Creating a Winning Résumé

[alee228]

Originally posted here.

Note: Thank you to Robert Chiu for making this post possible.

1. The importance of a résumé
A résumé is a document which summarises your background and accompanies your cover letter as part of your job application.  The résumé is important because it helps you to win an interview and will probably be used by the company to compare you against other applicants.

2. Personalise your résumé

• Be direct: clearly state your results and achievements
• Tell a compelling story: be mindful of how the experience and activities you mention in your CV affect the story that you are trying to tell about yourself. For example, if all of your experience highlights your analytical skills, you would want to make sure that your extra-curricular activities highlight other qualities, such as your communication and team work skills
• Easy on the buzzwords: avoid unnecessary jargon and technical language. Your résumé should be easy to understand.

According to Mariam Naficy, qualities to emphasise in your consulting résumé include:

1. Evidence of intellectual curiosity e.g. research thesis
2. Analytical skills
3. Communication skills e.g. member of the university debating team
4. Business skills e.g. starting a small business
5. Enjoyment of travel (include this information under “Personal”)
6. Team work skills e.g. university group assignments, work experience
7. Language skills

3. Structure your résumé
Structuring your résumé is important.  There are a few tips to bear in mind:

• Employ consistent formatting throughout
• Place your name, address, phone number, and email address at the top of the résumé

It makes sense  to organise the information on your CV so that it portrays you in the best possible light. The firm you are applying to will be interested in the following information:

1. <Education
2. Work Experience
3. Extra-curricular Activities
4. Skills
5. Personal (optional)

3.1 Education
If you have limited work experience, place your education first. If you have won numerous honors and awards, you may want to create a separate “Honors” section rather than list all of your achievements under "Education". If your grades are not good, there are at least four ways that you can paint yourself in a more positive light:

1. Highlight your marks in a particular subject. E.g. GPA in economics of 4.0
2. Highlight your marks for particular years E.g. WAM for final year of 82
3. Highlight your marks in your major
4. Highlight your work experience. If you have relevant and impressive work experience you should highlight this in your cover letter, and provide supporting details on your résumé

3.2 Experience
Include paid jobs as well as relevant business-related extra-curricular activities; other nonpaid activities can be included under “Activities”.

There are a few tips to bear in mind:

• Arrange your experiences in a logical order (e.g. reverse chronological order)
• Outline your achievements and responsibilities
• Don’t include menial jobs, such as your stint flipping burgers at McDonald’s

3.3 Activities
Include nonpaid activities that you have undertaken outside the class-room. You may want to arrange this section in order of significance rather than reverse chronological order.

3.4 Skills
In my opinion this section is not crucial, but you should consider whether you have any special skills that would be relevant for the job e.g. computer skills, language skills.

3.5 Personal
This section is optional, and can be used to demonstrate your personality by including information which you couldn’t include anywhere else e.g. overseas travel, community service.

4. Sample résumé
To help you get started, I have prepared a sample résumé to give you an idea of what your résumé might look like when it’s finished.

[Guest]

How about a list of action verbs that ring good vibes to the hirees? (This is a good practice for resumes sent to American firms.) I think that would be good inclusions to your excessively impressive candidate.

Also, under jobs, instead of saying what you did and why it's impressive, (which is already a good reason to hire you because it's a nice introduction to prospective clients) an alternative is to look to describe your experiences as it relates to consulting. You could be flipping burgers, but found that having the process automated could save the firm from having an extra shift during rush hours, and hence saved $XX,XXX dollars a year for the firm. (Focus on the measurable impact you made)

Highlight those activities in a way that demonstrates analytical skills, client-end skills, teamwork. personal-drive, etc.

After your resume is read, typically the reviewer will think in their mind... "Can I see this person working in my project team?"

As Tom noted, if you tell the story that your day-to-day activities is what lead to your strong interest in consulting, then you have a winner.

[alee228]

If you are preparing your CV then will absolutely want to refer to the "LBS Guidelines for preparing your CV".

You can access a copy here (note pdf may download automatically).

This will only be available for 1 week, so download it now if you want it.