ResumeAdapter
Updated 2026-07-01

The values Bank of America hires against
and how to prove them on a resume.

Why this matters

Bank of America publishes four core values: Deliver together, Act responsibly, Realize the power of our people, and Trust the team. The bank says it wants to learn how your aspirations, character and values align with its own, which makes these four the hiring rubric. This page maps each to resume language, with a show-this bullet, the anti-pattern to delete, and a STAR example you can adapt.

Scan my Bank of America resumeFree to scan4 core valuesSignal coverage
By the numbers
What BofA publishes
4 core values
The rubric the bank hires against
The rubric names
Deliver together...
Act, Realize the power, Trust the team
Business strategy
Responsible Growth
The strategy, not a core value
Source
bankofamerica.com
Primary, firm-published

The quick answer

What are Bank of America's core values?

Bank of America publishes four core values: Deliver together, Act responsibly, Realize the power of our people, and Trust the team. On its careers site the bank says it wants to learn about your aspirations, character and values, and how they align with its own, which makes these four the rubric it assesses against in hiring. A separate idea, Responsible Growth, is the firm's business strategy, not one of the four values, so do not list it as a personal value; use it instead to explain why you want to work at the bank. The resume move is to demonstrate each value through quantified outcomes rather than naming it as an adjective: a client-and-teammate win for Deliver together, a control or risk action for Act responsibly, a teammate you developed for Realize the power of our people, and shared accountability for Trust the team. Scan your Bank of America resume.

Bank of America publishes four core values, Deliver together, Act responsibly, Realize the power of our people, and Trust the team, and states its mission is to help make financial lives better, through the power of every connection. The bank frames its employees as central to driving Responsible Growth, its business strategy, which sits separately from the four values.

Bank of America's four core values, Deliver together, Act responsibly, Realize the power of our people, and Trust the team, are the language the firm publishes and hires against. On its hiring-process page the bank says it is excited to learn about your aspirations, character and values, and how they align with its own, so these four are not decoration; they are the rubric.

Separately, the firm runs a business strategy called Responsible Growth. It is not one of the four values. It is the strategy the company executes, and it is the bridge to a strong answer to Why Bank of America. Reading both gives you the values recruiters screen for and the strategy that frames your motivation, without inventing anything the firm never wrote.

The resume reading is the same for every value: a reviewer indexes on the value being visible in the bullet itself, not asserted as an adjective. A line that reads responsible team player with integrity fails, because it names the values instead of demonstrating them.

A line that reads caught a reconciliation break before close and added the control that stopped it recurring passes, because it shows Act responsibly through a costly, owned action without ever using the word integrity. The entries below give you that pattern for all four values, each with a show-this bullet, the anti-pattern, and a STAR example.

The four core values

Each value with what it signals,
a show-this bullet, and a STAR example.

Deliver together, Act responsibly, Realize the power of our people, and Trust the team, quoted verbatim from Bank of America's values page (accessed July 2026). Each value opens with the firm's own description.

01
Core value 01

Deliver together

We believe in the importance of treating each client and teammate as an individual and treating every moment as one that matters.

This value pairs the client and the teammate in a single sentence, so the bank reads for people who deliver a real client outcome without leaving colleagues behind. A reviewer reads for whether you moved a client result forward while working across a team, treating both the client and the people beside you as individuals, not for solo output that ignored either side.

What it signals in hiring
Show this on the resume

Lead with a client outcome you delivered as part of a team, and name the partners you worked with to get there. Put the client result first, then the collaboration that produced it, with the number attached.

Partnered with credit and operations to onboard a $60M commercial client two weeks early, resolving three documentation gaps that had stalled the relationship.

Avoid this anti-pattern

Solo framing with no client and no teammate in the sentence. Owned the process end to end describes activity in isolation and misses the deliver-together signal the value rewards.

Single-handedly managed the full onboarding workflow without input or support from any other function.

STAR example bullet

When a $60M commercial client stalled on three documentation gaps before their funding date (Situation), I coordinated the onboarding (Task), aligning credit and operations to clear each gap in parallel (Action), and the team delivered the relationship two weeks early (Result).

02
Core value 02

Act responsibly

We believe that integrity and the disciplined management of risk form the foundation of our business.

The description names integrity and the disciplined management of risk as the foundation of the business, so in a regulated bank this value is the one a reviewer weighs hardest. It reads for people who tightened a control, surfaced a risk, or corrected an error when it was costly, demonstrating disciplined judgment rather than asserting that they are ethical.

What it signals in hiring
Show this on the resume

Show a specific control or risk action you took: a break you caught, a control you added, a finding you escalated. Demonstrate the disciplined management of risk through the outcome; do not label yourself as responsible.

Identified a reconciliation break before month-end close that others had cleared, preventing a $2M misstatement and prompting a new four-eyes control on the process.

Avoid this anti-pattern

Naming integrity as an adjective. A line that calls you responsible, ethical, and risk-aware states the trait this value reads for instead of demonstrating it, and reviewers discount it.

