Consulting CV Template (UK) 2026: Summer Internship and Master's Graduate CVs

Last updated: October 2026 · 2 Word templates (penultimate-year summer internship, one-year master's graduate) · one A4 page · 5 entry routes · 5 sections · 5 bullet formulas for a CV with no consulting job on it

Free Word templates:Penultimate-year CV, UK format: summer internship application (.docx)One-year master's CV, UK format: graduate consulting application (.docx)

60-second answerUpdated October 2026

Consulting CVs in the UK: the 60-second answer

A UK consulting CV is one A4 page: contact line, education, experience, leadership and activities, then skills and languages. One serif or plain sans font at 10-11pt, no photo, no date of birth, and no personal-profile paragraph at the top.
Education goes first for every student, graduate and one-year master's applicant: degree with predicted or achieved classification and module marks, A-levels or IB with grades, and a one-line GCSE summary. Strategy firms and Big 4 schemes both screen on these before reading the rest.
Consultancies read every line for the same three things: problem solving, leadership and impact. Write each bullet as the problem, what you did about it and the number it moved, and put a number in at least four of every five bullets.
You do not need a consulting job on the page to apply for a summer internship. A pro-bono society project, a case competition, a dissertation with real data or a part-time job where you fixed something reads as consulting work if it is written as one.
Use one CV per programme type and change the top third for each firm. Strategy firms in London often ask for a cover letter as well; Big 4 schemes usually use an online form with motivational questions. Read each application and keep the CV factual.

Strategy consultancies and the Big 4 hire most of their UK graduates through a ladder that starts with insight days and summer internships. The CV is one A4 page at every step, but what fills it changes: a penultimate-year student's page runs on projects and societies, and a master's student's page runs on the work they did before the master's. This guide covers the UK format. For a US office, the consulting resume guide has the US conventions and a graduate and an experienced-hire template. Jump to the two Word templates.

Insight day, summer internship, graduate role, master's, experienced hire: what each CV is read for

Programme names, dates and eligibility differ by firm and change each year, so check every firm's own careers page. The pattern below holds across most of them.

Insight days and first-year programmes

Who and when: Mainly first-years and some second-years. Many strategy firms and the Big 4 run insight days, workshops or short spring programmes; some are aimed at particular groups of students. Applications usually open in the autumn.

What the CV needs: Grades and initiative. Nobody expects consulting experience: a part-time job, a society role, school leadership or a competition fills the page. Show that you have analysed something and changed something, with numbers.

Summer internship (vacation scheme)

Who and when: Penultimate-year students. Usually several weeks in the summer before final year and the main route into a graduate offer at most firms; applications typically open in the early autumn of the year before.

What the CV needs: Evidence of structured problem solving: a pro-bono project with a client and a recommendation, a case competition result, an insight programme, an analytical internship in any sector. Lead the experience section with the most consulting-like piece of work.

Graduate role (Business Analyst, Associate, Graduate Consultant)

Who and when: Final-year students and recent graduates. Strategy firms hire into their analyst or associate role; the Big 4 hire into graduate schemes by service line (consulting, strategy, deals). Many firms fill a large share from their own interns.

What the CV needs: Your best internship first, written as client work: the question, the analysis, the recommendation, what happened. A quantitative dissertation belongs in education; achieved results replace predicted ones as soon as you have them.

One-year master's student

Who and when: Students on a one-year MSc in the UK, often with an undergraduate degree and some work experience from abroad. The master's year overlaps with the autumn application window, so the CV goes out within weeks of arriving.

What the CV needs: Both degrees with grades in a form a UK reader understands (a percentage or GPA with its scale), the work experience before the master's written as projects with results, and right to work stated plainly in the contact line.

Experienced hire

Who and when: Two or more years in industry, banking, the public sector or another consultancy, applying at consultant or senior consultant level, often to a specific practice.

What the CV needs: Experience above education. Each role written as projects with a client or business owner, a problem and a measured result, and the vocabulary of the practice you want. The experienced-hire template on the consulting resume guide is built this way.

The one-page UK consulting CV: exact structure

Education comes first for every student, graduate and master's application; experienced hires move it below experience.

