boston consulting group cover letter example

BCG Cover Letter: Our Step-by-Step Guide + Examples

Last Updated March, 2024

Former McKinsey and Bain recruiter

The most common question I was asked as a recruiter, and now as a recruiting coach, is “Do I need to write cover letters for my consulting applications?” This is usually followed up with “And do I need to tailor my cover letter for every firm?”

I think most people hope I’ll say no to both questions, as writing a cover letter can be pretty daunting, and tailoring it for every firm seems way too time-consuming to be worth the effort.

At My Consulting Offer, we’ve helped over 600 clients land offers with consulting firms. Our approach to how to write a great consulting cover letter has, for many, been a deciding factor in them landing interviews.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

What makes a great consulting cover letter.
How to tailor your consulting cover letter to what BCG is looking for – a step-by-step guide.
How BCG and other consulting firms review your cover letter.
A sample BCG cover letter that successfully landed an interview.
5 tips for writing a BCG cover letter.

Let’s get started!

What Makes a Great Consulting Cover Letter

The consulting cover letter works alongside your resume to show the firms you’re applying to that you have the potential to be a great consultant.

Think of it as a flashy introductory accessory to your resume that highlights your most impressive and unique qualities, and grabs the reader’s attention so they’ll be excited to read your resume.

However, it’s important to get it right.

A Strong Consulting Cover Letter: The Basics

As a recruiter, I saw way too many examples of applicants who had clearly not put any effort into their cover letter. Getting the basics right, such as ensuring the company name is correct, is essential (but not everyone gets that right).

On the flip side, I received cover letters from applicants who were perhaps a little too eager to stand out. Poetry and “love letters” were not uncommon but a little ill-judged. The urge to be distinctive should not outweigh your consideration of the audience. Professionalism and appropriateness are key.

The consulting cover letter not only needs to have the impact required to engage the reader, it also needs to show them that you’ve done your research and thought about how you’re a great fit for consulting, and for their particular firm. It must also show how you’ll bring value to the role through your experiences and appetite to learn relevant skills.

You definitely can’t send the same cover letter to every consulting firm you’re applying to and assume that you’ll be successful. You’ve got to show each and every firm that you’re worth an interview.

That’s a lot to think about, right? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Nail the case & fit interview with strategies from former MBB Interviewers that have helped 89.6% of our clients pass the case interview.

A Strong Consulting Cover Letter: Stand Out from the Crowd

After you’ve got the basics right, you need to identify what the consulting firm you’re applying to is looking for. Consulting firms typically seek candidates with great problem-solving, analytical, creative thinking, communication, team working, and leadership skills.

So how can you include these in your cover letter while also tailoring it to an individual firm?

We recommend you focus on the firms’ values. These are how consulting firms distinguish themselves from other consulting firms.

You can easily find out what a firm’s values are by either typing “[firm name] values” into your search engine or by visiting the firm’s career page where they typically list these and provide detail on what they mean.

Now think about your own professional and personal experiences. Focus on experiences that you are proud of, received great feedback on, or demonstrate how you overcame a particularly tough challenge. Give some context of the situation, the actions you took, and the outcome that was reached, quantifying the results where possible. Try to ensure they include at least one of the consulting skills mentioned above.

Once you’ve outlined a few stories, you can then see how they might fit with the values of the firms you’re applying to. You may need to tweak some slightly, but you’ll probably find it pretty easy to link your stories to each firm’s values.

And you don’t necessarily need to address all of the values, particularly if a firm has more than four, as you don’t want your cover letter to be more than a page.

The additional benefit of approaching your cover letter in the way we recommend is that you don’t need to explain your “why” for each firm. It will be clear by how your experiences resonate with their specific values. This shows how you’re a great fit.

You can find out more about writing consulting cover letters by reading A Consulting Cover Letter that Lands Interviews: Our Complete Guide . For this article, we’re going to break it down by focusing on just one firm – BCG.

Tailor Your BCG Cover Letter to What BCG is Looking for

Step 1: Find out who to address your cover letter to at BCG.

It may differ between offices, depending on size, but you can usually find the key recruiting contact on the career page or by searching on LinkedIn. It may be a recruiter who handles recruiting for your university across regional offices for instance, or perhaps a recruiter who manages experienced professional recruiting for the office you’re applying to.

Addressing your cover letter to someone specific and relevant helps to show that you’ve done your research and that you care about the impression you’re making. Firms often display their key recruiting contacts on the careers pages of their websites. Alternatively, you could search LinkedIn for roles such as Talent Acquisition Manager, Recruiting Manager, or Senior Recruiter and then locate the relevant person who looks after either the stream you’re applying through (for instance, experienced professional, undergraduate) or the office they recruit for, which is usually detailed in their profile.

Step 2: Create your opening paragraph.

Keep it concise, ideally no more than four or five lines. Introduce yourself and express your interest in applying to BCG and the specific role you’re applying for, which will typically be Associate or Consultant but may be a more specialist role, for instance, within BCG Gamma. You may also want to write a short sentence on “ why consulting ” here. Talk about how your experiences resonate with their values and state specifically which ones.

You can find BCG’s values by Googling “BCG values” or by visiting their “ our people and culture ” page directly. This content gives you a really good feel for how having the right people and developing a unique culture is so important to BCG.

Scroll down to where they talk about the values driving their culture. There’s a great mini slideshow of their values and what they mean. Here’s a snapshot:

Integrity – as an expression of courage and accountability
Diversity – of thought, expertise, experience, and background
Respect for the individual – as their capacity for desire and personal growth
Clients come first – we measure our success by our clients’ success
The strategic perspective – enabling clients to deliver superior results in a sustainable manner
Value delivered – in the form of tangible, positive, and lasting change
Partnerships – a long-term view guides BCG’s relationships both internally and with clients
Expanding the art of the possible – because the goal is not simply to apply best practice but to invent it
Social impact – make the world a better place

These values are created to be meaningful and inspiring, representing what BCG stands for, and making you want to be a part of BCG’s unique culture.

BCG has more stated values than most other firms, but this can actually make it easier as you can select the ones that resonate most with your own values and the stories you’ve written. I’d recommend choosing three or four, depending on the length of your stories.

Step 3: Organize your stories for the greatest impact.

Once you’ve chosen your stories to meet the values you’ve selected, list your strongest first and the weakest in the middle (although it should still be strong). List your stories in bullet point format and use the value as a heading.

Step 4: End your cover letter by reiterating your interest in BCG and how you appreciate their consideration. And don’t forget to sign off. Electronic signatures are the norm these days, just don’t use a script font here as this can look too artificial.

In addition to this publicly available information about what BCG looks for in its candidates, my colleague Valentin has written an article with the insider perspective on what’s important to BCG . This includes drive, a tailored approach, and the BCG attitude. Check it out to make your BCG cover letter to be extra special.

How BCG & Other Consulting Firms Review Your Cover Letter

As a recruiter for seven years with McKinsey and then a recruiting manager for nearly five years with Bain, both in London, I’ve read tens of thousands of resumes and accompanying cover letters. London is one of the most coveted offices, so applications came in thick and fast during recruiting season and continued throughout the whole year.

I received cover letters from undergraduate students, postgraduate students, MBA students, and experienced professionals throughout my recruiting career, all eager to impress, but not always getting it right.

