Kearney is one of the world's top strategy and operations consulting firms, known for its hands-on culture and strong focus on sourcing, procurement and operations.
Like all major consulting firms, they receive thousands of applications for a handful of roles. Most CVs are filtered in seconds — often by Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) — long before a consultant or recruiter looks at them.
That's the scary part: You usually never find out whether a human actually saw your CV… or whether it died in the ATS filter.
This guide shows you exactly how to write a Kearney-ready CV that aligns with Kearney's values and culture, passes ATS screening, and maximizes your chance of getting invited to interviews.
What Kearney Looks for Before Anything Else
Kearney is explicit about the kind of people they hire: they emphasize five core values — curiosity, generosity, boldness, solidarity, and passion.
What a Successful Kearney Candidate Shows
- Strong academics — Top-tier grades (in some markets they explicitly mention GPA ≥ 8/10 as a signal). Rigorous degrees (business, economics, engineering, STEM…) or a very strong alternative story.
- Impactful professional experience — 50–60% of the CV focused on work experience with clear responsibility and results. Evidence that you were a top performer, not just "doing the job".
- Analytical problem-solving — Projects where you worked with data, built models, improved processes, or solved complex problems.
- Leadership & collaboration — Leading teams, owning workstreams, driving initiatives. "Solidarity" and "generosity" translate into teamwork and mentorship, not lone-wolf hero stories.
- International exposure & curiosity — Exchanges, internships abroad, multicultural teams, or global projects demonstrate the curiosity and passion they talk about.
Your CV has to make all of this obvious within 10–15 seconds — and first it has to pass the ATS filter.
How Kearney Screens Applications (and Where ATS Kills CVs)
Kearney's typical process:
- Step 1: CV + cover letter screening
- Step 2: Online test / Kearney Recruitment Test (analytical skills)
- Step 3: 2–4 interview rounds (fit + case)
Step 1 is where most applications disappear. If your CV has tables, text boxes or columns, vague bullets with no metrics, generic corporate language, or no clear link to consulting skills… it's highly likely to be filtered out automatically.
Structure of a Kearney-Ready CV
Recommended One-Page Structure
- 1. Header — Name, email, phone, city, LinkedIn
- 2. Education — Degree, university, GPA/rank, key achievements
- 3. Professional Experience — Reverse chronological, 2-5 bullets per role with Action + Impact + Metric
- 4. Leadership & Extracurriculars — Side projects, clubs, NGOs, competitions
- 5. Skills & Languages — Analytical tools, business tools, languages
Key Layout Rules to Avoid ATS Issues
- No tables, text boxes, columns or graphics – they often break parsing
- Use standard fonts (Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman)
- Font size 10–12pt, simple bullet points, no icons
- Avoid headers/footers with important content (ATS may ignore them)
Professional Experience: Your Main Kearney Selling Point
This should be the largest section of your CV. Kearney partners emphasize that 50–60% of your CV should be work experience. Each role should have:
- Company – Role – Location – Dates
- 2–5 bullets with Action + Impact + Metric
“Supported procurement project for a manufacturing client.”
“Analyzed €45m annual spend across 120 suppliers and identified consolidation opportunities, enabling a 7% cost reduction in indirect procurement for an automotive client.”
Clear link to procurement/operations (Kearney's sweet spot), metric (7% cost reduction, €45m spend), strong verb: Analyzed, identified, enabled
Leadership & Extracurriculars (Curiosity, Generosity, Boldness)
Kearney's values show up here: side projects, student clubs, NGOs, ventures, competitions. Show that you:
- Started or scaled something (boldness, passion)
- Helped people, mentored, or built communities (generosity, solidarity)
- Explored new fields, countries, topics (curiosity)
Example Bullets
- Founded a student consulting club, led 18 members across 4 projects, delivering pro-bono advice to local SMEs and achieving average client NPS of 9.3/10.
- Organized a 200-participant sustainability conference, securing €12k sponsorship and coordinating a 10-person cross-functional team.
Kearney-Specific Keywords & Themes
You don't want to "keyword stuff", but Kearney's values and positioning should subtly appear in your wording.
Themes That Resonate with Kearney
- Curiosity & learning — "explored", "investigated", "researched", "tested new approaches"
- Generosity & solidarity (team spirit) — "co-created", "mentored", "supported teammates", "knowledge-sharing"
- Boldness & passion — "launched new initiative", "challenged existing process", "championed"
- Impact & 'essential rightness' — "delivered sustainable savings", "improved employee engagement", "reduced waste"
Functional Keywords That Match Kearney Work
- Operations / supply chain / procurement
- Cost optimization / efficiency / performance improvement
- Data-driven analysis / modeling / dashboards
- Stakeholder management / client communication
- Implementation / execution / change management
Only use these where they are factually true. ATS and interviewers will cross-check your story later.
Bullet Examples: Before vs. After (Kearney-Style Rewrites)
“Helped with supply chain improvements for a retail client.”
“Analyzed end-to-end retail supply chain for 150+ SKUs, identifying bottlenecks that reduced stockouts by 18% and cut logistics costs by 6%.”
Specific scope, clear impact metrics, consulting-style language
“Worked on a student project about sustainability.”
“Led a 4-person team in a sustainability project for a local manufacturer, designing a new recycling process projected to reduce waste by 25% and save ~€40k annually.”
Shows leadership, quantified impact, real business value
“Member of university consulting club.”
“Co-led the university consulting club, acquiring 3 new SME clients and coordinating 10+ workshops to train 60 members in hypothesis-driven problem-solving.”
Active role, measurable achievements, consulting skills
Mistakes That Quietly Kill Kearney Applications
- Fancy design that breaks ATS — Multi-column layouts, CV templates from Canva, icons instead of bullet points, graphics. Result: ATS parsing fails, key info goes missing → auto-reject.
- No metrics — "Improved", "helped", "supported" with zero numbers. Kearney lives on quantified impact; your CV must too.
- Generic, copy-paste consulting CV — A CV where you could swap "Kearney" for "McKinsey" or "BCG" and nothing changes. They want to see why Kearney and why you.
- Weak or hidden academics — GPA missing when it's strong, or buried at the bottom. Make strong academics a front-and-center selling point.
- No coherence in your story — Random internships and roles with no clear narrative. You need a coherent "why consulting, why Kearney" storyline.
How to Stress-Test Your Kearney CV Before You Apply
Simple Process You Can Follow Today
- 1. Draft your CV — Use a clean, one-page consulting format following the section structure above.
- 2. Run a Kearney-specific ATS check — Upload your CV to our tool, choose Kearney as your target firm, get an instant quick scan showing whether your CV is likely to clear the initial screen.
- 3. Fix the red flags — If your quick tier is low, rework bullets, structure, and keywords.
- 4. Get the full Kearney CV report (optional) — Receive detailed PDF with 0–100 score, benchmark vs. typical candidates, category-by-category feedback, and firm-specific insights.
- 5. Apply with confidence — Now you know that both ATS and a Kearney-style reviewer could read and understand your CV.
Quick Kearney CV Checklist
- One-page, no tables, no columns, no graphics
- Education section with strong GPA/rank visible and early
- 50–60% of the page is experience with metrics
- Every bullet follows Action + Impact + Metric
- Clear evidence of problem-solving, analytics, and ownership
- Leadership and extracurriculars that show curiosity, generosity, boldness, solidarity, passion
- Skills and languages support a consulting + operations story
- Kearney-relevant keywords appear naturally in your real experiences
- CV is saved as a standard PDF, fully text-selectable (no scans)
- You've run at least one ATS simulation to see what the machine sees
📄 Free Kearney CV Template
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