1Contact line

Name, city, email, phone, LinkedIn URL, right to work in the UK where it is not obvious (for example 'UK citizen' or 'Graduate visa from [month year]'), and languages with level. One or two lines under the name. No photo, date of birth, nationality or full address.

2Education

University, degree and graduation year, then classification (predicted or achieved First or 2:1) with year marks and three or four strong modules. A quantitative dissertation or project goes here with its method and finding. Then school: A-levels or IB with grades, and GCSEs in one line. Master's students list the MSc first and give the undergraduate grade with its scale.

3Experience

Reverse chronological. Employer, city, role, dates and the length of short programmes ('3 days', '10 weeks'). Two to four bullets each, each with a problem, an action and a result. Part-time jobs count when the bullet shows you analysed or improved something.

4Leadership and activities

Pro-bono consulting projects, case competitions, society committee roles, sports captaincy, volunteering, founding something. Written like jobs: what you led, how many people, what budget, what changed. Consultancies weigh this section more than banks do.

5Skills and languages

Tools you can be tested on (Excel to the level you actually have, PowerPoint, any of SQL, Python, R, Stata or Tableau), languages with level if not in the contact line, and one or two specific interests you can talk about for two minutes.

Consulting CV templates: a summer internship CV and a master's graduate CV

The first is for a penultimate-year student applying to summer internships with an insight programme, a pro-bono project and a part-time job on it; the second is for a one-year master's student applying to graduate roles with two years of work before the master's. Every name, school, employer and figure is a placeholder showing the shape of a quantified line. Each downloads as a Word file on A4 in one font with no tables or columns; replace every line with your own.

Penultimate-year CV, UK format: summer internship application

[Your Name] — Second-year undergraduate, BSc Economics and Management

[City] · [email] · [phone] · linkedin.com/in/[your-name] · Right to work: [status] · Languages: English (native), [language] (conversational)

Download as Word (.docx)

Education

[University], BSc Economics and ManagementSep 2025 – Jun 2028 (expected)

Predicted First; first-year average 71%. Top marks: Quantitative Methods (78%), Microeconomics (74%), Accounting (72%).
Second-year project: modelled the break-even price for a city bike-share scheme from 9 months of open trip data (in progress).
Awards: [Scholarship], awarded to 15 of about 350 entrants on academic merit.

[School], A-levels2023 – 2025

Mathematics A*, Economics A*, Geography A. Extended Project (A*): why UK high streets lost a fifth of their banks in five years.
GCSEs: 9, including 6 at grade 9 (Mathematics, English Language, Geography).

Experience

Spring Insight Programme, [Professional services firm], [City]Apr 2026 · 3 days

One of 60 first-years selected; worked in a team of six on a cost-reduction case for a regional bus operator and presented two recommendations to a partner.
Built the case team's cost bridge in Excel from the operator's route data, showing fuel and overtime as 70% of the gap.

Shift Supervisor (part-time), [Café chain], [City]Oct 2024 – present · 15 hrs a week

Re-sequenced till and barista roles on the Saturday rota after tracking walk-outs, cutting average wait from nine minutes to five.
Run the close and cash-up for a £14,000-a-week branch; no variances raised at the last three audits.
Trained six new starters; the branch ranked second of 22 in the region for mystery-shopper scores in 2025.

Leadership & activities

Project Lead, [University] Student Consulting SocietyOct 2025 – present

Lead a team of five on a 10-week pro-bono project for a local charity: sized its corporate-volunteering market from 40 employer interviews and public filings.
Recommended two-tier pricing for employer days; the charity adopted it and signed three employers in the first term, worth about £9,000 a year.

Finalist, [Firm] Undergraduate Case CompetitionFeb 2026

Led the financial analysis for a market-entry case for a UK grocer, recommending a franchise model over owned stores; placed second of 36 teams.

Treasurer, [University] Hockey ClubMay 2025 – present

Rebuilt the club's £11,000 budget around three priced sponsorship packages; income rose from £2,000 to £6,500 and subs were held flat for 70 members.

Volunteer Tutor, [Charity], [City]Sep 2024 – Jun 2025

Tutored three Year 11 students in GCSE Mathematics for an hour a week; all three moved up at least two grades between mocks and finals.

