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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As an aspiring management consultant, you should do everything to get an invitation to an interview. To get there, you need to nail the first step: writing a concise, informative and enticing management consulting cover letter that presents you as the ideal candidate.

Your cover letter must capture a balance of directness and confidence within the span of a few brief but compelling, descriptive paragraphs. Writing about yourself can be one of the most difficult challenges but is imperative in giving a valuable, powerful first impression and in conveying that you have written communication skills on par with others in the management consulting profession. It can help to see how others have presented themselves.

In the competitive landscape of pursuing a career as a management consultant, you already know that you need to be aggressive, hungry and know what you want, what you have to offer and how to sell yourself. Your management consulting cover letter is your best tool for making the sale. This is regardless whether you apply to top-tier firms such as McKinsey, Bain and BCG or whether you apply to boutique consulting firms.

Pre-Writing Activity

Before you write your management consulting cover letter, come up with a list of your qualifications that match the requirements of your target firm. Take a look at the table below as an example:

Writing the Management Consulting Cover Letter

You can be told ad nauseam how crucial your  management consulting cover letter is, and while you undoubtedly believe it, this document is still a troublesome point for many applicants. Putting together the right cover letter with all the necessary elements can be a lot of work. All the “scare tactics” about the make-or-break nature of this document will still not give you the step-by-step guidance and tools you need to get down to the business of actually writing the letter. A good approach is to break the letter down into parts and focus on each, as we will help you do below.

Breaking the Letter Down

A typical management consulting cover letter sample for consulting is organized like the illustration shown. While some items are self-explanatory, such as your contact information, the date and your signature, some things are much more ambiguous. How do you narrow down your experience and your personal skills enough to reflect your value to the desired hiring firm and maintain the brevity and concision required?It can be daunting to approach writing a cover letter that may play a significant role in determining whether or not you will get a chance at a future in management consulting. The process can be broken down into smaller, manageable pieces, giving you the ability to focus on one step at a time.

Opening

The opening of your letter provides an opportunity to introduce yourself and immediately get the attention of the reviewer. You have only seconds to make this impression. To succeed, your letter needs to lead to something that differentiates you, is personal, reflects your voice and makes you unique. All this while fitting into the constructs of what the major consulting firms seek in management consultants.

Some good examples of lead-ins include:

Here’s an example:

Experience and Education

Next part of the management consulting cover letter sample is experience and education. Depending on your experience level when you apply, you may emphasize experience over education, while a new graduate will not have much experience about which to write. Your resume will provide a formal list of all your education and experience, so you will not need to write extensively about every experience. The most important thing to reflect here is the most relevant experience and education.

Your job here is to sell yourself. You will do a bit of self-selling in all the sections of this management consulting cover letter, but it will be most prevalent in the experience and education section and again in your recounting of personal skills. In a way, these sections are related. If it flows better and makes more sense, you can feel free to switch sections around, so your motivation statement comes earlier or later, and experience and skills follow one another.

It is imperative in writing this section that you are specific and detailed. That is, choose specific and highly relevant and impressive achievements and accomplishments and illustrate them with solid action words and, wherever possible, concrete evidence or results of your efforts. If your effort on a project led to a ten percent increase in sales, a 25 percent increase in productivity, a five percent reduction in production budget or some other tangible result, back up your claims about experience with hard data. Similarly, you can highlight leadership roles you have assumed, programs you have organized, clubs or organizations you founded or contributed to and so forth.

Motivation

While you may feel strongly that you are destined to be a management consultant, your passion and drive has to be conveyed as strongly in writing. Presenting your motivation for wanting to have this rewarding career can be difficult. One aspect of management consulting cover letters that is often missing is the sense of why and how much the applicant is motivated. It is important to infuse this section with your own voice, tone and personality. The danger is that you can come across sounding generic at best and careless at worst (for example, if you are cautious, you have left your motivation as an afterthought). This section should be carefully crafted and well thought out. Concrete motivations for your desired career choice will come through as being sincere.

Personal Skills

Your personal skills should set you firmly apart from other applicants and paint a picture of you as a unique applicant with something to offer that is unlike anything anyone else’s personal portfolio can rival. Again, you are selling yourself with confidence and honesty. Along the same lines as how you presented yourself in your experience and education section, you will highlight your personal skills using examples that are as tangible as possible.

Personal skills cannot be demonstrated as readily as quantifiable results. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to trigger the flow of thoughts on personal skills and abilities:

• What can you bring to this firm that no one else can?
• Why would this firm regret losing out on hiring you?
• Why would this be a perfect marriage between you and this firm?
• How are you a leader or a driver?
• What unique things have you done or accomplished?

