Best way to do the overview of your resume

Question

I am preparing how to walk through my resume for my upcoming MBB interviews. I have been asked to give a brief overview of my own resume many times before, but I am always wondering the best way to do this. Instead of going through everything by the chronological order, I usually get three most important bullets and make a theme to present myself while trying to limit my response under 40 seconds. I am also an experienced hire with several years of work experience, so I can't possibly go over every employer on my resume. The purpose of this exercise is for the interviewer to get to know you but also to see how concisely one can present a set of very familiar information. Any insights?

Answer 1

I used to use McKinsey communication techniques (pyramid principle) to communicate my resume. I'd avoid going chronologically unless your story is amazing.

Here is a template:

Main Point: Here is why I am here and what draws me to this position:

Quickly introduce your three key themes: I believe I can provide tremendous value because of my ability to X, Y and Z.

A little more depth:

I am someone who does X as exhibited by my experience at....
I am someone who does Y as exhibited by my experience at....
I am someone who does Z as exhibited by my experience at....

Bonus Points: Come up with catchy titles for each of your three themes and even try to make it come alive with an abstract example. For example,

"I am an obsessive learner, in teams I am typically the one that reads and goes the deepest on the topic."

or

"I am a roadblock ninja - I tend to be the person that eliminates the roadblocks quickly in a way that makes people go 'wow I need her on my team'"

You can than reference this phrase over and over again in the interview

Answer 2

I agree with your last statement - this is for them to see how well and concisely you can convey information. It also gives you a chance to highlight what you think is most important. Like you said, I would pick a theme, state that theme, and then highlight the areas in your resume that convey that.

For instance - my "theme" was that I am committed to personal growth in a broad sense (eg many areas of interest). I pointed out how my resume shows this committment and then went a little more specific (like one sentence) to give examples my resume couldn't convey.

Answer 3

Another objective of the interviewer is to confirm your career progression, as well as potentially what you learned from adverse developments.

I too was an experienced hire (14 years of total work experience by the time I interviewed), and chose to follow a modified chronological order, glancing over areas that wouldn't be relevant to a career at BCG.

Nowadays however, I chose to go transversal and simply tell my story by chosing the most relevant examples regardless of which role and company they were from

Which way is right? Both, if done properly. But if in doubt, probably stick to the modified chronological since it is easier to implement and more traditional. Just understand it will make it harder for you to standout however.