The MBA Application: A Results-Driven Resume

A key piece of the MBA application is a resume. It should showcase the breadth of your experiences and accomplishments. But remember, it should not merely communicate what you did in each role and extracurricular endeavor; each entry should explore WHY what you did and accomplished was so important to you and/or your team and/or the organization as a whole. What results did you achieve?  What impact did you have?  What did you learn?

MBA resumes should include the following components and should be no longer than one page:

1. Education. List all degrees and include a bulleted list in the Education section of internships and extracurricular involvements you participated in while in college. 

2. Work Experience. Using results-oriented bullets, show your progression in responsibility throughout your career. Elaborate on the impact you’ve had and/or lessons you’ve learned. Note also any awards and/or honors and/or significant recognition that you have received.

3. Additional Information. This section can include significant extracurricular and charitable involvements you’ve participated in, languages you speak, as well as noteworthy skills, certifications, and memberships.

Keep the following tips in mind as you craft your resume: 

Focus on results. We can’t emphasize this enough. Make use of active verbs to showcase your contributions. And, where possible, provide hard numbers that exhibit the results you’ve achieved and the impact you’ve made. 

Keep it relevant. Your resume should only include experiences from the start of college onward, and should showcase your abilities in innovation, leadership, and teamwork. 

Review the Guidance. Some MBA programs instruct you to “submit a resume,” while others such as MIT Sloan or UPenn Wharton, provide specifications for your submission. Review the school’s admissions page to confirm any instruction on page limits, font, and format. 

If the school does not provide formatting guidance, you should keep it simple. Opt for left-justified text in an easy-to-read font—we prefer Garamond—sized between 10 and 12. Additionally, while it may be customary in some cultures to add a headshot to the resume, this is not recommended for U.S.-based MBA programs. 

Use proper grammar. Even the best writers can get worked up about creating resume text. Don’t overthink it. Use proper punctuation and the appropriate tense (present for current activities, past for past activities). Read each line aloud and make sure that it flows smoothly. Do not lean on corporate jargon, rather you will want to ensure that you explain what you did and your results in a way that a fellow MBA classmate in a different field would understand. 

Unemployed and Considering Graduate School? Ensure This Time is Meaningful and Productive

If you are currently unemployed, graduate school can appear both tempting and daunting. Tempting, in that it will offer a new path forward complete with a career center. Daunting in that it may be necessary to directly address the unemployment period within the application. While unemployment should never deter you from attending graduate school, we encourage our clients to consider carefully if graduate school is the right path for them. The money and time invested must lead to an optimal path forward to be worthwhile. Though graduate school can be tempting to alleviate the pains of unemployment, if you have never considered it prior to unemployment, it might not be the right move now.

If you’ve known awhile that eventually you would pursue a graduate program, a period of unemployment may provide a beneficial time to study for entrance exams and create compelling application materials. However, admissions committees will want to see that you are using your time wisely and productively, extending yourself beyond the work on your application materials. In order to present the employment gap as a critical time of development, consider the following:

• Volunteering at an organization where you may be able to hone your leadership skills and refine an area of expertise

  • https://www.volunteermatch.org/

  • https://giveandgetnyc.org/

  • https://www.volunteerforever.com/article_post/2017-best-volunteer-abroad-programs-organizations-projects

• Tutoring students at a local university in relevant coursework

• Taking courses at a local university or through online portals

  • https://www.edx.org/

  • https://www.coursera.org/

  • http://online.stanford.edu/

• Attending professional development conferences

  • We’ve listed a few resources and conferences that can provide great learning and networking. You can also look for conferences that have streaming capabilities to keep costs down.

    • (pre-med) https://www.amsa.org/events/, https://www.aamc.org/meetings/annual/?link=carousel&camp=LSL2017

    • (pre-law) https://shop.americanbar.org/eBus/ABAEventsCalendar.aspx

    • (business) http://techweek.com/?ticket=new-york,  http://conference.99u.com/, http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/summit/logistics

• Doing freelance work

  • For some insight into where to get started: https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-start-freelance-writing-1360255

• Starting or writing more regularly for a blog

  • This link will take you to a site comparing various blog hosting platforms, and will give you the information you need to get started: http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-choose-the-best-blogging-platform/

• Investing completely in a hobby or other personally fulfilling undertaking

• Writing a business plan or starting a business

On the application itself, you should not dwell on or make excuses for the employment gap.  Rather, you will want to address it briefly, explain that it is not indicative of weakness in ability or character, has not hindered your pursuit of your goals, and you did indeed spend the time productively, gaining valuable insight. You ultimately want to show the admissions committee that you will work hard throughout the graduate program, be able to secure professional placement and that, instead of slowing you down, this obstacle has given you an opportunity to adjust course, work harder, and become better.