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Steps To The Best Management Consulting Resume

12.01.12 08:34 AM By Randall Mauldin
A resume provides a glimpse of your educational and professional background. Putting your best foot forward here is critical, all the more if you want to break into management consulting. Consulting firms, such as McKinsey, confirm that format and style pale in comparison to evidence of leadership and academic excellence at a top-flight school. Land yourself a management consulting career by ensuring that your resume has all the critical components firms are looking for. What you say and how you say it seem to be the most important elements in putting together an effective resume. Whether you are applying for an entry level management position or internship, there are critical elements to pay attention to. Stick to the facts and showcase your achievements to better your chances at obtaining that highly coveted internship with some of the top rated management consulting firms in the country. There are five major criteria that the nations leading consulting firms look for in a candidates resume. The criteria are not only for entry-level management consulting positions, but all consulting roles across the board. Stellar academic credentials and high standardized test scores, particularly in math, impress firms like Bain and BCG, while AT Kearney places a premium on leadership and social/people skills. The name of the school attended seems to play a significant factor in landing a job at a leading consulting firm, so it is important to brag a little about the school you went to. Below are the top criteria: Academic achievement or GPA Graduation from top branded schools Effectively demonstrated leadership skills High test scores in math High achievement in a career There are a variety of other factors that the leading consulting firms look for but overall the above criteria makes them take notice of your resume. There is no reason to get bogged down in formatting your resume. Management consulting firms want to know what you have done and what your aptitude is much more than they care about the format of your resume. However, there are a few common sense elements that can be abided by and tools that will help you put together a pleasing-to-the-eye piece. Place your education or big-named schools at the top so that they will stand out. Show your school name prominently without hiding it among a lot of text. Present your school name prominently; hiring committees will assume that a school name buried in text is unimpressive and purposely hidden. Its important to showcase the big brand school you attended. Chronologically list your career experiences. Your employer names should be visible and clear; easy to read. You should list your most recent job at the top and work down. Keep your resume clean using structured and formatted lists. Use bullets and maintain one page. Keeping yourself concise, to the point and simple is most effective, no matter how much you have to say. Using bullets will conserve space and help keep the text limited to a single page. Keep your font easy to read. According to the human resources department at Booz, there is nothing worse than a font that is impossible to read. Dont make life difficult for the application screener by using a handwriting or too small font. Depending on the font you choose, stick with an 11-point font size. Eliminate your life story. Your resume is not the place to list every accomplishment and everything you have ever done in your life. The point of your resume is to sell yourself not your personal biography. Taking note of the preferred critical elements preferred by the top management consulting firms could make or break the job offer. Your statements should sell you as an individual and employee. Do not hesitate to show off a bit, sell yourself to the firm and show how you will be their biggest asset. Is your resume ready for the top-tier consulting firms? Find out how to optimize it in our free guide, How to Land a Consulting Job. a href=http://www.consultingfact.com/guides/land_a_consulting_job/Download your free copy here/a. a href=http://www.consultingfact.com/guides/land_a_consulting_job/ConsultingFact.com/a offers tools to craft the perfect resume and get you on the road to your consulting career goals.