What Makes a Great MBA Resume?

by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Apr 22, 2019

First, the (kinda) bad news: its unlikely youll be able to use the current version of your resume for your business school applications. In fact, youre probably going to want to spend a significant amount of time on a complete resume overhaul. But the good news is that your resume is a very important part of your materials, and the extra work you put into revising it could be what makes the difference between a ding and an interview offer.

A resume gives you one whole page (and, in some special cases mainly if youre in your 30s or have extensive military experience two pages) to tell the adcom why youd be an asset to their program. From this document, they should be able to clearly understand what sort of work stories youd be talking about in class, or what sorts of lessons learned youll be able to speak to from either your professional or community-service experiences.

Recommendations for the MBA Resume:

• Rework your resume so that it functions more as a narrative about your career and outside interests (versus a dry list of responsibilities and achievements).
• Get rid of acronyms and industry jargon, and then rephrasing your accomplishments so that anyone could understand them.
• Do away with any bullet points (or sub-headlines) that only list general, vague or high-level responsibilities for a given role.
• Delete unnecessary company or casework/deal descriptions (which are especially popular on consultants and bankers resumes). Youll be able to include this information on the schools application, so no need to repeat it here.
• Use the space you have to explain exactly what YOU did on a project, showcase specific achievements and results, and highlight your skill progression and increased responsibilities over time.

Since admissions committees and alumni interviewers are looking for people who others will enjoy being around both inside and outside of class, its also a great idea to include at least some brief mention of your interests and hobbies at the bottom of the document. A lot of times its this information that interviewers use to break the ice when they first meet you.

Heres a little inspiration as you begin to revise your resume so that it will catch the adcoms attention:

Curious about how Stacy leveraged what she learned at Wharton and Kellogg to build Stacy Blackman Consulting? Take a listen to this podcast.

Until next time,

The team at Stacy Blackman Consulting