I had letters consisting of just a few lines that didn’t tell me anything about the person, and others that provided their life story across multiple pages. Some were addressed to another company, others had lots of spelling mistakes or poor grammar. I’ve read very entertaining letters (although perhaps not always appropriate) as well as letters that were lacking in any engaging content at all.

The ones that grabbed my attention in a good way, were those that were concise, clearly laid out, showed me that the applicant had done their research on the company I worked for, demonstrated their unique qualities, and told me how they would be a great fit for us.

To make it easier for recruiters who read hundreds of cover letters every year, follow these basic principles.

And to ensure your cover letter then stands out from the competition, I recommend you use My Consulting Offer’s approach. The more experienced a recruiter is, the easier it is for them to skim through cover letters, so you need to be able to impress them really quickly.

Successful BCG Cover Letter Samples

5 tips for writing a bcg cover letter that stands out.

Find out who at BCG will be reviewing your application and address your letter to them (and their team).
Research BCG’s values and select the 3 or 4 that resonate with you and your experiences.
Create or adapt your stories to fit the values you’ve chosen, focusing on specifics and structuring them so that they include the context, challenge, actions you took, and the results you reached.
Ensure you’re also demonstrating relevant skills in your stories such as problem-solving, leadership, and communication.
Get the basics right. Ensure you’re referring to BCG in your letter throughout, keep it to one page, use bullet points for ease of reading, and check for spelling and grammar errors.

In this article, we’ve covered:

What a consulting cover letter looks like
A step-by-step guide to how to tailor your cover letter to BCG
How recruiters at consulting firms review cover letters
A sample cover letters that landed our client an interview with BCG
Our top 5 tips for writing a successful BCG cover letter

Still have questions?

If you have more questions about the Boston Consulting Group cover letter, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s recruiters will answer them.

Other people looking for advice on BCG cover letters found the following pages helpful:

Consulting Cover Letters
Consulting Resumes
Consulting Networking
BCG Recruiting
BCG Case Interview

Help With Your Consulting Application

Thanks for turning to My Consulting Offer for advice on case study interview prep. My Consulting Offer has helped 89.6% of the people we’ve worked with get a job in management consulting. We want you to be successful in your consulting interviews too. For example, here is how Afrah Arif was able to get her offer at Deloitte .

3 Things Consulting Firms Actually Look for in Your Application

We are sharing our powerful strategies to get your foot in the door, even if you have a low GPA, have little to no business experience, or study a non-business-related major.

No thanks, I don't want free strategies to get into consulting.

We are excited to invite you to the online event., where should we send you the calendar invite and login information.

Consulting cover letter guide (for McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc.)

Today we’re going to explain everything you need to know about writing consulting cover letters.

We’ll start by reviewing an example cover letter that got interview invitations from ALL the MBB firms (McKinsey, BCG, and Bain).

And then we’ll explain exactly how you should write your own cover letter to land consulting interviews. Here’s a full list of the topics in this guide:

Example cover letter

How to write your consulting cover letter

Consulting cover letter tips.

The skills consulting firms look for

Consulting cover letter screening process

Get help with your cover letter

Let’s get to it!

Click here for a consulting letter/resume review with an ex-MBB consultant

Example cover letter (which got interviews at mckinsey, bcg, and bain).

Below is an anonymised cover letter from a candidate who got interviews at McKinsey, BCG and Bain. So you can trust that this template works.

The image here highlights the different sections of the cover letter, but we’ll dive deeper into the text later, and you can also get a downloadable copy below.

Free download of the consulting cover letter example, here.

In the next section, we’ll go step-by-step through each part of the cover letter and explain how to go about writing it. But before we dive in, please note the following points about the above template:

A lot of people use this template. Get inspiration from it, but every sentence in your letter should be written from scratch.
This cover letter might sound impressive. It's one of the best ones we’ve seen. But even if you have not achieved as much as this person, you can still get an interview.

With that said, let’s dig into the cover letter writing process!

As a starting point, this video provides a nice overview of the full writing process for a consulting cover letter.

Now let’s break things down further.

1. Introduction

Example - Introduction

Mary Taylor - [email protected]

DD / MM / YYYY

Dear Sir / Madam,

I would like to apply for an Associate position at McKinsey in London.

This section is a formality. It should simply state the following information:

Your name and email address. You can replace your email address with a postal address although those are not commonly used anymore.
The date on which you are sending your letter
The position, company, and office to which you are applying

Keep it short and sweet.

2. Why you?

Example - Why you?

I started working as an Analyst at Big Finance in New York in September 2020 and was quickly promoted to Associate in a year and a half instead of the average four years. While at Big Finance, I advised a broad range of clients who constantly gave me positive feedback and regularly asked to work with me again. Before joining Big Finance, I graduated as the top student of my MEng in Chemical Engineering at Prestigious University in the UK. While studying, I received two competitive scholarships and awards. In addition, I developed my leadership skills as the President of the Prestigious University Consulting Club. High energy was essential to lead a team of 5 managing the club and growing the number of members by 20%.

This is your "GOLD MEDALS" section. It is the first section of your cover letter and therefore the most important one.

It should state the TOP 3 achievements of your life to date that are relevant to consulting. These achievements should be as unique and as memorable as possible. When your reviewer reads them they should think "Wow, that's impressive. I want to know more about this person."

To write this section you need to step back and ask yourself "What are the most impressive things I've done with my life so far?" This is not an easy question to answer.

In our experience discussing this with a close friend can help. It's sometimes easier for them to quickly point out the impressive things you have done as they are an external observer.

In addition, notice how achievements are QUANTIFIED in the example above. Saying you have been promoted "in a year and a half instead of the average four years" is much more powerful than saying you have been promoted "quickly." You should quantify your achievements whenever possible.

This section is your chance to grab the reader's attention. If there's nothing impressive in it, they will stop reading and just scan the paragraphs. So don't miss your opportunity!

3. Why consulting?

Example - Why consulting?

There are several reasons why I want to pursue a consulting career. To start with, I know I will enjoy being a strategy consultant because I have already worked in a strategy team in the past. This was in summer 2019 when I was a Strategy Intern at Big Grocery Retailer in London. In addition, I think consulting is a unique opportunity to comprehensively learn about business management by working on a variety of company situations. Over the past two years, I have started building my business skills while advising clients on financial matters at Big Finance. I now look forward to learning more about companies’ management at McKinsey. Finally, I want to work in consulting because I truly enjoy interacting with clients. Throughout my work experiences I have built a successful track record of developing and maintaining relationships with clients including, for instance, the senior strategy team at Big Grocery Retailer.

Once you have convinced your reviewer that you have impressive achievements under your belt they'll be thinking: "Ok, this person is impressive. But do they REALLY want to be a consultant? Or are they just applying because they're not sure what to do with their career."

The third section of your letter should therefore answer the "Why consulting?" question . But here is the thing about this question: There are some reasons to go into consulting that you should tell your reviewer about. And some reasons that you should really keep to yourself.

For instance, one of the mistakes candidates commonly make in their cover letter is to write something along the lines of "I'd like to spend 2 or 3 years in consulting to learn more about business in general and then decide what I want to do." This is a HUGE mistake.

Consulting firms want to hire FUTURE PARTNERS. Not employees who will stay for a couple of years. You can watch the video below for more details about this.