Highly responsible professional with strong integrity and a disciplined approach to managing risk.

STAR example bullet

When a reconciliation looked balanced but felt off before month-end close (Situation), I owned the sign-off (Task), so I re-ran the break analysis and escalated a discrepancy others had cleared (Action), preventing a $2M misstatement and prompting a new four-eyes control (Result).

03
Core value 03

Realize the power of our people

We strive to help all of our employees reach their full potential.

This value is about helping employees reach their full potential, so the bank reads for people who develop others, not only themselves. A reviewer reads for evidence you raised the capability around you: a teammate you coached, a training you built, a ramp you shortened, with the lift to the other person or the team quantified.

What it signals in hiring
Show this on the resume

Show how you helped someone else grow: a junior you developed, an onboarding you improved, a skill you transferred. Quantify the lift to the person or the team, not just to your own numbers.

Mentored two new analysts on the credit-review standard I documented, cutting their ramp time from eight weeks to four and clearing our backlog a month early.

Avoid this anti-pattern

Pure individual-output framing that never touches anyone else's growth. It misses the develop-others signal this value rewards.

Focused exclusively on my own portfolio and individual targets throughout the year.

STAR example bullet

When two new analysts joined with no shared credit-review standard (Situation), I was the senior on the team (Task), so I documented the standard and ran coaching sessions (Action), cutting their ramp from eight weeks to four and clearing the backlog a month early (Result).

04
Core value 04

Trust the team

We believe great teams are built on mutual trust, shared ownership and accountability.

The description grounds great teams in mutual trust, shared ownership and accountability, so the bank reads for people who own a shared result and hold themselves accountable for it. A reviewer reads for whether you took accountability for a team outcome, including when something went wrong, rather than claiming individual credit or deflecting blame.

What it signals in hiring
Show this on the resume

Show a shared result you took accountability for, and credit the team. Name what you owned inside a group effort, including a miss you addressed, with the collective outcome quantified.

Took ownership of a missed reporting deadline across three teams, rebuilt the shared handoff checklist, and cut cycle time 40 percent so the next four cycles closed on schedule.

Avoid this anti-pattern

Hero framing that erases the team or deflects accountability. Delivered everything myself claims sole credit and reads against a trust-the-team culture.

Personally accountable for all results; no one else on the team contributed to the outcome.

STAR example bullet

When a reporting deadline slipped across three teams (Situation), I stepped in to own the recovery (Task), rebuilding the shared handoff checklist with each team (Action), which cut cycle time 40 percent and closed the next four cycles on schedule (Result).

Core values and their descriptions quoted verbatim from Bank of America's values page, careers.bankofamerica.com/en-us/company/values, accessed July 2026.

Mission and vision

What the values are in service of.
The firm's own words.

Mission

To help make financial lives better, through the power of every connection.

The values page adds that the bank helps clients achieve what's possible by providing experts who listen and care, powerfully personal technology, connected solutions and a vision of shared success.

Vision

Our employees are at the heart of Bank of America and are key to driving Responsible Growth.

The vision links the people to the strategy: employees are the mechanism for Responsible Growth, which is why the four values and the strategy are worth reading together.

Mission and vision quoted verbatim from Bank of America, careers.bankofamerica.com/en-us/company/values, accessed July 2026.

The strategy that is not a value

Responsible Growth.
The business strategy, not a core value.

Responsible Growth is Bank of America's business strategy, published separately from the four core values. It is easy to mistake for a value because the language overlaps, but it is the strategy the company runs the business on, not a personal trait a candidate embodies. Keep the two straight: the four values are what you demonstrate on the resume; Responsible Growth is context you use to explain your motivation.

The firm frames Responsible Growth with four tenets, hedged in the bank's own phrasing: We have to grow, no excuses; We have to be client focused; We have to grow within our risk framework; and Our growth must be sustainable. Notice how cleanly two of them, being client focused and growing within a risk framework, echo Deliver together and Act responsibly. That overlap is the bridge.

When you answer Why Bank of America, connect your work to a Responsible Growth tenet and back it with a measurable example: a client relationship you grew, or a result you delivered inside the risk framework. Then tie it to a named value. That is far stronger than praising the brand, and it never mislabels the strategy as a value.

Responsible Growth and its four tenets from Bank of America, about.bankofamerica.com/en/our-company/responsible-growth. It is the firm's business strategy, not one of the four core values.

How to show Bank of America's values

Five moves from
generic resume to BofA-true.

01
Step 01

Prove Act responsibly through a control or risk action

Act responsibly grounds the business in integrity and the disciplined management of risk. Show a break you caught, a control you added, or a finding you escalated when it was costly, with the outcome quantified. Demonstrate the judgment; never assert integrity as an adjective.

02
Step 02

Show Deliver together with a client-and-teammate outcome

Deliver together treats each client and teammate as an individual. Lead with a client result you delivered as part of a team and name the partners you worked with, so both the client and the colleagues appear in the bullet, not solo activity.

