McKinsey resume preparation

guidelines
Aspects evaluated in a candidate:
1. Leadership and Teamwork: Does the candidate show instances of
building and leading teams or working in diverse team structures
2. Drive: Is the candidate able to overcome obstacles, take risks, and
achieve outstanding results
3. Problem solving: Can the candidate think logically, think creatively,
reflect on numbers, handle ambiguity and unstructured problems
4. Personal Impact: Does the candidate positively influence, listen to,
understand and respond well to others

McKinsey looks for a hygiene in all the above factors and a spike in at-
least one

Three aspects of a good CV:

1. Structure:
a. Format and sections: Preferably standard ISB structure/format:
Acads -> Work Ex -> Extra Curr
b. Ordering within sections:
i. Acads: Use chronological order for educational
qualifications
ii. Work Ex:
1. Use chronological to showcase experience across
multiple companies or variety of job roles
2. Can use skill based to show variety in experience in
same company
3. Put last designation first, or only use last designation
within a firm
c. Section size: The relative size of the sections should justify their
relative importance in your story (however, dont make any
section too small or big)
i. Add an Awards/Achievements sub-sections if strong
ii. Build a theme for extra-curricular (E.g. Quizzing and then
highlight several points under it)
 d. Flow: Make sure that the bullet points are correctly classified
under the sections to which they belong. Make sure pointers in a
heading flow from one another

2. Content:
a. Completeness
i. Make sure the top 3 qualities that make your story come
out clearly in the CV
ii. People with limited insight into your background should be
able to summarize your qualities post reading your CV
b. Relevance:
i. Check if every bullet point adds to your profile
ii. Check and review weakest point in each section
iii. Review each section for hygiene factors and spikes
c. Communication:
i. Focus on outcomes from each activity (promotion, award,
cost savings, revenue enhancements, impact get real
numbers which can be defended in the interview; do not
boast)
ii. Ensure all bullet points are in a structured format (SCR
situation complication resolution)
3. Aesthetics:
a. Visual appeal:
i. Use readable and uniform font and size (10-12)
ii. Avoid overuse of bold and italics
iii. Leave adequate white space between margins and sections
b. Linguistic appeal:
i. Use simple language and short sentences
ii. Start pointers using action verbs where possible
iii. Make sure spellings and grammar is correct

Common Dos and Donts

Do(s)
1. Focus on impact and less on activity (i.e. what you achieved v/s what
you did)
2. Demonstrate balance across multiple areas and highlight
distinctiveness in one or two
3. Avoid multiple points that convey the same messages
4. Demonstrate consistent upward trajectory all the time
 5. Keep it Crisp - use active tense

Dont(s)
1. Never exceed one page
2. Do not misrepresent facts
3. Dont experiment with fonts ( keep it simple) Times new roman size 10-
12
4. Dont have any spelling/ grammatical error
5. Never indulge in story telling keep it to point and clear
6. Do not make generic statements I am an excellent team player.
Rather substantiate with facts

Some Hacks
1. 30 second test After reading for 30 seconds people should be able to
recall things that you want to communicate
2. Get people to read the bold sentences and see if the story comes out
of it
3. Keep bullets to one line; dont let them go beyond 2 lines; add sub-
bullets if necessary
4. Get as many eyeballs on your CV as possible
5. Put most impactful achievements (in bold) on the left side of the CV,
and on the top of the page
6. Keep all pointers achievement oriented neednt have a separate
section for achievement. Flow should be Result -> Action->Context
7. Convey information in a matter that is most relevant to the
reviewer/recruiter and differentiates you from others

Lastly
1. At some point of time believe it is a right content and freeze it dont
keep on reiterating it. Use advice of one final mentor.
2. Dont get bogged down with other peoples CV Have faith- We are
together in this. Start with 3 pages (put everything) and finally make it
in one