The 7 Most Common Mistakes on Finance Internship CVs

The recurring errors that sink spring week and summer internship applications at investment banks and funds — and the simple fixes for each.

Internship CVs are judged more harshly than people expect, because the candidate pool is enormous and the differentiators are thin. Everyone has good grades and a few societies. The CV is often all the recruiter has to go on. These seven mistakes come up again and again — and every one of them is fixable in an afternoon.

1. No quantification anywhere

“Managed the society’s social media” means nothing. “Grew the society’s LinkedIn following 140% to 2,300 in one term” means you can drive a measurable result. Numbers turn vague activity into evidence.

2. Listing responsibilities instead of achievements

A CV is not a job description. Recruiters do not care what you were supposed to do — they care what you actually achieved. Every bullet should answer “so what?”.

3. A generic personal statement

“A highly motivated and ambitious individual seeking to leverage my skills” is filler that every recruiter has read ten thousand times. It costs you space and says nothing. Cut it. Let your experience speak.

4. Going over one page

For a student or recent graduate, one page is the rule. A two-page internship CV signals you cannot distinguish what matters from what does not — the opposite of the skill the job requires.

5. Weak, passive verbs

“Helped with”, “was involved in”, “participated in”. These describe presence, not contribution. Lead each bullet with a verb that shows you did something: analysed, built, led, pitched, modelled, organised.

6. No evidence of genuine interest in finance

Recruiters want to see that your interest is real and self-driven: a stock pitch competition, a personal portfolio, a finance society committee role, an online course completed, a relevant book or newsletter you actually engage with. Absence of any of this reads as a generic application sent to every sector.

7. Burying the wrong details and cutting the right ones

A-level results matter at this stage — include them. The exact dates of a part-time retail job from three years ago matter far less. Spend your limited space on what a finance recruiter actually weighs: academics, relevant experience, and demonstrated commercial interest.