Management consulting resumes are a frequent topic here.

For one, about 50% of reader emails are related to resumes. For two, you can’t land a consulting job without a good one.

While we’ve covered resume topics like key tips, tactical errors, and even how consultants read resumes, today’s post will be a comprehensive “catch-all” to address reader questions and close the topic for awhile.

We’ll cover:

• How to write a consulting-targeted resume from scratch
• Advanced tips in building an eye-catching resume
• Strategic mistakes that will derail your resume from getting the fullest attention
• The skills, experiences, and specific keywords that consultants and recruiters look for
• 10 “tactical” tips in composing your consulting resume

Finally, due to the 100s of questions received on this topic, we’ll have an honest discussion about what it really takes to get an interview at places like McKinsey, Booz, and more.

It’s a long article, so get ready for some scrolling!

How to build a consulting-targeted resume from scratch

If you don’t have a resume, your first step is to check out example resume templates.

In general, all resumes/CVs should include:

• A header section with personal information
• Sections for work experience, educational background, and miscellany interests/skills/activities
• Bulleted text as opposed to text paragraphs
• Key information on each experience such as your title, the location, and length of time involved

In addition, most consulting resumes do not have a lead “summary” or “objectives” section as is common in international CVs. Two reasons:

1. Your summary and objectives should be communicated clearly through your achievements
2. Resume readers are busy – a summary section adds little additional value

Finally, 99% of consulting resumes are one page long. Same goes for the cover letter!

If you have more than 5 years of experience, or have switched industries abnormally often, 2 pages is ok. Anything longer than that is recruiting suicide.

Advanced tips in building an eye-catching resume

Put yourself into a recruiter’s or a consultant’s shoes. At most, you have 5 minutes to review the resume. That’s actually pretty generous – average review time is probably more like 2-3 minutes.

You need to make a decision about whether this person deserves an interview in that timeframe.

You have very little time…so:

1. You focus on the candidate’s 1-2 most impressive achievements
2. You hope it’s in PDF…so you can avoid annoying formatting issues and document-opening errors

You need to determine whether you deserve an interview…so:

1. You look for the specific consulting skills that are needed in the job (more on that below)
2. You read the Interests/Hobbies section because, let’s admit, it’s the most interesting part!
3. You do an overall review of the resume’s professionalism, paying attention to alignment, grammar, and typos

Now take those steps, and think about how you can improve your resume from the consultant’s perspective.

Strategic mistakes that will derail your resume from getting the fullest attention

We’ve discussed common resume mistakes before.

Here, we won’t be discussing tactical errors like using “Justify” alignment. Instead, we’ll talk about resume-wide strategic errors.

Strategic error #1: Focusing on education without sufficient backup

It’s a bad idea to dedicate half your resume to your educational background if you don’t have the big school name or the technical/graduate degrees to impress readers.

This hurts because with only 2 minutes to review your resume, you don’t want 90 seconds of that time to be focused on your Bachelor of Arts degree from University of North Dakota (no offense).

Strategic error #2: Throwing everything but the kitchen sink

This is not new advice, but with resumes less is more. Less is much, much more.

Every recruiter and consultant can tell you about the outstanding resumes they’ve seen that were barely one page, at 12-point Times New Roman font, with 1″ page margins.

Why is this?

Because you enjoy reading them more. You can quickly analyze the key skills and successes. And most importantly, you remember them better. When it comes to resume review time, you immediately know the candidate’s story and strengths.

Finally, it shows a degree of professionalism and self-confidence to execute such a strategy.

While you don’t need to be that bold, the worst thing you can do is list 20 bullets under each job, 9 different hobbies, and 15 skill certifications.

Ask yourself this question: if a resume reviewer will only remember 5 things about my resume, what are they? Then put them front and center. Everything else is, more or less, window-dressing.

Strategic error #3: Lack of self-promotion, when your achievements can’t promote themselves

It’s great that you’ve been a software engineer for 10 years. But will a string of technical jobs at Oracle, Salesforce, and Intuit be sufficient to attract BCG recruiters?

