How To Add Your Consulting Business To Your Resume

Every year, ~200,000 candidates apply to McKinsey, but only ~ii,000 of them end up getting an offer. That'due south a 1% success rate. Candidates usually don't know this, but the most competitive pace in the recruiting process is the cover letter and resume screening. That's where more than 60% of candidates go eliminated.

And so how exercise you lot do it? How do you lot craft a resume that gets you lot interviews at McKinsey, BCG and Bain? You probably already accept a resume. But how do you lot make certain they work with consulting firms?

Because hither is the thing. Consulting resumes are actually VERY dissimilar to CVs for other jobs. And then, let'southward stride through the consulting resume basics and writing tips y'all should be aware of. And let's also review a CV sample that landed interviews with McKinsey, BCG and Bain.

Part 1: What top consulting firms look for?

The first step towards crafting a consulting resume that volition get you multiple interviews is to empathize what acme consulting firms are really looking for.

At that place are two versions of the truth when it comes to this topic. The official version that'southward on every firm's website. And the unofficial one that they are less willing to talk near. We'll cover both here as well every bit how resume screening is done in exercise.

1.1 The official version

Equally we take already mentioned in our case interview guide, all tiptop consulting firms broadly look for the same skills. This is particularly apparent when comparing McKinsey's and Bain's description of the skills they look for.

Top consulting firms tend to all be interested in candidates who exhibit the post-obit four abilities:

Problem solving. This means you need to have shown potent intellectual abilities to solve problems at University and during your work experiences.
Personal impact. This means you've shown a dedication to achieving dandy things in most projects you undertook in the past. You've got a potent personal affect on nigh projects you are office of.
Entrepreneurial drive. This means you should have a rail record of launching new initiatives. You are not satisfied with doing things the traditional way and like innovating.
Leadership abilities. This means you've shown y'all can atomic number 82 groups of people in the by either in a professional context or at university.

The showtime objective of your resume should therefore exist to highlight relevant parts of your feel that conspicuously demonstrate you possess these skills. Each bullet point in your resume should specifically target i of these skills. And overall, your bullet points should exist balanced beyond these four categories.

For case, allow's assume that there are 20 bullet points in your resume. Broadly speaking, 5 of your bullet points should testify that you are a strong problem solver. 5 should bear witness that yous deliver impact when y'all are part of teams. Another 5 should prove that you are used to taking initiatives. And however another 5 should show that you can pb teams.

Doing this volition take you a long way in crafting a successful application. Trust us, it works both for entry level and experienced rent resumes. But unfortunately at that place are also untold truths almost consulting CVs that you need to be enlightened of.

1.2 The unofficial version

Let's step footstep through the top 3 untold truths most consulting firms that y'all should go on in mind as you lot put your resume together.

Big brand names

Start, your resume screener volition be looking for big make names when going through your CV. If you lot went to a target schoolhouse (e.g. Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Cambrige, etc.) that will definitely help.

If you did not attend a target school and so your best take a chance of getting noticed is to accept worked for companies that are big and well-known such as JP Morgan, Coca-cola, Exxon or Google to name simply a few.

You might exist wondering why consulting firms value large make universities and employers so much. To be frank, pinnacle consulting firms are snobs when it comes to academic and professional person pedigree. This is apparently slightly unfair, only there are a couple of reasons things work that mode.

Get-go, it'south easier to sell Junior consultants to clients if they accept an impressive background. When a client asks "Who will be on the squad?" Partners like to be able to reply "Linda just joined us with a bachelor from Oxford and an MBA from Harvard" or "Mike joins us from 3 years leading a squad at Google." That makes it easier to justify the high salaries consulting staff go paid.

Second, consulting firms receive a LOT of applications every twelvemonth. McKinsey for instance received about ~200,000 resumes in 2017. They can't interview everyone and need a pretty efficient way to become to a manageable number of candidates they can interview. Large brand names are a shortcut. They want to hire loftier-achievers and assume that if you went to a top school or worked for a top employer y'all are a high-achiever.

