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Preparing CV for MBB applications

CV screening Experienced Hire Londonoffice MBB target university UK
New answer on Aug 31, 2021
7 Answers
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Anonymous A asked on Aug 28, 2020

Hi All,

I am preparing my CV for consulting firms for the UK office, especially the London office. I have 4 years of experience and I am returning back to academics in a target school for masters in operations. I have a couple of questions:

1. Should I put my work experience at the top or education?

2. I had three promotions in my four years of experience. How many bullet points should there be in each one of them, considering one line for a role description, [at-least] one for tasks accomplished, and one for a major achievement?

3. I had some major achievements in my previous education, which was again from a target university but a different country. How many points should I have for my previous education?

4. Should I mention my high-school? In my opinion, I should not because I do not have space for it anyways.

5. Should I introduce my previous employer because it is not a well-known employer although in management consulting?

6. Minimum font size within the CV. I think it should be 10 Times New Roman.

7. Any constraints on margins? Should the margins be the same in Cover letter as well?

Thank you all for your inputs!

(edited)

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Udayan
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Aug 28, 2020
Top rated Case & PEI coach/Multiple real offers/McKinsey EM in New York /12 years recruiting experience

Hi,

Answers below

1. You can start with either, at 4 years you have the option to do both

2. I recommend you keep work exprience to 3 or 4 bullets max per work ex. You do not need one buller per promotion ,you can talk about all 3 in the last bullet where you talk about your accomplishment! (good job by the way thats impressive)

3. Keep it standard - I would have one bullet per achievement type (e.g., Deans lists and other merit lists can be separate by semi colons in one sentence) BUT any major ones get their own bullet (e.g., class valedictorian)

4. No

5. Yes of course! All employment should be part of your resume!

6. Aim for 12

Feel free to DM me for a free resume template you can use.

All the best,

Udayan

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Anonymous replied on Aug 30, 2020

Dear A,

I have an example if a good CV and Cover letter for consulting with my comments inside.

Drop me a line and I can share it with you, so that may serve you as an inspiration.

Best,
André

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3
ran on May 27, 2023

Could you send me your examples? Would greatly appreciate

Clara
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Aug 29, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

1. Should I put my work experience at the top or education? > In your case work experience since it´s relevant.

2. I had three promotions in my four years of experience. How many bullet points should there be in each one of them, considering one line for a role description, [at-least] one for tasks accomplished, and one for a major achievement? > Those 3 lines indeed seem good.

3. I had some major achievements in my previous education, which was again from a target university but a different country. How many points should I have for my previous education? > As many as needed to detail all the relevant achievements. There is no recipie for this.

4. Should I mention my high-school? In my opinion, I should not because I do not have space for it anyways. > Absolutely no

5. Should I introduce my previous employer because it is not a well-known employer although in management consulting? > Which one is it?

6. Minimum font size within the CV. I think it should be 10 Times New Roman. > Yes

7. Any constraints on margins? Should the margins be the same in Cover letter as well? > No, and indeed many times margins get reduced.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

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Marco-Alexander
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Content Creator
updated an answer on Dec 01, 2021
Former BCG | Case author for efellows book | Experience in 6 consultancies (Stern Stewart, Capgemini, KPMG, VW Con., Hor

.

(edited)

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Frank Kaus replied on Aug 10, 2021

A quality resume is the key to successful employment. Of course, it is necessary to specify the work experience and education. Read the monster review https://resumeservicescan.com/monster-review, I think you can use it. The service is very interesting and attractive by its approach. In general, I am very happy with it, maybe you can use it too.

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Ken
Expert
replied on Sep 03, 2020
Ex-McKinsey final round interviewer | Executive Coach

A strong CV is about balance (e.g., academic excellence AND interesting extra-curricular, quantitive AND conceputal thinking, etc.) and so I would keep that in mind as you refine your CV.

1. Since you will be a candiate from campus recruiting, I would put education as that is how your recruiter is going to categorise your application

2. I would think more about what you want to emphasise - e.g., promotion to a people management role, diversity of experience, exceptional performance, etc. and structure accordingly. My personal rule of thumb is to use individual lines/bullets to illustrate a skill that an MBB would value, e.g., team leadership, analytical thinking, senior communication, etc. together with the scale of impact your action has had

3. Again it depends but would keep it simple unless you are short of things to include (which I sense is not a problem for you). You don't need to list every single medal and trophy you received to make the point that you were top of your class etc.

4. Perhaps only if you studied in the UK. A typical question for UK postgrad students for a London office recruiter is the connection and fit with the UK. I might be slightly dated on this one but it used to be an important factor when the MBBs were smaller and less diverse with recruiting

5. Yes, a brief intro (e.g., a few words in brackets) is typical to help the reader get a sense of the company

6. 10 already feels quite small. The larger the better and a great tip is thinking about getting the important things 'above the fold'

7. Not something I would worry about

Hope this helps!

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Ian
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Content Creator
replied on Sep 01, 2020
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate
  1. Education first
  2. A few things:
    1. You can either indicate the role changes in the title (i.e. with a hyphen), or you can split the roles out within the company...shoot me a message and I can show you the formatting options
    2. There's no hard and fast rule for how many...it's 1-3 and it depends on how impactful it was
    3. You do not need role description...it's wasted space! Description is implied/articulated in your achievements/responsibilities within your bullets
  3. 1-3. If you have more achievements than that, consider putting them at the bottom of the CV under some combinations of Achievements, Awards, Certtifications, Extracirricular Activities, etc.
  4. No
  5. No...it's implied in your bullet points
  6. 10 is ideal...some wiggle room depending on athestics
  7. 2 cm left and right....some wiggle room depending on athestics

If you need a deep-dive review or a killer template don't hesitate to shoot me a message!

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Eduardo on Jul 27, 2023

Hello Ian, would you mind sending me your templates? Thank you very much!

Ian on Jul 27, 2023

Comes as part of coaching!

Udayan gave the best answer

Udayan

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Top rated Case & PEI coach/Multiple real offers/McKinsey EM in New York /12 years recruiting experience
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