For many, the most convenient way to complete a job application is to pattern it from a management consultant resume sample on the Internet. Though this may be helpful, not all samples show you how to supply substantial and quality information.

Recruiters assume that your 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 after the 30-second assessment. Breaking into management consulting is a serious goal and you have to craft your resume very carefully. It must be effective enough to pique the interest of the recruiters and convince them to schedule you for testing, interviews, and other assessments.

Pre-writing Requisite: Know Your Target Firm

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 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:

How do these activities distinctly help you tailor your resume?  First, 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.

Resume Content

You know for a fact that thousands of candidates are trying as hard as you to get a big break at Booz, BCG, or McKinsey. This emphasizes the need to thoroughly brainstorm before you write your resume content.

Management consultant resume samples on the Internet do not follow a specific structure. The arrangement depends on your preference, experience, and skills. Experienced applicants often place their work history at the top because it clearly tells the recruiters what they have accomplished and what they are capable of. Recent graduates, on the other hand, highlight their objective and education, especially if they come from a prestigious school or if they have an impressive GPA.

Many, however, find the pattern in the diagram to the left comprehensible. If you are thinking of adopting this structure, continue reading for details on what to write in each section.

Contact Information

This is the section where you will provide basic information about yourself. It may sound easy, but here are a few techniques and reminders you may find useful:

Summary or Objective

A summary is a brief statement of your major qualifications, expertise, and 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 resume.

Below is a good example of a summary:

Here’s an example of a good objective:

Professional Experience

When brainstorming about what you should include in this section, ask yourself two questions:

As you know, recruiters don’t have the luxury of spending even five minutes on your job application. Hence, it is crucial that a recruiter can ascertain you have the right qualifications upon the first look at your resume. Moreover, including irrelevant details will lead the recruiter to assume you are not the perfect fit. It also wastes your limited space.

For every position you mention, describe your key responsibilities, followed by quantifiable accomplishments in bullet form. 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:

Management consultant resume samples for experienced professionals would most probably state the experience section this way:

Here’s an example for the fresh graduates:

If you shifted into a consulting career, focus on describing your soft skills and how they can be utilized in the firm. For instance, if you used to be a software developer, emphasize how you applied logical thinking in coding or how you resolved bugs with your problem solving capability.

Education

For recent graduates, education plays an important role in the resume. It serves as your foundation for entering the competitive industry of management consulting. It’s the indicator of your knowledge, competencies, and values. You can include the following information in this section:

Take a look at the example below:

Here’s another one:

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

When enumerating competencies, list the most relevant ones. It’s not the number but the substance that matters. You may have more than a handful of practical skills, but if they don’t have any bearing on the position you are applying for, save the space for pertinent information.

Think carefully about what you’ll write. If you apply to Marakon, do you think the programming languages you know are worth enumerating? It’s a boutique consulting firm that focuses on oil and gas, healthcare, consumer, retail, and financial services, so a list of competencies related to those areas will be more effective. However, if you apply to Accenture, it may be wise to list all of your competencies as the company also offers a wide range of technology services.

Here’s an idea of what this section may look like:

Personal Interests

Writing about personal interests isn’t a requirement, but recruiters will not reject you for specifying them. If you do, you will gain these advantages:

One line for interests will do, such as the example below:

Review the Content and Form

Once you’re done writing 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.

Below is a short checklist to ensure that your resume is perfect:

If possible, ask a friend or professional to read your resume. Sometimes, a fresh set of eyes can give you  objective feedback.

Common Resume Mistakes

Exercise care when writing a management consultant resume, otherwise you might commit the following mistakes:

One-Size-Fits-All Approach

Some resumes end up in the trash because applicants do not consider this as a 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 of Competencies

Another common mistake is misrepresenting oneself. True, you must project your 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:

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.

A strategy consultant resume summarizes your knowledge and experiences relevant to developing plans and programs for a company or organization. It highlights your achievements and key skills to demonstrate you are the right person for the vacancy. A well-tailored resume often merits an invitation to a phone or personal interview for further assessment.

A strategy consultant resume has at least four parts:

Contact Information

This section comprises of your complete name, home and email addresses, contact numbers, and a link to your online portfolio. Your name must be written in a larger font size than the rest of the text in order for the recruiters to easily remember you. Double check your contact numbers to ensure accuracy. This may seem like an unnecessary reminder but some applicants are rejected because they cannot be contacted.