This can feel very frustrating and unfair if y'all don't have these brand names on your resume. In these situations, it does not mean you won't be able to arrive into consulting. Information technology just ways that unfortunately it will likely be more work for you than for other people. You volition have to network more, consider working / doing an internship at large brand names start and maybe apply to consulting firms multiple times. But you tin can still do it.

GPA / Grades cut-offs

One of the questions we often get almost consulting resumes is: "I accept a 3.10 GPA from University Y. Will I make the cut-off?" To exist clear, there's no official GPA cut-off in the US, or grades cut-off in other countries.

Your resume volition unremarkably exist reviewed past a recent graduate from your University who works at the firm. They volition score your resume on a number of dimensions 1 of which will be your grades. But your grades are only ONE of the factors that contribute to the last score your CV will get.

If your grades are on the lower terminate (GPA < 3.five in the US, 2:one or less in the UK), you will obviously get less points than if they were higher. Every bit a consequence, you lot will demand to compensate for this with very potent achievements in other areas of your resume. For case, this could be an extra-curricular action where you showed stiff leadership and entrepreneurships skills.

Languages

Finally, one important attribute of consulting resumes that's not very often discussed is languages. Speaking multiple languages fluently volition exist a big help to get yous a consulting interview.

Indeed, virtually consulting firms operate a global staffing model. If you are based in the London part but speak French and Spanish, that ways your firm will be able to ship y'all on projects in the U.k., France, Spain, but likewise North and South America and many countries in Africa. Your value to the business firm will therefore be much college than if you but spoke English.

Part 2: Superlative 10 consulting resume tips

Now that y'all know what consulting firms look for, allow's turn our attention to how y'all should parcel that information in your resume. Nosotros've reviewed hundreds of CVs over the past few years and have summarised the tiptop 10 things we have learned below.

Tip #i: Keep it to one page

We know this is challenging. But that'due south ane of the unwritten rules of consulting resumes. You should proceed information technology to one page. Condensing your unabridged lifetime's achievements in ~500 words is difficult. The cardinal is to select the correct achievements and to describe them in a way that makes it clear you would make a great consultant. It takes fourth dimension and a few iterations to become it right, so start before rather than afterwards.

Tip #2: Utilise a standard format and standard font

Using a special format with a slightly funky font is tempting. Y'all might retrieve information technology could assist you stand out. But it's not. You won't go extra points for it. At best, your CV screener will retrieve: "Ok, I've never seen this format, only why not?" At worst, they will think: "Who is this person? They don't become it!" The CONTENT of your resume should stand out Non its FORMAT.

Tip #3: Use 5 sections

All consulting resume should accept 5 sections: Personal data, Education, Work experience, Extra-curricular achievements and Additional skills. One of the almost mutual mistakes we see in CVs is to not accept an "Extra-curricular achievements" section. This is a BIG mistake equally this is a section yous can use to show case some of the skills that consulting firms look for such as leadership and entrepreneurship.

Tip #4: Dumb things down

This is particularly important if yous have written a PhD. or Main thesis. Your resume screener won't be familiar with your field. And they won't take the time to Google anything they don't sympathize. It is YOUR responsibility to dumb things downwardly sufficiently for them to be understandable.

A good exam for this is to ask a friend or sibling to highlight anything that they don't EASILY empathise in your resume. If they're having to scratch their caput to make sense of a sentence, it is Likewise complicated. Simplifying things is hard piece of work, so you should beginning this process early.

Tip #5: Show your soft skills

As mentioned in the start section of this guide, McKinsey, Bain and other firms are looking for skills which are very specific to consulting. A lot of those skills are really SOFT skills such as leadership, personal impact, entrepreneurial bulldoze, etc. If y'all have a standard resume that y'all utilize for other jobs yous will most likely have to adapt it to showcase the specific soft skills consulting firms look for. If you don't do this yous run the risk of your CV being overlooked as information technology's non tailored enough to consulting.

