Consulting Resume Example

Management
Management
Consulting
Consulting
Resume
Resume Sample
Sample
Strike a tone in your resume
In order to reach your goal of becoming a

management consultant, you need to strike
a tone in your resume. In one of the most
competitive fields in the working world,
breaking into management consulting
requires substantial work and a perfect
resume.
Recruiters assume that your management

consulting resume is an accurate
representation of who you are. If it’s too
superficial and commonplace, it might
suggest that you won’t be able to make a
valuable contribution to the consulting firm
and your resume will therefore be put aside In this presentation, you will learn:
after a short assessment.
Breaking into management consulting is a

serious goal and you have to craft your
resume with quality, value and uniqueness. • How to write your consulting resume
It must be effective enough to pique the • How to review the content and form of your resume
interest of the recruiters and convince them • Common resume mistakes
to schedule you for testing, interviews, and
other assessments.
All rights reserved by ConsultingFact.com. More free consulting career advice on www.consultingfact.com. 2
Before writing your resume
Before you turn on the computer and start typing, allot some time to investigate your target firm. Your
knowledge will guide you in writing your management consulting resume; it will help you build a
connection between you and your potential employer and enable you to construct a unique and
personalized marketing tool. Below are some techniques on how to do this:
Website Visit the firm’s website. You will find their history, goals, values, and culture and
learn the fundamental information about the organization.
Social Media Follow their LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media accounts. They
post links to industry trends, activities, events, and other company updates. Keep
yourself abreast of these matters. If you can’t use this information for resume
writing, you will benefit from it during job interviews.
Networking Communicate with professionals who have worked or are working for the firm.
Network with them in order to access information from an insider’s point of view.
Some, if not all, will be eager to lend you a hand.
How do these activities distinctly help you tailor your resume? You will be able to phrase your resume so
it resonates with the individual company. Two firms may have the same values, stated in different terms.
Alternate the terms in your resume to correspond with each firm you apply with. Moreover, you can
emphasize content based on an individual firm’s goals. For instance, if a particular firm values
leadership, it’s wise to list previous work experience and accomplishments highlighting your
achievements in this area.
Writing your resume
Your cover letter serves as a knock at the consulting firm’s door. It may be key to your invitation to
interview, but your resume deepens the picture your resume reviewer gets of your experience and
background. The reviewer will probably only look at this document for a short time. All consulting firms
receive many applications – this includes both boutique consulting firms as well as top tier consulting
firms such as McKinsey, Bain, Boston Consulting Group and Booz. Therefore, your management consulting
resume needs to provide high impact and be of a high quality. The key is preparation and outline work
before you get started with the writing process.
Go through the full resume preparation and planning process. Craft a structure of your resume by
brainstorming about your educational, work and volunteer (or other relevant) experiences and listing
them. From there, start to narrow down the experience that is pertinent to your desired career path.
Then come up with something like our resume outline (as shown below). This outline is our suggestion,
based on our experience with successful management consulting applications.
You can, however, use a structure that best

highlights your experience in the most
compelling way for you. The most important
point is to offer clarity and strong, action-
oriented results and achievement
descriptions.
Parts of your management consulting resume
Management consulting resumes can be organized in

many different ways, and many follow a pattern similar
to the diagram shown.
The way you choose to organize it will depend on

several factors. Your personal experience and what you
want to emphasize in your resume will come into play.
New graduates will probably place greater emphasis on
education, academic performance and involvement in
relevant extracurricular activities and
internships. Experienced consultants will rely heavily
on professional experience and skills.
Some of what you write may depend on the firm to

which you are applying. Some firms have preferences
about what you should highlight in your resume. Tailor
your management consulting resume to follow any
guidance you have about what the firm wants to see.
Edit and revise your resume multiple times in the
process. Tailor and virtually rewrite it for each new
application. Your resume is a living document that
changes as you gain more experience but also when you
apply for different positions.
Contact This is the section where you will provide basic information about yourself. It may
Information sound easy, but here are a few techniques and reminders you may find useful:
The font size for your name must be larger than the rest of the
Name
text so recruiters can easily read and remember it.
Contact Check the accuracy of your contact number. Mixing up numbers

number is a huge mistake—you will never be contacted.
Provide a link to your online portfolio, public LinkedIn profile,