The best approach for your "Why consulting?" section is to write about past experiences that really show you know what you are getting into. The perfect situation is if you have done an internship in consulting or in corporate strategy and have enjoyed it. If that's the case, this is the perfect section to write about it.

But even if you haven't done related internships, there are plenty of angles you can use to connect your past experiences to what you will do as a consultant. For instance:

You might have enjoyed working with clients when you were in M&A or in Sales
You might have enjoyed structuring and solving tough problems as an engineer

You should use these experiences to say that "working with clients" or "solving tough problems" is something you KNOW you enjoy doing; and you look forward to spending more time doing this as a consultant.

When they read this section, your reviewer should think: "Ok, this person is impressive AND they know what they are getting into."

4. Why McKinsey / BCG / Bain / Other?

Example - Why McKinsey?

McKinsey appeals to me for three reasons. To start with, the different people from the company I have met and worked with all told me they had truly enjoyed their time there. For the past two years, I have worked for Michael Smith, a former Engagement Manager from the London office, who now works for Big Finance. Additionally, I regularly read McKinsey’s reports on financial services and think the insights delivered by Sarah James and others in the Finance practice are truly superior to that of other consultancies. By joining McKinsey, I therefore think I would have an opportunity to work with and learn from the best consultants in the industry. Finally, the fact that McKinsey was selected by Finance Supercorp to shape its digital strategy also played an important role in my decision to apply. This was a first-of-its-kind contract in finance and it shows that while at McKinsey I could get the opportunity to work on truly unique projects.

If you have managed to convince your reviewer that you have an impressive background and that you really want to be a consultant, you have a VERY HIGH chance of getting an interview.

The only question that's left for you to answer is: " Why McKinsey / Why BCG? / Why Bain? "

Top consulting firms have a lot in common. In most regions, they cover the same industries and work for similar clients. They also pay similar salaries, and the career path is more or less the same from firm to firm. So what should you write about in this section?

In our experience, the most efficient way to set yourself apart in this section is to write about three specific elements:

When you write "I've met with Michael Smith," or "I've read report X," or "I've heard about project Y," you are making an argument that's SPECIFIC enough for your reviewer to think: "Ok they've done their homework."

If you stay too GENERIC, your argument will be much less credible. For instance, writing something like "While at McKinsey, I'll be exposed to a broad range of industries which I'm excited about" is a weak argument because you could swap McKinsey for BCG or Bain in that sentence.

In fact, this is the ultimate test. If you can swap McKinsey with another name in your "Why McKinsey?" section you are not being specific enough. You need to work on your paragraph again and mention SPECIFIC people, reports, or projects that you find interesting.

5. Conclusion

Example - Conclusion

For all these reasons, I am very enthusiastic about the chance to work at McKinsey. I am available for an interview at any time and look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Mary Taylor

The last section of the cover letter is a formality again. It should include the following elements:

A sentence or two saying that you are enthusiastic and available for interviews at any time
Your final signature

So how do you make it easy for your reviewer to put your cover letter on the "Accept" pile? We have put together the 10 tips below to make sure you can achieve this and avoid common mistakes.

Tip #1 Don't use a template letter

Writing cover letters is painful. But trust us, reading hundreds of them can be at least as painful. That's why you should make every effort to make your letter interesting and genuine.

It's ok to get inspiration from templates such as the one we provide in this guide. But every sentence in your letter should be written from scratch.

Tip #2 Keep it to one page

One of the unwritten rules of consulting cover letters is that they should not be longer than one page. The trick to achieve this is to only select the MOST RELEVANT experiences from your resume and to summarise them.

The points you decide to highlight should clearly demonstrate that you would make a great consultant.

Tip #3 Standard format and font

It's tempting to use an eye-catching font and format. But that's actually a bad idea. You only risk your interviewer thinking: "I've never seen this font, it looks really weird. Who is this person?" Your cover letter should stand out because of its content, NOT because of its format.

Tip #4 Not the time to be shy

Your cover letter is not the time to be shy. If you went to Harvard and have three Olympic medals, now is the time to say it! Most of us don't, and that's fine. But the point is that you should really push yourself to bring your most impressive accomplishments forward.

Tip #5 Network, network, network

This might sound surprising, but a big part of the cover letter is how much networking you have done . Having networked with people from the firm you are applying for pays dividends for multiple reasons.

First, they might recommend you to the HR team. But most importantly, these people will give you insight into what makes their firm UNIQUE. Then you can quote what you've heard in your cover letter (and name drop the person you heard it from) to show that you really understand the firm you are applying for.

Tip #6 Read, read, read

Unfortunately, networking is not always easy or possible. In these cases, your second best option is to read as much as you can on the firms you are applying for. You should read about the firm's projects, reports, and partners and find pieces of information you are really interested in.

For instance, if you did your master thesis on electric vehicles, try to find who works in this area at the firm and what they have to say about it. And then mention what you have found in your cover letter.

Tip #7 One letter per firm

One question we often get is: "Should I write one letter per firm?" The answer is YES. But it's not as hard as it might sound.

Every cover letter needs to answer three questions: Why you? Why consulting? And why this firm? The only paragraph you will need to change in every letter is the one about "Why this firm?" For each firm, you will have to do the networking and reading mentioned above.

Tip #8 Start writing early

Writing an outstanding cover letter is VERY HARD. Most candidates underestimate how much time it takes and start this process too late. You'll need to take a step back and reflect on everything you have done to date to highlight your most relevant experiences.

This takes multiple iterations. Start early.

Tip #9 Get feedback

In our experience, great candidates all look for feedback and iterate on their cover letter until it's truly as good as it can get. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it.

It’s best to get feedback from peers or consultants. These people will be able to point out which parts of your letter they don't get or don't find impactful enough. If you’d like to have an expert review your cover letter, check out our team of ex-consultant coaches .

Tip #10 Proofread multiple times

Finally, you should check and double check your letter for typos and grammar mistakes - multiple times. A cover letter is (not so secretly) a writing test and you should really treat it like one.

What consulting firms look for

To get multiple interviews at top consulting firms , it’s extremely important to understand what those firms are actually looking for.

The good news is that most of the leading consultancies are looking for basically the same skills.

To illustrate this point, here’s what McKinsey and Bain say that they’re looking for in candidates, along with our own translation of what they mean:

There are also a few unofficial items that consulting firms will look for on your resume, and you can read about those in our consulting resume guide .

Next, let’s talk about the typical cover letter screening process.

Screening process

Now let's talk about HOW your cover letter will be handled once you send it. Here's how it works.

Your application will be sent to a JUNIOR CONSULTANT who recently graduated from your University. They will score your documents based on a grid provided by the HR team.

Consultants usually have to score 200 to 400 applications in about 2 weeks. And this is sometimes on TOP of their normal project. It's not uncommon for them to leave the job to the last minute and to have to do it on a Friday night just before the deadline.

Why is this important? The point we are trying to make is your application is part of 100 other applications. And the person who will review it will be tired by the time they get to your cover letter. If they don't understand something, they won't Google it. It's your job to make their job easy.

Why consultancies ask for a cover letter

There are two main reasons why consulting firms ask for cover letters.

First, partners bill several thousand dollars per day to their clients. The opportunity cost of interviewing you is HUGE for the firm. Put yourself in the shoes of a consultancy for a second. What are the top 3 questions you want to answer before investing money in interviewing a candidate?

Have they demonstrated the skills needed to be a consultant?
Do they know what consulting is and what they are getting into?
Are they genuinely interested in working for our firm?