Tip #6: Use action verbs

Your resume screener won't READ your resume. They volition SCAN information technology. You lot literally take x seconds to make a skillful first impression. And the right manner to practice this is to use keywords that resume screeners are either consciously or sub-consciously looking for. A dandy identify to kickoff with is action verbs. ALL your sentences should start with an action verb that highlights one of the soft skills the firms are looking for.

For case, you should have bullet points on leadership which starting time with: "Atomic number 82 a squad of 10 people..." And bullet points on problem solving which start with: "Solved ane of the toughest engineering science problems..." These action verbs are extremely important because they are at the beginning of sentences. If yous use the right ones you resume screener volition immediately retrieve: "Ok, this person has the correct skills. Let me look at their CV in more detail."

Tip #7: Quantify everything

Consultants are obsessed with quantifying things. A big function of their job is to crunch numbers to support ideas they present to clients. If your thought is not backed upwardly past numbers it'south just a point of view. If it is backed upwards by numbers it becomes an argument and has more gravitas. Y'all should utilize this to your advantage in your resume and quantify your achievements as much every bit possible.

For instance, if yous were awarded a scholarship to study abroad you lot should write something like: "Awarded Entente Cordiale Scholarship to written report in the Great britain (2 scholarships for 1,000+ applicants)" This will make you stand out much more than if yous had merely written: "Awarded a competitive scholarship to written report in the Britain."

Tip #8: Be unique

Your resume screener will literally have looked at hundreds of CVs before they await at yours. The reality is a lot of these resumes are quite similar. So, if there's something a little bit unique that you take washed, y'all should not hesitate to say so. For instance, you might take worked for 6 months in a surf shop in Australia, or you might have washed a 6-month unpaid internship for clemency. Everything that differentiates you lot in a positive way should exist conspicuously mentioned on your resume.

Tip #9: Enquire for feedback

Once you lot have put together a outset version of your resume you need to enquire for feedback to improve it. If y'all know any consultants or old consultants you should non hesitate to achieve out to them to get their thoughts. Simply declining that, asking for feedback from peers is as well helpful. They'll be able to cast a fresh eye on your resume and flag typos, inconsistencies or sentences that they discover hard to understand.

Tip #10: Proofread - Multiple times!

This is the last step of crafting your CV. And it is crucial. One of the tangible deliverables of consulting projects is Power Indicate decks and Word documents written during the projection. These documents are proof-read multiple times before being handed over to clients so should your resume. In particular, make sure to triple check your contact details.

Function three: McKinsey resume sample

At present that you lot know almost the 10 most important tips to arts and crafts the perfect consulting resume let's use them to build a McKinsey resume sample you lot can reuse for your ain awarding. Every consulting CV should be split out in 5 sections:

Personal information
Instruction
Work feel
Extra-curricular achievements
Additional skills

Permit'due south step through each department one by one and highlight the important elements you lot need to replicate in your own resume.

But before we dive in, please note the post-obit points about the template:

This is an anonymised resume from a candidate who got interviews at McKinsey, BCG and Bain. You tin can trust this template works.
A lot of people use this template. Get inspiration from information technology, only every judgement in your resume should be written from scratch.
This resume might expect impressive. It's one of the best ones we accept seen. Even if you have not achieved equally much equally this person, you can however get an interview.
You can get admission to this template by signing up to our Free resume and comprehend letter of the alphabet email course at the meridian of this page.

