
What to Put on a Resume: Good Things You Should Include
Find our what you need to put on your resume and what recruiters are looking for. Use these tips and examples to make a perfect resume.
Why would you even need a perfect personal banker resume? All your customers know they can bank on you. Not only that, but you know how to make their banking experience truly personal. They don’t need convincing. But do you know who does?
Hiring managers. And they’ve got more applicants fighting for your banking job than you can imagine. Your banking resume should make them understand you’re the best—and you’re about to learn how it’s done.
This guide will show you:
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Sample resume made with our builder—See more resume samples here.
Applying for other banking or financial positions? Looking for resume ideas? We’ve got you covered:
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A personal banker's job is to assist the clients with managing their money to minimize risk and maximize returns. Good personal banking resumes should highlight such skills as customer support, sales skills (incl. starting new accounts, advising the choice of banking products and services, as well as cross-selling them), as well as industry-specific knowledge.
The challenge?
Well, you never get a second chance to make the first impression.
So, your personal banker resume must immediately draw the recruiter’s attention, and make them bet all their chips on you.
How to do this?
For starters, lay your personal banking resume out in the reverse-chronological resume format.
This way, you’ll bring your experience and achievements to the front, and make them readily scannable.
Just make sure to:
And—
Save your personal banker resume as a PDF file. PDF is the adamantine armor for your personal banking resume—it will keep it intact on any operating system, device, or planet.
Now, you’re ready to move on to the first section of your resume.
It might be tempting for you to use a functional resume format. In most cases, you should avoid it at all costs.
Still not sure about the best format your personal banking resume should stick to? Here’s a quick read: Best Resume Format: Which to Choose?
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Time is money.
You have mere seconds to get the hiring manager’s attention.
That’s very little time.
But you want them to put a lot of money on you.
So—
You need to prove you’re worth your weight in gold right off the bat.
How do you do that?
By writing a professional personal banker resume objective or summary.
The difference?
Personal banker resume objective—consists of 2 or 3 sentences showing the recruiter you’re a great fit. It works best for those with limited experience.
Personal banker resume summary—you’ve guessed correctly—it summarizes your work experience that matches the position you’re applying for. As such, it’s best suited for those with previous experience in the field.
Remember:
This section of your personal banking resume is the first thing the recruiter will set their eyes on.
It’s basically an executive summary which should give them the bottom line: hire this candidate if you want your business to excel!
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Experienced sales agent eager to join Wells Fargo. Established long-term relations with customers and increased revenue by 10%. Generated over $50K revenue by targeting high net worth clients. Familiar with 15+ personal and business loans and lines of credit. |
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Looks for a position of a personal banker with the company. Solid sales and advisory experience. Great communication skills. |
Wait.
Isn’t the resume objective suitable for an entry-level personal banker resume with no experience? After all, The first candidate doesn’t look inexperienced whatsoever.
Well, that’s the point.
The first candidate may have zero experience as a personal banker. But knows how to include their relevant experience.
Guess what? He used his experience as a car salesman to get his mortgage banker resume on track.
The second candidate’s resume objective looks bland, offers no specific information and could be put on any resume for any job.
Not personal, not worth a dime.
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Goal-oriented personal banker with 5+ years of experience, eager to take on new professional challenges at Bank of America. Drove the sales of diverse credit lines and personal loans growing branch revenue by 30%. Closed Q3 2018 with KPIs at 175%. Managed assets of 10+ high net worth clients (upwards of $1M.) Ranked Top Sales Performer for 3 years running. |
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Goal-oriented highly experienced personal banker ready to start work within an expanding organization. Knowledgeable about credit lines and personal loans. Skilled in sales and asset management. |
The first candidate’s senior personal banker summary stands out by far in every way. Here’s why:
Remember:
The opening statement of your personal banking resume should offer a taste of things to come.
A wishy-washy personal banker resume objective or summary will leave the recruiter totally unimpressed.
So make sure yours packs a punch!
Still not sure how to go about writing your personal banker resume objective? Have a look at our guide: 20+ Career Objective Examples that Work.
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.
When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
Struggling with your personal banker resume summary? Jump right in: Professional Resume Summary: 30 Examples and How-To Guide
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Here’s the thing:
The job description section of your personal banker resume is where you close the deal with the recruiter.
So—
To become a personal banker—the position you’ve been dreaming of—you really need to prove you’re worth your salt.
Here’s how to describe your personal banker duties and responsibilities in a way that will land you an interview.
First—
Browse through personal banker jobs online to identify a position that matches your experience and qualifications.
It could look something like that:
In fact, this bullet point list comes from a real job posting. But similar requirements could be found in job ads from HSBC, Chase, Wells Fargo, or Bank of America.
The highlighted sections show you the required skills for a retail personal banker.
Here’s the thing:
Use the very job ad you’re replying to craft your own personal banker job description. And show the hiring manager it is you they’ve been looking for.
