I have worked through hundreds of Goldman HireVue responses. The pattern that fails is always the same. Most candidates open with a preamble. Context. Setup. An explanation of what they are about to say. Every second of that preamble is registered as uncertainty by Goldman's assessors. You are penalised before you have made your point. The structure that works: 1. Open with the point. Not context. Not setup. The point. "In my investment society, I led the acquisition analysis for a £300M leveraged buyout simulation." That is your first sentence. 2. Three categorised actions: technical, strategic, leadership. 3. Three categorised results: quantitative, personal, social proof. 4. A firm-specific Link to a named Goldman desk or division. Under 90 seconds. No preamble. This is the STAR-3® HireVue structure. It is the framework that has produced offers at Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Morgan Stanley, and the bulge bracket spread. Comment "GOLDMAN" below or DM me and I will send you the full structure with the exact phrasing, the timing breakdown, and the firm-specific Link template. Outcomes vary. Past results do not guarantee future results. Some clients anonymised, all evidence on file. Watch the video here: https://www.tiktok.com/@elitecareersstrategy/video/7637860681835892000?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7628786598268323329

A Warwick student walked into ECS with a BTEC, zero IB interview invites, and a CV he had already edited 324 times. Eight months later: six spring weeks. Citadel Securities. BNP Paribas. Amazon. Optiver. Concentric Capital. Followed by a BNP Paribas IB summer internship and a Sequel Capital off-cycle PE seat. His interview invite rate went from 0 to 6. Here is what almost nobody gets about CVs at this level. Every bullet on his CV was telling the reader what he did. "Built a model." "Led a society." "Worked with a team." That is the default. That is what 90% of applicants submit. And that is exactly what the bulge brackets screen out in the first 8 seconds of a CV scan. Telling them what you did is not the same as showing them what it meant. The VTMR™ framework rebuilds every bullet across four locked components. V - Verb. The action you took, sharp and specific. Not "worked on." Not "involved in." A verb that signals ownership. T - Task. The exact problem you were solving, framed in the language the firm uses internally. M - Metric. The number. Always a number. Percent, currency, headcount, time saved, deals closed. If there is no metric, the bullet is not finished. R - Result. What changed because of you. The commercial outcome, not the activity. When every bullet on a CV runs through VTMR™, the reader stops reading what you did and starts reading what you delivered. That shift is the difference between the reject pile and the interview invite. The BTEC student did not change his experiences. He changed how the page communicated them. The firms stopped ignoring him within four weeks of the rebuild. Drop a comment with "VTMR" if you want me to break down a worked example using one of your bullets. Outcomes vary. Past results do not guarantee future results. Some clients anonymised, all evidence on file. Watch video here: https://www.tiktok.com/@elitecareersstrategy/video/7633732345018731809?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7628786598268323329

Dear All, An email was sent in error yesterday from my team. Please accept my apologies and kindly disregard it. In the meantime, I wanted to share a piece I published in the Times of India on the BDC framework - one of the six proprietary frameworks we use at Elite Careers Strategy to help candidates succeed at interview and assessment centre stage at tier-one firms. You can read it here: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/harvard-to-wall-street-navigating-elite-finance-careers/how-the-bdc-framework-enables-interview-success/ Watch how to enter tier-1 investment banks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUexbyUVwPM&t=7s It is a practical breakdown of how to structure contributions in group exercises and competency interviews at the level assessors are actually trained to score against. I hope you find these useful. With best wishes, Hassan Akram Founder, Elite Careers Strategy Former Recruiter, Buy-Side and Sell-Side | 10,000+ Applications Reviewed 100+ Outcomes Across London, New York and Hong Kong Harvard, MIT and Yale MBA Club Sessions | Times of India Columnist Offer-Engineering for Elite Careers™

If I was coaching a candidate for a Point72 interview tomorrow, here is exactly what I would tell them. Most candidates preparing for a top hedge fund interview make the same mistake: they research the firm and treat conviction as a virtue. Point72 does not want conviction. It wants rigour. Three things that convert Point72 interviews: 1. Know the track you are applying to. Point72 runs fundamental equity alongside quantitative strategies. The Academy programme targets candidates with no prior hedge fund experience - it is one of the most competitive entry points in the industry. The preparation is entirely different depending on the track. 2. Your investment pitch must be actionable. A specific company. A specific entry and target price. An earnings catalyst in the next 12 months. A downside scenario that demonstrates you have genuinely stress-tested the thesis - not just found reasons to be positive. 3. Intellectual honesty over conviction. Point72 is known for rigorous internal debate. The candidate who can articulate the bear case and explain why they are still long stands out far more than the candidate who has only the upside. I reviewed 10,000+ applications from the hiring side of Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, and the Magic Circle before I ever coached a single candidate. What separates the offers from the rejections at elite funds is almost never the quality of the thesis. It is the quality of the stress-test. This is what the ECS Offer-Engineering System™ is built to produce. DM me "HEDGE" for the preparation framework. #privateequity #hedgefund #investmentbanking #goldmansachs #blackstone #financecareers #elitecareers #IBD Outcomes vary. Past results do not guarantee future results. Some clients anonymised, all evidence on file. Watch the video here: https://www.tiktok.com/@elitecareersstrategy/video/7629232938256829729?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7628786598268323329

For everyone with upcoming finance applications — the CV bullet problem. Goldman Sachs reviewers scan in under thirty seconds. They are looking for numbers. If a bullet has no number, it gets skipped. VTMR: Verb, Task, Metric, Result. Every bullet. 'Assisted with research.' Not a bullet. 'Researched 14 jurisdictions on conflicting provisions, reducing partner review time by 40%.' A bullet. Number. Outcome. Earns a second read. Post one of your current CV bullets below and I will tell you exactly how to rebuild it using VTMR. Outcomes vary. Past results don't guarantee future results. Watch here: https://www.tiktok.com/@elitecareersstrategy/video/7623295580147633440?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7621945773748831762