Consultant Resume Example

If you're in the field of business, have a business, or are looking to better grow and understand your business, then you've probably been searching for consultants or have been looking to become one yourself.

Essentially, consultants are problem solvers. They troubleshoot and help businesses by providing their expert opinions and strategies that are meant to help improve the specific situations businesses might find themselves in.

Consultants work very similarly to market research analysts, which the Occupational Outlook Handbook predicts is having an 18% growth rate.

With over 738,100 jobs currently available, it's important for consultants and market research analysts to present the cleanest and impressive resumes to land the jobs, and we're here to teach you to do just that.

We've done the problem solving for you, and this 8 step guide to a clean and impressive consultant resume will help you get that consultant job you've got your eye out for.

Here's what we're going to be covering:

1. How to format your resume as a consultant
2. The importance of a summary resume
3. Adding an area of expertise to your resume
4. Listing your work experience
5. Adding your education
6. Listing your skills
7. Adding languages to your resume
8. Adding any certifications you may have

1. Format your resume like a professional

There's a lot of competition in the business world, and when it comes to applying to jobs and getting an interview, there's just as much.

To truly impress hiring managers, it is crucial to correctly format your resume.

There are three ways to choose from to correctly format your resume:

1. Reverse-chronological, which emphasizes your previous work experience
2. Functional, which highlights your key skills
3. Hybrid, which combines the previous formats

As a consultant, you can work with whichever of these three formats you feel most comfortable with. If you've got tons of experience and have worked multiple consultant jobs, then having your resume formatted in reverse-chronological order can help you highlight the work you've done.

If you're new to the field and have more skills to offer than actual experience, considering selecting to format your resume in a functional way.

If you've got both and really want to impress hiring managers with your skills and experience, then going with a resume formatted in a hybrid style will help your resume not only stand out, but also look professional.

Tip: Since hiring managers are receiving a plethora of resumes and applications for their job listings, it's crucial to make your resume stand out. Make sure to look over the posted job description and implement some of the details and keywords listed when creating your resume.

Take a look at our guide on how to format your resume if you want to learn more.

2. Write an impressive resume summary

In the busy world we live in, resumes are often looked at for only 6-7 seconds. Providing hiring managers a resume summary at the top of your resume can be what takes your resume to the next level and guarantee that your resume is read.

A resume summary is a 1-2 sentence blurb that summarizes everything your resume consists of. Including shows hiring managers that you respect their time. Not to mention, it also makes your resume look more professional, which is necessary to land that consultant position.

Tip: Sometimes, it's easier to write your resume summary after you have already written your resume. That way, it's easier to pick and choose what you want to include.

Here's an example of what your resume summary can look like:

Business consultant with 6 years of experience designing, developing, and implementing strategies for a broad range of COEs and an entrepreneurial attitude towards challenges.

Here's what it should not look like:

Experienced consultant with experience in strategic design and solving challenges.

Need more help writing a professional resume summary? Our guide on writing resume summaries has tons of examples.

3. Add an area of expertise to aid with professionalism

There are many types of consultants. Here are some, just to name a few:

• Business Consultant
• Strategy Consultant
• Management Consultant
• Operations Consultant
• Financial Advisory Consultant
• Human Resource Consultant
• IT Consultant

Therefore, it is important for you to distinguish in your resume which type of consultant experience and expertise you have by adding an area of expertise section to your resume. Besides adding your specificity to your resume, add where your expertise is.

Here is what you can list in the areas of expertise section of your resume:

• Business Strategy Design, Development, and Implementation
• Project Management
• Campaign Performance Tracking
• Value Analysis
• Complex Problem Resolution

Tip: Put your areas of expertise section above your work experience so that hiring managers can know what your strengths are.

4. List your consultant work experience

It's finally time to go over what you should be putting in the work experience section of your resume, which is oftentimes the most looked at section as it determines if you are qualified for the consultant position you are applying for.

When listing your work experience, it is important to go in reverse-chronological order so hiring managers know what was your most recent job experience and what you learned or mastered in that job.

When listing your work experience, it's also important to highlight the specifics you did on the job and do so using good verbs.

