The Private Equity
Resume: Tactics, Tips,
and Templates
How Many Bullet Points Would You Like
with That M&A Deal?
Why PE Resumes? Isn’t This an Old Topic?
• Yes, but the PE recruiting process has changed and become
super-accelerated, similar to IB recruiting
• Example: At the bulge bracket and elite boutique banks, the
on-cycle process might start a month or even weeks after you’ve
started working full-time
• Result: You’re going to have to spin heavily to turn pitches,
potential deals, and ongoing projects into “real deals”
• And: If you cannot come up with anything at all, you’ll just have
to wait for more deal experience and recruit in a later cycle
The Main Points That Apply to All PE Resumes
• 1 Page Only with 3 Main Sections – Professional Experience on
top, then Education, and then Skills & Interests
• Work Experience Should Be Most of Your Resume – ~80% of the
total, with your current IB/consulting/other role occupying ~50%
• Font Face, Size, and Margins – 0.75” margins on each side, size
10-12 font, and Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, Georgia, etc.
• Summary Bullet, Then Deals/Clients/Engagements – Sum up
your deals and daily tasks, performance indicators (if any), and
then select 2-3 deals/clients/projects to write about
Resume for Investment Banking Candidates
• Why It Matters: Your resume is mostly irrelevant for the on-cycle
process at large banks, at least in winning interviews…
• But: It’s still important because it forces you to list specific deals,
and then you’ll discuss those deals in interviews
• So: “Writing your resume” really means, “Selecting your deal
experience and practicing discussions of it”
• Ideal: 2-3 deals; one deal looks a bit awkward, and if you list 4, 5,
or 10 deals, you will not remember everything
Finding “Deal Experience”
• Picking Priority: Closed or announced deals; canceled or ongoing
deals; “client service” engagements; pitches for “potential deals”;
and deals from your previous internship(s)
• Trick: Especially if you interned at your current bank and then
accepted a full-time offer there, you can combine the internship
and full-time role into one entry
• Too Many Deals: Then prioritize by size (bigger is better, all else
being equal) and your individual contributions to the deal process
Writing About Deal Experience
• First: Review the deliverables from your “deals,” including models,
presentations, emails, buyer/seller logs, etc., and note the key points:
• Transaction Rationale: Why did the buyer/seller want to do the deal
or raise capital? What were the approximate financial metrics?
• Key Challenges: Price? Financing? Specific investor objection?
• Your Contributions: How did you move the deal forward?
• Your Opinion of the Deal: Would you have done it? Why / why not?
Writing About Deal Experience
• You’ll then write about those points, except for the last one on your
opinion of the deal, on your resume; other tips:
• Italicize each deal’s name, with the deal type and approximate
amount (round numbers for easier math)
• Use company descriptions, not real company names
• Use lingo and buzzwords like EBITDA, Enterprise Value, DCF, etc.
• Use 2-3 bullets for each deal in the Specifics; Results format
One Final Word of Caution
• Do NOT be too aggressive with claims of your “results” or
“contributions”
• It’s fine to spin pitches into “potential deals,” since there is some
truth to that – some pitches do become deals
• BUT if you say that you “negotiated” or “increased the purchase
price,” or something similar, you will get A LOT of questions on it
• Stick to more modest contributions, like finding mistakes in the
company’s financials, suggesting new buyers, or finding
information that addressed a concern of one buyer or investor
PE Resume for Other Roles… and Consulting
• Any deal-based role (smaller bank, corporate development,
mezzanine, other PE firm, real estate, etc.) will be similar – but you
should, in theory, have more real deal experience to write about
• Consulting is tricky because most client engagements tend to
focus on operations, not deals or finance
• Strategy #1: Spin operational projects by linking them to financial
metrics or to the company’s share price, investor reactions, etc.
• Strategy #2: Pick projects with direct relevancy, like market sizing
in due diligence, M&A integration, expansions or add-ons, etc.
Other Points
• Outside Consulting or Deal-Based Roles: You don’t have a good shot
at private equity roles – see the M&I articles on PE for more
• Undergrads and Recent Grads: Use our university student IB resume
template instead, as it’s virtually the same
• More Experienced: Devote less and less space to non-PE roles once
you’ve been in the industry for a while; after a few years, you may
start to need a separate page for Transactions (example)
Recap and Summary
• PE Resumes are all about deals, deals, and more deals… well,
2-3 deals, to be more specific
• Key Challenge: Spinning pitches/random projects into sounding
like deals, going back to your internship(s) if necessary
• Sub-Bullets: 2-3 for each deal in Specifics; Results format
• Consulting: Spin operational engagements into sounding financial
• Finally: Don’t be too aggressive with your “results” claims