Links
or blog so the recruiter can further assess you.
Use a professional email address. The recruiter won’t take you

Email address seriously if you use iscmhievousconsultant@example.com
or sarcasticman@example.com.
Summary or A summary is a brief statement of your major qualifications, expertise, and

Objective experience; an objective refers to your career goals and motivation. The former is
often utilized by applicants with professional experience, while recent graduates
employ the latter. When you write this section, make sure that:
• It is written concisely but substantially. It should not exceed two to three

sentences.
• It must be related to the desired position and target firm.
• It must be catchy enough to encourage the recruiters to read the rest of

your management consulting resume.
Example of an objective: Example of a longer summary:
Seeking management consulting role that Experienced management consultant and strategy
requires proven negotiation and strategy expert with over a decade of experience. Successful
planning skills. projects include providing and guiding strategy for
merger between X and Y firms, leading the new firm
Example of a summary: to profitability within one year, and managing a team
of junior analysts. They successfully launched a new
Senior management analyst with experience in product and guided it to become the leading product
global logistics industry. Dual MBA and MS in the X sector and generated a 32 percent increase in
Logistics Management. revenue for parent company.
Professional A key consideration when you write about your professional experience is to
Experience measure whether or not it is relevant. Is the experience you list directly relevant
to the desired position? Activities that are unnecessary to your career path only
waste the limited space you have to make your case for being hired. It adds
nothing and erases prime ―application real estate‖.
For every position you mention, describe your key responsibilities, followed by
quantifiable accomplishments in bullet form. Hiring managers want results first
and foremost. Use powerful terms such as verbs and numbers—they make your
statements more results-oriented. Some of the suggested action words are listed in
the table below:
Addressed Coordinated Interviewed Persuaded
Analyzed Executed Interpreted Planned
Communicated Guided Led Promoted
Conceptualized Influenced Managed Recommended
Reviewed Supervised Summarized Written
Professional Management consulting resume for experienced professionals would most probably
Experience state the experience section this way:
Executive Vice President, B2B Sales and Marketing

June 2007 – November 2010, ABS Sales Enterpising, New York City
Managed a team of 65 sales and marketing executives in a B2B sales structure.
Guided product sales and marketing development efforts and managed sales
operations. Led expansion to Southeast Asian market and selected and managed
a sales team for developing Asian operations.
• Increased annual revenue by 22 percent year over year over three years.
• Expanded market for software products from Europe to North America and
Asia and increased sales by 27%.
• Increased annual revenue by 1.3 million USD and achieved profitability and
market share.
Professional Here’s an example for fresh graduates:

Experience
Project Analyst, Internship Program
STU Consulting Firm, August – September 2012
Assisted a team of management consultants in collecting, analyzing, and
presenting market-related information to the client. Brainstormed with experts
in creating the design for market researches. Analyzed industry trends and
customer preferences on women’s apparel. Notable accomplishments are the
following:
• Designed a questionnaire that yielded a 80% response rate within one

week.
• Conducted a field interview in shops and boutiques with only 1% data

collection error.
• Wrote a qualitative analysis of research results after thorough

brainstorming.
Education For recent graduates, education plays an important role in the resume. Showing
stellar academic achievement and involvement in activities that conferred new
strengths and skills will help show preparation for a career in management
consulting. It serves as your foundation for entering the competitive industry of
management consulting. It’s the indicator of your knowledge, competencies, and
values.
Example:
2001-2003 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA

Master of Business Administration/Master of Public Administration
Key achievements: Graduated summa cum laude
Education You can include the following information in this section:
You do not have to be an Ivy League grad to compete for a

