition in, fast-track out — is what makes them the cheat code.

When to apply

This is where most people lose: the timing is counterintuitive. Spring week applications typically open in June–September and close in October–November of your first year — for a programme that runs the following March. Many banks use rolling admissions, meaning they review and fill places as applications arrive. A strong application submitted on the day the portal opens has a materially higher chance than the same application submitted near the deadline.

Set calendar reminders from June of your first year. Check a deadline tracker like BrightNetwork weekly, and apply within the first 48 hours of each portal opening.

Who can apply

Usually first-year students on a three-year degree, or penultimate-year students on a four-year degree (including those on a year abroad or placement). Some banks accept any year. If you are unsure, apply anyway — the eligibility is checked, not assumed.

How to actually land one

The application is usually a CV, a few written questions, and online tests. Because you have little experience in first year, the bar for experience is lower — but the bar for demonstrated interest is higher. What moves the needle:

A clean, one-page CV that signals genuine finance interest — a finance society, a stock-pitch competition, a personal portfolio, or a completed modelling course.
Written answers that name a specific reason for the firm, not generic praise.
Strong online test scores — numerical reasoning is highly trainable with a few hours of practice.
A little networking: even one conversation with someone at the firm gives you specific material for your answers.

Your CV is doing most of the work here. Make sure it is interview-ready before you submit — a free CV score will flag the issues a first-year CV almost always has, and the common internship CV mistakes are worth reading first.

What happens during the week

Expect a mix of business-case work, trading or modelling simulations, networking sessions, and an individual or group project — observed throughout. Dress is business formal. The firm is assessing the same things it assesses in a full internship: are you reliable, curious, collaborative, and genuinely interested?

How to convert it into a summer offer

Treat the week exactly as you would a full internship audition:

Ask smart, specific questions — ones that show you researched the firm and the team.
Build genuine relationships with the analysts and other attendees; get contact details and follow up.
Be reliable and engaged in every session — assessors compare notes.
Send a thank-you note to the people you connected with, referencing something specific.

If you have already missed the window

If spring week applications have closed for this cycle, do not write off the year. Build the profile that makes you competitive for summer applications directly: join a finance society, enter a competition, complete a modelling course, and start networking now. Then make sure your CV reflects all of it.

Whether you are targeting a spring week or going straight for the summer, it starts with a CV that gets read. Get your free CV score and fix the gaps before applications open.