More specific to the realm of personal skills, ask yourself how you have demonstrated the following in relation to your past experience and education:

• problem solving and analytical skills
• communication skills
• team working skills
• personal impact and leadership skills
• business judgment skills

Here’s an example for this section:

Closing

Your closing is your opportunity to conclude, recap briefly and to thank the reviewer for their time and consideration. You may restate your motivation or encourage the firm to contact you. In any case, this is meant simply to close the letter politely.

Signature

Close your cover letter using professional words such as:

• Kind regards,
• Respectfully,
• Sincerely,
• Most sincerely,
• Yours truly,

Don’t forget to attach your signature as well to express your sincerity in applying to the firm. Simply scan your signature, crop the image and insert it to your cover letter accordingly.

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Have you recently looked at your LinkedIn profile and updated it? LinkedIn is very well suited to provide you with new job opportunities, regardless your career path. The Management Consulting industry uses LinkedIn a lot, so this might be a good opportunity to start networking with management consultants. Read more…

LinkedIn is one of the biggest and most popular online professional networks. It offers free access to professional opportunities, the ability to stay in touch, build your network, find a new career and put yourself out in the open market. Over 80% of companies are online using LinkedIn to fill job openings, and LinkedIn is an online home for serious hiring decision makers. LinkedIn gives you access to channels that will help you make inroads to meeting your career goals, even in these challenging economic times.

Given LinkedIn’s growth, you want to find ways to differentiate yourself and maximize your professional presence online. Here are five key ways to make this happen.

1. Keep Your Profile Updated

You would be surprised how many people forget to update their LinkedIn profile. Update yours to reflect changing jobs, roles and responsibilities. Make it completely searchable. Just like in a high-quality resume, you want to provide a solid intro to you and a more searchable, keyword-friendly outlet. Balance quality keywords with content that will pique a reader’s interest.

2. Complete Your Profile

Use your profile as a tool to differentiate yourself. Use recommendations – give readers a more objective outlook on who you are as an employee, employer or individual. Branch out into lesser-used LinkedIn tools, such as video, for a more multimedia experience. Also, remember a catchy summary.

3. Update Your Status Regularly

Tell the community what you are working on, what interesting news or industry events you are related to. Your active participation on LinkedIn helps to show that you are active in your profession, field and its developments. Top tier consulting firms are looking for passionate management consultants, and this is a great way to show your passion.

4. Increase Your Visibility

This has a twofold meaning. First, literally – include a professional-looking photograph to create the visual impression for your reader and include links to your websites, whether of your company, your blog or another personal site that is relevant and may augment your profile. Second, figuratively – make more connections to build your trusted network.

5. Build Your Brand

Create an attention-getting headline/tagline, a message that serves as a personal pitch. What impression do you want to leave with the reader? Your profile is a one-stop shop where you can present yourself your own way.

Leverage the potential of LinkedIn by working on your profile today! If you need more advice on how to land a job in management consulting, then have a look at our guide. ConsultingFact.com offers guides for resumes, cover letters, case interviews, case frameworks, and other material that will help you land a consulting job.

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Doing your research on the top management consulting firms is essential to deciding how and where you want to apply. In this article we will take a look at top 10 management consulting firms. Read more…

Research Behind the Top Ten

Vault.com, an industry-leading career intelligence site, recently published its 2012 rankings of the world’s top management consulting firms. The list offers few surprises, as the usual industry front-runners make a strong showing. Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company and The Boston Consulting Group dominate the top three, as they did in 2011. Booz & Company rejoins the top ten this year after placing 16th last year. That said, the only substantial surprise is the presence of the Monitor Group, ranked at number five, up from 25th place last year.

Coming Trends in Management Consulting

As 2011 comes to a close and the new year begins, a handful of trends are emerging in the management consulting field:

• A resurgence of corporate profitability in certain fields may see a spike in private-sector corporate demand for consulting services.
• As this demand for consulting services increases, hiring possibilities may also improve. While staff retention/attrition is worsening, the recruitment picture seems to be rosier than in recent, leaner years, with much of the hiring emphasis being on experienced consultants.
• Sustainability is having its day in the sun. All major consulting firms are taking sustainability seriously and are either already there or going there in the near-term.

The Top Ten

1. Bain & Company

For the second year running, Bain & Company is Vault.com’s pick for the top management consulting firm in the world. While not the largest and not the oldest firm, Bain is among the most prestigious global consulting firms because of the standards it set early in its existence. From the beginning, Bain chose innovative approaches, did not actively market themselves and often took no fees until they had proven themselves. Later, Bain aligned its incentives with client performance, sometimes taking equity in its clients’ companies instead of consulting fees. Having a stake in the client’s success was seen as an innovative business model.