Highly unlikely.

In this situation, you’ve got to sell yourself loud and clear. Cover letter aside, you only have your resume to impress a reader enough to be considered “strategy consulting material”.

Highlight your biggest achievements. Exaggerate a little when quantifying impact. Use words like “managed” and “developed” often.

Identify precisely what skills consultants are looking for, and rewrite your resume to display those skills.

Regardless of your career and industry, you can exhibit the same parallel skills that are employed by Bain consultants every day.

Research and analytics? Check.

People leadership and project management? Check.

Client sales and relationship management? Check-plus.

The skills, experiences, and specific keywords that consultants and recruiters look for

Consultants are generally looking for the following skills and experiences in resumes:

• People management and team leadership
• Client interaction – both sales and relationship building
• Technical and quantitative analytics and research
• Proven-track record of success at prior jobs as demonstrated by promotions and increasing responsibilities
• Quantifiable individual and team-oriented results

This will vary by academic background, years of work experience, and so forth.

To demonstrate the above, great keyphrases include: directed teams, led meetings, managed clients, proposed and implemented, increased performance by, reduced costs by…

You get the idea.

Further reading: Insider secrets to Bain recruiting

What it really takes to land an interview at the best firms

We’ll avoid a discussion of specific accomplishments, because with consulting hiring, there are exceptions to every rule.

Hundreds of Princeton graduates are rejected sight-unseen by Bain Consulting every year, while a University of Wisconsin grad was able to secure a first-round McKinsey interview.

As a broad rule of thumb, the following will help differentiate your resume from the rest of the pile:

-A top-tier educational institution (undergraduate or graduate)
-A prestigious role at an industry-leading Fortune 500
-Starting a venture-funded company
-Doing something truly world-class (such as receiving a Marshall fellowship, publishing research in Science/Nature)

Without one of the above, you’ll need to focus on the following:

1. Make your cover letter and resume air-tight
2. Network at every available opportunity. As Ramit Sethi likes to say, great networkers build relationships before they need them
3. Consider graduate educational opportunities that will “upgrade” your candidacy
4. Search low and high for boutiques and regional consulting firms that have more idiosyncratic hiring rules
5. Start your own consulting shop!

That said, here are the 10 very specific tips to apply when writing a consulting-ready resume:

1) Read your resume for typos. Then read it again. Then have a friend read it. Then read it again. It is critical that there are no mistakes of any kind – grammar and spelling both. While you think mistakes can be overlooked, the funny thing about consultants (and this applies to other industries as well) is that once they find a mistake, it’s all they remember.

Last year, I was doing a resume review and noticed someone had mispelled “consulting” into “consluting”. While the rest of the resume was good, I didn’t forget this typo – and when we were on a resume review call, the team lead brought it up, and you know what? Everyone else on the team had noticed it too.

2) Align everything and space everything equally. Everyone’s seen those left-by-the-road-to-die resumes, the ones with horrible spacing issues, 3 different font sizes, looking like it came out of the printer crooked. While that is an extreme, proper spacing and alignment make a resume more visually appealing and are indicative of an attention to detail that are critical to any consultant’s early success. One of my mentors during the recruiting process put it best when he said:

“If someone’s resume doesn’t have properly aligned columns, it tells me that they either don’t care or don’t pay attention to detail. And if they don’t pay attention to detail, then how are they going to build a model that has the right numbers? Or a presentation that’s ready for the client to see?”

3) Put your name in a large font. This is often overlooked, but do not put your name in the same font size as the rest of the resume. If your resume is typed in standard 12 font size, I would recommend a name at least 24 font size. Why? Because recruiters/interview screeners can churn through 200-300 resumes within 3-5 hours (giving 1-2 minutes per resume!). The last thing you want is for them to mentally think “hey, this person is fairly qualified”, move on to the next resume, and then forget your name.

