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How to shorten a resume?

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How to shorten a resume?

by speedyb09 » Tue Aug 06, 2013 5:59 am
While only having three years of work experience, I have been on three separate teams within my company as part of a rotation program. Most of my work has been project-based work, meaning my resume is currently a long list of all the projects I have done on these teams and the outcome.

For an MBA app resume (and a resume in general!), in order to shorten this to one page, do I just pick and choose the "best" projects from each team, or keep all the projects but don't give much insight into the work or the outcomes [one sentence per project]?
How do you choose which information to keep?

Thanks!
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by CriticalSquareMBA » Wed Aug 07, 2013 8:54 am
Hi there,

Great question. So there's definitely a balance to be struck between content and impact. When our clients come to us with long resumes, we generally focus on the fluff sections (undergrad activities, education - there can be a lot more words than necessary in these areas) and come to professional components last.

What you want to avoid is getting into a position where things you did and the impact you had aren't documented. Also, rotational programs are a great way to show depth and breadth and to leave things out takes away from an otherwise natural strong story.

In your case, I would say get creative in how you convey each of these rotations. You could do something where the title is your title and division, below which you have a sentence or two describing the role of this function in the business, after which each bullet is a project you did. You could do "Project Name: sentence describing project and impact delivered that starts with action verb".

That let's you get across all your accomplishments while also getting to the "so what" quickly.

What do you think? I can't see your resume so I hope this is helpful.

Bhavik
Critical Square | MBA Admissions Services

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by money9111 » Tue Aug 13, 2013 6:58 am
If you do find the need to remove some bullet points from your resume, then jot them down and make sure that you try to weave them into an essay. When I applied to Johnson at Cornell University, I had 3 jobs at 3 different companies and had Undergrad & Post-Grad schools on there... I was able to get my resume to 1 page and still had 2 lines of Extracurriculars & 2 lines of Skills. It's doable!
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by money9111 » Tue Aug 13, 2013 6:59 am
If you do find the need to remove some bullet points from your resume, then jot them down and make sure that you try to weave them into an essay. When I applied to Johnson at Cornell University, I had 3 jobs at 3 different companies and had Undergrad & Post-Grad schools on there... I was able to get my resume to 1 page and still had 2 lines of Extracurriculars & 2 lines of Skills. It's doable!
My goal is to make MBA applicants take onus over their process.

My story from Pre-MBA to Cornell MBA - New Post in Pre-MBA blog

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by money9111 » Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:00 am
If you do find the need to remove some bullet points from your resume, then jot them down and make sure that you try to weave them into an essay. When I applied to Johnson at Cornell University, I had 3 jobs at 3 different companies and had Undergrad & Post-Grad schools on there... I was able to get my resume to 1 page and still had 2 lines of Extracurriculars & 2 lines of Skills. It's doable!
My goal is to make MBA applicants take onus over their process.

My story from Pre-MBA to Cornell MBA - New Post in Pre-MBA blog

Me featured on Poets & Quants

Free Book for MBA Applicants

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