Differentiating Bain from its major competitors are these kinds of innovative approaches as well as its pioneering position in private equity consulting and its specialization in M&A and organizational restructuring. To accomplish these kinds of aims, Bain hires consultants who have the ability to think conceptually and translate concepts into action. Flexibility is highly valued, as the opportunity for cross-training across industries is prevalent (even if at the expense of being able to specialize in a specific field).

Learn more about Bain & Company in ConsultingFact’s in-depth profile.

2. McKinsey & Company

Touting its ability and drive to do things differently, McKinsey sits nearly atop the heap of the world’s top-ten management consulting firms. Despite its big-name recognition, McKinsey operates at a fairly low profile, perhaps due to its controversial practice of non-exclusivity with clients. Emphasizing ideas as the most important engine of McKinsey’s operations, McKinsey offers a good starting place for new consultants but does not appear to offer an environment conducive to collaboration and teamwork because consultants are bound to secrecy about their projects (due to the non-exclusivity/possible conflicts of interest issues).

Similarly, the firm employs an “up and out” policy, whereby consultants need to advance upward in their career or leave the firm within a specific amount of time. This ensures a built-in turn-over rate that renews the firm’s staff at regular intervals (which may contribute to the constant stream of new ideas on which McKinsey runs), but which may foster an environment of “horizontal stagnation”, that is, consultants may be “promoted” by adding additional duties to their existing job. Essentially, a heftier workload without progressive responsibility or upward momentum but also not an invitation to leave the company.

Read on for ConsultingFact’s in-depth profile of McKinsey & Company.

3. The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG)

BCG still made it to the top 10 strategy consulting firms. Beyond its prestigious name and reputation, BCG is behind many of the industry’s best-known concepts, such as the “experience curve” and “growth-share matrix”. With these principles as its backbone, BCG values conceptual thinking and reasoning and places emphasis on continued growth and learning for consultants. As a Big Four consultancy firm, BCG competes head-to-head with much larger firms with greater name recognition but differentiates itself by focusing on, for example, fields like branding and marketing (in addition to more traditional disciplines).

Based in Boston with a global reach, BCG is widely praised as a solid place to work, offering among the most competitive compensation packages for consultants.

Read more in the ConsultingFact in-depth profile of Boston Consulting Group.

4. Deloitte Consulting LLP

One of the “Big Four” accountancy firms and the second-largest professional services firms globally, Deloitte is well-respected and a massive name, major player in the management consultancy field. Its depth of expertise among its over 40,000 employees is virtually unparalleled. Focused primarily on human capital, strategy and operations and technology across multiple industries, Deloitte leads its competition in terms of aggregate revenue, growth and market share.

In short, Deloitte is a giant, and as such, can offer an expansive career trajectory to consultants, who will have the opportunity to take advantage of Deloitte’s global presence and its sheer size and scale. The downside is that an organization of this scope can be hampered by layers of bureaucracy and unneeded complexity that develop naturally when a firm reaches these proportions.

5. Monitor Group

Monitor Group has leapt into Vault.com’s top-ten firms this year. Its smaller size versus other, bigger firms against which Monitor competes head-on coupled with its global footprint makes it an agile and dynamic firm. A flexible consultant can join what is undoubtedly an innovative organization that is not saddled by too much legacy structure, in part because of its size and in part because it, like many firms, was affected by the economic crisis and has adapted to current economic conditions. Though based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Monitor Group has a presence in every corner of the world – again, much like larger, better-known consulting firms.

As Monitor Group places a premium on getting sustainable results for its international array of clients, having a presence in key locations is key to capitalizing on its expertise and information. The firm has been lauded for its pro bono service and for its collaborative, feedback-oriented, lessons-learned corporate culture, which is one of its strongest distinguishing factors. Monitor Group itself characterizes its placement in the Vault rankings as being due to “morale and momentum”.

6. A.T. Kearney

Headquartered in Chicago with more than 50 offices worldwide, A.T. Kearney has a storied history that is tied up in the history of one of the industry’s oldest and best-known consultancies, McKinsey, from which Kearney split off in the 1930s. In the early days, Kearney focused on manufacturing and operations, which has expanded across industries and practices. This history imbues Kearney with a sense of long-standing tradition and culture, which has been cited as a bonus in terms of being a good place to start out as a management consultant.