This is just for safety purposes. Most screening processes compile resume scores in Excel spreadsheets, and this systematic process ensures your resume won’t be overlooked even if your name is.

But there are many application situations where this will be helpful – think boutique firms, random resume drops, headhunters, etc. You want your name to stand out so people connect you with your qualifications.

4) Make sure your contact info is updated and you check your email frequently. I’ve heard horror stories of applicants for financial service jobs submitting resumes with emails that bounce, phone numbers that are disconnected, and so forth. While the firm may eventually get in touch with you, a first impression is set and you’ll get off to a bad start. Use your primary email address and a working phone number.

As a small but important detail, try to avoid outdated email domains (like AOL). Consultants pride themselves on being technologically savvy, and seeing an applicant with a name@aol.com address raises several questions, such as “does this guy still use dial-up?”; “has she not heard of gmail?”; and so forth. Remember, readers – covering all bases is the name of the recruiting game.

5) Avoid conspicuous gaps in your education and work timeline. A few months is ok. Anything longer than 6 months is a no-no. This is another situation, like typos, alignment, etc – where questions lead to more questions and peoples’ impression of your resume can take a turn for the worse. My blanket advice here is that 9/10 times, you can fill in the timeframe with something substantive (eg, nonprofit work, part-time schooling, global travel). For the 1/10 times where you can’t easily explain your situation (eg, family issues), do not mention this in your consulting cover letter. You want to downplay, not emphasize. But make sure you have your story straight and response ready, because there is a very good chance it will come up during a first round interview

6) Keep it to one page only. Obvious to some, but a very common mistake. Nothing says “I don’t know what I’m doing” faster than a 4 page resume.

If you absolutely cannot fit the things that you want to say to one page, play around with font-size, line-spacing, character-spacing (all features within Microsoft Word). But I guarantee you should be able to.

Some firms ask that you convert your resume to PDF prior to submission, or have an online submission method that automatically converts to PDF. Please check the results of both to ensure that your resume stays at one page in length.

And leave white space! Do not make your resume too “text-heavy”. Interviewers are quickly turned off by resumes that are packed with content. This will make them less interested in reading your resume AND cause them to overlook important pieces

There are exceptions to every rule as indicated above. Those with sufficient work experience and/or high job turnover can spill over onto a second page.

7) Have a line on personal interest/hobbies and keep it sensible and specific. One line only.

“Good” example:

Interests: competitive tennis player. avid hiker (climbed kilimanjaro last year). amateur pastry chef.

“Bad” example:

Interests: likes to play lots of sports. loves hiking mountains and has hiked kilimanjaro in the past. enjoys cooking.

As you can see, the “Bad” example:

#1 lacked specificity – everyone “enjoys cooking”. few can call themselves an “amateur pastry chef”. it makes you stand-out and increases the chances that reader who also likes making desserts will relate to you

#2 rambled and used flippant language – avoid the words “like” and “love”, as they can sound trite. do not turn the “Interests” line into a personal statement or paragraph

8) Focus on results. Preferably quantifiable results. Consultants are very “results-oriented”. They will be looking for similar attributes in your resume.

Instead of saying “Re-built online database to reduce errors and increase entry speed”, say this: “Constructed new online database, resulting in 50% fewer input errors and 33% more entries in an average day”

Instead of saying “Edited Human Resource interview questions to correct grammar, typos, and to tailor them for summer interns”, say this: “Optimized HR interview process by eliminating grammar and typos in questions; created the first-set of questions tailored at internship applicants resulting in 3 internship hires

Not every impact has to be quantified – but consistently focus on the impact of your work and not the steps taken, a very common mistake. This will convey that not only did you get work done, you did important work that showed clear results for your employer. High-five.

9) Do not include high school - SAT/standardized test scores are an exception. Whether you just graduated college or have 10+ years work experience, high school information does not belong on a professional resume. Place your SAT/standardized test scores in your “College” section. If there are major awards/prizes received while in high school (and this is only of the Westinghouse Science Prize magnitude), you can place them in the “College” section. An “Elks Lodge Scholarship” does not count.