If you don't answer these three questions in a structured and impactful way, your chances of getting past the screening process are very low. This is why every cover letter should be structured as follows:

Why consulting?
Why this firm?

The second reason consulting firms ask for a cover letter is to test your writing skills. Consultants write all the time: emails, PowerPoints, Word documents, etc. They spend about 50% of their day writing. And a lot of the time their job is to summarise very large quantities of information in a succinct way.

This is exactly what you have to do in your cover letter. You have to a) look back on all your past experiences, b) select the relevant experiences to convince the reviewer that you are the right person for the job and c) summarise all these experiences in a way that's easy to read and digest.

Cover letters are a disguised writing test. Candidates who end up getting invited for interviews recognise this early on. Making a good impression on paper is way harder than making a good impression in person.

Are many candidates ready to invest HOURS in writing the perfect cover letter? No. That's the whole point. That's how you can set yourself apart. If you spend enough time making sure that your letter is as impactful as it can be, you stand very high chances of getting invited for interviews.

Another reason that it can help to have a cover letter is to explain anything on your resume that may look unusual to a reviewer, such as a time gap or a non-traditional background for consulting.

Whatever your unique situation is, if you’re not confident in how your cover letter looks today, then we can help you.

Get an Ex-MBB consultant to review your cover letter

The guide above, in addition to our guide on consulting resumes , should go a long way in helping you craft documents that will get you interviews.

But if you still feel you need additional help, we have a team of ex-MBB recruiters and interviewers who would be happy to provide feedback on your cover letter.

You’ll get feedback on how to immediately improve your cover letter, including what experience to focus on, how to optimise your phrasing, formatting, etc.

Start by browsing profiles for available coaches.

Interview coach and candidate conduct a video call

BCG Cover Letter

Written by . Posted in Cover Letter

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has been recognized as one of the most prominent consulting firms in the world. Its prestige places it, along with McKinsey and Bain, in what’s known as the “Big Three” of the industry. Currently it has approximately 78 offices located in 43 countries across the world.

The firm recruits exceptional graduates and working professionals to join their team. They visit colleges and universities to find passionate individuals who are capable of developing recommendations after thoroughly analyzing a business case. Recruiters employ various tools for screening applicants, but the first document they check is your BCG cover letter .

If you’re in the process of crafting an impressive cover letter, here are some pointers to follow:

Research and Network

In order to write a letter that creates value to BCG, research the firm and network with people who are or were connected with the firm. The information you learn from the firm’s website, books, magazines, and employees will guide you in finalizing the content of your letter. A letter will only pique the interest of the recruiter if it’s customized to the company’s direction, goals. and needs.

Think of a Structure

Before you turn on your computer and start typing, think about how you will structure your BCG cover letter. To simplify things, follow this outline:

A cover letter must only contain relevant information. Remember, BCG receives numerous applications each year. Recruiters only have a short time to review your document so it must expertly convey your qualifications.

Mentioning the name of a key person in the management consulting firm or industry can make your cover letter unique. However, when you do this, explain how your encounter with the consultant has convinced you to pursue a career at BCG. Were you motivated by his or her description of the company’s culture and goals? Are you interested in the challenging working environment? Recruiters are interested in this type of information.

Explain Issues

If your work history listed on your resume has noticeable gaps, or if you are shifting careers, you should explain these issues in your BCG cover letter. Recruiters might question why you stopped working for a couple of years or why you decided to leave sales and pursue a career in management consulting. Your explanation will help recruiters understand where you came from and how you can contribute to their goals. Everything must be clear from the beginning; otherwise, you could be instantly rejected for the opening.

Proofread Your Letter

Review your cover letter a few times before you send it to BCG. Make sure the content is relevant, interesting, and substantial. Furthermore, it must be free from spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors. Mistakes give recruiters the impression that you are not meticulous with details and/or you have poor communication skills. If you want objective feedback about your BCG cover letter, ask a friend for help or contact an expert.

You’ll need a well-crafted job application whether you’re seeking for a position as a teacher, engineer, or receptionist. The cover letter is a very useful document for this. You’ll have a far better chance of finding your dream job if you include a professional cover letter with your CV.

Consulting Cover Letter: What You Actually Need to Know

The key to effective cover-letters is story-telling. Most people write cover letters like resumes, with cold, hard facts, and that’s the problem.

Cover letters are much more effective if they contain stories capturing the burning spirits of candidates. In this article, I’ll tell you how to install such stories seamlessly into your consulting cover letters, and land a case interview yourself.

Consulting cover letters – The basics

What are cover letters for.

Cover letters are documents accompanying resumes, to provide further insights into the qualities and motivations of a candidate, as well as portray who he/she is as a person .

In consulting cover letters, there are three essential qualities you must always display:

Leadership skills: the ability to influence people’s decisions.
Achieving mindset : the continuous, relentless push for the best results.
Analytical problem-solving: the ability to solve problems in a structured, methodical manner.

Regarding motivations, there are two questions you need to answer:

“Why consulting?”: Do you really understand the consulting world, and how it fits with your long-term plans? Is there something unique in the consulting track to explain your choice?
“Why this firm?”: Out of all the consulting firms, why ours? There should be something uniquely attractive about this firm to you, isn’t there?

And last but not least, don’t forget to show that you have an interesting personality that fits with the firm’s culture.

Cover letters vs Resumes – What’s the difference?

Because so many candidates confuse between the two, then end up writing boring cover letters resembling “paragraph versions” of their resumes, I feed the need to differentiate.

There are four marked differences:

Cover letters go deep, resumes go wide

In cover letters, you should select one or a few most notable achievements, and describe them in detail to reflect your three defining aspects (values, competencies, motivations).

This stands in contrast with resumes, where you cram as many relevant achievements as possible into the space of one or two A4 pages.

Cover letters are “soft” stories, resumes are “hard” bullet lists

The content format of cover letters is much less defined, leaving room for a lot of creativity, unlike resumes which are almost always bullet lists of cold, hard facts.

Your goal as the candidate is to fully utilize that loosely-defined format and make your cover letter as attractive and memorable as possible.

Cover letters describe personality, resumes do not

A crucial role of the cover letter is to portray who you are as a person. Resumes don’t do that, they focus on your achievements.

Your personality does not only come directly through the contents, but also reflected in the style of the letter – so take time to make your cover letter more attractive, and you’ll make a better impression with the screener.

Cover letters touch on future plans, resume concerns mostly the past

In cover letters, you have to answer the motivation questions (why consulting, why this firm). In resumes, that aspect is barely mentioned.

The most credible answers to those questions connect the job with your future plans – as such, the cover letter is not confined to the past like resumes.

Understanding your audience

The vibe inside the screening room.

Busy, tiring, and boring – that’s the vibe inside the screening room.”

Picture this in your mind:

A junior consultant is in the office on a Friday night, going through hundreds of applications. He has to do this as a form of goodwill for the company, on top of his ongoing project.

Everyone’s application looks the same, following one set format; a somewhat extraordinary resume catches his attention, so he checks the cover letter to see if there’s anything interesting, only to be disappointed because the letter is an exact recital of the resume.

If you want to grab the screener’s attention and make memorable impressions, you have to break that negative vibe, using an unordinary cover letter.