Skills & languages

Technical: Excel (lookups, pivot tables, scenario models), PowerPoint, Python (pandas, introductory), Stata.

Languages: English (native), [language] (conversational).

Interests: [one specific interest you can talk about for two minutes, e.g. a sport, a book you would recommend, or a business you follow].

One-year master's CV, UK format: graduate consulting application

[Your Name] — MSc Management student with two years' work experience before the master's

[City] · [email] · [phone] · linkedin.com/in/[your-name] · Right to work: Graduate visa from [month year] · Languages: English (fluent), [language] (native)

Download as Word (.docx)

Education

[University], MSc ManagementSep 2026 – Sep 2027 (expected)

Expected: Distinction. Modules: Corporate Strategy, Operations Management, Business Analytics, Managerial Economics.
Consulting project: [Company] (term 2) — sizing the UK market for refurbished office furniture for a team of four.
Dissertation (planned): how UK retailers set click-and-collect fees, using public price data for 40 chains.

[University], Bachelor of Engineering, MechanicalJul 2020 – Jun 2024

CGPA 8.9/10, ranked 7th of 180 in the department.
Final-year project: cut energy use in a plant cooling loop by 14% in a model validated against six months of plant data.

Experience

Business Analyst, [Logistics company], [City]Jul 2024 – Aug 2026 · 2 years

Ran a 12-week review of last-mile costs across 18 depots; the route and shift changes recommended were piloted in four and cut cost per parcel by 9%.
Built the weekly depot performance dashboard (SQL, Power BI) used by 30 managers, replacing four manual spreadsheets.
Interviewed 25 drivers and depot leads to find why failed deliveries ran at 6%; the new time-slot rule took it to 4% in two quarters.
Presented quarterly findings to the regional operations director; three of five recommendations were funded in the next budget.

Operations Intern, [Manufacturing company], [City]May – Jul 2023 · 10 weeks

Mapped changeover steps on a packaging line with the shift team and cut changeover time from 50 minutes to 35.
Built a downtime log in Excel that showed two machines caused 60% of stoppages; both were moved up the maintenance plan.
Wrote the one-page handover for the line's new changeover standard, used by three shifts after the internship ended.

Leadership & activities

Consultant, [University] Pro-Bono Consulting ClubOct 2026 – present

Team of four advising a social enterprise on pricing its training courses; built the cost and volume model behind the team's three options.
Presented the recommended option to the founder and board; the new prices start with the spring intake.

Finalist, [Firm] Master's Case ChallengeOct 2026

Built the market-sizing for a team of four on a growth case for a UK gym chain; placed in the final six of 40 teams.

Founder, [City] Engineering Mentorship Circle2022 – 2024

Started a mentoring scheme pairing 45 first-years with final-year students; 38 completed the year and first-year drop-out in the department fell.

Skills & languages

Technical: Excel modelling, PowerPoint, SQL, Power BI, Python (pandas).

Languages: English (fluent), [language] (native), [language] (conversational).

Interests: [one specific interest you can talk about for two minutes, e.g. long-distance cycling, 300 km in a weekend].

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No consulting job yet: five bullet formulas that read as consulting work

Each one is a problem, what you did and the number it moved. Use the ones your experience honestly fits.

Pro-bono or student consulting project

[The client's question] + [the analysis you did: interviews, data, model] + [the recommendation] + [what the client did with it]

Sized the corporate-volunteering market for a local charity from 40 employer interviews and public filings; the charity adopted the two-tier pricing we recommended and signed three employers in the first term.

Case competition

[The case] + [your role in the team] + [the recommendation] + [placing and field]

Led the financial analysis for a market-entry case for a UK grocer, recommending a franchise model over owned stores; placed second of 36 teams, judged by two consultants.

Part-time job where you fixed something

[The problem you noticed] + [what you changed] + [a measured result]

Noticed weekend queues were driving walk-outs at a busy café; re-sequenced the till and barista roles on the Saturday rota, cutting average wait from nine minutes to five.

