How to Write a Management Consultant CV

When you produce your Management Consultant CV, you need to convey a number of different messages to an employer.

You must consider all of these messages before you start your CV, omitting any one of several layers and you could find yourself missing out on some very interesting and lucrative new contracts.

If you need help producing your Management Consultant CV, then you might want to think about using our professional CV writing company.

Bradley CVs is well-versed in expertly writing CVs for management consultants and understand what employers expect to see in your CV.

What Must You Include In Your Management Consultant CV?

1. You have to demonstrate your knowledge of management and show that it is applicable to their industry or area.
2. You also need to convince the reader that as a Management Consultant, you can analyse problems and conceive solutions.
3. At the same time, you need to present evidence of your previous success in this undertaking.
4. The employer must be convinced of your leadership abilities, as you will be persuading and convincing at every level.
5. You need to make a successful marketing document rather than a long, boring list of contracts.
6. You have to convince the employer that you are the best person for the role and that you are worth the fee they are paying or you are asking them to pay.

We will now consider these challenges one by one to enable you to apply for the management consultancy jobs that you desire.

Management Knowledge on a Management Consultant CV

It is likely that you will have worked in management roles before becoming a consultant and have also undertaken some business or consultancy training. This all needs to be clearly documented on your Management Consultant CV.

It is insufficient to simply list these facts and roles - you must convince the employer that you are truly 'inside' this subject area. Here are just some of the areas you need to cover:

• Strategic planning, as management consultants have to be able to see the bigger picture.
• Developing business through pioneering strategies, innovative solutions and creative responses to challenges, utilising industry specific skills as well as skills as leaders.
• Financial planning, in terms of understanding past performance and projecting future performance.
• Decision making, even when difficult.
• Managing change, both positive and negative, while maintaining organisational stability.
• Managing and motivating people.
• Communication at all levels, verbally and in written form.

As professional CV writers when we write a Management Consultant CV, we feel it is essential to identify every single area of your management knowledge and experience. Depending on the contract you are applying for, you must select the most relevant points.

Consultancy Skills on Your Management Consultant CV

In addition to your management knowledge and skills, you must demonstrate that you can utilise this knowledge in a consultancy role on a Management Consultant CV.

Frequently, this involves looking at organisations and identifying areas where problems or imbalances reside, in order to heighten efficiency and maximise profitability.

It might involve working in a merger or acquisition scenario in order to oversee a process of significant change. Whatever the consultancy, you have to show that you can look at, evaluate and analyse an existing situation, before making meaningful recommendations that are realistic and which can be put into practice.

Consultants must be able to respond to a brief, looking at the whole picture, knowing how to respond to what they see and what to do in order to shape or reshape that picture in the future. They need to be able to listen to all sides of discussions, analyse data and information, evaluate findings, and project these into future outcomes. A particular strength is being able to do this in highly pressurised situations without losing their ability to think clearly.

This means understanding an organisation's direction, how that filters through to medium and short term planning, and finally to day-to-day tasks. Objectives must be converted to strategies and actions that satisfy the brief. This leads to results that are directly or ultimately in line with the organisation's goals - these must be clearly signposted on a Management Consultant CV.

Looking forward, the consultant can interpret all the conditions that impact upon or impacted by the measures they recommend. Crises can occur and managers may need to lay off members of the workforce. These are major decisions that may not win friends for the consultant. The consultant must therefore work with high levels of integrity and consistency, earning their client's respect.

Employment and Contract History on a Management Consultancy CV

It is not enough to simply mention all the knowledge, skills and attributes you possess as both manager and consultant - it must be evidenced through your track record. Unlike a regular CV, a management consultant's CV needs to be more than a list of contracts completed.

Not all of your previous contracts will be relevant, so you need to ascertain the most important factors relating to each position that you apply for and angle your CV accordingly. Yes, this means having a different CV for each position.

You will need to pick a small number of contracts that are most relevant to the one you are applying for. Under the Employment or Career History section, you can either state that you have worked on a certain number of contracts during a particular period, listing only the relevant ones. A full list can be included as an attachment or appendix to your Management Consultant CV.

Alternatively, if you have been placed on contracts via an agency or larger consultancy firm, you can enter a line stating that you were with this organisation, along with inclusive dates. It is important to focus only on the important contracts from the past decade, without allowing the employer to misapprehend that there are gaps in your employment. For the contracts that you do include, provide a basic overview of your duties, with major projects and outcomes clearly defined.

These contracts should also provide the material for your Achievements section. Your five or six achievements should also be emphasising your key strengths in management and also as a consultant. Each should be supported with facts and figures, linking directly to your input as a consultant working on the project, service, venture, etc.

In this way, you can highlight the leadership and management skills that you used to achieve the results. If your work is technical, it is important to include a Skills section on the front page of your Management Consultancy CV. This can go beneath the Achievements section and before the Employment History section.

Your Leadership Abilities on a Management Consultant CV

Leadership skills are important to the management consultant, for they usually require other managers to follow their recommendations. Leadership skills are soft skills, the personal attributes that motivate other people and make them wish to work alongside or with the leader, rather than acting purely through compliance or obedience.

