Template 02
The McKinsey 1-Page CV
One page. Every line has to carry weight. Strong on impact, zero on fluff.
For strategy consulting · MBA applications · Senior impact-led roles
MICHAEL J. WHITMORE
London, UK+44 7700 900 420 · m.whitmore@insead.edu · linkedin.com/in/mwhitmore
Education
Dean’s List (top 10%); GMAT 760 (99th percentile); VP, Consulting Club; Co-chair, Social Impact Initiative.
First Class Honours; Hertford College Scholar; President, Oxford Strategy Society.
Experience
- Led 4 teams across consumer goods and retail; identified £180m of run-rate EBITDA for a FTSE 100 client.
- Built the pricing architecture for a UK grocer’s private label range; adopted across 2,400 SKUs.
- Mentored 12 associates, 3 of whom were elected to the firm’s accelerated promotion track.
- Awarded Top 5% Performance rating in 2022 and 2023 consecutively.
- Shaped the go-to-market strategy for a PE-backed D2C business; supported £320m exit to a strategic buyer in 2020.
- Delivered operating-model redesign for a UK water utility; reduced service-to-cost ratio by 14%.
- Promoted to Engagement Manager 6 months ahead of the standard cohort track.
- Contributed to a commercial due diligence for a £600m aerospace take-private; received return offer (declined).
Leadership & Impact
- Co-founder, ClimateReach – UK non-profit matching climate scientists with policy advisors; scaled to 60 active partnerships in 18 months.
- Board Advisor, EduFutures – ed-tech non-profit focused on UK state-school economics access.
Additional
Languages:English (native), French (fluent), Spanish (working). Technical:SQL, Tableau, advanced Excel and PowerPoint. Interests: long-distance cycling (London to Paris, 2023), political economy, improv theatre.
The Anatomy
What makes this format distinctive, and what the hiring reader expects to see.
- One column, one page, disciplined
- The page limit is the format. If you cannot fit on one page, you are either including too much or failing to prioritise. Consultants read this format by scanning: the layout has to reward the scan.
- Education first, always at the top
- Degree, institution, classification, dates, and one or two standout details: GMAT, scholarship, distinction, publication. If your education is the weakest part of your CV, the McKinsey format is not your best friend.
- Experience in reverse chronological order
- Each role gets a single-line header (firm, location, role, dates) followed by 3 to 5 bullets. Every bullet leads with an action verb, ends with a number, and describes a single achievement.
- Leadership and additional blocks condensed
- One short block each, usually at the bottom. Leadership is treated as evidence of impact, not a list of committees. Additional covers languages, technical skills, and interests in two lines.
- No colour, no icons, no photo
- Consultants read tens of thousands of these CVs. Anything that interrupts the scan is read as a failure of judgement. The aesthetic restraint is itself a signal.
When it works
You are applying into a structured screening process where the reader has 60 seconds per CV. The constraint forces ruthless editing: only the achievements that matter survive. If you can evidence outcomes clearly, this format rewards you.
When it does not
You are a senior operator with a 15-year career. Compressing into one page will strip out the phase-to-phase logic that makes the career coherent. Use the McKinsey format for an application, not a positioning exercise.
What a template cannot do
A template is a shape. Not a read.
Most CVs I read for real hiring mandates are not poorly formatted. They are poorly positioned. The wrong achievements lead. The sector narrative is implicit when it should be explicit. The value proposition is accurate but common. A polished template cannot fix any of these, because a template is a shape, not a read.
A template tells you how to lay out a CV. Knowing what belongs on it, in what order, framed which way, for whom, is the work of the CV Intelligence Report.
The other templates in the pack
See all three CV templates