Dissertation or research with real data

[The question] + [the data and method] + [the finding, with a number]

Dissertation: tested whether bus-route cuts reduced high-street footfall, using 1.2M card transactions across 14 towns; footfall fell 6% within a year of a cut (predicted mark 74%).

Society or club role

[Role] + [the problem or goal] + [what you organised] + [scale and result]

As president, rebuilt the society's sponsorship offer around three priced packages; sponsorship income rose from £2,000 to £7,500 and membership from 90 to 210.

One CV, reordered for each firm you apply to

Upload your CV, or type it in if you don't have one yet, and paste the job description from the firm's careers page. WadeCV checks your CV against it, then rewrites and reorders your lines in its language using only what is already in your CV and your answers, and writes a cover letter for the applications that ask for one. 1 free credit on signup.

Eight common UK consulting CV mistakes

Two pages for a student or graduate application. Strategy firms and most Big 4 schemes read one A4 page.
A personal profile paragraph at the top. It costs four lines and says what the cover letter or the motivational questions will ask anyway.
Leaving out A-level or GCSE grades because you are now at university. Firms screen on them, and a missing grade is read as a low one.
Describing tasks instead of results: 'conducted market research' tells the reader nothing; give the question, the method and the number it produced.
Saying 'consulting experience' about a society project without the client, the problem and the outcome. Interviewers ask about every project on the page.
Using the US resume format for a London office: GPA alone, US Letter paper, no A-levels. Use the conventions of the office you apply to; master's students give their overseas grade with its scale.
Listing 'Excel (advanced)', 'problem solving' or 'leadership' with nothing on the page that shows it. Replace each with a line that proves it.
Sending the same CV to a strategy firm and a Big 4 deals team. Each is read for something different; reorder the top third for it.

Frequently asked questions

What should a consulting CV include if I have no consulting experience?

Your grades, then work that shows problem solving and impact: a pro-bono society project, a case competition, a dissertation with real data, a part-time job where you changed something, a society you grew. Summer internships and insight programmes are aimed at students, so a consulting job is not expected. Write each line as the problem, what you did and the number it moved; the summer internship template on this page is built that way.

Is a consulting CV different from a consulting resume?

The document is the same one page; the conventions differ by office. A London CV is A4 and lists degree classification, A-levels and a GCSE summary; a US resume is US Letter and lists GPA. Use the word and the conventions of the office you apply to. The consulting resume guide covers the US format and has a graduate and an experienced-hire template.

How long should a consulting CV be in the UK?

One A4 page for insight programmes, summer internships, graduate roles and most master's applications. Experienced hires with several years of relevant work sometimes use two pages for Big 4 or specialist roles, but one page is the safe default for strategy firms.

Do I need a cover letter for a consulting application in the UK?

Often, for strategy firms: many London offices ask for a cover letter alongside the CV, and some make it optional. Big 4 graduate schemes usually use an online form with motivational questions instead. Read each application; where a letter is asked for, write it for that firm and office. WadeCV writes a cover letter with every tailored CV, from your CV and the job description you give it.

Should I put GCSEs and A-levels on a consulting CV?

Yes while you are a student or recent graduate: A-levels or IB with grades, and GCSEs in one line with Mathematics and English named if they are strong. Many application forms ask for school grades anyway, and the CV should agree with the form. Experienced hires can drop GCSEs and shorten A-levels to one line.

How should a master's student from abroad write their undergraduate grade?

Give the grade in its own system with its scale, so a UK reader can judge it: 'CGPA 8.9/10, top 5% of 180' or 'GPA 3.8/4.0'. Add a rank or percentile if your university publishes one. Do not convert it to a UK classification yourself; the firm's form will ask in its own way, and the CV should match what you write there.

Should I include a photo or date of birth on a UK consulting CV?

No. UK CVs carry neither, and neither is needed to assess you. Name, city, contact details, LinkedIn and, where relevant, right to work and languages are enough.

Can I use the same CV for McKinsey, BCG, Bain and the Big 4?

Use one CV per programme type and change the top third for each firm and team: lead with the experience closest to what that application describes, in its words. If you apply to many, WadeCV can check your CV against each job description and reorder and reword it, using only what is already in your CV and the answers you give.

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