Here are some job descriptions you can include in your resume under work experience as a consultant:

• Prepared business development materials to support the pursuit of new business / upsell at existing clients
• Conducted required research, market analysis, and data gathering in support of client engagements
• Conducted phone calls with executives at our clients to collect data and feedback for executive assessment engagements
• Compiled reports in support of executive development and coaching engagements
• Reviewed and editing client deliverables to ensure formatting is consistent and to correct any grammatical errors
• Provided support for the development of intellectual capital during or following project assignments
  Provided project management oversight and direction across a number of clients
• Fully owned a project stream, directly reporting to the project manager/ more experienced Senior Consultants can also act as project manager
• Supervised and mentored Associate Consultants
• Gained exposure to senior client executives through direct participation in meetings and steering committees
• Supported the design and build of new technology solutions
• Managed internal and external cross-functional stakeholders to support product development
• Leveraged business experience in identifying strategic alternatives to client questions
• Worked in a team of like-minded professionals to create reports, presentations, workshops with client employees, management teams, and other stakeholders

Want more tips and tricks on how to write your work experience description? Check out our guide on describing your work experience.

5. Add your education to your resume

To become a consultant, you need a minimum of a bachelor's degree. Even then, applicants with master's degrees or higher are more likely to get the job, especially if their degree and background are in business and business-related fields.

To assure you have a chance at getting hired, it is crucial to add your education to your resume. In fact, in consulting, your education is valued more than your skill sets.

With that said, here is how you should be listing your education in your resume:

NYU Stern School of Business

New York City, NY

2008 — 2012

MBA in Business Management

GPA: 3.8/4.0

‍Tip: Be sure to list your grade point average (GPA) as it is something hiring managers look at it. Do not list your GPA if it is below average.

Need more helping listing your education? Don't know if to include your high school education? We have a guide that will help you list your education in 2021 with examples and tips.

6. List your key skills

As a consultant, there are many key skills that will benefit your resume and help you land the job. In fact, listing impressive and relevant skills give hiring managers more reasons to hire you because, based on your resume, they know you have the qualities they may be looking for.

Here are some examples of key skills you can include in your resume as a consultant:

• Data Analysis
• Problem-solving
• Attention to Detail
• Critical Thinking
• Communication
• Strategic Design
• SEO/SEM marketing
• Cash flow management

Tip: You can also include languages as key skills if you don't have the space to make them their own section or simply don't want to. Regardless of where you put, in consulting knowing different languages can be what gets you hired.

Having trouble identifying your skills? We have a guide with 100+ key skills you can include in your resume.

7. Add a languages section to your resume

As we just mentioned, in consulting, knowing different languages can be the key element that lands you the job and helps you impress hiring managers. In fact, in consulting, speaking foreign languages is considered a matter of life or death for some companies.

Being multilingual is essential as a consultant because knowing more than one language helps to improve your verbal communication and makes you more precise and logical in your problem-solving.  

Here are some languages you can include on your resume if you know them:

• English
• Spanish
• French
• Italian
• German
• Russian
• Chinese
• Japanese
• Romanian

Tip: Next to the languages you know on your resume, add if you're fluent, advanced, intermediate or a beginner in the language to show hiring managers just how well you know the specific language.

Need more help writing the perfect resume? We have a guide that can help you do just that.

8. Highlight your certifications to show hiring managers you mean business

While not entirely necessary, if you have consulting certifications, it is a good idea to add them to your resume. This shows hiring managers that you mean business and have a passion for your job and the field.

Here are some certifications that you can get and include in your resume:

• Project Management Professional (PMP)
• International Accredited Business Accountant (IABA)
• Certified Sales Professional (CSP)
• Certified Management Accountant (CMA)

If you're looking for more certifications to include in your resume or want to know how to correctly list them, check out our guide.

Key Takeaways

We've covered a lot, but given you're wanting to perfect your resume as a consultant we know you can handle it.

However, we do want to provide you with a quick summary of everything we've covered:

1. Format your consultant resume in a reverse-chronological, functional, or hybrid format
2. State your years of experience and expertise in your resume summary
3. Add an area of expertise section to your resume to let hiring managers know your qualifications
4. List your work experience
5. Add your education
6. Listing your skills
7. Add foreign languages to your resume
8. Add any certifications you may have

And just like that, your consultant resume is job-ready. Now, the only problems you have to worry about are on the job. Happy problem-solving!