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This may come as a surprise, but your resume is perhaps the most critical piece of your entire MBA application package. You have one precious page to summarize your academic, professional, and extracurricular accomplishments while differentiating yourself from the competition. That\u2019s why we\u2019re going to go deep into how to format a winning MBA resume, so you don\u2019t miss out on a golden opportunity to shine before the admissions committee.<\/p>\n
When the time comes to review your application materials, the AdCom starts off with your resume. This will give the reader an immediate, knee-jerk impression of you. Next, your essays, recommendation letters, and extra details from the data form will either serve to further your case\u2014or hurt it. In short, your resume plays the crucial role of establishing the baseline impression of you, so you don\u2019t want to mess it up.<\/p>\n
Stacy Blackman Consulting offers multiple services to meet your MBA application needs, from our\u00a0All-In Partnership<\/a> to hourly help reviewing your MBA resume. Contact us today for a free 15-minute advising session<\/a>\u00a0to talk strategy with a Principal SBC consultant.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Please don\u2019t be that applicant who thinks they can tweak their existing resume and call it a day. Most clients we work with need to spend a lot of time on a complete overhaul for their MBA applications. That\u2019s because your typical job resume likely focuses on things that hiring managers in your industry will understand and care about. They\u2019ll want to know if you have relevant skills or experience with specific software programs or analytical tools. But MBA admissions committees don\u2019t care about that kind of stuff.<\/p>\n Instead, they are interested in how much you\u2019ve grown throughout your career. The AdCom is curious to find out what kind of stories you\u2019ll share with classmates. What lessons have you learned from work or extracurricular experiences that will benefit your B-school peers? With this single page, you need to convince the AdCom that you\u2019d be an asset to their program.<\/p>\n Treat the MBA resume as if it\u2019s the only<\/em> thing the admissions committee is going to read about your candidacy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If you work in a common pre-MBA position, don\u2019t waste prime resume space listing your general, high-level responsibilities that the AdCom will already know. There\u2019s usually a field for your duties for each role in the data form. No matter what industry you come from (but especially applicants from banking or consulting<\/a>), the admissions committee cares about these three things:<\/p>\n You can achieve this by reworking your resume to function as a progressive narrative about your career and outside interests. So, keep your resume focused on things you\u2019ve worked on or achieved that are unique to you\u2014not things that every other analyst or consultant could say on their resumes.<\/p>\n A way to force yourself to do this is to start every bullet with an action verb<\/a> and use ones that convey leadership whenever possible. Think words like led, managed, spearheaded, oversaw, and oversee. In particular, you want to ensure you have words like that for the section describing your current role.<\/p>\n The AdCom understands that you probably weren\u2019t leading work teams or spearheading significant initiatives in your first job right out of college. Like most people, you likely had to work up to your most impressive achievements. Accordingly, your action verbs throughout your resume should reflect that.<\/p>\n Often, applicants may have gotten a promotion or title change, but their roles actually weren\u2019t that different from each other. Even so, you need to break out those different roles on your resume because promotions are always a differentiator. You want the admissions committee to be aware of your progression in the form of a formal title change.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re claiming you didn\u2019t do a heck of a lot differently when you were a senior consultant versus a consultant, we would challenge you to find a way to show growth between the two roles. And then, use action verbs at the outset of every bullet that can convey that progression.<\/p>\n Another thing MBA applicants frequently forget to do is to quantify everything whenever possible. In episode six<\/a> of SBC\u2019s B-Schooled<\/em> podcast, host and Harvard MBA Erika Olson shared this advice for people needing to strengthen their quant profile.<\/p>\n \u00a0Every applicant should try and quantify the results of their work and use numbers to help the AdCom understand the scope of what you were involved with. \u2014SBC consultant Erika Olson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For some people, that might be a deal size or the revenue size of a company you consulted with. It might be the number of work streams you managed or the annual cost savings that stemmed from one of your strategic recommendations. It might be listing the exact percentage you helped speed up a particular process. Think deeply about how to turn your efforts into quantifiable results.<\/p>\n People often don\u2019t think to include situations where they informally managed someone or oversaw someone else\u2019s work. And yes, interns count, too! Even if it wasn\u2019t directly managing somebody or being responsible for their salary or raises, it\u2019s still management experience.