Dr. Neil Hair

I have a number of ideas on how students might best reflect their pro bono (non paid) consultancy experience on their resumes. Background information: Students sit a class for eleven weeks and work through the consultancy process applying the weekly theory to the case of the client. The client gets the benefit of leading edge thinking and the student gets the benefit from seeing the real world application of their thinking. Three things normally stop a student from putting this experience down on their resume.

1. They didnt get a great grade for the project. The thinking behind this is that the student in their mind failed the project therefore and this should not be put down on a resume.

2. They didnt enjoy working with the team they were part of and therefore would rather forget the entire experience.

3. They dont see it as legitimate consultancy experience. They werent being paid, it was part of college credit. It was therefore more legitimate to put down their work as a cashier at a local petrol station (you laugh, this was my first job and it went down on my first post college resume – shows responsibility and customer facing activities!).

The thinking behind each of these three points is flawed for a number of reasons. I'll go through them one by one.

1. Just because you didnt get that elusive A grade does not mean to say that you didnt do a good job in the grand scheme of things. Think of all the learning you did on essentially your tuition dollar and someone elses time as a client. Tackle this head on by focusing more on what you learned from the experience rather than the outcome of the project itself. Yes prospective employers want to see that youve made a company millions – they are more likely though to want to see personal development so theyre not employing a green student with no prior experience in dealing with adversity!

2. Its working with difficult teams that makes the experience all the more worth while! Allow me to rant a little – students are always complaining that their grades are so in-twined with team projects at experiential colleges like Saunders. They dont see it as being fair to their individual grade. WAKE UP!! The real world is almost entirely project focused and you having gone through college avoiding team based projects will only mean that your learning on dealing with difficult people, situations, deadlines and awkward moments of team disfunction will now take place when it really matters – and when your career progression is likely to be directly (and very quickly) impacted. Again – on your resume identify the key experiences coming from this that have better prepared you. Remember to be positive!

3. When exactly are you waiting to gain legitimate experience – day one of a real job? Did the client feel as though youd done something worthwhile? Was your team pleased with its performance? Did you not deliver the project in a tight 11 week period, on budget and on task? What is not legitimate about this experience exactly? The FT recently published a report on what students lack when they enter the workforce and in the top five were lack of experience, inability to work in teams and the inability to present arguments and ideas effectively. By my count of the top twenty things that were common grievances of employers, projects like a consultancy project cover every single issue. One last point on this one, employers feel very uncomfortable hiring students with zero experience, projects like these demonstrate legitimate experience.

So, this moves me onto how best to demonstrate this experience on a resume:

Things you will need. Collect all of your former real world projects, feedback on these from faculty together with any notes you might have on the experience. Now on your resume;

A. Identify clearly and concisely the client, the lead person you reported to (usually the CEO or Marketing Manager) and how long the experience lasted.

B. Identify the central charge of your team. Was it for instance to prepare a marketing plan looking to exploit the use of social networks for instance or perhaps a marketing plan looking at breaking into a new market. Remember that there is no such thing as a boring plan. Identify the purpose, use the term within budget (ie suggests there was a budget but that given the client-consultant privilege you arent able to divulge the amount) and clearly identify the market you went after.

C. Next identify the key factors that influenced the success of the report. Was it – identified a market worth X, profiled competitor activity in this area in Y, interviewed Z number of customers / clients. Clearly note the key features of your approach. Keep this short. Show off your efforts and hard work!

D. Identify clearly the experience you gained from this work. Was it for instance – co-managed (no one believes that you led every single project so avoid the me me me syndrome on your resume), managed under a tight ten week deadline, involved developing an innovative presentation, a learning experience in a challenging environment (in other words no one did any work but you on the project).

E. Identify the output of the project. An action plan, professional presentation, references from a client, experience of delivering on time and so forth. At the end of the section (you may have more than one project to call on) write 'references available on request'. If they request them – put them in touch with your professor and where appropriate the client (always let them know ahead of time that someone may call).

F. Reality check. Get someone else to read what youve just written. Better still get a former project member to read what youve written and comment on it.

And that is pretty much it. Try to make the experience stand out – what really worked for you in the process of a project and why. Capture these details and make it sound interesting. A marketing plan for… sounds totally unsexy. A marketing plan for the X market estimated to be worth in excess of Y sounds much better. Google a consultants resume as well. See how they phrase key accomplishments. And remember – it is real experience. It does count.