Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Recently, I wrote two related articles on Creating A Powerful MBA Resume appearing on https://www.topmba.com/blog/writing-powerful-mba-resume and on my blog www.mbaprepadvantage.com/blog that will be helpful in writing an MBA resume.

Top MBA Article

Almost every MBA application asks for a résumé. Before submission, the questions you need to ask yourself are: who reads the MBA résumé, what should it contain, how long should it be, and how much time will be spent in reading it?

Both MBA admissions committee members and interviewers often read your résumé. At the top level, an MBA résumé should contain professional, academic and additional sections that present the different aspects of your candidacy.

Remember to keep the MBA evaluation criteria in mind, so you are concisely presenting your accomplishments, leadership, global scope/impact and promotions. Why concisely? First, many schools, like Wharton, want résumés of only one page, though certain schools, like HBS, allow two pages. Second, and here is the shocker, readers might only spend a minute or two skimming the different sections and drilling down in certain places.

So, here are 10 tips on how to write a powerful MBA résumé that engages these semi-interested readers wbo, nevertheless, make or influence the admissions decision.

1. Create section headers that best position your content.

Examples

• "¢ Dividing experience into professional and entrepreneurial sections if you have significant experience in each area.
  "¢ Creating a separate publications section if you have authored publications.

2. Prioritize your best résumé content first.

Example

• "¢ "Directing a division of 20 people" would usually be prioritized over "training a department".

3. Use the STAR method (situation, task, action, result) model for bullet items.

The STAR method is a useful tool in crafting your résumé. Having your résumé revolve around your accomplishments gives the admissions committee a clear look into your professional history and career goals. In each position you have held, think of an impactful initiative, deal, transaction, engagement or project that you have led or contributed to meaningfully. Describe the situation, your role(s), your tasks(s), your action(s), and the result(s) (STAR).

Example

• "¢ Led a team of 15 specialists to an on-time product launch with 95% customer satisfaction after last-minute leadership change.

STAR is a holistic approach; the situation conveys the context; the role(s), task(s) and action(s) demonstrate your skill sets and individual contribution to the overall outcome; the result(s) show your impact. The STAR method also works well in interviews, allowing you to expound on the examples included on your résumé.

4. Utilize strong verbs to describe the actions, but vary these verbs throughout your résumé to engage the reader.

5. Avoid multiple line descriptions. Doing so might mean you break up points into more than one item.

Example from a résumé sent to me - who wants to read this?

Take residential mortgage loan applications and offer, or negotiate terms for a home purchase or refinance loan on borrower's behalf with multiple lenders. For example, Fifth Third Bank, Wells Fargo, Pacific Union, and nine other lenders. Supervise all paperwork between lender and borrower for submission and underwriting. Review credit reports, flood and homeowner's insurance binders, income documentation; business, farm, real estate, and income tax returns; appraisals, mortgage notes, and title documents for closing and underwriting. Price out mortgage rates and lock them with lenders. Ensure compliance with federal RESPA requirements as well as Dodd-Frank Act requirements. Ensure secure transmittal and storage of all sensitive documentation.

6. Use multiple levels of hierarchies (bullets and sub-bullets; boldfaced or underlined).

Example

• "¢ Direct overall CRM module test strategy.

• • o Establish scope and nature of testing - including architecture, automation, performance, security and scalability.
    o Create project plans to ensure on-time delivery and track progress against milestones.
    o Negotiate with internal stakeholders to resolve dependencies.

7. Quantify the result with dollar amounts or percentages wherever possible.

Example

• "¢ "saved company US$2 million" or "increased operating efficiency by 10%".

8. Write with parallelism to express similar ideas (section headers, job functions, etc.).

Examples

• "¢ Using consistent standards like periods at the end.
  "¢ Having mini-sections of "selected transactions" to describe investment banking positions.

9. Eliminate or reduce résumé content that is redundant, immaterial or overly technical. Use the guideline of whether the résumé content positively differentiates you from your peers.

10. Use whitespace to increase readability. Readers will spend even less time reading a résumé packed with every morsel of content without regard to margins or line spaces.

MBAPrepAdvantage Blog Article

In a blog post on MBA Application Components, I discussed the different parts of your MBA application, which includes an Employment History section and an MBA Resume. Here, I will answer some common questions about the MBA resume.

How is an MBA resume different from a job resume?
You are addressing the MBA Evaluation Criteria which could be different from job criteria, especially if you have a technical resume. So, in an MBA resume you would be emphasizing promotions, accomplishments, leadership, and global impact in professional and community dimensions, and de-emphasizing maybe some of the technical aspects of your job that would be relevant to non-MBA employers, but not an MBA school or post-MBA employers.

Should a resume be one page or two pages?
Certain schools like HBS allow two pages, while other schools like Wharton want a one page resume only. One guideline is for younger applicants to use only one page and executives two pages but this guideline can be tailored to the candidate's professional experience, academic background, community service, etc.

What are the different sections of a resume?
The core blocks of a resume are professional, academic and additional sections, although other sections can be added or substituted dependent upon the client background and resume length. For example, if an applicant has published articles then a publication section might be advisable to emphasize the candidate's thought leadership. The Professional Experience section is usually broken down by organization containing name, employment dates, roles, and accomplishments. Remember to try to quantify the impact wherever possible in terms of dollar amount or percentages. If you saved your company money, how much? If you increased the efficiency of something, by what percent? This section can be organized functionally, if the applicant has similar job functions across multiple companies and wishes to highlight competencies. I advise clients to use the STAR model (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for concisely explaining accomplishments. The Educational Background section contains institution attended, degree attained, year graduated, years attended, GPA (do not include if not high) and other information. This information can include extra-curricular activities (if not a separate section), internships (if not rolled into full-time positions), employment while attending school (a good reason for explaining lower grades) and other items. The Additional section can contain your community service (if not a separate section), certifications (if not a separate sections), awards (if not a separate section), hobbies and anything else relevant. You can see there is flexibility to label sections in a way which best positions your application.

Why is readability important and how do I make my resume more easily readable?
Readers or interviewers will skim your resume and then drill down into the areas that interests them, so you should structure the resume in a compelling, but straightforward, manner. That means using logical hierarchies (bullets and sub-bullets), expressing similar ideas with parallelism in structuring items and bullets across the resume, avoiding multi-line descriptions, and maximizing white space wherever possible.

Finally, how do I make my resume standout? Reflect on the unique aspects of your professional background and ensure your resume captures this in a manner easy for the reader to glean. You are investing considerable time to ensure that the reader - who might only spend a few minutes reading your resume - forms the best impression of you possible. Therefore, use strong action words, prioritize the most powerful content first, and create unique sections to emphasize significance. If you have served on non-profit boards, create a section called non-profit board leadership. If you have considerable leadership experience, create either a separate leadership section for the overall resume or within each job.

In closing, whereas in the Employment History section, you answer the work-related questions the school asks, in the MBA Resume you have greater freedom to position the various parts of your background to best meet each school's MBA Evaluation Criteria as long as you convey the overall professional, academic and additional information.