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Junior Personal Banker Bank of America, January 2015 - August 2017, Charlotte, NC
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Now—
Think of one or two things you’re really proud of, and include them in a separate key achievements sub-section:
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Key achievements:
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Now that’s a winning job description for a personal banker.
And even though there’s no such thing as a universal banking resume, there is a universal formula for you to follow when crafting your personal banker job description.
To prepare the best personal banker job description, make sure to:
And one more thing.
Never underestimate the importance of replying to a specific job offer.
In this day and age companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to initially screen the resumes for keywords.
What keywords?
The ones used in the original job posting.
That’s why it’s a really good idea to use the job posting itself as a point of reference. Just make sure you’re using the right resume keywords for your personal banker resume job description section.
Struggling to create a personal banker resume with no experience? Here’s a guide you may’ve been looking for: First Resume with No Work Experience
Unsure how to get this section of your personal banking resume right? Here’s a guide to help you out: Work Experience on a Resume: Job Description Bullets that *Kill*
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You’re about to impress the hiring manager with what you can do.
But first:
Have you ever bought anything, just because you were so impressed by the bullet point list of the thing’s features?
No?
Well, you need to know that no hiring manager is going to be impressed with the list of your skills either.
Why?
Because anyone can come up with a similar looking list.
Here’s the thing:
If you’ve done your personal banker description right you’ve already demonstrated all the skills the recruiter is after.
And more than that—you’ve shown them how good you are at each of them!
Just take a good look at your personal banker resume experience section:
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Junior Personal Banker Bank of America, January 2015 - August 2017, Charlotte, NC
Key achievements:
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If you take away all the extra information and paraphrase the keywords a little, you’ll end up with something like this:
The thing is your personal banker skills haven’t been presented as dull bullet points.
You showed them in the context of your experience and proved how well you’re able to carry out your personal banker duties.
Would it be enough to simply paste this list in the skills section of your banking resume?
No.
Remember, follow our advice from the previous section and explain what you can do and how well you can do it.
However, key skills extracted from your personal banker job description should also be included in a separate “skills” section.
If you’re not sure how to do it, take another good look at the personal banker resume example at the top of the page.
Now, have a look at common resume banking skills that are worth showing off on your resume:
Soft skills | Hard Skills |
Interpersonal skills | Lead qualification |
Communication | Customer needs analysis |
Relationship building | Contract negotiation |
Presentations skills | Product knowledge |
Rapport building | CRMs |
Bear these in mind when you want to present your personal banker skills in a powerful way:
If in doubt, go to the personal banker resume sample at the beginning of the guide.
Not really sure what banker skills to put on your resume? Our guide has all the answers: 30+ Best Examples of What Skills to Put on a Resume
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So—
You have all the personal banker qualifications required for the position.
And the Bureau of Labor Statistics says the demand for financial positions is on the rise.
But you know what?
So do the other 299+ other candidates who have applied.
You need to leverage any advantage you might have. Including education.
Here’s how:
Don’t simply plonk the name of the college you graduated from. List coursework relevant to the position.
This is what your personal banker resume education section may look like.
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UCLA, CA—2009 Business Economics Major GPA: 3.5 Relevant coursework:
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Mind you—
Some personal banker jobs do not require college-level education, but a minimum of high school diploma or equivalent experience.
If that’s the case, do not fail to add any extracurricular activities you’ve taken part in that might be relevant to the position you’re applying for.
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South Pasadena Senior High School, CA—2008 High School Diploma Activities:
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Last but not least—
Don’t forget to include all your hard earned certifications.
In fact, it’s a really good idea to list them all in a separate section of your resume. Especially if you’re writing a licensed personal banker resume.
The same is true about all the conferences you’ve attended or been a speaker at.
If you’re not sure how to do it right, take another good look at the personal banking resume samples at the top of the page.
Fuzzy about the education section of your personal banker resume? Jump right in: How to Put Your Education on a Resume [Tips & Examples]
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Consider this:
If you could put up two billboards to advertise your business at a busy crossroads, would you put up only one and say you don’t really need the other?
Unlikely.
You’d put up two to double your chances.
The same is true about cover letters.
Cover letters still matter, and they can double your chances of landing a personal banker job.
Plus, they give you a chance to prove your communication skills in practice.
Give your personal banker cover letter all the attention it deserves:
If you’re not really sure how to go about writing your cover letter, go to our guide on The Perfect Cover Letter: A Writing Guide
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
You’ve got it. You know how to write a personal banker resume:
And—
Good luck with your interview!
Is this your first resume for a personal banker position? Or maybe you’re a seasoned pro eager to help the rookies out? We’d love to hear from you. Give us a shout out in the comments below!
Find our what you need to put on your resume and what recruiters are looking for. Use these tips and examples to make a perfect resume.
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