<\/p>\n So you might have a line that says, \u201cInformally managed junior associate: determined responsibilities: checked work for quality: provided feedback for annual review.\u201d Or something like \u201cTrained and mentored three summer interns.\u201d This type of oversight is<\/em> a differentiator in the AdCom\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n Applicants should remember that interviewers will see their resumes beforehand, and people always look for conversation icebreakers. That\u2019s why we encourage clients to add a fun fact or unusual interest in the bottom section or even just a final line, depending on available space. (Stacy Blackman included a note about her Pez dispenser collection in her MBA resume.)<\/p>\n In another episode <\/a>of B-Schooled <\/em>on resumes, host Erika recalled the attention-grabbing mention of one former client. \u201cOn the last line of his resume, he put \u2018Fun fact: I have been struck by lightning.\u2019 He got interviews at all six programs he applied to, and every single interviewer asked him about that line,\u201d Erika said. Even if you don\u2019t have something as crazy as that to include, it\u2019s easy to find a way to inject a little personality into the last section, and that can include your interests.<\/p>\n For example, Erika had another client list in her interest section that she was on a personal quest to find the best cookie in all of New York. \u201cLike the guy who was struck by lightning and lived to tell the tale, every one of the \u2018best cookie\u2019 applicant\u2019s interviewers asked her where her favorite cookie place was. So it\u2019s just something to break the ice with interviews or show a little personality,\u201d Erika explained.<\/p>\n When it comes to naming this section on the MBA resume, it varies depending on what you\u2019re going to include. But some ideas for the heading of that last section are Personal, Other Interests, Activities, Extracurricular Interests, or Leadership and Interests.<\/p>\n Remember, this is your chance to set yourself apart. Think long and hard about whether the things you list will differentiate you. That means mentioning generic interests such as golf, skiing, traveling, football, or the New York Yankees will not<\/strong> make you stand out. Specificity matters.<\/p>\n So, instead of listing running as a hobby, it better be something cool, like \u201cRan six marathons, including one in the Arctic Circle.\u201d Maybe you love the great outdoors and can say something like, \u201cVisited 300 U.S. National Parks and have 124 to go.\u201d If you love to travel, highlight the most offbeat locales you\u2019ve visited and leave Western Europe off the list.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Stacy Blackman\u2019s rundown of the ten things to avoid on your MBA resume:<\/p>\n By now, you should be fully prepared to MBA your resume and wow the AdCom at your dream business school. So, we\u2019ll leave you with a cheesy inspirational quote related to everything we\u2019ve covered. In fact, this is so cheesy it was actually used as a slogan on an 80\u2019s dandruff shampoo commercial.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, it\u2019s still 100% relevant when drafting a winning MBA resume. And that is:<\/p>\n You never get a second chance to make a first impression.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Request a free MBA advising session<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Stacy Blackman Consulting<\/a> to learn how we can help with your complete MBA applications. Here\u2019s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The post How to Format a Winning MBA Resume<\/a> appeared first on Stacy Blackman Consulting - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This may come as a surprise, but your resume is perhaps the most critical piece of your entire MBA application package. You have one precious page to summarize your academic,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,749,775,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-stacy-blackman","category-admission-consultants","category-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59805,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57066\/revisions\/59805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"winning](\"https:\/\/www.stacyblackman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pexels-ketut-subiyanto-4560150-1500x1000.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Difference Between a Ho-Hum and Winning MBA Resume<\/h2>\n
What Does the AdCom Want to See?<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nAction verbs are your friend.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Don\u2019t forget these differentiators.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.stacyblackman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/austin-distel-wD1LRb9OeEo-unsplash-1500x1000.jpg\")
<\/p>\nManagement experience is always a plus.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
A winning MBA resume will have an icebreaker.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.stacyblackman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pexels-rodnae-productions-4921526-1500x1000.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA note of caution: be strategic about the interests you list.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Items You Won\u2019t Find Listed on a Winning MBA Resume<\/h3>\n
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