Objective or Summary

It is advised that recent graduates write a career objective and experienced hires summarize their expertise in a few lines. The objective of a strategy consultant resume contains your specific professional goals. It should avoid statements that are too general because it reflects a lack of direction. A summary states your professional experience, key competencies, and other relevant qualifications. Below are good examples:

Education

This section must immediately follow the objective if you recently graduated from a college or university. Enumerate the courses that can serve as your foundation for the strategy consulting position. Also include your list of achievements, awards, extra-curricular activities, and GPA, if impressive. If you have previously worked for several companies, this section need not be elaborated as your professional experience is more important.

Experience

This section should include a short description of your previous job and a few bullet points highlighting your quantitative achievements. The number of accomplishments conveys how you concretely contributed to your previous company. To illustrate this concept, refer to the example below:

VP Operations | ABC Foods, Inc. | January 2006 to October 2011

Directed the operational activities of a chain of restaurants with the objective of maximizing the company’s growth and profitability. Key achievements include:

• • Created and implemented new sales strategies that increased annual revenue by 12%;
  • Formulated policies and procedures on supply chain, quality control, occupational health, and safety and customer service; and
  • Provided technical training to more than 150 restaurant managers, sales analysts, and marketing officers.

Other Qualifications

You may allocate a section for other details that are relevant to strategy consulting. These may include, but are not limited to:

• Professional affiliations (e.g., Vice-president, International Association of Facilitators–Florida Chapter);
• Personal interests (e.g., songwriting, marathon, reading); and
• Community involvement (e.g., Facilitator, Special Needs Camp).

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Management consulting recruiters often start the screening process with a quick look at your resume. They assess your qualifications based on the responsibilities you had, your skills and the results that you achieved.

Your management consulting resume must be well-structured and well-written enough to merit the attention of the readers. Consulting aspirants who have the capability to woo recruiters with their written marketing tools are somehow regarded as good communicators. They can concisely summarize their credentials in a one-page document. Below are some tips on how to build a good resume.

Conduct Research about the Company

Many skip this prerequisite activity with an assumption that it doesn’t have anything to do with the management consulting application. What is always being overlooked is the significance of research in guiding the content of the resume. When you have ample information about the consulting firms, you can easily relate your competencies to their goals. This connection is what recruiters are after of because it tells them how you can be productive for the organization. The best candidates are sometimes rejected when this connection isn’t established at all.

Choose the Right Information

When writing a resume, don’t focus on its length, but on its quality. Babbling about your qualifications without careful thought doesn’t impress management consulting recruiters. Remember that there’s no need to reveal everything you’ve experienced; choose only those that are relevant to the position. Highlight your accomplishments at work or school by using definite verbs and quantitative information. The more specific you are, the more credible your resume becomes.

Use a Structure

A resume structure refers to how you organize the content of your powerful document. It organizes your ideas and makes your resume easier to read. Here are some important tips to remember:

• Use subtitles to indicate another set of information. Insert white space in between categories to avoid crowded text.
• Don’t use too small or too large font. The former tires the eyes, the latter occupies too much space.
• Fancy fonts are not acceptable, either. Use Tahoma, Times New Roman, Verdana and other traditional styles.
• Use bullets to enumerate accomplishments. It makes the content a lot easier to read.
• Write the resume as concisely as you can. A resume with one to two pages is ideal. Anything more than exhausts the readers.

Proofread for Errors

After writing your resume, proofread it a few times. Since recruiters need to assess hundreds of qualified applicants for a single position, they will definitely put aside applications with loopholes such as spelling errors and grammar mistakes. Read it thoroughly; better yet, ask for somebody’s help. You must have a friend or know someone who’s willing to review it for you. You can use online checkers but don’t trust the software completely for they sometimes have irrelevant suggestions, too.

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The value of your resume is measured by the impression it creates on the management consulting recruiters. Since it is normally skimmed in less than a minute, ensure that it is well-customized, sells you properly, and contains no embarrassing errors.

Mistake #1: Irrelevant Details

“The longer, the better” is not the main principle to be followed when creating resumes. The ideal length is one to two pages; anything more than that is dragging and unnecessary. There’s no need to list all the details from your first to last job, especially if they are irrelevant to the position you’re applying for. Too much personal information is unnecessary or inappropriate for a management consulting position, so you can just take them off. Don’t beat around the bush or get too wordy. If a term can encapsulate two words or a phrase, then use it.

