Hi...I see with great pride all for the wonderful jobs everyone is recevieng, why cannot I even get an interview?About myself...gradauted with an undergradaute business degree (honors) from a leading Canadian institution. I have over 3 years of solid work experience...private sector, federal gov't, and NGO's. These have been in a consulting based environemnt, where I have helped increase sales, profitability, by conductng market research for them. I have received over 10 internationally competitive awards, published 5 papers in research journals. And did I mention I speak 5 languages fluently, and have lived overseas for over a decade...right now a Canadian. Traveled to over 20 countries to present papers at international research conferences. I have excellent cover letters, resumes, that have been proof read about 90 times by about 50 different people, and I am not exageratting. But, still...I cannot even receive a call for an interview. I have applied to over 200+ places..BUT nothing.CAN someone guide me what I should do? I truly appreciate any advise. Is there a back door to entering these firms. If so, please let me know what the code for this door is?Thanks, confused!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are not even getting a call..then there must be something wrong in your resume or CL...You might be over qualified for the positions you are applying for....try to taylor it to the company/industry instead of just splitting out all your accomplisments and skills.....maybe have someone from the industry review your resume....good luck

Without seeing your CV, and based only on what you've written here, it sounds to me like you've done a lot of market research and have quite a strong academic leaning, as indicated by the number of research papers you've presented. Alarm bells would be going off in my head because I'd be thinking that you're all theory, but would struggle at a practical level.The fact that you've applied to over 200 places unsuccessfully tells me you don't respond terribly well to feedback -- after the first 20 rejections, I'd be looking at what I could do to change my CV to make it more effective.It's hard to give advice without seeing your full CV, but I would focus less on your research achievements and more on the practical business skills and knowledge. If you know anyone in consulting, get several consultants to review your CV and offer their feedback. Better if they don't know you and don't worry about hurting your feelings with their feedback.

Maybe it’s the way you’re applying too – assuming you’re accurate at your 200 is applications.

I have no idea how that happened, must have been word auto correcting me. What that post was supposed to say is:Maybe it’s the way you’re applying too – assuming you’re accurate with your 200 odd applications.

based on the info you provide, it is likely that you are too old (I assume you spent quite a long time at University to get all these awards)for graduate intake and too experienced for this. You do not seem to have an MBA (I assume you would have told us that if you had) meaning that you will not qualify for post MBA entry. You mention a range of different activities dring your 3 years of work experience. If you have had a number of jobs over a short period of time, you make lack stability on the CV. Also, without - it would seem - consulting experience or an MBA, it is hard to see where you would fit. You list a lot of veritable achievements but nothing which would make a strategy firm get to excited. Strategy firms will tend to want to see some pretty major names on the CV for their experienced hires as your profile will end up on proposals for their clients. If you have been working for small gov departments or unknown private sector companies, this is also going to count against you.

If you have applied to recruitment consultants...always try to ring them and follow up after you have sent to your CV..some of the consultants will not look at your resume due to large no. of CV's they are getting daily

If your experience is in Canada and you are applying here, it may well be that those companies are unknown to recruiters here. From which school did you get your degree if I may ask?

Confused, your question has a Freudian undertone. Does this indicate a wider malaise?

you are clearly not suited for consulting. Rather than banging out 200 applications and hoping for the best, perhaps a novel suggestion would be to do some due diligence as to what the market requires in the first instance rather than just assuming that you are the answer to everyone's prayers... You can then apply to 10 companies who might actually be interested and take a more scientific approach. Someone with a head for consulting would have worked this out.

My advice - is tailor your cv to the job description. If you put everything on it you may come across as knowing a bit about everything, but if you only put in things relevant to the job, employers can immediately pinpoint your strengths and see that you match their job description.

It seems the candidate has very diverse experience. If h/she is to tailor the resume, it raises an important question....that may mean deleting and not mentioning some of their work experiences, or achivements. I wonder if this is ok? I had a similar problem, and was told by HR that everything should be mentioned on a resume. I did....and landed me a job I enjoy. I could have done so otherwise...not that I did. What is your stake on this matter? This may also help our dear friend who I pity a lot, as I have been in a similar boat.

My view is to only include things which may be of interest. What I've found is by including everything employers can't "figure me out" and end up getting the wrong impression of me (They resort to academic studies to figure out what your specialism is).By shaping your CV to the job description your entire life appears to have been geared towards the job they are offering!

..Though make sure you don't get too sadistic with chopping bits out. If you want to demonstrate you have some additional skills which may be of interest, do a quick and simple sentence on it (i.e. give no more than one example), whilst bolstering up your other areas with more than one example.

Can we return to the subject, please, which is CONFUSED's attempt to gain entry via the back door

ha ha.....very funny "satisfied".

Well, I think its safe to say that we have seen off another pretender to our exclusive club. Good luck Confused.... sounds like you are going to need it. consulting is really not all its cracked up to be. I am sure you will be happier than any of us!

Hello...I've seen some postings from Village Idiot and would like some guidance with regard to consultancy.

What about the right to work in the UK/EU ?Do you have right to live and work in the UK/EU?I hope by your 5 languages you referred to major business languages such as French, German, Spanish or maybe even Japanese and Chinese and not 5 dialects only spoken in India.Best of luck, John