03
Step 03

Show Realize the power of our people by developing someone

Realize the power of our people is the aim to help employees reach their full potential. Show a teammate you coached, an onboarding you improved, or a ramp you shortened, and quantify the lift to that person or the team, not just to your own numbers.

04
Step 04

Show Trust the team through shared accountability

Trust the team is built on mutual trust, shared ownership and accountability. Show a shared result you took accountability for, including a miss you addressed, and credit the team, with the collective outcome quantified rather than claimed as solo credit.

05
Step 05

Scan and iterate against a Bank of America posting

Upload to ResumeAdapter against a specific Bank of America posting to see where your bullets name values as adjectives instead of demonstrating them, and iterate until client-and-teammate impact, disciplined risk, developing people, and shared accountability are visible in the work.

For most candidates the move is simple: build four bullets, one per value. One that shows a client-and-teammate win for Deliver together, one that proves disciplined risk or a control for Act responsibly, one that develops a teammate for Realize the power of our people, and one that takes shared accountability for a team result under Trust the team. Four bullets, four values, none of them naming the value as an adjective.

Then let Responsible Growth frame your motivation in the cover letter or interview, not the resume bullets. The values are the traits you demonstrate; the strategy is why you want to be there. Keeping them separate signals that you read the source, not a summary.

You do not need to name a single value on the page. You need bullets where client-and-teammate impact, disciplined risk, developing people, and shared accountability are visible in the outcomes themselves. See the Bank of America levels spoke for how the bar shifts by band, and the Bank of America interview process spoke for how these values surface across the loop.

FAQ

Bank of America values, FAQ

The questions candidates surface about what Bank of America actually screens for, after they have read the pillar. Answers are byte-identical to the FAQPage JSON-LD, because AI engines that extract HTML and AI engines that extract JSON-LD should not see different text.

What are Bank of America's core values?

Bank of America publishes four core values: Deliver together, Act responsibly, Realize the power of our people, and Trust the team. Deliver together is about treating each client and teammate as an individual and every moment as one that matters. Act responsibly grounds the business in integrity and the disciplined management of risk. Realize the power of our people is the aim to help all employees reach their full potential. Trust the team holds that great teams are built on mutual trust, shared ownership and accountability. The bank says it wants to learn how your aspirations, character and values align with its own, which is why these four are the hiring rubric.

What is Responsible Growth at Bank of America?

Responsible Growth is Bank of America's business strategy, not one of its four core values. The firm frames it with four tenets: We have to grow, no excuses; We have to be client focused; We have to grow within our risk framework; Our growth must be sustainable. Because it is the strategy the company runs on rather than a personal value, use Responsible Growth to explain why you want to work at the bank and how your work connects to it, and keep the four core values (Deliver together, Act responsibly, Realize the power of our people, Trust the team) as the traits you demonstrate on the resume itself.

How do I answer 'Why Bank of America?' in an interview?

Connect your work to Responsible Growth, the firm's business strategy, and to the four core values. Name a tenet that fits your record, for example being client focused or growing within a risk framework, and give a concrete example where you did exactly that with a measurable outcome. Then tie it to a core value such as Act responsibly or Deliver together. Avoid a generic prestige answer: the bank says it assesses how your aspirations, character and values align with its own, so a specific, evidence-backed answer that maps to Responsible Growth and a named value is far stronger than praising the brand.

How do I show Bank of America's values on my resume?

Demonstrate the four values through quantified outcomes rather than naming them. Show a client-and-teammate win for Deliver together, a control or risk action for Act responsibly, a teammate you developed for Realize the power of our people, and a shared result you took accountability for under Trust the team. Use STAR-style bullets so each value is visible in the work itself, never assert integrity or teamwork as an adjective, and scan your resume against a specific Bank of America posting to see which of these signals a recruiter would actually find.

What is Bank of America's mission statement?

Bank of America's mission is to help make financial lives better, through the power of every connection. Its values page adds that the bank helps clients achieve what's possible by providing experts who listen and care, powerfully personal technology, connected solutions and a vision of shared success. Its stated vision is that employees are at the heart of Bank of America and are key to driving Responsible Growth. On a resume you do not quote the mission; you demonstrate it by showing client outcomes and connections you drove, tied to the four core values.

Continue

The rest of the Bank of America
resume cluster.

01 / Pillar

How to get a job at Bank of America

The pillar covering Bank of America's application process, the four core values in summary, the career ladder, and the interview loop.

Read
02 / Spoke

Bank of America levels

The banding ladder, and how the bar shifts from execution to ownership and leadership by level.

Read
03 / Spoke

The Bank of America interview process

The screens, rounds, and final loop, and how the firm's four core values surface across the process.

Read
04 / Tool

Cover letter generator

Turn a Responsible Growth tenet and a named value into a Why Bank of America cover letter grounded in a real result.

Read
Related

ATS Statistics

The dataset behind the editorial findings on this page, including the median pre-edit resume score.

Read
Related

All company guides

The full index of company resume hubs, each with its hiring bar mapped to resume language.

Read
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