Hi I'm Jenny Rae the Managing Director of Management Consulted, and I'm here today
to conclude our consulting resume series. The focus today is on consulting
Mythbusters, and specifically focus on consulting resumes. One of the key issues
that we often find is that people believe one thing that consultants are looking
for, and something else is actually true. And we've discovered that some of the
cause of this is that consultants themselves are to blame. In fact
sometimes you may hear some of the following things that consultants are
about, or looking for, when the actual opposite is true. I'm going to list some
of these out and I'm going to explain them. So the first thing that they say
that they're looking for but don't really care about is your
entrepreneurial experience. When I'm talking about your entrepreneurial
experience, I'm talking about here the specific focus on what you've done
outside of the classroom. They're not interested in that as a core part of
your story, if it's your main work experience that's fine, if you've been
highly successful as an entrepreneur – by which I mean you sold a company for
millions plus of dollars, then that can be helpful – but for the most part
entrepreneurial experience is something that you would include more in the
leadership category, as opposed to a focus on your actual experience section.
The second thing that people often will say that they care about but isn't
important are case or consulting related activities, it's not important that you
demonstrate an interest in consulting, it's important you demonstrate an
interest in business – and that interest should actually be broad and diverse.
So, a focus on cases and a focus on groups like consulting clubs can be helpful, but
they demonstrate leadership skills in the same way that the leadership of a,
for example, debate society would be mounted. So similar types of
skills they're looking for, there isn't anything special about consulting or
case related activities in particular. They can be very valuable for you to
prepare for the consulting interview process, but there's not necessarily
valuable in terms of the resume. The third thing that they say
that they look for but don't really care about are lots of activities. When they say
they're interested in people who are very involved, they're not saying that
they're interested in people who are involved in a hundred activities. They're
not saying that they're interested in people who are on 50 listserves, what
they're talking about are people who take a deep role as a leader in a few
choice organizations that represent a diverse set of interests. You'll often
find when a consulting firm is done at the end of the day or they're hiring,
that the people that they've hired represent multiple different interests.
There's not a cookie cutter approach, but the core focus isn't on lots of
activities, the core focus is on death in a small number of activities. The fourth
thing that's important to note are general awards, they're not interested in
the fact that you made the dean's list – or anything that was given to a large
group of people – the awards that they're interested in and the distinctions that
they're interested in are things that you won, either with a very select group
of people, or just you. So something that really makes you stand apart as a part
of the crowd. This is important because they really want to see how you are
different, and how you survive in competitive environments. The final thing
that they say that they're looking for but don't necessarily care about are
industry certifications. Now things like six sigma, or black belt, for certain
advanced degree roles can be helpful – but for the most part industry
certifications, like finance certifications, or even for example CPA
roles, for consulting are not really that valuable. Sometimes they can even be a
detriment to you because they can show that you're so deep, such an expert and
so focused in certain areas, that you're actually not able to pull up and
identify the big picture. Now there are some things that consultants really do
care about and I also want to highlight those for you. Make sure that you
highlight, number one – your Excel skills. It's amazing but a lot of people do not
put this on their resume. You should be the type of person that's building a
spreadsheet for the way that you're handling your week, who's building a
spreadsheet for a trip that you're planning to take – and they want to see
that you're using excel on the job and in your leadership experience. They want
to see that you can do data analytics that demonstrates that you're
comfortable with it and that you like it. So those are important things to mention.
Another thing that's important to mention are 1-2 to substantial leadership
roles. Like I mentioned before, activities, although they may say that they want to
see activities, what they're really looking for our key leadership roles. The
third thing that's important to highlight is employee or academic awards.
A lot of these very specific awards that you win, and you solely win, can really
demonstrate how in a pack of already competitive people, you again surpassed
the crowd. The fourth thing that's important to know is that you have one
to two diverse experiences that you can bay. A lot of people ask, how many
experiences is the right number, and really you only need one to two really
key experiences – but they should tell different parts of your story. So a lot
of times we'll have people that write us and ask, is this an appropriate summer
internship, and generally will say yes – but we'll say, in light of what else you
have done, does this add something new to your story. So make sure that you're
focusing on the well-roundedness of your experience, and the diversity of your
experience. The final thing that they look for that it is really essential to
include are top scorers in competitive situations. They're looking for GMAT, for
SAT, and also for high GPA scores. They're looking for when you take an entrance
exam to national exam that you score really high on it. So just make sure that
you do include those top scores, and if you're young and early in the process,
make sure that you're working toward top scorers is a part of what they're going
to be looking for. Now I'm going to wrap up by just talking about some of the
options that you've got to review and edit your resume. I hope that I've
impressed upon you the importance of going through an extensive review
process. Please don't cram your resume together in 30 minutes and shove it out
the door. That's not going to work, especially in a highly competitive
environment like consulting. So the core focus here is really on going through
multiple steps of the resume review to really polished and perfect what you've
got. The first step should be doing a personal review. You yourself should look
through the format, the story, and the structure, and finally the actual wording
based on the guideline that we've put together. Make sure that
you go through and reconstruct your entire story. Be really thorough about it –
and if you ever have questions about what you're putting down think, what
would I say if someone asked about this. Make sure that you're telling the level
of detail that would be appropriate to respond in a conversation with someone.
The second thing that you should do is have an external review, and you've got
multiple options for this. The first would be a friend, or for example a
family member. These are great, they're often very available and usually highly
willing to go through the process with you. Just make sure that you understand
that the friend or the family member may not understand consulting, and they may
be looking for something that you're not necessarily trying to convey – but
oftentimes they just give a third party opinion which can be super helpful.
The second or career service officials they're excellent, good resources to again kind
of highlight some of the common ways that it's important to understand
consulting. Many of them are not trained on consulting specific resumes, so again
they're not going to be able to necessarily answer your consulting
specific questions, but they will be able to help you make sure you don't
have any key spelling errors, or make sure that you're at least conveying your
story across the board. And then finally, we at Management Consulted offer what
I think is the best resume review and resume editing service out there that's
available to you. We have a team of Ex-MBB consultants. I, Jenny Rae, captain that team –
and the core focus that we spend most of our days on is reviewing your resumes
and making sure that they're absolutely perfect before you go through the
process of applying. So we'd love to work with you, you can check out more details
about that on our website. In the meantime, the final thing that's
important to make sure that you do here is networking. After you've compiled your
resume, really your key next step after going through the resume review on your
own externally and then hopefully with professional, or someone like us – then
you're able to go through the process of networking. So before you even apply, you
even want to finally do at a tailoring experience where you're going to work
with people inside the firm that you know. This could be a formal networking
events like information sessions or coffee chats, it could also be informal
situations, ot times when you set up an informational
interview with someone. So just make sure that you're utilizing the story and
resume, and preparing your stories as we begin to prepare for your interviews.
At this point you're ready to apply, and your goal at that point is just to start
getting ready for case and fit interviews. Good luck with the process, we
hope that the series has been really helpful to help you understand what's
important to include, and what's important not to include in a consultant resume.