This message was shared by the UVA Career Center for those students interested in management consulting careers. This is message #2 of 3 in the series. For additional information, see Collab/ECO Resources/Vault Guides/Consulting Careers and the ECO website’s Industry Overviews in the “Management Consulting” section.
Now that you know more about the consulting industry and have a few firms in mind to research, let us talk more about getting prepared for recruiting. This email will focus on building out your materials and upskilling as you prepare for the recruiting process.
Important Process Update:
Many of the top firms have accelerated their timelines to include deadlines a month or two earlier than previous years. Firms like BCG, Bain and McKinsey have first round application deadlines the second week of July, some of these are posted in Handshake while others are not. Be sure to check the "Careers" page of these organizations to stay in touch with their requirements and deadlines. There are also secondary deadlines in place in the early September period if you miss the July application period. If you have questions, come in and see us!
Create and Update Your Branding Materials:
The resume is a key indicator into your skills set and how it might align with the consulting industry. It is vital that you spend time refining it to the skills recruiters are looking for and the specific role you are applying to. In addition to the resume, your social media presence is also an important aspect of the recruiting process.
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Resume & Cover Letter – Check out the Hoos Career Guide for tips on how to organize your resume and cover letter. Emphasize analytical abilities, experience in teams, communication skills, leadership/management experiences, and a history of achieving results. The consulting page on the Career Center website also has suggestions from firms on resume structure.
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VMock is a 24-7 online resume review tool, that leverages data science, machine learning, and natural language processing to provide instant personalized feedback. When you upload your resume, the platform assesses components such as action verbs, format, and how well the 5 core competencies (analytical, communication, leadership, teamwork and initiative) are reflected in your document
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LinkedIn – Create or update your LinkedIn account. Learn more about how to organize your profile and use Vmock’s Aspire feature to make sure it is getting noticed by recruiters.
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Social media – Clean up your social media accounts! Google your name to ensure that whatever populates is something you are comfortable with employers seeing.
Make sure that your resume and cover letter have been reviewed by a career counselor. Each career services office also has career counseling available over the summer so it is never too early to have a second set of eyes on your materials. Check here for more information: Commerce Career Services, Economics Career Office, Center for Engineering Career Development, Batten Career Services, UVA Career Center.
Build Relevant Skills
Both LinkedIn Learning and Coursera provide opportunities to build up your skills in a way that can boost your resume.
If you are not familiar with LinkedIn Learning, it provides you with the opportunity to take advantage of an extensive library of learning content, directly from your LinkedIn profile. Check out this page from the library on how to get started.
While there are numerous skills to focus on, here are a few highlights to consider that are consulting focused.