10) Focus on the rule of 3 - 3 major work experiences, 3 bullets on each one. Simple “guiding principle”. Only exception is your primary job (the one experience you would like to highlight to any resume reviewer) – you should have more than 3 bullets. Have an “education” section with 3 bullets. And so forth. This rule ensures you don’t include 8 bullets for each experience, which is a sure-fire way to signal that you don’t know what you’re doing and overwhelm the reviewer with unnecessary information.

That rounds up our comprehensive review of management consulting resumes.

Is any information missing? Do you have more questions about how to make your resume the best it can be? Please comment below.

Today we continue our discussion on consulting summer internships. Part one on preparing for the internship here.

As a summer intern, you’re the baseball equivalent of a utility player. What’s a utility player, you ask?

A utility player is one who can play several positions competently, a sort of jack of all trades (Wikipedia)

Get comfortable doing whatever needs to be done. In all honesty, your value is limited – you’re just getting started in the professional world! Contribute in any way that you can – from little things like planning team events to big things like pointing out a key insight in a client meeting.

Here are 6 key principles that will go a long way towards a return offer and a consulting career.

1. Build a good relationship with your engagement manager/team leader

Several important to-dos:

• Develop a detailed workplan. Most interns will have a discrete chunk of work (whether that’s building competitor profiles or conducting primary market research). You should proactively build a workplan complete with deadlines, examples of deliverables, and precise steps for how you’re going to accomplish things. It will build your manager’s confidence in your abilities, and provide you a roadmap for your summer
• Schedule weekly time with your manager for checkup and feedback. Given consultants’ chaotic daily schedules, it’s good to have a set weekly time to catch up. Take this opportunity to discuss your accomplishments over the past week, your plan for the upcoming week, and ask for input frequently. This allows you to get buy-in, and surface problem areas that need to be addressed (eg, your manager thinks you’re too quiet in the customer interviews)
• Send daily email updates. Every manager has a different style so tailor accordingly, but most appreciate frequent updates. At the end of each day (particularly if you’re working alone), send your manager an update with 3 accomplishments, 3 tasks for the upcoming day, and highlight areas where you need their feedback
• Seek approval for end-products. Have a clear idea of what your end-product will look like (if it’s a set of slides, draw up ghost charts and templates; if it’s a model, build a mock-up with filler numbers). These end-products will ultimately change, but it’s important to have a vision for them and to run through that vision with your manager. After all, your end-product will define your work – it helps to be on the same page

2. Leverage associates and senior consultants on your team

Most teams include at least 1-2 senior consultants. They’ve been there, done that, and are back for more. And unlike banking, they’re typically happy to help.

• When you don’t know how to do something, ask them. Chances are, they’ve done it many times before. It doesn’t matter how small the issue – fix your mistakes early or they’ll snowball into something much worse
• Take them to lunch. They all went through the consulting recruiting process, and they all have more experience than you. It’s a great way to better understand the job/industry and decide if it’s the right fit. In addition, many will have contacts in other offices and departments and can help you network (for example, if you’re interested in an overseas project or a particular function)
• You may be managed directly by an associate (this is a common practice in investment banking). It helps to build a good relationship ASAP!

3. Own your piece of work but be knowledgeable about other workstreams

This advice applies to every job, but there are some pecularities to consulting:

Number one, managers will always appreciate if you have a point of view. Don’t be stubborn, but always have an opinion on WHAT needs to be done and HOW to do it

Number two, propose new ideas and new tactics. Just because your task is clearly defined does not mean you can’t go beyond. Your initiative will be appreciated

Number three, take an active interest in your teammates’ work. You’re expected to contribute in team discussions. Your own responsibilities don’t excuse you from understanding what’s going on around you. Do this by tactfully inquiring about other workstreams, asking insightful questions, and offering help whenever needed

4. Speak out in team meetings

Touched upon in a previous post on job mistakes. It’s particularly important as an intern to speak up during meetings and conference calls.

