Roast Resume

I agree with a lot of Margot’s feedback, but I’d be a bit more positive about the starting point. There’s some good experience here: you’ve owned analysis, helped get a recommendation approved and worked on a repeat client engagement. Some of that gets lost in the wording.

These are some adjustments I'd make:

• Bring the client decision forward: Your second consulting bullet is probably your strongest. You compared providers, modelled the costs and helped the client decide to switch. I’d say that more directly: “Led cost modelling across [X] providers for a £[X]bn pension manager, informing an approved provider switch projected to avoid £[X]m in annual costs.” If the savings have actually happened, use “realised”.
• Explain the “pricing advantage”: I wasn’t sure whether you found potential savings, showed the existing provider was good value or gave the client grounds to renegotiate. A few words explaining what the finding meant would help.
• Be more specific about the placement: This already gives you experience outside finance, but “streamlined operations” and “addressing key pain points” don’t tell us much. Which process did you improve, and how much faster or better did it become?
• Trim the community section slightly: Reviving an under-engaged network is a good leadership example. I’d keep what you personally changed and the membership/attendance results, but shorten the detail on event formats. Two strong bullets would probably do the job.

Where I’d push back slightly is on the specialisation point. I don’t think you need to downplay your finance experience. You need to make it easy for someone outside finance to understand why your work was good. The placement and social enterprise project already help show breadth.

Overall, I think this needs a sharper edit rather than a complete rethink. Make it obvious what you owned, what you recommended and what happened next. And do check the entry route with each firm, but I wouldn’t assume the Solve result means the CV was definitely the reason you didn’t get an interview.

Hi there,

Remember that a full resume review is a paid service (like any form of knowledge transfer e.g. taxes, wealth management, physio, etc.).

At a quick glance, this is already a strong CV. You have a first class degree, relevant finance experience, consulting experience, leadership and quantified impact.

The main issue is readability. Several bullets contain strong experiences, but they are too dense and filled with jargon. A recruiter should be able to understand what YOU did and the resulting impact within seconds.

For example, your first consulting bullet is strong, but the impressive part gets buried underneath the description of the client and platform. Make the activity and the annual savings easier to find.

I would also:

1. Shorten the longest bullets and eliminate unnecessary project context.

2. Make sure every bullet clearly communicates your personal contribution rather than only describing the project or workstream.

3. Rework the “Current Firm Community” heading so the leadership role is immediately understandable.

4. Consider consolidating the three community bullets because they currently repeat a similar membership and engagement story.

5. Keep the overall CV to one page, which you have done well.

A 10th decile Solve score without an interview suggests that the CV, networking, application positioning or office dynamics were the bottleneck. The score itself was clearly not the problem.

At a minimum, I would get a professional CV review. Advice here is necessarily generic; the right positioning depends on your complete background, target firms and the story behind each experience.

Feel free to reach out for a tailored review.

Hi there,

A 10th decile Solve score with no interview at any of the three firms is a screening outcome, and having seen the CV I would stop working on the wording and look at what the document says you are. Every professional bullet sits inside financial services: alternatives platforms, AUM, hedge funds, HNWI coverage. A generalist screener reads that as a specialist, and the placement is the only line that says otherwise.

A few things I would change first:

• Give the boutique one clause of context. You describe it as well respected inside finance and unknown outside it, and the CV currently relies on the reader knowing. What it does, its scale and its client type, directly under the name.
• Almost every outcome is identified, not realised. Savings identified, a pricing advantage identified. The bullet ending in realising a £XXm annual cost avoidance is the strongest on the page, because something actually happened. I would push the others towards what the client did differently.
• Cut the terms a generalist cannot price. ManCo, Alternative Administration and RFP selection carry no meaning outside your industry, and they occupy the space that should carry the size of the decision and who took it.
• Your community lead role is the most generalist evidence on the page and it sits below 3 finance roles, above a skills section where sport runs to 3 lines. I would rebalance that.

Before rewriting anything I would confirm which route you are eligible for. You graduated in July 2025 and have been in a full time seat since August 2025, so by the next intake the graduate programme may not be the entry point these firms expect from you. A strong CV submitted through the wrong route is rejected as quietly as a weak one.

Your underlying profile is stronger than the CV currently makes it look: a first-class degree, a strategy placement and current consulting experience. The main problem is translation. Several bullets describe the analysis you performed, but the reader has to work out what decision changed because of it.

Rewrite each bullet in this order: the problem, what you owned, the decision or action, and the measured result. Explain the boutique in one short clause, and replace terms such as ManCo or alternative administration with language a generalist recruiter can understand. Keep the strongest approved provider switch and cost-impact example near the top. Trim the skills and sport detail to create more space for leadership and client outcomes.

Also confirm the correct application route. You graduated in July 2025 and started full-time work in August, so each firm may treat your eligibility differently. A high Solve score does not prove why screening ended.