The Application Process

Hello,

I'm working on my resume for round one applications, and I was wondering if it would be appropriate to have a "Leadership" section on a professional MBA resume. I am a younger candidate (4 years WE at matriculation), but I do have great leadership roles in my extracurricular and undergraduate experience. My goal is to include this section below my work experience to hopefully show schools that although I am early in my career, I have experience managing groups and organizations. Any thoughts would be great.

First of all, 4 years is not less WE.

You need not add an individual section for that. but add the leadership section wherever appropriate.

The way I saw in the Clear Admit's Resume guide, the following format works.

Name
Address | phone | email

EDUCATION
Univ location
Degree Year of attendance.

EXPERIENCE
Company loc
Role Years
Achievement 1
Achievement 2

company 2.
...

OTHER SKILLS/ACTIVITIES
List your extracurricular achievements
Hobbies
Languages etc

This way you are keeping the resume familiar to the Adcom and won't have to hunt for data. They know where to look for what. But in each company / Community activity, list out your achievements by starting the bullets with Active Verbs.

Having said that, if you think you can add leadership as a section without hurting the resume's format then you can do that. It will make your resume unique and they will remember you.

Hi, I agree with Vineesh. One more thing to bear in mind (I am being brutally honest at the cost of being rude). You do have a perception about your abilities but with 4 years WE, the leadership part is better reserved for the interview or (as Vineesh mentioned) highlighted in parts of the resume where it might fit rather than have a separate section altogether for it,.
Though, if there are a couple of really significant achievement (one which has made an impact on the topline and/or bottomline of your company), then you can definitely put it in your resume.

Leadership as understood is very implicit factor which should be resrved for the brain to understand rather than the senses to discover. This is the single big mistake which applicants do- posting implcit things directly. Be it resume, or essays, always bear in mind that if things are told directly they seem preposterous, though people may not agree. I would always suggest applicants to understand this fact that if you start a section under leadership and start filling poitns under it, the reader will have an expectation level and if they fall below it then it acts as a deterrent.

Direct mention of leadership shoud be avoided and presented as indirect reference. Winning resumes or essays win hearts. Conditions dont apply for the second statement.

I agree with Vineesh and others that it would be best to include your leadership experiences and accomplishments as integrated into your resume under the relevant role you held rather than listing them separately. It's not TERRIBLE to have a leadership section in your resume--just a little unnecessary. In your resume, be sure to include any experiences managing teams, peers, subordinates, etc. as well as the outcomes achieved as a result of your leadership. Your essays and interview are a great place to specifically call out leadership experiences though!

Good luck!
Kaneisha