Resume and Part-Time Work

[NeinWunOne]

Should I include part-time or internship work (single bullet achievement, versus 3) in my MBA application resumes if I feel they were rather unique?

For instance, to fund myself through school, I started my own small-business corp as at the age of 19 and my founding group who worked together on this was able to pay themselves through college for the first two years.

I also had a summer internship after my freshman year that ended up being a 3-year part time job (about 20 hrs/wk) that also helped.

So I can see it either way. I am currently 28, and those experiences were roughtly 6-9 years ago, but they were rather unique and lends itself well with my career goals. My post-graduate work experience is strictly software engineering, so I feel that the part time jobs give some variety.

Thoughts?

[Sophia007]

hi NeinWunOne,

Your 'official' work experience is usually the number of years you worked after you receive your Bachelor's degree.

However, there are always exceptions to these cases. For example, if you did a co-op, internship (paid or unpaid), worked in a start up (full-time/part-time) etc., then yes, I'd highly recommend that you include this in cronological order under work experience section. It doesn't matter that it was full-time or part-time experience. You should be able to talk about it and demonstrate what were you contributions.

Remember, that you need to highlight 2-3 main bullet points in it - that mention what you specifically did, as a part of your contribution to the institution.

You can easily mentions experience all the way back to 2000-2001. However, anything beyond that will be considered old information. Also, you should be able to provide proof that the data and information you provide is authentic. I'd suggest that you call up and do your homework to make sure that you or the school can validate your work experience (if needed).

Hope this helps!

Good Luck.

[NeinWunOne]

Thank you for the advice!

[Brett N]

Hi NeinWunOne,

I would say it depends on what type of story you're trying to tell - are you writing an essay about these experiences? If so, then I would definitely include them. Are you hoping to start your own business after an MBA? Then again I would include it.

Hard to give you the right answer without your full picture so if you like, email me directly and we can talk more about it.