Expectations are low. You have a huge margin for error.

Ask smart questions. Contribute insights from your own workstream.

One helpful trick is to stay current on news about your client. Subscribe to Google News company alerts. Frequently this knowledge will come in handy during team discussions, and usually other team members are too overwhelmed to be as familiar as you

5. Get face time with partners

To guarantee a return offer, you’ll need at least 2 partners who are solidly in your corner.

While most projects will provide a few opportunities for you to present work in front of partners, you should go beyond that and schedule your own face time.

Have an agenda for these meetings – do not “shoot the shit” unless you know them well. Example topics include: questions about a particular industry practice that you’re interested in (eg, automotive); additional insight on the firm’s work with your client.

6. Look for opportunities to get involved outside of the client project

This is the least important responsibility, but strongly recommended if you have the time. There are plenty of ways for interns to be involved. Examples include:

-Interns-only social events (eg, happy hours)
-Events where interns can meet consultants, managers, partners (eg, speaker panels)
-Summer internship recruiting (eg, school-specific outreach)

Through these events, you’ll meet people throughout the firm, reinforce the hard work you’ve put in, and gain a new perspective on consulting life beyond decks and models.

I summarized the management consultants recruiting process in this post.

This is the beginning of my deep-dives on each piece of that recruiting process and will be focused on the “execution specifics” – showing you exactly how to master the recruiting process.

The overview:

Far more common if you’re currently in school (undergraduate, MBA) where consulting firms ranging from BostonConsulting Group to Mercer HR to Deloitte will swarm campuses, giving presentations and holding social mixers in an effort to publicize their firm and identify “high-potential” candidates. Handling a company presentation is like being the heavy favorite as a nationally ranked, Division 1 team in a game against an unranked, Division 2 team. In other words – there are 10,000 ways you can mess up, but very few ways to truly beat expectations.

Your goal:

#1 To make an impression on consultants involved in your recruiting process
#2 To gather valuable information about the company, its culture, and its people
#3 To develop firm contacts that will be sources of advice, interview and case prep, and potential references

How to be prepared:

Follow my Key Do’s and Key Don’ts from this post. Dress sharp and avoid mingling with friends and prior associates. That’s 80% of the work.

Who are the important players:

The consultants – focus on getting to know the consultants, not the recruiters. While recruiters are helpful when you have questions about firm particulars, they play a limited role in the decision-making process when deciding who receives interviews and offers.

If this is a university information session, look for consultants from the same university and/or from nearby offices. These are good indicators of their involvement, and resulting influence, on the your university’s recruiting processand applicant pool.

If you’re at a UC-Berkeley campus mixer and find yourself speaking with a consultant from the Chicago office who graduated UPenn, you can bet they probably won’t be heavily involved with your application come decision-time

This may seem too prescriptive for some, but avoid spending too much time with the most senior/white-haired consultants in the room. Most likely they are partner-level, and they come into contact with so many potential applicants that it’s hard to separate yourself from the pack unless you’re in an intimate setting or it’s a very longinformation session and they’re not swarmed with other applicants

Exactly what to do at the information session:

Meet at least 4-5 consultants. Follow my above guidelines to choose whom.

When speaking with a consultant,

#1 Introduce yourself with your FULL NAME. This is the most important, as you want them to remember your name when they’re screening resumes
#2 Ask several interesting, open-ended questions
#3 Stay for no longer than 10 minutes, unless you have particularly good rapport
#4 Shake hands at the end, and ask for a business card. No exceptions.

What questions you should ask:

Have solid, open-ended questions prepared. It’s ok to ask the same questions of different groups. Good ones include:
-What was your background before working at Boston Consulting Group?
-What’s been your most challenging project since joining Bain?
-Have you noticed any significant changes affecting McKinsey since the economy started struggling?