Mistake #2: Failing to Emphasize Accomplishments

Management consulting recruiters will pre-assess your capability to analyze, problem-solve and lead through your accomplishments. They will go through the information under your work history or extracurricular activities at the university to look for indicators of critical success factors. There’s nothing wrong with describing what you have done, but it will create more impact if you list your accomplishments instead. Saying, “Resolved human resources issues for ABC Company” is not as impressive as “Updated the salary structure of ABC Company that led to 30% increase in employee satisfaction.”

Mistake #3: Failing to Proofread

Grammar and spelling errors are unpleasant to the eyes. They imply you are poor at written communication, one of the major skills necessary for management consultants. The mistakes can also mean you’re not accurate with details, another characteristic important in dealing with information. To make things easier for you, use spell and grammar checkers. If you can tap a friend or a professional to review your application, it would be much better. With their fresh eyes, they are keener in noticing slip-ups you might have overlooked.

Mistake #4: Underestimating Layout

How reader-friendly the layout of your resume also matters. If you squeeze in too much information in a page, recruiters might be too exhausted to peruse your data. Use adequate spacing in between categories and wherever it is needed. Margins on all sides must not go below half an inch. Bold, italicize or underline information for emphasis. Arial, Times New Roman, Tahoma and other readable fonts are preferable. Use bullets to present your ideas concisely.

Mistake #5: Submitting a General Resume

Don’t commit the blunder of assuming all management consulting firms will appreciate your general resume. Remember that they are unique from each other; therefore, you must ensure that you are a perfect fit to their work culture, values and practices. To do this correctly, conduct a research about your target firm beforehand, and write your resume in accordance with their goals.

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Under the meticulous judgment of a recruiter, you will know how powerful a resume is. It tells whether an applicant deserves a chance to be assessed further for the vacancy. It is your marketing tool that represents your value in management consulting field. Read this post to know the information it should contain.

A resume can be divided into different parts but all of them must be ideally summarized in a document of one or two pages. If yours has more than two pages, consider revising it. It may contain too many unnecessary details or the information may not have been summarized properly. We have written the Guide to Consulting Cover Letters and Resumes to give all the details you need for each part. If you simply need an overview on how a resume should be written, here’s a checklist for you.

Contact Header

• Is your NAME bigger than the other text on the resume? Do you think its size will facilitate the recruiter’s information recall?
• Is your contact information updated and accurate for the management consulting firm to readily contact you?
• Is the provided email address simply structured? Will it not be confusing for the recruiter to accurately type it on the computer?
• Have you included a personal website that contains your portfolio or any information that will boost your credentials?
• Is your header simple and readable?

Summary and Career Objective

• For experienced candidates, have you come up with a career summary that includes sectors you’ve worked in and the major areas you’ve managed?
• For fresh graduates, have you highlighted your skills and traits that are necessary for a management consulting job?
• Do you believe your summary or career objective gives your application a sense of  direction?
• Is your summary or career objective specific and straightforward?
• Is your summary or career objective stated in one to two sentences?

Professional Experience

• Have you included your experience that’s significant to management consulting?
• Does your work experience information include the name of organization, your designation, the employment period and the summarized responsibilities?
• Have you concisely written about three bullet phrases that will encapsulate your results for each position?
• Have you used actions verbs like ‘Developed,’ ‘Organized,’ ‘Supervised,’ ‘Initiated,’ ‘Managed,’ etc.?
• Have you utilized percentages, ratios and other numbers in highlighting your achievements?

Education

• Have you mentioned your course, university, specific classes and years of attendance?
• For fresh graduates, have you stated your significant club involvement?
• Have you listed recent substantial academic achievements, scholarships or recognitions?
• If applicable, have you described your responsibilities during your internship programs?
• Have you included any related licensure tests you’ve taken, time of examination and if favorable, the test results?

Other Questions

• Have you enumerated the skills that will help you in fulfilling the responsibilities of the management consulting position?
• Have you inserted keywords such as quantitative research and analytics, project management, client interaction and relationship building with clients? These should be keywords that you believe are important.
• Have you listed the languages you can speak and important computer software you are master of?
• Have you inserted a line of specific interests and hobbies that tell something valuable about you?
• Have you stated the recent seminars and training you have attended that are relevant to the position?

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Just today I talked to a hiring manager who expressed his frustration at the carelessness people show in the cover letters they submit. Many applicants do not put the required effort in their cover letter. Read more about why your cover letter is more important than you might think…

Let’s get back to that hiring manager. He says: “They claim to want this job and to have the communication skills to do the job well. But if they cannot show the simple respect of proofreading the letter, I admit it – I get impatient, and I throw their application in the garbage.”

