Consulting Resume Examples | Technology, Management & Strategy Consultants

Writing a consulting resume presents unique challenges, mostly because of the multifaceted nature of the consulting profession. Consultants are expected to possess a broad range of skills, from problem-solving and analytical abilities to excellent communication and project management.

Capturing this diverse skill set in a concise and compelling resume can be daunting. The challenge is not just listing skills and experiences but also demonstrating how these attributes have been effectively applied in various projects. Consultants often work on multiple projects, sometimes across different industries and with varied teams. This breadth of experience needs to be distilled into a few pages, highlighting the most relevant and impactful work. Yet, presenting the various projects in the traditional reverse chronological style of a resume is usually not the best strategy.

This technology consultant presented a major challenge as he had three possible objectives with this resume. For more than 12 years as an expert in IT and telecom solutions for hospitals and healthcare organizations, he earned a comfortable living through his own independent consulting firm. However, he was concerned that the industry was changing and that he may need to adapt his approach to continue to prosper in his specialty. He felt there were three possible paths:

• Use the resume in his efforts to build more business for his own consulting firm
• Seek out partnership opportunities with another small consulting firm that offered complementary services.
• Land a job with a larger consulting firm

It is difficult to handle three goals in a single resume. But as many of the same results and benefits would appeal to all these audiences, we believed these were similar enough to create a single master resume that would be customized to align with individual job targets as necessary.

The first page of the consulting resume provides an overview and summary of the consultant’s skills and qualifications, along with some of the big-picture benefits he produces for clients. The rest of the resume showcases some of the more recent and significant projects he has worked on, written using a structured Challenge-Action-Resume (CAR) format.  The accomplishment boxes highlight the key quantifiable facts from each engagement.

The result is a very compelling and attention-getting consulting resume that is organized in a format that is easy to read while calling out the proven potential of this technology consultant to deliver a strong return on investment.

How do you write a management consultant resume?

The answer may be simpler than you think: The same way you write any other resume.

Think of your audience first. What is important to your audience? This senior management consultant was targeting positions with other consulting firms. In this consultant resume sample, we focused on the aspects of her experience that we determined were her greatest selling points. These included:

1. Her accomplishments in developing client relationships and bringing in new business to the firms she worked for
2. Her thought leadership in her field, leading to the development of new practice areas and more revenue
3. Her skillful management and delivery of successful consulting engagements
4. Her talent for mentoring and developing junior consultants

With the four selling points above in mind, we developed the sample consulting resume you see here. This consulting resume clearly calls out the extraordinary accomplishments of this management consultant in all of these areas. The result was a highly effective management consultant resume.

Note that rather than be redundant in describing job responsibilities for each position, similar positions were grouped together. This technique gave us more room for focusing the consulting resume on the most important points. Also, notice the balanced emphasis on results (to appeal to the human reader) and resume keywords and phrases (for optimal performance if your resume is entered into an ATS).

We write many resumes at Distinctive Career Services, including management consulting resumes plus other resumes for freelancers and contractors; this resume example is just a sample of our work. If you need help, we highly recommend booking a call with us. This will give us a chance to discuss your resume writing needs and determine if our services are a good fit. Of course, we’ll also be happy to answer any questions that you have.

The third example consulting resume shown here is an example of a strategy consultant resume that is unique for a few reasons. This senior-level marketing manager/director had recently earned her MBA from a prestigious university and wished to return to her previous career path–the consulting work she had done early in her career.

How do you handle a situation like that in your resume? The preferred reverse chronological format buried all her previous work history as a consultant on page 3. The hiring manager will never even get that far, will they? The answer is that yes, they will. But only if you focus the resume so that it is clear it is a strategy consulting resume. For example, writing a powerful summary section that calls to the front and showcases all the most relevant consulting experience, even though that is from her early career. That is precisely what we have done.

Also, note that we haven’t just called out relevant strategy consulting qualifications and traits. Her profile is very specific and includes quantified accomplishment examples to “prove” and illustrate her resume’s claims.

This example strategy consulting resume also shows a powerful technique that can be used if your references have written referrals.  We’ve used sidebars in this resume to highlight some of this client’s most impressive referrals, which we strategically selected to highlight some of the most important selling points.