A consultant moves from one engagement to the next: four to ten a year depending on the firm and the practice, sometimes more in strategy, fewer in transformation. After three years, the “experience” section of a consultant’s CV can therefore contain twenty or so lines, all attached to the same employer. Written in chronological order, they quickly become unreadable: the recruiter no longer sees what you can do, only that you have worked a lot. There are three ways of presenting your engagements on a CV, each suited to a type of target role. This article compares them, then applies them to the same career so that you can judge for yourself.
The problem with overlong CVs
A young consultant’s CV raises a problem that other jobs rarely face: a single employer line, but very varied content behind it. The usual reflexes do not work.
- Listing every engagement produces a dense page where nothing stands out. A recruiter who spends a few dozen seconds on the first read will not do the sorting for you.
- Keeping only the most recent ones makes engagements disappear that are sometimes more relevant to the target role.
- Writing generalities (“strategy and transformation engagements for CAC 40 clients”) saves space but proves nothing.
The right choice depends on a simple question: what must the reader remember first? A partner at another firm wants to know what types of engagement you can deliver. A plant director wants to know whether you know their industry. A start-up founder wants to know what skills you bring them. The three presentations each answer one of these expectations.
Presenting engagement by engagement
This is the most widespread presentation, and the most natural one when applying to another firm. Under the employer and the grade, each bullet describes an engagement: the anonymised client, the question asked, your contribution, the result.
When to use it. For a lateral application to another consulting firm, for an investment fund looking for a due diligence profile, or as long as you have fewer than ten or so significant engagements.
How to make it readable.
- Keep three to five detailed engagements per grade, chosen for their diversity or relevance.
- Group the others in a summary bullet: “Other engagements: market strategy and cost benchmarks in energy and telecoms.”
- Start each bullet with the type of engagement, so the eye catches it immediately: “Commercial due diligence…”, “Cost reduction plan…”.
Its limit. Beyond four or five years, or when you are aiming for a role in industry, the engagement logic no longer speaks to the reader: they are not looking for a consultant, they are looking for a skill.
The management and organisation consultant CV template applies this presentation: one entry per grade, then one bullet per engagement, each time with the client’s industry, the scope and the decision obtained.
Grouping by industry
Second option: organise engagements by client industry. Under the employer, subheadings (“Energy and utilities”, “Industry”, “Retail”) bring together the engagements of each sector.
When to use it. For a role in industry in a sector where you have accumulated several engagements, to join a sector practice at another firm, or when your firm has already specialised you.
What it shows. Knowledge of the market, the players, the regulatory constraints and the vocabulary of the sector. For the head of strategy at an energy company, knowing that you have done four engagements in energy matters more than the exact nature of each.
Its limit. If your engagements are scattered across six different industries, this presentation underlines precisely the scattering. It only works if one or two sectors clearly dominate.
Grouping by skill
Third option: organise by skill or by type of work. Under the employer, subheadings such as “External growth and due diligence”, “Performance and cost reduction”, “Organisation and change management” bring together the engagements that draw on the same know-how.
When to use it. For an exit from consulting towards a specific function (corporate development, transformation, operations), for a start-up role, or when your engagements cover many industries but few types of work.
What it shows. Transferable functional expertise. A recruiter in a transformation department immediately finds what interests them, without having to reconstruct your career.
Its limit. It erases chronology and grade progression. To keep them, state your successive grades in the employer heading (“Consultant then senior consultant, 2022 to 2026”) and leave the most recent engagements at the top of each group.
For an exit to industry, the corporate development manager CV template shows how years of consulting can be summed up around the skills that matter for the current role.
Choosing according to the target role
| Target role | Recommended presentation | What to put first | |---|---|---| | Another consulting firm, same job | By engagement | Types of engagement and your role | | Sector practice at another firm | By industry | The number of engagements in the target sector | | Investment fund | By engagement, centred on due diligence | The targets and sectors analysed | | Corporate strategy department | By industry if you know theirs, otherwise by skill | Closeness to their issues | | Corporate development, operations, transformation | By skill | The know-how of the role | | Start-up | By skill | What you will be able to do on your own from day one |
Two rules apply to every presentation. First, anonymisation: the client is described by its industry, size and scope, never by name, which respects confidentiality and is enough for the recruiter. Second, the result: each engagement or group ends with what changed for the client, with an order of magnitude when possible.
For experienced profiles who arrive in consulting with a first career, the same logic applies to earlier jobs: our article on moving into consulting mid-career shows how to translate an industry role into problems solved. And if you are aiming for a specific line at a large network, the article on Big Four advisory helps you choose that line’s vocabulary.
The same career presented three times
Take a senior consultant with four years in a mid-sized strategy firm and about ten engagements. Here is the same experience block in the three forms.
Engagement-by-engagement version, for another firm:
- Commercial due diligence for a fund on a network of medical testing laboratories: demand model by region, interviews with prescribers, opinion on the seller’s business plan.
- Five-year strategic plan for a building materials distributor: three scenarios, branch opening plan adopted by the executive committee.
- Indirect cost reduction for an industrial group: benchmark, forty quantified levers, implementation plan over eighteen months.
- Other engagements: market strategy and portfolio reviews in healthcare, retail and industry.
Industry version, for the strategy department of a healthcare group:
- Healthcare (four engagements): due diligence on a laboratory network, growth strategy for a medical device maker, portfolio review for a group of private clinics, market study on teleconsultation.
- Retail and industry (six engagements): strategic plans, cost reduction, market reviews.
Skill version, for a head of transformation role:
- Performance and cost reduction: indirect cost programme for an industrial group, forty quantified levers and implementation plan; procurement review for a distributor.
- Strategy and planning: five-year strategic plans for a distributor and a medical device maker, from analysis to action plan.
- Investment analysis: four commercial due diligences for funds.
The content is the same; only the reading order changes, and with it what the recruiter remembers. That is why it helps to keep several versions of your CV. With the ConseilCV editor, you duplicate your CV and reorganise the experience section for each application, without redoing the layout, and each version comes out as a PDF that screening software reads correctly.
Frequently asked questions
How many engagements should you detail on a consultant’s CV?
Three to five per grade are generally enough. The others can be summed up in a bullet citing the industries and types of work. Beyond that, the page becomes hard to read.
Can you mix presentations?
Yes, as long as you stay consistent: for example, a skill-based presentation for your consulting years and a classic presentation for an earlier job in industry. Avoid switching logic within the same employer.
Should you state the length of each engagement?
It is not essential. Length helps the recruiter gauge the scale of an engagement; state it when it is remarkable, for example a long on-site engagement or a transformation programme lasting several months.
What about business development or internal work?
Group them in a separate bullet at the end of the block: proposals written, training of juniors, recruiting, internal projects. They count more from manager level upwards.