CV/Resume

The purpose of your CV is a summary document to reflect who you are, what you’ve done and what you can bring to the firm. It needs to be personal to you and try to show what makes you different from other candidates.

How good your CV is depends on two things:

• The content

• How the content is communicated i.e. the format – this is the first thing someone looking at your CV will notice and shows your communication skills!

The Content

The typical CV consists of the following sections:

• Education

  • University:

    • Course, college, year, started/expected year of graduation.

    • Past or predicted grades.

  • Sixth form and equivalent:

    • Name of school/college and years.

    • A-Level subjects studied and grades.

  • Secondary School and equivalent:

    • Name of school/college and years.

    • GCSE subjects studied & grades.

  • Any other academic awards or qualifications you have achieved.

TOP TIP

Condense the way you write your results. For example, A-Levels: 3A*s in Maths, Further Maths and Physics, and an A in Chemistry.

• Professional Experience

  • This experience does not need to be specific to consulting but try to link this experience to skills relevant for what you’re applying for:

    • Company name and location.

    • Position title/start and end date

    • Explanation of key responsibilities and skills gained: make sure these skills are the ones that the company is looking for – this might be part of the company’s key competencies or might be specific for the role that you have applied for.

    • Emphasise your role and the action you took. Start each bullet point with an active verb e.g. “Led a team to...”, “Organised an event...”, “Gave a presentation to...”.

TOP TIP

To see how you should explain your experience look at professional LinkedIn profiles for inspiration.

• Extracurricular Activities

  • This is important because firms appreciate well- rounded applicants. You should include any society positions or extracurricular activities that you have done which show traits of leadership, teamwork, communication and initiative, even if they’re not directly consulting related!

    • Title of position/location.

    • Time period.

    • Explanation of the role and the skills you developed.

• Other achievements and interests

  • This doesn’t need to be long – just any other relevant skills or interests that you would like to include:

    • In particular, language and IT skills (coding languages, software proficiencies) should be mentioned.

    • Any other achievements e.g. essay competitions, maths challenge.

    • If there’s something you’re particularly passionate about that could somewhat be relevant can be included here e.g. as consulting firms are trying to do more philanthropic work, if you’re passionate about a particular charity and have done charity work you could mention this.

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Do not include your age or a photograph of yourself! This is to avoid discrimination and present a professional resume.

The Structure

Generally we recommend that you position your education at the start, as this the most recent long-term commitment you have taken on. As you grow in your career these experiences will be placed higher on your resume. Following your education mention any relevant experience that you have. This may include internships, past consulting projects, part-time jobs. Following this you can add any other relevant experience or interests you have, e.g. extra curricular activities, leadership experiences, awards, certificates, general interests.

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Make sure to explain what you gained out of each experience and what was your impact. A recruiter likely to spend less than 10 seconds looking at your CV, so make sure to add numbers and clenching titles, as they are more easy to notice especially if you format these in bold.

Example CV Structures

Here are links to example CV’s you may want to base your structure on:

• MMB examples

• Indeed Tips

• Prep Lounge Templates

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Don’t copy someone else’s CV! Make sure it is unique to your experience and skills.

Using Artificial Intelligence

It is better to use your own words, structure and explanation when creating your CV. Chat-GPT is unfortunately very predictable and recruiters are well aware of which words are frequently used. It’s best to stay clear of using AI for this!

Although you have to remember that your CV may be scanned through an AI system before being read by a human. It is recommended to include key words from the job description, tailoring your experience to this helps your CV to be relevant, and eventually read.

TOP TIP

Save and upload your resume as a PDF. This is easier to read, prevents editing and all-round seems more professional. This is also recommended for cover letters.