3.1 Personal information

In this section y'all should include all the basic personal details the consulting house you are applying for is requesting. Here are a few things to go along in mind every bit y'all put this section together:

Utilize bigger font for your name than for the residue of the department to make it stand up out
Don't insert your headshot, appointment of birth or gender unless specifically requested by the house
Use a neutral / professional e-mail accost. Go along your hilarious email accost for friends and family!
Double cheque all your details including address and phone number before sending your resume

3.2 Education

This section should summarise the dissimilar degrees you graduated with. Information technology should Not include your High School feel. If you lot have recently graduated and only take internship experiences, this section should follow the Personal Information section. Merely if you have already had a first job for i+ years, you could consider swapping this section with the Piece of work feel section. Hither are a few tips on how to write this section:

If y'all have multiple degrees (due east.g.: a BA and an MBA), you should write a subsection like the i to a higher place for each caste, starting with your highest level of pedagogy offset (e.g.: your MBA).
For each degree, include the proper name of the degree, university and dates in the headline. You should too describe relevant course content briefly (no more than than one line).
List your grades (east.g.: GPA) likewise as results to other standardised tests yous accept taken (e.g.: Sabbatum, GMAT, etc.)
Detail all the awards and scholarships you have received in the past, and most importantly how competitive they were (e.g.: two awards for 1,000 students).
If you take written a thesis / dissertation, you should also summarise the topic in a way that's VERY easy to sympathize.

3.3 Work feel

The work experience section should include the previous piece of work positions yous have held also as your main achievements in these roles. Hither are some more important points to help you put this section together:

Include the proper name of the position you held and the employer likewise as the location and dates in the headline. The first line of the section should and so describe your employer / department in one sentence. Notice that this mirrors the construction used for the Education section.
Start each of your bullet points with an Activity VERB that matches one of the four skills consulting firms look for (Leadership, Entrepreneurial drive, Personal impact, Trouble solving). "Lead", "Analysed" or "Presented" are good examples of such verbs.
Residue the skills you demonstrate equally much as possible. For example, find how some of the bullet points in a higher place are nigh leadership while others are about problem solving.
Focus on the RESULTS of what you did and QUANTIFY them as much as possible to highlight the tangible contributions you lot accept made. This is not the time to be shy about your accomplishments!

3.4 Extra-curricular achievements

One of the most common mistakes nosotros come up across in resumes we receive from candidates is the absenteeism of an actress-curricular achievements section. This section is particularly important if you have express work feel as information technology'southward a great way to show leadership, entrepreneurial drive and personal impact. It'southward besides a neat style to compensate for boilerplate university grades or a non-target school.

The way you write almost your Extra-curricular experiences should follow the aforementioned format and tips equally for the Work experience section. Here are different types of activities you could write nearly (non exhaustive):

University clubs: if you take held a position in a University guild (eastward.g. Consulting gild, Finance guild, Theatre club, etc.) you should definitely mention information technology. The "higher" the position the better equally it could highlight your ability to lead and manage others.
Sports team: if you were part of a University sports squad you should definitely highlight that along with the achievements of the team. This volition highlight your ability to work with others.
Side businesses: if you take set up upwards a side business with friends at University you should mention it along with the number of customers / revenue you have managed to achieve. This will prove your ability to take initiatives.
Writing / arts: if you enjoy writing or whatsoever other art form and have published your work or have some kind of followership you should also non hesitate to mention it. This will assistance showcase your creativity.

three.5 Additional skills and interests

Finally, you should focus the terminal section of your resume on additional skills you principal. Our recommendation here is to go along things elementary and to listing the foreign languages and programming languages you principal. For each linguistic communication you lot should specify your level of proficiency.

Additional services

The guide above as well as our consulting cover alphabetic character guide should go a long way in helping you crafting documents that will get you interviews. But if afterwards using this guide you feel y'all demand additional assistance, nosotros accept also put together a Resume writing service for yous.

By signing up to this service, you will be matched with a old Resume screener from a acme consulting firm. They will assess the existing version of your resume and work with you to improve it and make sure you lot become interviews.

And then far, more than than 80% of candidates who have used the service got invited to interviews. We know this considering nosotros requite 50% of their coin dorsum to people who don't. Check it out, you'll be in good hands!

Consulting resume review services

Any questions virtually consulting resumes?

If y'all have any questions near consulting resumes, do not hesitate to ask them below and we will exist more than happy to answer them. All questions are good questions, so go ahead!

The IGotAnOffer team