Please help me on my resume!
Hi all,
Could you please review my resume (note that it hase more pages!!): http://www.razume.com/documents/27242
I have done some job applications, got to the 4th round where I had interviews with 6 partners, but all say that they can't find any ''soft skills'' on my resume. They won't change their mind after scanning my resume and after I do a presentation, which I find distracting. How could I show on my resume that I possess soft skills? It is a resume for corporate finance or Consultancy jobs.
Any other tips? Thank you very very much!
Wer
My interpretation of "soft skills" is basically non-technical, i.e. fit. You need to show you can lead and work with teams and basically make them like you in the interview.
Having looked at your CV I have 3 things to suggest:
1) Bring it down to 1 page (taking out pre-university education will help as well as taking out all the information on your degrees, all you need is Subject and Grade) 2) More detail on the leadership roles - "Led a small team" is not worthy of a bullet point 3) You have written "Lead" and "Led" - these should both be "Lead".
Master of SCIENCE in Real Estate Management ?
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what Asatar said,
"Led a small team" is hardly enough detail, unless you purposefully decided not to include more
+
Your tenses are off in so many cases
Thanks Asatar! Is it really that important to have a 1 page resume instead of 2? I have heard from many recruiters that more information is often appreciated because then they get a better view from you as a person. I have worked in teams from the beginning of my bachelor until the first year of my master. This means 8 projects, each lasting 6 months, which took about 30 hours/week (bachelor and master were really focused on group work). Should I put this somewhere on my resume to solve part of the problem? If so, where and how? What I heard from partners is that they want to see that I have interpersonal skills, that I can convince others, etc. This could be in the form of leading/working for a student organization, but I have chosen to do two studies simultaneously at the cost of the student organization.
What I have heard from McKinsey before was that I can do all the research, financial modeling, analysis, etc. probably better than 90% of the other juniors but that they doubt whether they could send me to every client to explain everything clear and easily. This is where I want to improve. In what possible way could this be? I have thought of leadership programs, setting-up an own company or maybe even go as far as getting involved in political debates if that does the job. How have you guys developed this aspect? It's not that I am that nerd that isn't social to anyone, don't understand me wrong. I like to hang out with friends, do sports, go to clubs/bars as much as possible. It is just that these ''soft skills'' are weaker when compared with my technical skills.
I would say 1 page is ideal, but you COULD get away with having that 3rd Razume page showcasing all your educational stuff as it is quite detailed.
What you have to remember is that theoretically anyone can learn to do consulting / IBD / other jobs, whereas not everyone can be fun to work with. Showing you are a fun individual who can work in a team is extremely important. I would say political debates wont really help you and you can't put "going to bars" on your CV. Most of this will come across in your actual interview and that will depend on you as a person, your state of relaxation and practice. Getting more teamwork and leadership positions listed can't hurt either.
Adding detail to your current positions, fixing some of the grammar etc should be a priority right now.
My initial impression is that the resume goes into too much detail about all the unnecessary stuff and not enough detail about the really important ones.
You have 6 months experience as a hedge fund analyst and you've only got 4 of the most brief points for it? That's a crime. It's probably the single most significant part of your profile and yet the resume barely places any focus on it.
For now you're simply stating the task you did, you need to follow each with the result. Also as many have said about things like "Led a small team", it's just too brief. You need to be more specific, what did you lead them to do? What was the task in hand that you were leading the team in? What did you get out of the task in the end? How did it benefit the job/company you're working for?
By the way there's no need to say it was a SMALL team, just say you led a team, otherwise it kind of undermines it. I would strongly advice you to avoid using the specific details which have the effect of limiting the scale of your task, just as in the case above.
Oh and yes your tenses are inconsistent, some are present and others are in past. However the above post is incorrect in saying that it should be "Lead". Led is the form of the past tense. "Lead" is only read as "Led" when referring to the metal.
Strictly speaking, resumes must be 1 page for these applications. But you're in the Netherlands and you say you reached as far as the 4th round so maybe longer resumes are the norm over there. If you're looking to apply in London then it must absolutely be 1 page though.
Your education section should not be taking most of the space on your resume. As a rough guide, as a recent graduate the page should be around 25% name/details + education, 50% work experience, 25% skills/interests. As an experienced professional it would be more like 80% work experience.
The format is hurting my eyes. Call me OCD or whatever but the alignment is wrong. You need to align all of the text with the sub-headings/black lines to the left. The date and location should be aligned with the end point of the black lines. The location text starts at the same point as the date, when it should be aligned completely to the right so that it ends at the same point as the date.
There is a lot to improve on here in terms of content, you need to emphasise your work experience especially the 6 month stint at the HF. You also need to start being more concise and not waffle too much about things. Unless you're auditioning for water polo team, you do not need to give your entire life achievements in that. One line with your best achievement alongside will suffice.
You also need to add more variety. The swimming, fitness, running, tennis line is just 4 things telling the same one thing, that you like to keep fit. You haven't got a well rounded interests section.
Hope this helps.
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