Words inferring your leadership qualities should pepper a Management Consultant CV and infuse your writing with a confident, professional tone. The recruiter can thereby gain a sense of your personality, how you work and the strengths that you engage, while the evidence offered by your achievements shows the solid results that occur when your consultancy, management and leadership skills and qualities combine.

Here are some ways in which you can further strengthen your achievements on a Management Consultant CV:

• When referring to a result gained, place it in context with the organisational goals that were also furthered.
• When relating a key decision that you made, briefly mention the considerations that were involved and which you had to evaluate. Include crisis situation decisions - dealing with major problems and limiting damage is an important aspect of management and leadership. Remember that recruiters want to reduce risk as far as possible when appointing consultants.
• When highlighting any leadership or management skills, be specific. Do not just mention but narrow the focus to how you use them, when you use them and to what effect.

An Effective Format For Your Management Consultant's CV

As already stated, a Management Consultant's CV should not be a tedious list of contracts, but should be a powerful marketing document that packs a punch by addressing all the recruiter's needs.

A variation on the chronological CV format is usually recommended by CV writing professionals, as this provides the simplest format that most recruiters can follow with ease.

A hybrid version that includes an Achievements section is essential, as it allows you to truly colour your experience and persuade the recruiter that you will be able to achieve sound results for them too.

Here is a brief outline of the adapted Chronological, or Performance CV, looking briefly at each section (from top to bottom of the document) along with some key tips for a great Management Consultant CV.

1. Contact Details

Include your name in a large font. This will help recruiters to register your name, as well as the confidence with which you present yourself. Ensure you have a highly professional sounding email address.

2. Management Consultant CV Profile

This is where you can really convey your personality. It must be professional, confident and robust. Follow the 'rule of three' by highlighting your three most relevant - and marketable - experience areas, leadership and management skills, and attributes.

Research each vacancy and amend your profile accordingly. Focus your Management Consultant CV on what you can offer, rather than what you personally want.

3. Achievements on a Management Consultant CV

Really stamp your individuality into the recruiter's mind with an impressive set of highly relevant accomplishments on your Management Consultant CV. A prestigious role with a leading, well-known employer is worth including, as is a business start-up that succeeded.

Active language will emphasise the fact that you made things happen. Research key words and phrases that you can engage on consultancy websites - keywords and buzzwords will strengthen your whole CV if intelligently used.

4. Management Consultant CV Employment History

When creating detailed entries for relevant contracts, try to create further achievements for each bullet point. Forget about duties - results are what count on a Management Consultant CV.

Remember to tie these to your relevant strengths, but try to avoid creating near identical achievements for each contract detailed. The most relevant come first, but after that you can back these up with broader accomplishments.

5. Skills (Technical Sectors Only) on Your Management Consultant CV

Insert a table so that you can include two to three technical skills across the page width. Focus on the most important and include those that also highly marketable. Avoid endless lists of redundant or little used, irrelevant skills.

6. Education and Training

Include only your college or university, along with the qualification and results on a Management Consultant CV. The title of a thesis or dissertation is worth including, if you are prepared to talk about it at interview. Postgraduate study and certified training should also be included, especially if it relates to your consultancy work.

Do not go overboard with very short, one or two day in-house courses, including these only if they truly add to your application. Otherwise, stick to what really matters and says something about your scope as a consultant.

7. Personal Information

It is no longer conventional to include personal information, due to anti-discrimination legislation.

If you do include these details, you risk appearing out of touch and your Management Consultant CV may appear unprofessional.

However, if you feel some personal information will actually strengthen your application, then you could consider including it.

This might be sports or unpaid activities that demonstrate leadership or team qualities, as well as a genuinely motivated personality. Be prepared to answer questions on these at interview.

How Do You Become The Best Candidate?

Your ultimate challenge, then, is to produce a superb Management Consultant CV that pulls all of the above concerns together. It is, of course, possible to do so. However, to really shine and stand out from the other candidates, you need to polish and refine the end results.

This involves writing fluently, utilising strong sentence construction and good grammar. This is no place for spelling mistakes that will only put the recruiter off by making you look slipshod.

Powerful language, usually in the form of active verbs, will help you to come across as a more proactive and focused consultant whose actions have purpose and direction. Such words are effective in expressing and describing your leadership, management and analytical skills.

'Buzzwords' will also confer industry specific knowledge to a Management Consultant CV. If you have management experience in the sector you're applying to, then you will probably be familiar with the language already. There is a skill in using buzzwords effectively, so that they stand out in the early stages of the recruitment process (such as electronic scanning and searching) without being over used and detracting from the professionalism of your CV.

Avoid the use of clichés as, again, the experienced recruiter will notice these and mentally switch off. If you are unsure, there are many websites that offer guidance to current power words, as well as the ones to avoid.

Finally, ensure that you have your Management Consultant's CV prepared in a number of formats, so that you can respond exactly to the recruiter's requirements. A standard Word document, text only and ASCII formats are all requested at times, so give your CV a trial run in each to check that it retains its formatting, especially when emailed.

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