Got rejected from one MBB and T2 without an interview. Was wondering whether you guys could help me figure out what was wrong with my resume or general profile before I apply to the other MBBs/T2s. I go to a decent target school and transferred from my local state university.
I see everyone worrying about casing but I can't even land a basic R1 interview lmao
| +70 | Q&A: McKinsey BA | 90 | 10h | |
| +30 | FP&A -> RX Consulting | 4 | 2d | |
| +18 | Starting Fractional CFO - Consulting | 1 | 4h | |
| +15 | Imperial MSc Economics and Strategy for Business for London consulting | 17 | 1d | |
| +11 | Sophomore wanting to break into management consulting – would love advice | 3 | 34m | |
| Bocconi-Fudan MIM or ESCP-Shanghai Jiao Tong MIM | 1 | 10h | ||
| +9 | Can I break into MBB consulting | 2 | 1d | |
| +1 | PwC Deals vs Accenture Strategy | 2 | 1d | |
| 0 | MD -> MBB? | 1 | 2d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
Hey, thank you for your thorough feedback. I really appreciate it.
To clarify, do you think I should focus more on specifying the impact each of my actions had to make my bullets more of a quantified impact story? Like instead of saying "Designed company pitch deck for presentation to VCs", I should say "Designed company pitch deck for presentation to VCs to acquire seed funding—secured initial funding meetings with 3 VC firms"? Do you think ensuring every bullet point has something like this would fix the first problem you mentioned and showcase my strengths/meaningful experiences?
Also, I do have some bullet points I could add for the extracurricular activities at the bottom, but it would go onto the 2nd page. To make space, do you think I should get rid of the projects section especially since it's more technical/STEM which isn't that directly relevant for business/consulting roles? I added it for more of the engineering-related roles I was applying to as a backup
Thanks so much
Honestly, I think you have a really good start but do agree with the comment above. Some of your formatting is not traditional, and for a recruiter reading dozens and dozens of resumes, even one inconvenience and you're likely thrown out (at least that is what I was always told). For example, academic awards should go under education and key skills & interests should be at the very bottom; right now, your skills are smack in the middle. I would just recommend using the WSO template and transferring your content (maybe light edits to make it sound impact-driven). Good luck!
I think resume formatting is an overrated concern. You should just move it to a more standardized form, but rest assured, there's zero chance a consultant reviewing this resume actually said "uhh, awards are in a weird spot, DINGED".
You have a solid basis, but I think as mentioned, key gaps here are:
(1) Apparently zero involvement outside of class
(2) Very weak bullets - if it reads like a narration of your responsibilities, you should restructure to focus on your personal impact
(3) GPA is good but not standout, so academics don't outweigh other shortcomings
I think (1) is the biggest roadblock - might be a correlation / causation issue, but I frankly have not seen any MBBers with zero non-academic involvement.
MBBs typically evaluate the resume for academics, work experience, and leadership/extracurriculars.
Academics - A 3.6 GPA is on the lower end. 3.7+ is preferred.
Work experience - High quality, relevant internships. This is your strength
Leadership/extracurriculars - This is likely where you got dinged. I see no evidence of involvement outside of the classroom aside from some minor stuff in a pitch competition and the entrepreneurship program.
It also might have been something outside of the resume review process. Perhaps you didn't do any networking with consultants at the firm, or perhaps you did and there were some red flags that the consultant ended up flagging to the recruiter
As mentioned above, the key crux of the resume is the weak bullet points. Back in my undergrad career, I overestimated my bullet points and applied to ~50 internships with my resume which converted to zero interviews. After a mentor had the brutal honesty to say "this is a compilation of crap, here's a resume format, please start over.", I began receiving far greater traction.
If you'd like to have your resume grilled - shoot me a DM and I can help fix the bullet point wording.
Essentially, a bullet point should not cover the job description or even the day-to-day tasks, but the workstreams altogether. They should highlight three things:
- What the workstream or job function was
- How you completed it
- The impact it made to the organization or yourself.
Take the first bullet point of the Traditionally-Funded Search Fund as an example.
- The bullet point was "performed SWOT analyses of prospective industries for business acquisition through IBISWrld industry research reports.
- That leaves the reviewer asking a few questions:
- How many SOWT analyses did you run? 2? 50? 100?
- What industries did you cover? Was there a sector focus or was the search fund sector agnostic? Was there a specific acquisition strategy you were adhering to?
- What came of the SWOT analyses? Did any of the research reports you pushed forth become acquisition targets? Was your supervisor impressed with you ability to discern key strengths of a company against another? Did you yourself become more aware of differentiating industry-specific strengths and company-specific strengths? Why did you do it and what impact did your work hold in the organization?
A good bullet point answers the above (within reason) so that the reviewer is not guessing what the details entailed. You want to make it really easy for someone to review your resume to give you points. You have to assume they know nothing of the industry, your work, or experiences AND have maybe 30-60 seconds to skim through your resume.
To re-write the above, you could take on this approach:
- "Diligently performed SWOT analyses of 3 prospective industries for business acquisition through synthesizing key insights from the IBISWorld Industry database and extensive analytical research furthering the firm's understanding of the US cannabis, pharmaceutical and consumer-packaged goods industries.
I'm not saying the above is the end-all, be-all of resume bullet points, but it answers a few more questions. The transferrable skill is you research skills, the benefit to the company is to further their research into three industries that may become business acquisition targets and the quantifiable number, 3 SWOT analyses over three industries allows the interviewer to not have to guess how many you wrote up.
Other aspects like resume formatting is all minor. It's just an "oh, that's different, well, continuing" moment for reviewers.
Agree with a lot of this, only caveat is that there is generally a bit more leeway on work experience for undergrad applicants. I would be surprised if this was the reason they were not interviewed
MBB looks for out of classroom involvement, primarily leadership.
Would recommend looking at people from your college who got interviews and offers and see what they did outside of the class.
A few honest comments:
1. Your GPA is good, but you are competing against people with equal or higher grades - it’s a competitive pool
2. Need some quantified experience in your description
3. No leadership experience, which is super important for undergrad hires
Et nam illum nihil nam. Vero modi veniam magnam. Omnis repellendus asperiores enim sit quia rerum et.
Dolores ducimus similique nostrum molestiae asperiores sed aliquam. Dolores optio velit vel aut suscipit. Sint omnis consequatur veritatis dolores officiis sit error ipsum. Odio deserunt in aspernatur ut.
Quos ut quam voluptatem quibusdam necessitatibus quae dolor cupiditate. Sunt rerum non culpa numquam nihil ex. Ad quos et quod et est.
Omnis error sint dolorum quam architecto. Et adipisci sequi ipsa fugit id. Id rerum saepe quia eos ut aut non.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...