History could also be seen as a handicap in terms of innovation. Like most large consultancy firms, Kearney has broad cross-functional, cross-industry focus areas in which consultants can expect to work. Its distinguishing offering is The Global Business Policy Council, which Kearney created as a strategic service designed to cater to the world’s top CEOs and business-minded thought leaders. The Council brings together leaders from the corporate, government and academic disciplines to foster discussion about issues relating to all these groups, such as globalization, foreign direct investment and offshoring. Kearney offers three separate strategic services to these leaders as a part of this council.

7. Oliver Wyman

Based in New York with 55 international office locations, Oliver Wyman operates across industries all over the globe. Oliver Wyman is part of a larger group of professional services companies, which contributes to its cross-functional, multinational presence. This network of affiliated companies deepens the pool from which expertise is drawn, which adds value to the consulting services offered by the Oliver Wyman Group. Known as a firm that values ideas and creativity, this is a place where driven, hungry, internationally-minded consultants will thrive, as they will be expected to travel extensively and put in a lot of extra time.

8. The Cambridge Group

More than anything else, The Cambridge Group aims to help clients attain higher growth rates and profit margins. In large measure, the big factor that differentiates Cambridge from other consultancy firms, particularly those that specialize in economic services, is its insistence that demand supersedes supply in terms of importance. This drives the firm’s focus on identifying profitable demand opportunities and optimizing processes and pricing. The Cambridge Group claims to provide its clients actionable insight and growth blueprints as opposed to more general plans and recommendations. Its size and scope make this attention to detail possible. As a small, Chicago-based firm with just two offices, the firm is small enough in scale that a consultant can expect to work hands-on with analysis and growth strategy from the get-go while being on-board as the firm itself grows.

9. Analysis Group, Inc.

Headquartered in Boston with ten offices in the United States and Canada, Analysis Group is highly regarded for its commitment to delivering economic and financial analysis and strategy across sectors. Employing these specialties, Analysis Group, as a place to work, is reportedly collegial and has a small-firm feel in what is actually a much larger company. Unlike larger, global firms, the primary focus on economic and financial consulting creates room for specialization and carves out a solid reputation in its areas of expertise. Given this emphasis at the Analysis Group, potential consultants with strong analytical and academic skills have an edge.

10. Booz & Company

Widely touted as a great place to get started with a career in management consulting, Booz is a company whose global presence, wide areas of expertise and emphasis on wholesale organizational change (“discontinuities”) will ensure that a new or mid-career consultant never sees a shortage of opportunity. The firm pushes its consultants to learn and contribute and demands a lot (a heavy workload) but supports its hires with its team-oriented structure, training and intelligent staff and subject-matter experts from whom to seek advice.

On the prestige front, Booz is recognized, respected and highly visible with its focus on an exceptionally vast landscape of fields. The firm’s big name will be a draw, as will the chance to work across industries in a global environment. Detractors state that the firm suffers from some internal inertia following the spin-off of one of Booz’s former core businesses – government consulting. The firm still enjoys legacy prestige, despite distancing itself from its biggest differentiator, and has moved more firmly into specializing in business-transition consultancy (the aforementioned discontinuities, when a business moves from one major focus to another).

Learn more about Booz & Company in ConsultingFact’s in-depth profile.

Your Career

For a comprehensive guide to your own career in management consulting, download our guide on how to land a job in management consulting. ConsultingFact.com offers guides for resumes, cover letters, case interviews, case frameworks, and other material that will help you land a consulting job in one of the top 10 strategy consulting firms.

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The management consultant application process is challenging enough without worrying about how your looks might affect your chances at success. Research shows that looks do matter. You might be surprised, though. Read more…

This research finds that a good-looking man has a better shot at getting an interview and being hired while an attractive woman encounters discrimination because of her looks.In the short run, these findings might not mean anything for you in terms of getting a callback based on your CV (in most cases, you may not be submitting a photograph). In the long run, though, you need to keep in mind how you appear to others physically and hone your professional image. It may make a big difference when the hiring decisions are made.

The Psychology of Beauty

A vast body of psychology research exists to support the idea that, in a world where economic value is assigned to beauty, physical attractiveness may provide an edge (or a perceived edge) in the hiring process. As most literature argues for a “positive association between beauty and intelligence”, one would infer that looks are in fact important in even the earliest stages of the job hunt.

Perceptions of Beauty: Surprising Reality

Some research concurs with this point, but not in the way one might first imagine. In “Are Good-Looking People More Employable?”, researchers Ruffle and Shtudiner in Israel conclude that attractive male candidates are favored, while attractive female candidates, counterintuitively, do not fare nearly as well, given the positive traits people associate with physical beauty.

