14 years in traditional banking. A clear desire to move into FinTech. The challenge wasn't experience — it was getting ATS systems and hiring managers to read banking experience as relevant to a faster, product-led world.
Director, Risk & Operations at a top-5 retail bank. Strong technical chops, but the resume read like an internal-bank promotion document — heavy on regulatory frameworks, light on outcomes that translate. ATS systems were screening out applications for missing FinTech-native keywords. Recruiters who did read the resume kept reaching out about more banking roles.
Banking experience reframed in FinTech vocabulary — without inventing skills. "Regulatory compliance program" became "risk infrastructure scaled across $X portfolio." "Branch operations" became "multi-region operations execution." Same work, language hiring managers actually search.
Maintained a banking-native version (in case the right banking role appeared) and a FinTech-translated version (the primary). Per-role tailoring decided which base to start from.
Built a list of 80 FinTech employers segmented by stage (Series B-D, public). Sourced fresh roles directly from each company's careers page weekly. No aggregator listings.
Short, specific cover letters for FinTech roles — leading with a clear "why FinTech, why now, why this company" paragraph. This handled the pivot question before it became a screening risk.
The engagement created a smaller but stronger interview pipeline, consistent with the realistic benchmark of 2-4 qualified interviews from roughly 80 targeted applications. The client moved into offer-stage conversations for Director-level risk roles where the banking-to-FinTech story finally made sense.
Industry transitions need narrative work, not just resume edits. Let's talk.
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