Name of place at an elite consulting firm, but a big-name university
institution with a superb reputation does not hurt. You may want to get
the most mileage you can get from your school’s name.
This indicates what you learned over the past four years. It
Degree earned tells recruiters whether you have knowledge of
accounting, management, marketing, economics, or law.
Grade Point Include your GPA if it’s remarkably high or if it meets the
Average (GPA) minimum requirement of the management consulting firm.
Remarkable If you graduated with honors or you received any distinctions,

academic state it in your resume. Your determination and hard work to
achievements achieve these accolades will be taken into consideration.
Significant Your participation in various club activities will alert the

extracurricular recruiter that you have developed skills, discipline, and
activities values that are necessary in management consulting.
Skills Focus on relevance when adding skills. You may have a number of practical skills,
but they might not be practical for management consulting. Think carefully about
what skills you have, such as languages, software, negotiation/communication,
and how they fit into your future career. Consider how and why a consulting firm
would need or want these skills. If in doubt, find tangible examples of how a less
obvious connection can be made between your skill(s) and the consulting career or
leave that particular skill out of your resume.
Example:
• Operations: Teambuilding, human resource management, strategy planning,

competitive analysis, conflict and problem resolution, project management,
risk assessment and management
• Financial organization: P&L management, financial reporting, budgetary

management
• Communications: Developing and conducting seminars, negotiation,

community outreach
• Languages: Native English, native Spanish, fluent French, intermediate

business Mandarin Chinese
Personal Interests Personal interests do not need to be included in a management consulting resume,
especially if you are running short on space. Interests are more often included in
European CVs than American ones. You will not be penalized for failing to add
personal interests. Some personal interests and hobbies, though, illustrate a
certain level of perseverance, motivation and passion that may set you apart from
other applicants.
Being a lifelong competitive marathon runner who trains consistently may have
very little to do with consulting but does display a level of discipline and tolerance
for hard work. A history of community service and voluntary work displays personal
integrity and commitment. These personal traits may not fit neatly into a ―skills
and experience‖ box, but you do not want to fit too neatly into a box either.
Briefly show interests where you feel it strengthens your application and makes
you stand apart from your competition.
Example:
Personal Interests: Animal illustration, playing the guitar, and landscape

photography.
Review the content and form
Once you have written your resume, proofread it to perfection. You may be able to think of better ways
to represent yourself the second time you go over it. Never send out a resume without checking the
content and form; your candidacy is at stake.
 Does it communicate the message you want to convey? Ensure that it proves you will be an asset to
the firm. If you miss this part, the answers to the rest of the questions are fruitless.
 Is it tailored to the goals and requirements of the management consulting firm? It is critical that
the recruiter sees that your qualities and personality match the position and the corporate culture.
 Is the data accurate? Remember that some recruiters validate the information. They sometimes
enter your name in the search box or call your previous supervisors to confirm what you’ve written.
 Is it free of typos and grammatical mistakes? These embarrassing blunders reflect poor
communication skills and lack of attention to detail. Don’t give the impression that you don’t possess
these basic qualities every consultant must have.
 Is the text legible? Don’t use a small font size to accommodate everything on one page, but don’t
make it too large because then it occupies too much space. Fancy fonts are highly discouraged. Arial,
Tahoma, Times New Roman, Calibri, and other conventional font styles are recommended.
 Does it have the correct margins? The white space around the text and in between categories
makes your document reader-friendly.
 Is the length sufficient? One page is ideal, two is acceptable, but anything more than that is too
long.
Common resume mistakes
One-size-fits-all Some resumes end up in the trash because applicants do not consider this as a
approach critical step or they find it too troublesome to follow the aforementioned
guidelines. As a result, they end up preparing an updated, generic resume they
can readily print whenever they send out an application. Is this a good idea? Yes
and no. Yes, to having an updated, generic resume ready in your hard drive
because it can serve as your main reference source each time you tailor your
resume to fit the firm you apply to. No, to the one-size-fits-all approach because
your application will always have an impersonal tone and therefore won’t catch
the recruiter’s attention.
Misrepresentation Another common mistake is misrepresenting oneself. True, you must project your
of competencies best self in your resume, but it doesn’t mean you can make up stories in order to
be noticed. If you do, you are fabricating information, a violation against honesty
and integrity. Even if you are successful in the preliminary screening, your
capabilities will still be evaluated during the interview. If you fail to prove you
possess the abilities you say you do, you will be rejected and you will realize that
you have wasted your and the recruiter’s time and effort.
The waiting time
Even if you follow all the guidelines in this post, there is still a probability that you might not be invited
to interview. Unfortunately, it’s a sad reality that there’s an abundance of applicants in this industry. You
are competing against candidates as qualified as you, so after sending out your job application, you may
want to:
Start practicing for fit and case interviews. These are tough recruitment tools
Interview Practice
which you better prepare for.
Network with people who can possibly give you a status report about your
Networking application. It’s helpful to stay in touch with someone who can follow up for
you.
Continue looking for other career opportunities. As long as you don’t have a
Other Options
signed contract in your hand, you have to keep looking.
Take on other jobs to build up your resume. If you think your lack of experience
Resume Buildup is the reason why other applicants are ahead of you, consider positions that can
prepare you for a management consulting career.
Remember to always be proactive in your application. Nobody said that breaking into this industry is an
easy venture. Just take things one step at a time and you will get there one day.
Free Guide: Learn How to Break Into Consulting
Do you want to break into consulting? Download our free PDF guide, which
will show you the necessary steps and best practices on how to prepare.
Consulting Interview Process: Get an overview of the