Most cover letters are just listings of achievement and cliched motivation statements – they feel like unoriginal walls-of-text that offer nothing new – and that’s the exact reason why many screeners don’t like cover letters. Write an exciting story instead – the screener will love it.

Why they read your cover letter

There are two main reasons why the screener reads your consulting cover letter:

He wants to know more about your motivations and personality because your resume is both impressive and interesting/unordinary at the same time.
He wants to clarify some ambiguous points in your resume – this happens if you appear highly competent, but your writing is not clear enough.

In both cases, there’s no excuse to repeat your resume in a paragraph format and disappoint the screener. You have all the reasons in the world to present an attractive, detailed, focused narrative – tell a story and get your interview.

Both the background and the purpose of cover-letter-screening suggest that an innovative story-telling approach is much more beneficial than the common, formulaic, overly-formal cover letters.

Such an approach will definitely make your cover letter stand out from the heap of some 200 other applications. It helps you grab the screener’s attention, and impress him in a memorable way.

Additionally, it makes reading the cover letter easier and more enjoyable. The screener is already tired, so there’s no point in making his life harder.

Whatever the reason, as the cover letter is opened AFTER the resume, the implication is that you need to perfect your consulting resume first!

If you haven’t read it, here’s an A-to-Z guide to writing the perfect consulting resume , from a former McKinsey consultant and resume screener!

Consulting cover letter – Step-by-step guide

All these elements must be presented in a coherent storyline and concise language.

Keep in mind this is a consulting cover letter – as such, your story should be backed up by impactful, specific, verifiable results.

To write impressive, fact-based stories that demonstrate all three necessary aspects of the candidate, I advise you to follow these four steps:

Step 1 – Self-reflect for storylines

Search your memory for events, experiences, ideas… that can serve as a basic storyline – the backbone of your cover letter. For each storyline, consider the following six criteria :

Uniqueness: The base story should be something unique to you. If it’s something common or universal, you won’t have the screener’s attention.
Attractiveness: Your story should be attractive and entertaining – only then can you trigger the screener’s curiosity. Usually, it’s something “big” and impactful, but not controversial
Positiveness: The story should have a positive “vibe” to it. If it’s something sad or negative, don’t include it in your cover letter.
Qualities: All three consulting qualities (leadership, achieving, analytical problem-solving) should be illustrated in your story. Otherwise, consider that story irrelevant.
Motivations: Your story should at least help explain why you’re applying, if not providing direct answers to that question. Firms don’t like to hire candidates without clear motivations.
Personality: Make sure you exhibit a likable personality. On the other hand, if that story suggests negative traits (pessimism, short temper, cynicism, etc.) you have to modify it.

Let’s see if these storylines of my own could match the requirements:

“I escaped from a near-death experience during a paragliding session using my gliding skills.”

This is not something you hear every day, and near-death stories are often quite attractive, so you have those two boxes checked; and for now, there’s no sign of “bad” personality traits.

However, it’s a near-death experience, so it does have a negative vibe. Additionally, it shows neither consulting qualities nor relevant motivations.

=> This story only meets 3 out of 6 criteria. Out!

“I founded an entertainment business which attracted lots of attention, but ultimately failed.”

Not everyone is a startup entrepreneur, so this story does meet the “uniqueness” criterion. It’s relatively easy to draw attention with startup stories, and it’s easy to explain a consulting career choice from a former entrepreneur perspective, too. No negative personality trait is visible.

While being a business owner suggests some leadership and problem-solving experience, as well as an achieving mindset, a failure story like this might raise some questions on the “qualities” aspect; it also creates a negative vibe.

=> Overall, 4.5 to 5 out of 6. Not really the best storyline for a consulting cover letter, but usable with some modifications.

“I broke McKinsey’s code of conduct, convinced a client to pay their long-overdue service fees, and was celebrated for it.”

Is there anyone who doesn’t like those “breaking rules” stories? I’m quite confident this experience is quite unique and attractive. Because this is actual consulting work, it’s undoubtedly easy to point out all the important consulting qualities, as well as to provide a basis for my motivations.

However, this “breaking the rules” story may suggest rebellious tendencies, so if I’m going to use it I’ll again need some modifications.

=> This story scores 5.5 / 6. Quite good but I do need to be careful with it.

Step 2 - Add and classify details

Rack your memory and jot down everything related to your storyline; don’t worry about having too many details, you will be trimming the story later.

Pay special attention to the details best illustrating relevant qualities , motivations , and personality , because you will need to emphasize them.

Step 3 – Structure and enhance

Arrange the details of your story in a logical, intuitive structure; the most common method is:

1. Describe a notable, relevant experience using the problem-action-result structure to impress the interviewer with your qualities first.

2. Try to link it up with the present/future parts of your story (ideas, philosophies, plans) to explain your motivations.

Trim all non-essential and technical details, they do nothing but confuse the reader and bore them to death. Your story should be told in a way even your grandmother can understand.

Then, arrange and enhance the remaining details so that the story feels more dramatic, i.e the uniqueness and difficulty of the problem should be emphasized.

On a related note, consultants dislike lengthy cover letters – in fact, one A4 page is the maximum length – so there’s one more reason to start trimming.

Step 4 – Amplify consulting features

First, make all three key consulting traits stand out from your story – leadership, achieving mindset, and analytical problem-solving.

Then, make subtle references to consulting work using the industry’s terminology and concepts. Most screeners, being consultants themselves, will subconsciously appreciate this. However, avoid buzzwords and slangs found on the Internet, or you’ll appear superficial and unprofessional.

Consulting cover letter – Tips

To write the best cover letter, you must thoroughly understand the industry, its major firms, and even the very office you’re applying into.

To achieve such an understanding, there is quite a bit of research to do – and here are three tips for you to ease that process!

Tip 1: Networking

Successful networking goes a long way in the consulting recruitment process and in cover letters.

Firstly, management consulting firms are relatively publicity-shy, so having a connection within these firms allow you to gain very specific and authentic insights about the firm, the job, as well as the consulting world in general, helping you make better choices and deliver more convincing reasons.

Secondly, you may earn a referral ! The screening stage is harsh – it’s where most candidates are filtered out, both in absolute and proportional terms – and referrals help a great deal with that.

Remember to show your networking efforts by mentioning the names of consultants at the office you’re applying into, as well as their projects. The screener will know you really do care about the job, and you’ve done your homework.

Tip 2: Read consulting news

The websites of major consulting firms all have countless articles on current affairs as well as their own projects – read them frequently and regularly .

For one thing, those articles will deepen your understanding of management consultants and their work, helping you make better choices and explain them more effectively to the screener.

Additionally, reading consulting articles regularly will help you know more about the specific projects of each firm, which you can bring up in cover letters.

Tip 3: Build “cheat sheets”

A few ready-to-use “cheat sheets” containing all the important details on the consulting industry and major firms will significantly ease the writing process.

I recommend making three different groups of sheets – one for the consulting world in general, one for the firms, and the last one about the specific offices you’re applying into.

Be implicit and “smooth” when using these sheets. Make sure to sound as natural and seamless as possible when mentioning your references; avoid putting them at the focus of your sentences, but to use them as supplements to the main idea (e.g: I was awed by the network of experts supporting our project with McKinsey back in 2016).

Consulting cover letter – Visual format

Consulting cover letters are not the place for creative, colorful designs. Format your letters in a conservative, text-dense, black-and-white fashion – that’s how actual consultants do it.