While not every recruiter is going to have a reaction this violent. It is imperative – and no amount of repeating this is enough. You need to carefully proofread your cover letter before submitting it. We implored you to proofread even back in 2010.

As we have stated many times, it is not enough for you to proofread your letter alone. You are too close to the material to see it clearly. While your friends and family will offer some help, you really need professional editing and proofreading help when you reach the upper echelons of management consulting hiring. Seek the professional skills of proofreaders who understand both your skills and how they fit into the management consulting industry.

Take on the editing and proofreading challenge one step at a time.

Go the Distance

In writing and rewriting your letter, you should be proofreading and editing it all along. You are in it for the long haul and intimately know the letter’s contents. This is both a good and bad thing. You can go the distance on the content and finely hone its message. At some point, when you have your personal brand perfected, you will need something more. You will need a fresh set of eyes to seek out the grammatical issues you no longer see and to find the ways you might craft your language into something sharper. From seeing something too much, too closely, we no longer see it clearly.

Seek Professional Help

A professional editor and proofreader will offer you the fresh, outside, unbiased view you need to perfect your cover letter. There are numerous services and individuals offering this kind of professional assistance, and you should not be shy about asking for references or work samples. It is, after all, your future career at stake. A professional should offer not only a valuable impartial perspective but should have the technical skills to make your letter error-free and sharp.

Tap the Network

Even after you have been through your letter a million times and have let a professional have his/her way with it, you might still want to assess it from the point of view of a real-world individual. You have certainly networked enough to form relationships with industry mentors, businesspeople and others who have enough real-life professional experience that they can read your letter and give you some valuable advice on how your letter might be received, what kinds of content is most useful versus completely useless, etc. It never hurts to seek out this kind of input, even if you do not end up using it. It deepens your understanding of what recruiters and managers are looking for.

Gut Check

Before you submit your letter, do a final read-through without overthinking it. You have put it through the ultimate stress-testing, and now it should be perfect and ready to send. It is always wise, however, to give it a final gut check, doing a final proofread for the most basic, overlooked errors; reading for sense and suitability (for your desired job) and overall flow.Likewise, proofreading is not just about errors in your typing (although that is crucially important!); it gives you another chance to be sure you are writing your letter in your own voice in an effective, honest manner. You can ask yourself the last-minute things, such as, “Have I sold myself effectively?” and “Are there significant missing pieces to this picture?” This is what the gut check is all about.

When you are satisfied, you are ready to send your cover letter out into the world.

You are never alone in putting together your management consulting cover letter. A great friend in helping you write the perfect letter is the ConsultingFact.com “Guide to Consulting Cover Letters and Resumes“.

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You’ve spent countless hours honing and perfecting your resume, and now the hiring industry is abuzz with the question: are resumes on the way out? You can relax because resumes are most likely here to stay in the near-term management consulting future. Trends, though, are changing. Read more about the future of resumes…

As more firms, particularly in the high-tech sector, seek fresh talent, they are beginning to look for more direct, streamlined evidence of one’s relevant skills. As a Wall Street Journal article shares, Union Square Ventures, a technology venture-capital firm, put out a call for a new investment analyst, requiring that applicants submit evidence of their online presence in lieu of their resume. This includes being visible on the web on Twitter, a LinkedIn account and/or relevant blogs and so forth. Similarly, Union Square asked applicants to submit short videos to augment this new style of job application.

Many tech firms find that this unusual profile provides a good deal of insight into its candidates in ways that static resumes never can. Particularly in cases where employers are looking for the right social fit, getting a glimpse into the more social-media-savvy side of potential employees can be a way to narrow down a relatively competitive field of otherwise qualified candidates. Many applicants whose resumes would have been discarded immediately actually find themselves gaining traction with the non-traditional side of the application process.

The trend looks as though it is set to continue, with the more “creative” application going hand in hand with more traditional resumes to deepen the picture employers get of possible employees.

Here at ConsultingFact.com we don’t see this shift in application trends affecting consulting firms and their hiring practices any time soon. It is, though, always wise to keep your eyes on employment trends on the whole. Recruiters will undoubtedly Google you and check out your LinkedIn profile – make sure you manage your online identity.

These new hiring trends might also give you pause to consider once more how best you can make your own cover letter and resume shine in an otherwise crowded field of qualified applicants. You may not be making videos or sending consulting firms to your personal blog, but you can try to brainstorm about what makes you a unique applicant and reflect that in your cover letters and resumes.

For more information on putting together your consulting application package and to land a job in the competitive management consulting field, visit our site and see our free guide.

