Importance of the Resume
The standard 1-page resume is the firm’s first impression of you and gives you the opportunity to differentiate yourself from other candidates. Be prepared to walk an interviewer through your experiences and talk to each point. It should showcase your recent accomplishments while being clear and concise.
The resume should not be a laundry list of everything you’ve ever done.
RESUME TIPS
Typical resume structure
The standard 1-page resume has 4 main parts:
Education
Showcase your awards, recognitions, GPA, notable courses, etc.
Experiences
Highlight your professional and study-oriented career thus far, ensuring you emphasize your accomplishments (see below).
Community Involvement
Demonstrate your passions and compassions through extra-curricular involvement and volunteering.
Personal Interests
Being a well-rounded person with an interesting story and personable is the finishing touch to a successful candidate.
General tips
Write bullet points as “Accomplishment Statements” (see below).
Use all of the real estate on the page.
Be consistent with font sizes, font styles, spacing, bullet points, alignment, punctuation, date formatting, abbreviations, etc.
Always write in 3rd person and maintain a professional tone.
Proofread for grammar and spelling mistakes!
Accomplishment statements
RATS stands for Results, Actions, Task, Situation.
Results
Ensure that your statements start with a verb and showcases both qualitative and quantitative results.
Actions
Demonstrate the relevant skills for consulting and your actions should align to your results.
Task/Situation
Paint the context or describe the challenge, but stay concise. Interviewers care more about what you did than what was going on.
Resumes are often skimmed through very quickly, therefore it is important to ensure your most impactful achievements are easy to pick out from the page.
By using the RATS format, each of your bullet points will begin with your achievements, giving your resume the consistent structure that allows the interviewer to effortlessly see your biggest accomplishments first.