One A4 page is the maximum length for consulting cover letters.

Inside the busy screening room, nobody has the time and energy to read a two-page worth of story, no matter how attractive it is.

If your cover letter exceeds that maximum length, trim away the less important details and shorten your expressions; you can also tweak your font size, spacing, and margins to squeeze the most content into one page.

Use formal, conservative fonts, such as Times New Roman, Calibri, Cambria, Garamond, etc.

Keep your font size at 10-12. Larger text tends to feel somewhat “messy”, and they’re space-consuming. Smaller text, on the other hand, feels difficult and tiring to read.

Additionally, the typeface in your cover letter should match that on the resume.

Spacing, margins, and alignment

Use spacings of 1.15 between lines and 1.50-2.00 between paragraphs. Consulting cover letters are quite text-dense, so it’s important to use these white spaces to ease the visual strain.

Always align your text on the left side. Left-aligning is the standard in the United States, where most major consulting firms are based; additionally, left-aligning keeps the horizontal spacing between words even, unlike justified where that spacing varies considerably between each line.

All four margins should be equal at 1 inch. That should keep your letter neat and tidy while maximizing the amount of text on one page.

Other reminders

If you know who’s screening, address them by name. Otherwise, generic salutations are fine.

I’ve come across pages claiming it’s no longer acceptable to write generic salutations (“ To whom it may concern ”); however, in consulting firms where the screening process is assigned to junior consultants on an availability basis, you don’t always know who’s reading your letter, so such salutations are okay.

On the other hand, if you happen to be applying into a small, new office, and your networking efforts are successful, you may know your screener. In that case, refer them by name for a greater impact.

Replacement test

If you can replace the industry and the firm in your letter with something similar and it still makes sense, your tailoring is not enough.

Your motivations should be based on unique and defining descriptions – for example, McKinsey having the largest support network for consultants, or Bain being the frattiest among MBB consulting firms.

Non-unique reasons, such as “prestigious brand name” or “interesting projects” can apply to basically every major consulting firm out there, so they’re not strong bases for your choices.

Maintain formality

Use formal language throughout, and keep standard your heading and salutation.

Show your uniqueness and creativity only through the main content sections. Other “procedural” parts of the cover letter should always remain formulaic – see the sample section.

The language in the main paragraph should also remain formal, i.e no slang, no contraction, no overuse of exclamations.

Avoid short-term motivations

Don’t say you’re in for a 2-year learning experience, or your application will be heading for the bin very, very quickly.

It’s costly to turn fresh graduates into effective consultants, so firms don’t want candidates who will bail out just after they’ve become useful. They want people who will stay in the firm for as long as they can – they want future partners.

You might include long-term plans concerning other industries, but don’t give the impression that you’re bailing out in a few years. If that’s your plan, don’t even mention it.

Proofread and edit

Writing cover letters should be a long process of continuous proofreading, feedback, and editing.

It’s best to find a former/working consultant or at least someone who’s knowledgeable about the industry to help you out. Consulting cover letters differ from normal ones quite considerably, so generic guidelines won’t be of much use.

It’s also very helpful to allow intervals of at least a few days between writing and proofreading sessions; you will find it easier to spot errors if you proofread with a “fresh” mind.

Try to avoid format, spelling, and grammar mistakes at all costs. In consulting cover letters, such mistakes are much less tolerated.

Cover letter file format

Always send your cover letters in the PDF format (most screeners expect you to do so).

This file format will make sure your cover letter appears the same on every computer, and it minimizes the damage that may occur in the file transfer process (by contrast, DOC files are vulnerable to numerous errors).

Depending on the computer, PDFs may look cleaner than DOCs – one possible bonus point for appearance.

Still not sure whether your cover letter is good enough? Book a meeting with former consultants. Our coaches will show you how to make your resume stand out among thousands of candidates.

Cover letter example

Now that you’ve learned the secrets to the best story-telling cover letter, let’s have a little exercise and help the First President write one to McKinsey, shall we?

(The content in this sample letter is largely fictional for illustration purposes)

George Washington [email protected] Mount Vernon Plantation, Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S.A July 4, 1789

To whom it may concern,

My purpose in life is to liberate the American people and lead them to prosperity. The revolution of the Thirteen Colonies was up against the largest military force in the world – the British Empire – at a four-to-one disadvantage – few if any country had come up against such odds victoriously. And that was the situation I was in, as the leader of the revolution.

Under my lead, the revolutionaries mobilized internal support from 2.4 million soon-to-be American citizens and external support from allies in France. This support allowed us to remain operational even after severe defeats, which would otherwise put an end to the revolution. After six years, the Colonies came out victorious and was recognized as the new United States of America. War is over, so my new task is to steer the newfound States towards economic prosperity – and consulting experience at McKinsey will help a great deal with that.

I happen to also run a plantation business – Mount Vernon by name – which was McKinsey’s client during our expansion project in 1785. I was extremely impressed by the highly structured and data-based approach that McKinsey consultants took to deliver their solutions, and even more impressed by the incredible network of experts that was backing our project.

Through Ms. E.M – the Engagement Manager for our project from McKinsey’s DC Office – I came to be aware of the firm’s expertise in the public sector – which was recognized as being the overall best among major consulting firms.

And for that reason, I realized a consultant position at McKinsey DC will give me invaluable exposure in the public sector, both from its projects and its vicinity to the country’s capital.

I will be looking forward to speaking with you in person, about how I can put my experience as a former head-of-state and an entrepreneur to work at McKinsey.

Sincerely yours, George Washington

Scoring in the McKinsey PSG/Digital Assessment

The scoring mechanism in the McKinsey Digital Assessment

Consulting Resume Toolkit

Get the fundamental of crafting a "consulting-like" resume with the most powerful secret toolkit.

You can refer on guides, tips, examples & templates in this article to build a excellent resume rely on the necessary criteria of a Management Consulting Firms

In this article, we'll look into several ways to tailor a consulting resume to stand out among thousands of competitors and win your screener’s heart.

Great consulting resumes have 4 main sections: Education, Work Experience, Extracurricular Activities, & Others. All should be result-oriented and data-driven

Knowledge Base
Free Resume Templates
Resume Builder
Resume Examples
Free Resume Review

Every year, more than 1 million candidates apply for a consulting role in McKinsey.

[ Click here to directly go to the Consulting cover letter sample ]

But only 10,000 people get the final offer. That’s a 1% success rate .

The top 3 consulting companies, McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company , are some of the most selective companies when it comes to hiring.

Most people don’t know this, but they start their selection process by screening the cover letter and consulting resumes .

More than 80% of resumes and cover letters are rejected before the first screening. Less than 15% of candidates get called for interviews in the big three consulting firms.

So, if you think, " How do I become a consultant? How to write a consulting cover letter that gets me the consulting job?” - This blog is for you.

Consulting cover letters are very different from traditional cover letters for jobs. In this guide to writing a consulting cover letter, we’ll tell you everything you need to write on the consulting cover letter to stand out from your competitors.

In this blog, we will discuss:

What is a consulting cover letter?
What are the things recruiters look for in a cover cetter?
How to structure a consulting cover letter?
How to write an effective consulting cover letter?
5 tips to write a stellar consulting cover letter
Consulting cover letter dample

We’ll also share five consulting cover letter examples to help you get an interview.

