Question:
Dear,
I wish to apply to McKinsey, Bain, BCG, AT Kearney, and Roland Berger. I guess you could say I have been an outstanding student, having a good set of extra-curricular actions as well. On the other hand, I do not really find that much good information about how to write compelling operations consulting resumes. Could you make clear to me what excellent operations consulting resume should appear like?
My reply:
I personally expend a good amount of time optimizing this resume (and cover letter) back in the days when I sent applications for Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company, BCG, Roland Berger, AT Kearney along with AD Little. I sooner or later got a first-round event interview invitation at each business (and got an offer by any means but one).
By now, I possess screened quite a good volume of resumes at Bain as well as the Company, so I will talk about my ideas on how to make a compelling management consulting cv. Needless to say that these ideas never only apply to Bain, and also apply for McKinsey, BCG, and stuff like that. Furthermore, keep in mind that regardless of whether you will be an undergraduate applying for an enterprise analyst position, or an MBA applying for an associate location; in the end, the below principles are largely true (thus regardless of which entry level you will be applying to).
The most important thing you will need to keep in mind when you make your operations consulting resume is to always remember what the consulting firm is looking to get (and include this on your own resume). In the end, each asking firm is more or a lesser amount of looking for the same elements on your own resume. When I receive a cv, the first thing I always do, just checks whether all key components are demonstrated (preferably reinforced with numbers).
The next issue is then: “What are these types of ‘elements’ that management talking to firms are looking for? ” Within the following, I will give you the of each of these elements, as well as afterward discuss why each is important to management talking to firm, and how you can greatest demonstrate your strong capacity for each aspect.
The leading administration consulting firms are looking for 5 key elements in resumes:
Best employers and/or renowned colleges
Excellent academic performance
Powerful analytical skills
Evidence of command and strong social abilities
Extra-curricular activities
1 . Best employers or renowned colleges
When you receive a resume that says Harvard, Princeton, INSEAD, Cambridge, or the like; it is going to immediately stand out. In the end, the management consulting firm is going to be billing you out to their clients for several ten-thousands involving dollars per month, and for this reason, your customer will want to know about your qualifications. If the firm then know you have a BA from Yale and an MA via Harvard, ‘your’ price tag can of course be easier to explain. Furthermore, being able to say anyone studied at one of these top universities, also shows that you have actually passed a difficult selection process to acquire in
the specific school, which often of course already well illustrates your competencies. Regardless of this kind, you do not need to have studied within an Ivy League university to have a job in management consulting. If you happen to come from one of the many good colleges in your country, you will definitely additionally make a shot at MBB. It will however then become even more important to be really persuading, and to clearly show your perseverance to work in management consulting.
Alongside renowned universities, the administration consulting firm will also be searching for top employers on your RESUME. In case you are a young graduate, this can moreover be an internship at a top employer, and in the situation, you would be an experienced hire, they are going to definitely be looking for previous (preferably high-profile) work experiences in a few of the world’s top companies. Examples of such top employers might include Google, Microsoft, Apple company,
P&G, Exxon Mobil, Merrill Lynch, etc. Again, will not necessarily need to have worked in one of these companies to property an interview at MBB, however, it would definitely give you an advantage when you get that important first job interview. For this reason, if you are thinking to function in management consulting, try to accomplish at least one internship in a primary corporation, as it will be a wonderful experience, but also look good on your resume.
2 . Fantastic academic performance
It is wonderful of course if you have studied with Harvard or Yale, but if you act like you there were one of the most basic performing students of your season, then this has far fewer means. A management consulting business will be looking for the most effective students of the year to focus their very own recruiting efforts on. Eventually, recruiting does cost many of00 money, and the firm recognizes that they will have a better probability of finding good potential uses if they focus on students with excellent academic tracks. Typically the management consulting
firm certainly will look at your result per year, but the weight (of importance) is definitely higher than your last years at college or university. Keep in mind that even if you apply for MBB to get a position as a market hire, your university effects will matter. Clearly, you must not lie about your marks, but also in case you had one ‘bad’ year, you could hide your current result by replacing that with an aggregate report for multiple years collectively (in case this would be better).