The “quality bar” for these questions is lower than for post-interview questions, because there are idiots at companypresentations who ask all sorts of silly/inane/time-occupying questions

What you should do after the session’s over:

You now have 4-5 business cards. FOLLOW-UP THE NEXT DAY. It’s like dating – email them too soon, and they’ll be a little surprised. Take too long to email them, and they’ll forget.

Your email should,

-thank them for their time
-mention one or two topics you discussed with the consultant at the firm event
-if you have a burning question, ask them. Otherwise, simply say “I hope to stay in touch with you during the recruiting process” and follow-up with them later if you have news to share (for instance, you were selected for an interview, you received an offer, etc)
-include fullname in the signature

What are the benefits to you:

#1 You’ve made a positive impression on several consultants who influence the resume screen and interview process
#2 Through your questions, you’ve learned valuable lessons about the company, its employees, and the managementconsulting business. It’s ok to back out now if you realize consulting is not for you
#3 You’ve begun building relationships with firm employees – which will be helpful should you have specific questions that recruiters can’t address; further, the majority are willing to help you prep for interviews and serve as unofficial mentors/guides through the recruiting process. Take advantage of this.

Received an influx of new readers in the last few days, thanks to some link love from fellow bloggers. Thanks to Marquis first and foremost, who is both a fellow Stanford grad and fellow ex-McKinsey consultant. He regularly blogs about management consulting and MBA issues and has sensible, smart advice for just about everything career-related.

Check out his blog here.

For my new readers, here are some recommended and popular articles for you to browse:

• Management Consulting and the Consulting Industry 101
• Day in the Life of a Management Consultant (client version)
• Management Consulting versus Investment Banking
• Top 10 Resume Tips
• Top 10 Interview Tips
• Overview of the Management Consulting Recruiting Process

I’ve been receiving emails from readers of Management Consulted that had similar themes and wanted to address a few to start building my FAQ page:

#1 Why did you exit consulting?

After 2+ years at McKinsey, it was time to move on. I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart – the risk-taking, the ambiguity, the fast pace and the journey of creating something from nothing. I went into my McKinsey tenure with the mindset that entrepreneurship would come after my time at the firm. I spent the next two years learning as much as possible so I could take those skills and start my own company.

It was an incredible experience – there are a few things that really stuck out for me:

• The caliber of people was unparalleled. It showed me the “benchmark” that I need to meet in order to be successful in business. People were friendly, intelligent, ambitious, and willing to share
• The training – both on the job and formal – was continuous and applicable far beyond management consulting
• The responsibility from day one is stressful but immensely rewarding. Nowhere else is a recent college or MBA graduate with limited business experience given 3 months to get to par with senior executives who’ve pored over the same problems for decades. It really teaches you to focus on the things that matter

#2 Why did you start this blog?

I’ve been helping friends/colleagues looking to enter management consulting for years with their resumes, cover letters, interviews, and questions. It’s personally and professionally fulfilling for me. Given that experience (and the experience inside McKinsey helping recruit new employees and seeing how the hiring process worked), I decided to start this blog to share the knowledge accumulated – and am looking forward to meeting others on a similar journey.

It’s an effective avenue for selling my own consulting services. In future weeks, I plan to release case studies, interview guides, and the like. All with the same aim – at helping people become as prepared as possible for a career in the consulting industry.

#3 Can you help me…

I’ve gotten many emails with questions about recruiting; requests to help with specific aspects of applications; and so forth. While I try my best to be helpful, I do have limited time. In addition, even the people I do help, I can barely scratch the surface through email. If you really have tons of burning questions or need my undivided attention, by far the best way is to sign-up for a coaching session with me – I’m flexible about the amount of time needed and when. This way, everybody wins!

Thanks for reading!