What Is a Consulting Cover Letter?

A consulting cover letter is an adjacent document with your consulting resume that helps you introduce your skills and accomplishments to the hiring managers.

It’s an essential part of your application, especially for big three consulting firms, because it’s easy for recruiters to quickly sort bad candidates based on the quality of a cover letter, lack of attention to detail, etc.

However, if done correctly, consulting cover letters is an excellent way to stand out from the crowd and get yourself a job interview.

You don’t have enough space to elaborate on your experiences on a resume. But with a cover letter, you can expand on your experiences and explain the reasons for some potential red flags on your resume.

Why do you have a job gap? Why do you have a low GPA? You can explain the reasons for that in the cover letter.

In short, your consulting cover letter is the deciding factor for getting a job in a big consulting company.

What Recruiters Look for in a Consulting Cover Letter?

The recruiters look for a candidate who has excellent communication and leadership skills. They look into the applicant's skills and experience to understand if they have the qualities to become a successful consultant.

Recruiters look for mainly four aspects from a consultant cover letter. These are:

Does the candidate have the relevant skills and experience required for the job?
Does the candidate have a clear idea of what the company does?
Is the candidate interested in working with the company?
Does the candidate have excellent communication skills?

If you want to create an outstanding consulting cover letter, you need to address all four points in your letter.

How to Structure a Management Consulting Cover Letter?

A perfect management consulting cover letter must have six distinct elements.

Opening Paragraph
Closing Paragraph
Your Signature

Consulting Cover Letter: Header

This is a mandatory part of any professional letter. The header section must include

Candidate’s name
Phone Number
Your Location

Even if your resume has all this information, you need to add these to your cover letter.

Salutation is an essential part of the consulting cover letter. Never start your cover letter with “To whom it may concern.” It will not get you the job.

Instead, find out who is the recruiter or hiring manager and address the cover letter directly to them.

If you don’t identify who the hiring manager is, you can address the letter to the recruitment team. For example:

Dear members of the BCG Recruitment Team, To Bain Recruitment Team,

Consulting Cover Letter: Opening Paragraph

The first sentence of your consulting cover letter is the perfect opportunity to hook the reader’s attention. And the second sentence should state the role you are applying for and how you learned about the position. The third sentence should describe why you are interested in the company you are applying for.

Do some initial research and craft a personalized and customized opening paragraph for the Consulting cover letter. If you can do that, you will improve your chance of getting shortlisted by 1000%.

Here is an example of the Opening Paragraph of a consulting cover letter:

I am a 4+ years experienced digital marketing professional working with top SaaS brands to help them generate $100M in sales year on year. I’m highly pleased to apply for the Associate Consultant position at McKinsey. I appreciate McKinsey’s leadership and sales practices to provide an outstanding experience to clients.

Consulting Cover Letter - Body

The consulting cover letter body part should explain your key accomplishments, experience, and why you are a good fit for the firm.

Don’t write a generic consulting cover letter body. Research the consulting firm, go to their website and understand the qualities they are looking for. After that, you can start creating the body of the consulting cover letter.

Below is a consulting cover letter example of the body paragraph:

Consulting Cover Letter- Closing Paragraph

The closing paragraph is where you place the call to action to encourage the recruiters to take action. It must be short and to the point.

Here’s an example of the Closing Paragraph of Consulting Cover Letter:

Consulting Cover Letter - Ending Signature

This is a formality for any type of professional letter. There are different types of closing signatures. Such as:

Thanking You Thanks and Regards Best Regards Sincerely Thank You

How to Write an Effective Consulting Cover Letter - Formatting

It’s not enough to have great content for the consulting cover letter; You need to format it professionally to get the most out of it.

Here are some formatting tips to help you create the consulting cover letter:

Keep it Under 1 Page:

The consulting cover letter should not be more than one page. Recruiters don’t have much time to give to one single candidate. And in this time, if you create a 2-page cover letter, the maximum chance is that recruiters will ignore your application.

Use 1-inch Margin:

A 1-inch margin is standard for any professional cover letter. A margin of less than 1 inch makes your cover letter look cramped. A 1-inch margin ensures enough whitespace to make the letter easily readable.

Use Professional Font:

Always use a professional font in the consulting cover letter. Some professional fonts are:

Times New Roman

Also, ensure to keep the font size to 12 points. It makes the cover letter very easy to read.

Save the Cover Letter in PDF

Make sure to submit the cover letter in PDF format. It ensures that your cover letter format is intact, no matter who views it.

10 Tips for Writing a Consulting Cover Letter

Writing a solid consulting cover letter allows you to present your candidacy to the hiring managers. Here is a list of tips for writing a stellar consulting cover letter.

1. Research the Company Requirements

Interviewing candidates is expensive; it takes time and money to get excellent people on board.

So, the company also wants to ensure that the candidate they are interviewing is interested in the job.

Therefore, consulting firms look for signs that:

You’ve researched the company
You have a proper motivation or reason for entering into consulting
You have a good answer to why you’re the right fit for the company
You have impeccable speaking and writing skills

Use your cover letter to showcase that you have all the signs that a consulting firm looks for in a candidate. This will set you apart from the rest of the candidates.

2. Link Cover Letter To Resume

Your cover letter should complement your resume and strengthen your candidacy.

Start the cover letter with unique experiences and skills to hook the recruiter’s interests.

In resumes, there is less space to explain anything to the recruiter. You can complement it by going into detail about your achievements and skills in the cover letter.

Here are some points consulting firms look for in a consulting cover letter:

Big brand name: If you are from a reputed university or worked with reputed brands
Good Academic Performance: 3.5+ GPA
Leadership experience and good communication skills
Excellent Analytical Skills
The ratio of your accomplishments and career year: the more experience you have, the more accomplishments you should get

3. Don’t Use a Standard Cover Letter Template

Writing a cover letter is difficult. It takes a lot of contemplating and self-reflection to make it right. You have to edit and rewrite the cover letter multiple times to make it interesting.

Some candidates try to use standardized cover letter templates to avoid the pain of writing a cover letter.

This is a big mistake, mainly if you apply to prestigious consulting firms. The recruiters in these organizations are experienced in identifying a standard cover letter.

Don’t write a consulting cover letter for the sake of it. Write the cover letter to make each sentence count and help you get closer to your dream job.

4. Use Evidence-based Storytelling

Everyone loves a good story. And in your cover letter as well, you should tell the story of your experience, don’t list down your skills and accomplishments without any context.

Demonstrate how various experiences have given you certain skills that nobody has.

For example, instead of saying you have led marketing campaigns in your past organizations, you can say that You’ve managed a marketing budget of $50,000 and coordinated with the content team to launch two successful campaigns and generated $5mn sales.

This is evidence-based storytelling, and this gives more context to the recruiter about your experience and helps them evaluate your skills.

5. Avoid Repeating Things on Your Cover Letter

Your cover letter and resume go hand in hand — they should complement each other, but they should not be the same.

You can reference elements of your resume but focus on aspects that aren't covered very well there or put a different spin on things, so it's still interesting for them to read about it again.

6. Pick Your Best Stories And Accomplishments

A cover letter is an opportunity to tell great stories from your work experience that are relevant to the consulting firm you're applying to.

If you have accomplishments, such as helping previous employers save money or increase profits, put these front and center where hiring managers won't miss them. Don't just list your skills — explain how they helped your previous employers meet their goals.

