Blog

In this article, Brittany Blackamore shares a few professional tips on how to land your dream job and move your career forward.

It’s recruiting season. This is the busiest time of year for me, when hundreds of students reach out and want to know how to get in. How can they break into a top management consulting firm? How did I pivot from a back-end role for an engineering company to a coveted leadership development program, promotion to a director, and then become a management consultant… and how can they do the same?

How did I get in? I obtained an education, I leveraged my education and experiences, and I worked extremely hard. I worked diligently and strived to present my best self on my resume and in interviews.

There is no substitute for hard work, especially if you want a career at a top firm. If you’re willing to work hard, you can do it too. Here are the top five tips I share with students and professionals who ask me how they can secure that coveted dream job.

1. Write a standout resume

You most likely already have a resume that you think is pretty good. I recommend that you look at it again. Edit it until you think it’s perfect; then edit it some more. Your resume is often your first opportunity to represent yourself, so put your very best foot forward.

Real estate on your resume is very limited, so every word matters.

Focus on the left hand side of your resume. Every single bullet point should begin with an active verb followed by a metric that quantifies your work. If you don’t know how to quantify your work, think about the results you have achieved in your job. Almost everyone can quantify his or her work; it just takes practice.

I have reviewed many resumes, and many times the bullets will begin with, “Responsible for…” As a former recruiter and hiring manager, this tells me very little. Your resume should be outcome-focused. What did you accomplish? Did you increase sales, optimize a process, negotiate a cost savings, implement a new strategy, build a product, etc.? Add metrics that quantify your work, e.g. increased by $X or Y%.

Write about what you accomplished. Remember, you are trying to convince the recruiter or hiring manager to choose you. Sell yourself! What have you done that is impressive, that stands out? Write it down.

Key points include:

• Practicing the elevator pitch
• Preparing for fit and behavioral interviews
• Examples of fit interview questions

Read the full article, Here’s What I Tell People When They Ask How to Get Their Dream Job, on LinkedIn.