1 application and interview process when applying to
management consulting firms. Receive tips on how to write
your cover letter and resume and get prepared for the
written tests and interviews once you get there.
Interview Preparation: Learn what you need to practice to

2 receive an offer from one of the top-tier consulting firms.
See our step-by-step framework to case study solving, learn
how to develop your own frameworks and get mental math
tips.
Case Study Example: Know what to expect from a case

3 study interview round. Read a real-life case study interview,
which includes a variety of topics. See the practical
application of the step-by-step framework to case study
solving.

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Management

In order to reach your goal of becoming a

Recruiters assume that your management

Breaking into management consulting is a

You can, however, use a structure that best

Management consulting resumes can be organized in

The way you choose to organize it will depend on

Some of what you write may depend on the firm to

Contact Check the accuracy of your contact number. Mixing up numbers

Provide a link to your online portfolio, public LinkedIn profile,

Use a professional email address. The recruiter won’t take you

Summary or A summary is a brief statement of your major qualifications, expertise, and

• It is written concisely but substantially. It should not exceed two to three

• It must be related to the desired position and target firm.

• It must be catchy enough to encourage the recruiters to read the rest of

Example of an objective: Example of a longer summary:

Addressed Coordinated Interviewed Persuaded

Analyzed Executed Interpreted Planned

Communicated Guided Led Promoted

Conceptualized Influenced Managed Recommended

Reviewed Supervised Summarized Written

Executive Vice President, B2B Sales and Marketing

Professional Here’s an example for fresh graduates:

• Designed a questionnaire that yielded a 80% response rate within one

• Conducted a field interview in shops and boutiques with only 1% data

• Wrote a qualitative analysis of research results after thorough

2001-2003 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA

Education You can include the following information in this section:

You do not have to be an Ivy League grad to compete for a

Remarkable If you graduated with honors or you received any distinctions,

Significant Your participation in various club activities will alert the

• Operations: Teambuilding, human resource management, strategy planning,

• Financial organization: P&L management, financial reporting, budgetary

• Communications: Developing and conducting seminars, negotiation,

• Languages: Native English, native Spanish, fluent French, intermediate

Personal Interests: Animal illustration, playing the guitar, and landscape

Consulting Interview Process: Get an overview of the

Interview Preparation: Learn what you need to practice to

Case Study Example: Know what to expect from a case

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