UPCOMING POSTS: More detail on each component of the recruiting process

Good luck! Subscribe to my RSS feed here. I offer hands-on coaching sessions to help people break into management consulting and top business jobs – from re-writing your resume to simulated interviews/case studies to thorough Q&A. You’ll learn everything I know about recruiting for and working at the top businesses in the world

People make fun of consultants constantly for their lingo. Whether justified or not (I will restrain from turning this blog into too much of a soapbox), it’s important for anyone interested in the industry to understand SOME of the terms (because as an applicant/interviewee, the last thing you want to happen is for you to mention how much you love consulting and for the interviewer to ask you what being “on the beach” means)

As good coders code and great coders reuse, I came across an excellent post from a fellow blogger, Benjamin Tseng (who currently works at a Big 3). It’s reproduced in near entirety below (see original post), with two tweaks:

#1 I’ve split the terms between those that are “good-to-know” for potential applicants (with my rationale in yellow boxes) and the rest, which are useful only “if-you-have-too-much-time-on-your-hands”

#2 I’ve added links if there are any terms/concepts that relate to previously written posts

As an interesting aside, I once assumed that while consulting lingo existed at every firm, each firm had unique phrases for many of the concept. Thus after reviewing the terms below, I automatically thought Ben was a fellow McKinsey consultant. This was not the case, and it goes to show the degree of commonality in day-to-day that you will encounter regardless of firm. Remember that, prospective consultants!

The “good-to-know”:

boil the ocean: to embark on an apparently impossible, wasteful or fruitless task, usually preceded by an exhortation not to, as in: “Let’s not boil the ocean here, an 80/20 should be enough”; this term suggests that the amount of effort to be expended is not worth the potential payoff

Interviewers may bring this up to suggest that you reduce/focus your analyses – take hint that you’re either thinking about way too many things, or thinking way too broadly about the problem at hand

development opportunity: a weakness, flaw or shortcoming that should be rectified, usually by the subsequent suggestion

Pay close attention when interviewers/recruiters/anyone mentions this phrase and work to correct the problem (eg, “I think one development opportunity for you is to develop more succinct responses to questions about past work experience”)

directionally correct: essentially wrong

Don’t feel encouraged. You’ve got a long way to go in getting the right answer

on the beach (term not included in Ben’s post but added here): a consultant with no dedicated project(s). being “on the beach” rarely indicates free time (much less beach time); rather, being “on the beach” will indicate that for an undetermined period, you will worry constantly about your next long-term project while you’re shuttled from one short-term assignment to the next

Just know what it means. Integrate into comments casually if you want brownie points (eg, “I’ve heard from consulting friends that many have been on the beach recently”)

view from 30,000 feet: a very high-level, preliminary or cursory look at a particular situation, often used to suggest that pertinent details are inappropriately glossed over; however, one never speaks of the view from, say five or six feet, which might be more appropriate given the average height of a human being

Depending on context, interviewer either a) doesn’t have additional details, b) wants you to provide additional details, or c) wants you to provide a summary/high-level answer

The “if-you-have-too-much-time-on-your-hands”:

at the end of the day: a phrase used to attempt summarization, introduce an air of finality and perhaps close off certain avenues of discussion; since most consultants’ days do not end with the setting of the sun, at the end of the day most of them are still working

bandwidth: capacity, free time, ability to do (additional) work; generally used to indicate that speaker cannot or would not prefer to do additional work, as in: “I don’t think I’ll have any bandwidth this Friday”

buckets: categories; this is the extent of this word’s definition, so it remains a mystery why people choose to employ the former term; also used as a transitive verb to mean “categorize”

buttoned-up: to indicate that a particular piece of work or analysis is comprehensive, accurate and capable of withstanding close scrutiny; this is an example of opposite terms with identical meanings

buttoned-down: see buttoned-up

buy-in: agreement, support; it is unclear why “buy-in” has come to supplant these terms, as no actual purchasing occurs

circle back: to follow up with indicated individuals at a later point in time, usually to review progress on the current topic of discussion; this phrase is somewhat redundant, as it is impossible to trace a circle that does not connect back with itself