3. Strong analytical expertise
As a consultant, you will constantly need to be very analytical (and structured) on the job. For this reason, any management consulting firm will probably be on the lookout for people that have demonstrated solid analytical skills, for instance by means of excellent grades for math/science courses, or even better through a large score for (one in the standardized) tests such as SEATED, GRE or GMAT. These kinds of tests make it easy for the particular firm to compare your report with other applicants, and obviously will have them looking for those with scores that happen to be well-above average (though there isn’t any specific cut-off). For this reason, you have to on your resume include this kind of score, and demonstrate your personal strong analytical skills.
5. Evidence of leadership and robust social skills
Graduating from your top university, or permitting oneself the top position at one of many world’s leading corporations, combined with continued strong performance and also excellent analytical skills are likely to make you an interesting candidate to get a management consulting firm. Still, you will also need to demonstrate solid social and leadership capabilities on your resume to make you a superb candidate. In the end, a therapist needs to work often to one side with the client to create benefits, and good social proficiency will be key here.
On top of that, you will need to demonstrate your management skills, as the firm in addition wants to know whether you could manage and steer a litigant team or (potentially for a later stage) your friends. For this reason, you should definitely include projects/events where you demonstrated strong management and social skills. This is an (important) event as organized, a (small) small business you had set up with your good friends while you were a student, and so forth Keep in mind that if you have a very complex background (for example Math important at MIT), you should all the more proof your social in addition to leadership skills on your curriculum vitae.
5. Extra-curricular activities
It can be definitely possible that you now included some extra-curricular exercises on your resume to demonstrate your personal social and/or leadership capabilities, as discussed above. Despite this, try to think (further) about the ten most important/impressive achievements/projects in your life (it might take a fair amount of time to make an excellent top ten), and look at which ones you would include with your resume. The rule on the to include is simple; if you feel it may be valuable to discuss during a scenario interview (or have your personal interviewer be aware of it) you should include it; otherwise definitely not. Examples could for instance possibly be an award-winning paper you actually wrote, your selection for any (Under 21) Olympics its polar environment skating team, a (prominent) summer course you took part in, etc. These tend not to really fall under the several categories above, but would certainly nonetheless be good additions to a resume.
Other things to keep in mind when establishing your resume:
1) Keep in mind that a resume should show excellent efficiency in each single 12 months. You do not want the CURRICULUM VITAE to be thinking that you had any weak performance during a couple of particular years. Ensure annually looks impressive; if you had one particularly weaker year at college or university, think about specific things you noticed that year to compensate for the weakened marks.
2) Also remember the formatting (or design) of your resume. It definitely will matter, and the reason for this is certainly simple. To make a simple if you happen to; Imagine buying a beautiful band for your fiancé, and adding it to a carton container. This would kill the entire knowledge, and the reason is simply considering that the package does matter. Finally, the design of your resume does
help extent say something about you actually. A management consulting agency is looking for a well-structured in addition to a ‘clean’ person. Therefore assure your resume is well-formatted to show these values. It should be easy (or skim-through) and attract the eye. Keep in mind however make fish an enormous amount of different codecs could definitely work. The most important thing, even so, is that your major success is easy to read.
3) Last of all, definitely keep in mind to include a foreign language proficiency. Where in the US challenging good enough to master English, as well as great to be able to show you, in addition, speak Spanish or even China. In European countries, it is commonly required in management consulting to speak two languages (native language & English), plus much more languages are even extra in Europe.
Hi, my friends call me Tom Rochus. Almost a couple of years ago, I was interviewing with major management consulting businesses. I eventually landed career offers from six away from seven firms I had gone for; including McKinsey and Baignade. I signed with Baignade & Company and can let you know I have so far had a fantastic time since. I soon after decided to aggregate all my concepts on cracking case interviews, which eventually became “Case Meeting Success”. This book packages all concepts and frames that will provide you with the necessary capabilities to succeed in case interviews.
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