The "Experience" section is the heart of a finance CV. It is what the recruiter reads first, sometimes in a few seconds. Yet most candidates fill it with tasks: "participated in reporting", "followed up on files", "helped prepare presentations". Nothing false, but nothing that stands out. Here is how to write bullets that show impact.
Tasks versus achievements
A task describes what you were asked to do. An achievement describes what your work produced. The recruiter already knows the tasks of a management control intern or an M&A analyst; what they do not know is what you contributed.
| Task (avoid) | Achievement (aim for) | |---|---| | "Participated in the monthly close" | "Made the monthly close more reliable: reconciled 40 expense accounts, variances explained before day 3" | | "Built financial models" | "Built a DCF valuation model used in an investment committee presentation" | | "Monitored cash" | "Updated the 13-week cash forecast weekly, alerting management to two disbursement pressure points" |
The difference comes down to three elements: a precise verb, a context and a result, however modest. An intern need not claim to have transformed the company; they must show they produced something useful and verifiable.
The action-context-result formula
An effective bullet almost always follows the same pattern:
Action verb + what you did + in what context + with what result.
Broken-down example:
Automated [action] budget variance tracking for 8 cost centres [context] : reporting production time cut in half [result].
Practical rules:
- Start with an action verb, in the past tense for a finished assignment, in the present for a current role: analysed, built, led, negotiated, reduced, deployed, modelled, consolidated.
- One verb per bullet, without chaining three actions that drown the message.
- One to two lines at most per bullet. Beyond that, nobody reads.
- Three to five bullets per recent experience, fewer for older ones.
- Order by importance, not chronology: the strongest achievement comes first.
Avoid hollow verbs ("took part in", "in charge of", "helped with"), which do not say what you actually did. If you truly collaborated on a team effort, state your share: "responsible for the sensitivity analysis of the model, within a team of four".
💡 Learn more: our guide How to write a CV for finance and investment banking shows how these bullets fit into the full structure.
Quantifying when figures are confidential
This is the most frequent objection: "I can't give figures, everything is confidential." In finance, confidentiality is real, but it does not forbid quantifying. Here are ways around it.
Use orders of magnitude or ranges:
- "Portfolio of around €50 million" rather than an exact amount;
- "Mid-sized deals (between €20 and €100 million enterprise value)".
Use percentages and ratios, which reveal no absolute figure:
- "Reporting production time reduced by 40%";
- "Reconciliation error rate brought below 1%".
Count what is not sensitive:
- the number of files, accounts, entities, countries, people involved;
- the frequency (daily, monthly);
- the duration or lead time.
Describe the scope without naming the client: "for a listed industrial group" is often acceptable, whereas the name is not. When in doubt, ask your supervisor or manager what may appear on a CV.
A golden rule: never invent. An approximate figure you can explain beats a precise one you cannot defend. Finance recruiters always dig.
Examples by type of internship
Adapt these templates with your own facts. They are meant to inspire structure, not to be copied.
Investment banking or M&A
- "Built the valuation models (DCF and multiples) for 6 target companies on an acquisition mandate in industry."
- "Wrote the sector sections of 3 teasers and an information memorandum, reviewed by the vice president."
- "Analysed 25 comparable transactions using financial databases."
Management control
- "Automated monthly reporting for 8 cost centres: production cut from two days to a few hours."
- "Analysed budget vs actual variances and proposed three savings levers presented to the CFO."
- "Updated the quarterly forecast in coordination with 5 operational managers."
Audit
- "Tested internal control procedures on the procure-to-pay cycle of 4 entities."
- "Performed analytical review of expense accounts and documented significant variances."
- "Took part in the physical inventory count and stock reconciliation at an industrial site."
Asset management
- "Tracked the performance of a 40-line portfolio and wrote the monthly analysis note."
- "Analysed 15 companies in the sector and fed the management team's recommendations."
Capital markets
- "Prepared the daily market-moves summary sent to 20 institutional clients."
- "Checked position consistency across systems and flagged breaks before the open."
For a first internship, focus on what you really did and learned. Our article on finding a finance internship offers more ideas.
Common writing mistakes
Disguised tasks. "Responsible for invoice follow-up" does not say what you achieved.
Bullets that are too long. A four-line bullet discourages reading. Split or cut.
Adjectives instead of facts. "Excellent command", "strong analytical mind" prove nothing. Replace them with an achievement.
Unknown acronyms. Stay understandable to a recruiter who does not know your former employer's internal organisation.
Mixed tenses. A finished role is written in the past, a current role in the present, without alternating from bullet to bullet.
Inconsistent or unverifiable figures. A recruiter who sees "300% gain" on a two-month internship gets suspicious. Keep credible orders of magnitude (see our mistakes to avoid on a finance CV).
Formatting that screening software reads badly. Well-written bullets are useless if the file is unreadable to an ATS, with columns, tables or icons that scramble the reading order. FinanceCV handles the layout: you write your bullets, and the tool produces a structured, ATS-compatible CV that screening software reads in the right order. Our guide to optimising your CV for ATS details these points.
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