crisp: an adjective indicating that the referenced work or analysis is thorough and complete, perhaps by gastronomical allusion to food that is fully prepared; it is duly noted that crisp objects, while ostensibly finished, are also far more brittle and prone to shattering

granular: a detailed level of abstraction; often used in the context of increasing the fineness of the analysis, as in: “We need to get more granular here”

hands: often prefaced with “client,” indicates the interpersonal skills of an individual in relation to a particular group of people, as in, “That manager sure has great client hands”

hard stop: used to indicate that after the time indicated, the listeners are on their own, because the person stating that they have a hard stop sure isn’t going to be around to help after then

hope you’re doing well: a generally well-intended but insincere interpolation used at the beginning of most voicemails to replace the standard pleasantries that would be present in verbal communications; use of this phrase does not indicate actual interest in the well-being of the recipient; also found with alarming frequency in electronic mail

key: critical, essential, required, important, central; the key analysis is generally the linchpin; often used as a noun, and with such frequency that its significance has been diluted, since everything is now “key”

let me play this back: said when the listener wants to refract and color the conversation through his or her own perspective, under the pretense of reviewing the transcript of what’s been said; in this manner the listener can pretend he or she is a tape recorder

low-hanging fruit: the initial opportunities, areas of exploration, etc. that are easiest to cover; intended to evoke visual imagery of fruit-laden trees, suggesting that much remains beyond the lowest boughs; syn. quick win

provide color: a directive that translates roughly to “This is perhaps the most boring thing I have ever read, with the possible exception of certain lengthier legal disclaimers, and even then it’s pretty close”; this bit of jargon is nevertheless somewhat of an advance, since, back in the early days of consulting, people were encouraged to provide black and white

push back (verb form) or pushback (noun): formerly the sole domain of airplanes leaving their gates, this term is now used to indicate resistance and/or disagreement, without actually using those terms; this phrase attempts to avoid any negative connotations of controversy

quick question: the answer will be anything but; bizarre since the adjective “quick” is intended, by implication, to be transferred to the answer to said question and does not necessarily have any bearing on the length of the question

rock star: an individual whose performance in a given area or success at specific endeavors is highly impressive, unique and/or admirable; this appellation is generally used sparingly; although the term is sometimes used frivolously to express purportedly extreme gratitude, as in: “Thanks for picking up my mail for me, you’re a rock star”

sea change: in between lake change and ocean change

sniff test: as in evaluating food for rancidity, this term is used when gauging the viability or reasonableness of a particular analysis; var. smell test

space: a market, arena, field of endeavor, or general area, not to be confused with the area beyond Earth’s atmosphere; use of this term usually adds nothing in the way of descriptive value, as in “I don’t think there will be many opportunities in the technology space”

straw man: a humanoid comprised entirely of the dried above-ground stalks of any of a variety of grasses; also, a construct presented purely for the sake of argument, with the implication that it is not designed to withstand repeated attacks

take the lead on: a clever phrase often used by more experienced consultants when they wish to delegate a menial task, as in: “Why don’t you take the lead on putting together this document,” which may translate to, “I’m lazy and probably not smart or energetic enough to work on this, so go do it”; often appears in utterly irrelevant settings, as in, “Why don’t you take the lead on making dinner reservations for the team,” a manifestly silly request, since one is asked to “take the lead on” something which doesn’t require leadership of anyone and on which they will certainly be working solo

takeaway: in other settings a British term referring to carry-out food, here this word has been transmogrified to indicate the salient point that should be retained upon the conclusion of the discussion, often prefaced with key

to be transparent: in indication that what follows will be particularly revelatory, although it often is not especially so; the troubling implication of this usage is that the speaker has heretofore been opaque

value-add: quite simply, that value is added, mashed into a hyphenated noun form

wordsmith: to make trivial or generally unnecessary edits to text that may only subtly change the meaning, if at all; incorrectly implies that one is a craftsman on the order of a blacksmith or goldsmith; sadly, wordsmithing rarely involves the deletion of jargon

I’m sure there are many more – feel free to leave comments below!

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