American resume tips

Question

Hi,

I'd like to have some advise on how to write a pwerful "American" resume.

My first question is, should I use "I", eg: "I supervised ... I launched ..."

Thanks

adalfu · Answer

No,
I recommend to start your bullets with a strong action verb (such as spreaheaded, developed, conducted, etc.)

Use past tense for all your old jobs and present tense for your current position (unless that action is truely a one timer, then stick w/ the past tense as well).

PadawanOfTheGMAT · Answer

Thanks. It's true, that "I developed... I conducted" sounds a bit overkill and selfish.

I'll also switch from paragraph style to bullets.

PadawanOfTheGMAT · Answer

Argh! Bullets take up much more space.

Do I need a "motivations / career goals" section in my American resume? I usually include a two line elevator pitch just under my contact info, but I rarely see such section in American resumes.

Is it considered good etiquette to provide the GMAT score in a resume?

earlycareerMBA · Answer

It's not so much about sounding selfish as it is focusing the reader's attention. I'm no resume expert, so take this with a grain of salt. You start each point with an action verb because we already know you are the one doing the verbs, this is  your  resume after all.

You don't ever want the reader to notice patterns, like every paragraph starting with "I" or repetitious phrases. Your resume should be like a movie trailer, it hits all the high points and leaves the reader impressed and excited to learn more. Kind of a cliche, but a good way to weed out wishy-washy statements. I would remove transitions to shorten each section, and don't worry about proper sentence composition, the subject of many of these sentences is you, and there's no need to point that out.

I do have a sort of mission statement at the top of my resume. This highlights a lot of big picture characteristics that I don't have a chance to explicitly list anywhere else. It also gives you a chance to start the reader off with your brand message, a sort of lens through which to see the rest of your accomplishments. Though this statement may not be necessary for a job application (probably depends on the industry), I think it can really help your MBA application.

Hope that helps. Good luck with applications!

adalfu · Answer

No, not for the MBA-application resume. Don't need the "Objectives" section (also, don't even include your address info!). It's useless waste of real estate... The only time when you need this section is when you're trying to land an entry-level position (or 1-3 years of exp usually).

Also, try to stick to 1 page, unless you're an exec who has 10+ years of experience. You can find pretty good examples on the internet...

Per bullet, besides describing WHAT you did, also describe the impact or effects of your action. I usually have two sentences (separated by a semicolon) that describes the WHAT and the CONTRIBUTIONS.

e.g., 
Redesigned the investment structure of a $x billion plan; improved the match between durations of assets and liability to decrease the plan's funded status volatility from 25% to 19%.

thisguy310 · Answer

There was a resume book someone uploaded a while back on one of the posts on the forum.

I would recommend reading through a resume book and making a list of verbs and adjectives that accurately describe your past experience. Once you have this list, start working it into your resume.

From the resume book you also get an idea of how everyone formats their resumes, lists their EC and more.

American resume tips

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