However, make sure to include only 2-3 such stories. And keep them short and crisp. Nobody has the time to read through a 2-page cover letter.

7. Quantify Your Results and Impact

Consulting firms want to know that you have the potential to deliver results for their clients — so make sure you mention how much impact or value you've created in past jobs or internships. For example: "I helped ABC Company reduce its customer service costs by 20%." Or: "I generated $100K in annual savings for XYZ Company through process improvement initiatives."

8. Keep Your Cover Letter Crisp

Many consulting firms get hundreds, if not thousands, of applications for each job opening. It's important to keep your cover letter as brief as possible so that recruiters don't lose interest.

Keep your cover letter to a maximum of one page. The most successful cover letters have three identifiable sections: who you are, why you are applying and why the firm should hire you. This can be covered in three paragraphs or about 300 words.

9. Namedrop Employees You Have Talked to

If there is someone at the firm who referred you or whom you have spoken to about this position, mention them by name in your cover letter, preferably in the first paragraph. This will help the reader to associate your application with that particular employee. It will also help if that person has put in a good word for you!

10. Double-check You're Addressing The Cover Letter Properly

Address the right firm. Take the time to research the firm and make sure your cover letter is addressed to the right person.

Most firms will have information on their websites about who is in charge of recruiting.

The more personal you can make the cover letter, the better for you.

Failing to address your cover letter correctly may be discarded without even being read.

Here’s a Management Consulting Cover Letter Sample For Your Reference:

Frequently asked questions:, do all consulting firms require cover letter.

Most consulting firms keep cover letters as an optional document. However, you must add your cover letter with your resume to distinguish yourself from other candidates. Writing a unique cover letter can help you stand out from the crowd.

What if The Cover Letters are Optional?

Consulting firms like McKinsey and BCG have made their cover letters optional.

It certainly helps the candidates with strong resumes to get out of the hassle of creating a cover letter. However, if you have some red flags on your resume, such as a low GPA or an employment gap, you should write a cover letter to explain these potential red flags to the recruiters and increase your chances of getting hired.

Key Takeaways

Writing a consulting cover letter doesn’t have to be complicated. Just remember the following tips:

Write a proper cover letter header and ensure that you are not making any mistakes in your contact information
Always start the cover letter with a proper and professional salutation
The first paragraph of the consulting cover letter should hook the recruiter to read the whole cover letter
In the second paragraph, explain your experiences and show why you are the perfect candidate for the job
Always end the consulting cover letter with a call to action

If you want to create a consulting cover letter, go to the Hiration Cover Letter Builder tool and pick from 20+ consulting cover letter templates to make an excellent one for yourself.

If you have further questions, reach out to us at [email protected] , and we will be happy to help you out.

Share this blog

Subscribe to Free Resume Writing Blog by Hiration

Get the latest posts delivered right to your inbox

Stay up to date! Get all the latest & greatest posts delivered straight to your inbox

Is Your Resume ATS Friendly To Get Shortlisted?

Upload your resume for a free expert review.

404 Not found

Strategic Consultant Cover Letter Examples

A great strategic consultant cover letter can help you stand out from the competition when applying for a job. Be sure to tailor your letter to the specific requirements listed in the job description, and highlight your most relevant or exceptional qualifications. The following strategic consultant cover letter example can give you some ideas on how to write your own letter.

or download as PDF

Cover Letter Example (Text)

Shauntae Bundschuh

(815) 994-7553

[email protected]

Dear Monserat Mulder,

I am writing to express my interest in the Strategic Consultant position at McKinsey & Company, as advertised. With a solid foundation of five years at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), I have honed my skills in delivering data-driven strategic insights and fostering client relationships, and I am excited about the opportunity to bring this expertise to your esteemed firm.

Throughout my tenure at BCG, I have had the privilege of working with a diverse portfolio of clients, enabling me to tackle complex business challenges across various industries. My approach combines rigorous analysis with creative problem-solving to drive sustainable growth and operational excellence. Notably, I led a team that developed a transformative strategy for a retail client, which resulted in a 20% increase in their profit margin within the first year of implementation.

I have always admired McKinsey's commitment to delivering impact through deep industry knowledge and global expertise. I am particularly drawn to your work in digital transformation and sustainability—areas where I have developed a strong passion and where I believe my background can contribute to innovative and meaningful solutions.

Moreover, I am eager to immerse myself in McKinsey's collaborative culture and to contribute to the mentorship and development of junior colleagues. At BCG, I took great pride in supporting the professional growth of my team members, and I am keen to continue this practice at McKinsey.

In closing, I am confident that my strategic acumen, combined with my dedication to fostering client success, aligns well with the objectives of McKinsey & Company. I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to discuss how my experience and vision can be instrumental in driving value for your clients.

Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to the possibility of contributing to your team and to the continued success of McKinsey & Company.

Warm regards,

Related Cover Letter Examples

Strategic Account Manager
Strategic Planning Manager
Strategic Sourcing Manager
Strategic Planning Analyst
Strategic Planner
CRM Consultant

I ordered a paper with a 3-day deadline. They delivered it prior to the agreed time. Offered free alterations and asked if I want them to fix something. However, everything looked perfect to me.

Testimonials

Words to pages
Pages to words

Words to pages
Pages to words

Professional Essay Writer at Your Disposal!

Quality over quantity is a motto we at Essay Service support. We might not have as many paper writers as any other legitimate essay writer service, but our team is the cream-of-the-crop. On top of that, we hire writers based on their degrees, allowing us to expand the overall field speciality depth! Having this variation allows clients to buy essay and order any assignment that they could need from our fast paper writing service; just be sure to select the best person for your job!

How does this work

Service Is a Study Guide

Our cheap essay writing service aims to help you achieve your desired academic excellence. We know the road to straight A's isn't always smooth, so contact us whenever you feel challenged by any kind of task and have an original assignment done according to your requirements.

We never disclose your personal information to any third parties

Finished Papers

Customer Reviews

Sample cover letter for Internship position at Boston Consulting Group

Summer intern.

I am writing to apply for the internship position at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Currently, I am a Masters in Public Policy (MPP) candidate at ABC University, with a concentration in Economic Policy. I have worked first-hand on various policy issues of social and economic significant and I want to enrich my professional expertise by working in a dynamic environment that BCG promises. I believe that I have the skillset and drive necessary to succeed at BCG.

BCG fascinates me because of its wide range of capabilities in the global market and the customized approach it takes towards solving clients’ unique challenges. The diverse range of experiences in a challenging work environment will allow me to chart my own professional and personal course. In addition, a dynamic team coming from different educational and professional backgrounds will result in an enriching workplace environment that I intend to benefit from.

I believe that my previous academic and professional expertise have provided me with the analytical skillset to succeed at BCG. As an Economics major in college, I applied the theoretical frameworks to different real-life situations. Post graduation, I started working as a Research Associate where I evaluated various social security programs funded by international agencies like ABC and XYZ. My most recent engagement in the field of policy consultancy was with ABC Department of Health where I evaluated an ABC initiative funded by the federal government. I now want to enhance my portfolio by working with various clients

I believe that my education, work experience, and leadership abilities make me a strong candidate for this position. I have attached my resume that outlines my education and experiences in further detail. Should you have any questions, please contact me at the details below. I hope that I get more opportunities to talk you about my aspirations in person.

Standard essay helper