Office choice and resume screening.

Question

Hello everyone,

I am a PhD in Biomedical engineering graduating next month from a well known university in China. Due to covid travel restrictions imposed by Chinese government, my graduation was postponed because I couldn't go back to my lab for my additional experiments. My first question is how to explain that in my resume? Would that impact the screening process when they see there are two additional semesters?

My second question is about the office, I am mainly targeting mackinsey, and I know that north American offices are opened for advanced professional degrees, but I could not find if the other offices are opened to this program. In fact, I am interested in the chinese offices (because I have studied there) and the Dubai one (cause I can speak Arabic). So if in any case they are not open to freshly phd graduates, and have a rejection before even getting an interview, would that prevent me from applying again in other offices?

And my last question is about cv /resume. I want to section my working experience into research experience, entrepreneurial experience and teaching experience? Will that be okay? Because I feel all of above experiences are relevant yet not in the same time frame. Some blogs explained that we should just put experience relevant to consulting. More, if I add my publications and conferences the resume would go to 2 pages! Another confusing point.

Please I need some guidance as I'm making this transition and I am very new to this filed.

Thank you if you read/ answer my message.

Best regards.

Answer 1

Hi there,

1) No need to explain. Just put the graduation date.

2) A rejection in one office is indeed a rejection in another office (normally a 12 month ban). The “good” think though is you can normally select multiple office preferences when you apply

3) Yes, it's ok. But, ultimately, it depends on how it looks. Have both versions and see what looks best. If it's forcing you to go to 2 pages, then you shouldn't do this sectioning! Additionally, you can probably make your experience bullet smore concise/precise. In general, each should not be longer than 2 lines. Play around with spacing as well.

Bonus: Network! Networking is the best way to improve your odds in the near term.

Answer 2

"I want to section my working experience into research experience, entrepreneurial experience and teaching experience? Will that be okay? Because I feel all of above experiences are relevant yet not in the same time frame. Some blogs explained that we should just put experience relevant to consulting. More, if I add my publications and conferences the resume would go to 2 pages!"

You can do that, it is a structured way of breaking down your experience. What you have to be careful about it to make sure you include what is relevant for a business role. Ultimately you may have to include some less relevant experiences (just because you will have to say what you did before), but keep it to a minimum. In other words, publications and conferences are only relevant for an academic CV and should not be included in a business CV (unless there's something outstanding about them but, once again, keep it to a minimum).

Remember that you want to show you are top calibre, but being careful not to convince them that you are an “academic”.