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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 after a short assessment. Breaking into management consulting is a serious goal and you have to craft your resume with quality, value and uniqueness. It must be effective enough to pique the interest of the recruiters and convince them to schedule you for testing, interviews, and other assessments.

Before Writing: Know Your Target Firm

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:

How do these activities distinctly help you tailor your resume?  First, 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 Information

This is the section where you will provide basic information about yourself. It may sound easy, but here are a few techniques and reminders you may find useful:

Summary or Objective

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

Here’s an example of a summary:

Here’s an example of an objective:

Here’s an example of a longer summary:

Professional Experience

A key consideration when you write about your professional experience is to 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:

Management consulting resume for experienced professionals would most probably state the experience section this way:

Here’s an example for fresh graduates:

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. You can include the following information in this section:

Here is a good example:

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.

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.

One line for interests will do, such as the example below:

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.

Below is a short checklist to ensure that your resume is perfect:

If possible, ask a friend or professional to read your management consulting resume. Sometimes, a fresh set of eyes can give you  objective feedback.

Common Resume Mistakes

Exercise care when writing a management consultant resume, otherwise you might commit the following mistakes:

One-Size-Fits-All Approach

Some resumes end up in the trash because applicants do not consider this as a 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 of Competencies

Another common mistake is misrepresenting oneself. True, you must project your 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:

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.

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The consulting business “runs a tight ship” so-to-speak. This profession is one that has its’ most critical eye on every single detail. Consulting firms seek specific traits in its consultants, and therefore it’s important that you showcase your skills, your education and your ability to excel, in a creative and impressive way. Read more…

Employers in general usually spend less than one minute on reviewing a resume/cover letter so you want to be among the select few “eye-catching” applicants.

Among the list of areas that can make or break your cover letter and resume are:

• Specific content – Consulting firms seek some very specific skills so your content should make you stand out and display your innovativeness in a strategic way.
• How aesthetically pleasing and professional your format is – This can include the way you use numbers & numbering, bullets, margins, spaces, fonts and more.
• How much content you provide – “Just enough” content should be used in each section. Too much content or too little content can be a deciding factor in your fate.
• The way you address coursework, awards, scholarships, etc..– Be mindful of how much you “list”! Pick the few that will showcase your unique path but don’t overwhelm the reader with every single accomplishment.

Leading Consulting Firm McKinsey & Company state “We look to hire individuals with leadership potential, integrity, a sharp analytical mind, creativity, and the ability to work with people at all levels in an organization.” Notice some of the keywords, “leadership potential”, “sharp analytical mind”, “creativity” – it is massively important to present these skills in the proper way; the key is to display these skills in your document, not just to say that you possess them.”

Another leading Consulting Firm, Bain & Company, has been known to consider applicants based on more than just their educational background. One of their Managers out of San Francisco said, “Bain was open to my non-MBA experience and valued my real world business experience”.

ConsultingFact.com provides a review service that will help you perfect your resume and cover letter so that you can ‘make the grade’ when it comes to those cherished consulting positions. ConsultingFact.com’s Resume and Cover Letter Review Service will review your documents within 48 hours and provide detailed guidance on how you should improve your application to increase your chances in securing that coveted position of Consultant.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch and see how we can help you!

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• Proofread Your Consulting Application

We’re sure that you have heard the importance of proofreading your resume and cover letter to make sure you don’t make any mistakes. It is not good enough to have someone make sure your grammar and mechanics are in top form. You need people who truly understand the position that you want to obtain. Read more…

You Can’t Do It Yourself

The proofreading and editing process is not a one-person job. If it was, top reporters and journalists wouldn’t need a copy desk at their paper, and authors would just send their manuscripts to be published. Even if you don’t have a lot of time before your deadline, you can still make your application look more professional and reflect your best attributes.

Professional Editors

We think that there is value in getting a professional business editor to look over your resume and cover letter before you send your application package to a top management consulting firm. This site and our work have benefited from top-notch writers and editors who help us make our writing crisp.

Freelancers are one option, but be sure to ask for samples of work they have done in the past. Also consider looking for business management editors who specialize in the field.

Contacts Within The Industry

If you have done your homework and networked with mentors or other experts in the management consulting field, you should take the advantage you have and ask them to review what you’ve written. They may not pick out the usage issues that others will, but they can point out areas that would confuse a recruiter or keep your application out of the interview file.

This works well for people who have already established a relationship with someone in the sector. If you have, be sure to find something thoughtful as a thank you gift. Favors done for you deserve the same follow-up skills you will put on display throughout the interview process.

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