The researchers’ hypotheses were aligned with conventional psychological studies, which consistently show that people rate attractive men and women as being more intelligent, based only on their pictures. It would follow that, as job applicants, attractive men and women alike would receive preferential treatment against average-looking applicants and those who submitted no photographs at all. Sending out 5312 virtually identical CVs to 2656 job openings as part of their experiment, Ruffle and Shtudiner found that attractive men were twice as likely to get a callback for an interview as plain-looking men, attractive women were at a significant disadvantage. Women who submitted no photos received the highest number of callbacks, followed by plain-looking women. Attractive women were the least likely of all the female candidates to receive a callback, regardless of the job type.

Blind to Female Beauty?

With a significant beauty premium attached to males, it would seem logical to intuit that attractive women would be similarly favored. The researchers theorized that, rather than ignoring or being blind to female attractiveness, the first screeners of candidate CVs are almost always women, who, for reasons of jealousy, are threatened by the attractiveness of other females. This theory is strengthened by the concept of “negative signaling”, in which screeners perceive men’s inclusion of photos as “confident” while women including a photo is seen as an attempt to use beauty to get ahead (in cultures, where including a photo is optional).

Looks Are Important but Can Kill

Discrimination based on looks exists in the earliest phases of applicant screening. The attractive and the plain-looking are not equally treated. One might assume, though, given the extensive coverage of beauty trumping intellect and other attributes, that this discrimination would favor the beautiful. In the application phase, however, it appears as though attractive men are the only ones to benefit markedly from their good looks. Women are better off attaching no photograph at all because being attractive can kill women’s job prospects at the application stage. You can, according to other research studies that corroborate the Ruffle and Shtudiner study, be too good looking for your own good.

What Does This Mean for You?

As an applicant for highly competitive management consulting careers, you are not necessarily swimming in the same waters as the general pool of job applicants in the world. That said, there are considerably higher expectations placed on you as a potential management consultant in terms of how you present yourself professionally, and this will include aspects of your physical appearance. This will be more relevant when you reach the interview stage.

It is important, however, to note that physical appearance (not necessarily attractiveness as much as how you present yourself) matters. Not only do you feel more confident when you are professionally put together, you deliver the impression consulting firms want to convey.

To get insight into making the right impression to land your dream job in consulting, download our free PDF guide.

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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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During your consulting interview, you might get a quite open-ended question such as “tell us something about yourself”. It is very important that you prepare for this, as you have a chance of creating huge impact in the interview. We’ll give you some ideas in this article. Read more…

If you get an opportunity to present yourself then you need to have prepared – and practiced – a two-minute speech about yourself. A good story line for such a presentation is:

• Tell about your career plans and ambitions
• Explain very briefly what your educational background is
• Tell very briefly about any previous jobs you had or membership of relevant organizations
• Tell a few keywords about how you are as a person

This structure is very important and has worked very well for us countless of times. You start and end your presentation with personal statements and this is important. Top tier management consulting firms as McKinsey, Bain, Booz and BCG are all looking for people with leadership personalities. They want to know how you are as a person.

In between the personal parts you tell more boring facts such as your education and professional experience. They already know this, as they have (hopefully) read your resume. They don’t care about listening once again about your major. But you have to mention it, to show professionalism.

Our best advice is for you to practice this speech in front of the mirror very well. Talk slowly and confidently. And you should not spend more than 2 minutes. Let the interviewer ask you the questions that he/she has, instead of him/her waiting for you to finish.

Are you going to apply to a consulting firm or going for an interview soon? Take a look at our free guide on how to land a job in management consulting.

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Ever wondering if consulting firm interview questions are harder compared to the ones in others industries? Glassdoor analyzed employee reviews for a large variety of companies to determine which ones had the toughest interview questions. Consulting firms are on top of the list.

The Top 10

Below is the top 10 companies asking the toughest consulting firm interview questions:

1. McKinsey & Co.
2. Jane Street Capital
3. Cree
4. Bain & Co.
5. Boston Consulting Group
6. Palantir Technologies
7. Teach for America
8. A.T. Kearney
9. Red Ventures
10. BP

Consulting firms do dominate the list, along with some technology and venture firms. The key reason is that firms have substantial requirements for both the analytical skills, communication skills and leadership skills. This mix makes it necessary to perform very detailed interviews where consulting firm interview questions require a lot of “thinking on the spot”. In addition, the tough questions are also required to select among the huge amount of applicants for consulting firms.

Teach for America is also on the list, which is interesting and showing that other companies and organizations are increasingly using more sophisticated recruitment methods. We will probably see much more of this in the future, as the battle for talent increases.

Read the whole article at The Street.

Are you going to apply to a firm or going for an interview soon? Take a look at our free guide on how to land a job in management consulting. Reading this will help you manage consulting firm interview questions.

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