How Management Consulting Recruiters Review Resumes and CVs
A resume screening process can end in one of two results. You will be hired, or you will not be hired. Sometimes, if you are not hired, you will get some feedback regarding why this decision was made; however, it is usually fairly general. “Needs work experience.” is a common reason.
We hope to be able to clarify, in this article, how resumes are read by consultants. Additionally, we want to point out some big differences between finance and consulting.
You may wonder who is the head of the process.
A team usually reviews resumes. This team is generally made up of managers, associates, and analysts. Here are a few parts of the process that are quite consistent:
First, there will be 3-5 people on the review team. Each person will review your resume alone, then the group will review it.
2. The team will mostly be made up of graduates from your school – be it MBA, graduate, or undergraduate.
Third, the final decision will be made by the committee.
Initially, senior members of the group will not be involved. Nor will finance. They will come into the process for interviewing and to make offers. While it may seem that this indicates these folks trust the junior team members, it is more likely that this situation is just a matter of budgeting both money and time.
Click here for more on differences between consulting and investment banking.
Someone who has a background similar to yours will be consulted regarding your resume. Say you are an engineering undergraduate at Columbia. An engineering undergraduate from Columbia will be asked about things like your involvement in student groups, your GPA, and so forth.
What is involved in the process?
Each team member will receive a packet that could contain as few as fifty or as many as three hundred resumes each. The consulting letters will probably have been removed, so applicants who have taken care to present the best resume possible will have that much more edge.
Finance may spend about 30 seconds reviewing each resume. The consultants will spend twice that amount of time.
After the initial review, the consultants will meet as a group to review the resumes, discuss them, compare notes, and make some decisions.
So what, exactly, are they looking for? What could be the reasons for not getting an interview?
As mentioned in the article on consulting resume tips, it may be a matter of qualities such as leadership, academic success or work experience.
Click here for more on how to create a management consulting resume.