Hi there,
I read in the comments that you passed the screening for McKinsey but you failed the Imbellus Solve test. For the new application I would prepare accordingly for that.
In case you want to learn how to best prepare for the Imbellus Solve game, you can check the following guides (full disclosure: I am the author;) )
In terms of the other companies, it is difficult to provide tips without additional information. Just from what you shared, the possible improvements may be on CV, Cover and/or referrals.
1) CV
The key elements they will look for and that you have to optimize are:
- University brand
- Major
- GPA
- Work experience
- Experience abroad
- Extracurriculars and volunteer experience
Red flags include:
- Low GPA
- Lack of any kind of work experience
- Bad formatting / typos
- 3-4 pages length
- Lack of clear action --> results structure for the bullets of the experiences
- Long paragraphs (3-4 lines) for the bullets of the experiences with irrelevant details
- Long time gaps without any explanation
2) COVER
You can structure a cover in 4 parts:
- Introduction, mentioning the position you are interested in and a specific element you find attractive for that company
- Why you are qualified for the job, where you can report 3 skills/stories from your CV, ideally related to leadership, impact, drive and teamwork
- Why you are interested in that particular firm, with additional 1-2 specific reasons
- Final remarks, mentioning again your interest and contacts
In part 2 you can write about experiences that show skills useful in consulting such as drive, problem-solving, leadership, teamwork and convincing others.
It is important that in part 3 you make your cover specific to a particular firm – the rule of thumb is, can you send the exact same cover to another consulting company if you change the name? If that’s the case, your cover is too generic.
3) REFERRALS
To find a referral, you should follow three steps:
- Identify the people that can help you
- Write to them a customized email
- Have a call and indirectly ask for a referral
You can find more information on the steps here:
https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/hey-everyonehope-all-is-well-3176
If you need help to be invited please feel free to PM me, I do a session where we can optimize everything you need for an invitation (referrals included).
Best,
Francesco