This is a complete sample report

An anonymised example for a penultimate-year student targeting Investment Banking at Bulge Bracket level. Your own report is generated from your actual CV text — every issue, rewrite, and keyword is specific to you.

0/ 100
Competitive

Sample CV Score

Scored for Investment Banking · Bulge Bracket

Section Scores

Weighted breakdown

Metrics & Quantification

25% of overall score

54Weak

Bullet Point Quality

20% of overall score

61Fair

Role-fit Alignment

20% of overall score

72Fair

Structure & Formatting

15% of overall score

83Strong

Education Section

10% of overall score

79Strong

Skills & Keywords

10% of overall score

58Fair

Top 3 Issues

Highest-impact problems
1

Quantification is your single biggest gap: 7 of 11 bullets carry no number. Adding deal sizes, percentages, and outcomes would lift both your Metrics and Bullet Quality scores in one pass.

2

Your CV lacks IB transaction vocabulary (DCF, LBO, comparable companies, enterprise value). It reads as generally finance-interested rather than desk-ready — the most common reason strong students get filtered.

3

Your skills section is generic ("Microsoft Office") and lists no finance tools or certifications, which weakens you against the ATS and the human reviewer alike.

Full Report Unlocked

3 bullet rewrites · 17 missing keywords · 6 action items

Full Section Breakdown

Metrics & Quantification(25%)
54
  • Your spring week bullet "Shadowed the M&A team and learned about live deals" contains no metric and no outcome — it tells a recruiter what happened to you, not what you produced.

  • 7 of your 11 experience bullets contain no number. At bulge bracket level, an unquantified bullet is treated as an unverifiable claim and skimmed past.

  • Where you do quantify ("increased society membership"), the figure is missing — "increased" without a percentage or absolute number reads as vague rather than impressive.

Bullet Point Quality(20%)
61
  • Four bullets open with weak verbs — "Helped", "Was responsible for", "Involved in", "Assisted". These signal proximity to work rather than ownership of it.

  • Your lead banking-experience bullet runs to four lines. Anything over two lines dilutes impact and signals an inability to prioritise — itself a red flag for the role.

  • Several bullets describe tasks ("attended meetings", "took notes") with no discernible outcome. Every bullet should answer "so what?".

Role-fit Alignment(20%)
72
  • Your CV reads as "interested in finance" rather than "ready for an IB desk" — it lacks the transaction vocabulary recruiters scan for in the first pass.

  • No evidence of technical modelling beyond a single mention of "Excel". For IB, recruiters expect explicit signals of DCF, LBO, or comparable companies work.

Structure & Formatting(15%)
83
  • Strong single-page layout with correct student section order (Education → Experience → Extracurriculars → Skills).

  • Date formatting is inconsistent — "June 2024" in one role and "07/2024" in another. Standardise to one format, right-aligned.

Education(10%)
79
  • Degree, university, and predicted classification are all clearly stated — good.

  • A-level results are present but tucked at the bottom in a smaller font; at this stage they are a genuine differentiator and deserve a clear line.

  • No relevant modules listed. For a quantitatively-screened role, naming finance/econometrics modules adds a useful signal.

Skills & Keywords(10%)
58
  • Skills section lists "Microsoft Office" — this tells an ATS nothing. Replace with specific, scannable competencies.

  • No finance-specific tools or certifications listed (Bloomberg, BMC, CFA Level I). These are standard differentiators for bulge bracket applicants.

Bullet Rewrites

Your weakest bullets, rewritten in the voice a Goldman Sachs or Citadel recruiter expects.

Before

Shadowed the M&A team and learned about live deals.

After

Supported a 4-person M&A team on a live £210m mid-market disposal; built the comparable companies set (11 peers) and maintained the data room index across a 6-week process.

Before

Helped increase the finance society membership through marketing.

After

Grew finance society membership 38% (310 → 428) in one term by launching a weekly markets newsletter and 3 alumni speaker events.

Before

Was responsible for analysing companies in the technology sector for a stock pitch.

After

Valued 3 listed software companies via DCF and trading comps for a society stock pitch; recommended a long on the most undervalued name, which returned 11% over the following term.

Missing Keywords — Investment Banking

These terms appear in successful Bulge Bracket CVs for this role but are absent from yours. Add them naturally — not as a list, but woven into experience bullets.

DCFLBOprecedent transactionscomparable companiesenterprise valueaccretion/dilutioncapital structuremandatepitchbookdeal executionExcel (financial modelling, VBA)Bloomberg TerminalPowerPoint (pitchbooks)Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC)CFA Level I (candidate)FactSetCapital IQ

Ranked Action Plan

Ordered by interview impact. Priority 1 makes the biggest difference — do it first.

1

Add a quantified outcome to every experience bullet — deal size, %, headcount, ranking, or revenue impact.

Directly addresses your lowest-scoring section (Metrics, 54) and is the fastest route to a higher overall score.

2

Rewrite the four weak-verb bullets to lead with strong verbs (modelled, valued, built, pitched, executed).

Recruiters scan opening verbs first; strong verbs signal ownership and lift your Bullet Quality score.

3

Weave IB transaction language (DCF, comparable companies, enterprise value) naturally into your modelling and pitch bullets.

Closes the role-fit keyword gap and gets you past ATS relevance scoring.

4

Replace "Microsoft Office" with specific tools: Excel (financial modelling, VBA), PowerPoint (pitchbooks), Bloomberg.

Improves ATS keyword match and signals genuine technical readiness.

5

Add Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) — a low-cost certificate you can complete in ~10 hours.

A concrete, verifiable signal of commitment that very few applicants bother to obtain.

6

Trim your four-line banking bullet to two lines and standardise all dates to one right-aligned format.

Tightens presentation and removes the small inconsistencies that undermine an otherwise strong layout.

Benchmark — Bulge Bracket

What separates you from the shortlist

A successful bulge bracket IB applicant at your stage typically presents the same calibre of experience you already have — but every bullet is quantified, written in transaction language, and tied to a clear outcome. You are not missing experience; you are under-selling it. Close the quantification and keyword gaps and this CV moves from "competitive" to "interview-ready".

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