HBS Employment Section

Question

Hi, first time poster. I'm currently going through the HBS application and am a little confused by something on the "Employment Section".

It says to list the 3 most recent jobs that you've held. I've only held two full-time positions since graduating and my third most recent "job" was an internship at the company that eventually hired me full-time for my first job out of college. It also says, not to list the same employer twice and to instead list the employer once and have different starting and ending positions.

My interpretation is that I would list the two different positions under my first-full-time employer and then my current job and that would total my last 3 jobs. Am I missing anything or does that sound about right? The only thing is that the start date and end dates won't be entirely accurate if I did that because I did my last year in school between my internship and the beginning of the full-time role.

Thanks for the help!

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

I would like to help, but confused about the sequence. Can you please list the sequence with make up names if you like, and dates? 
The way this reads you are not currrently employed full time but interning for an old employer? Its kind of confusing.

Burgundy90 · Answer

Thanks for the response and apologies for the confusion. Please see below for sequence of events:

1. Interned for Company X from June 2014-August 2014 between my junior and senior years in college
2. Finished my senior year of school and then began full-time with Company X in July 2015 and worked there till April 2017
3. Began my current job at Company Y (at which I am currently employed and will be employed at until I start my MBA) in August 2017; this is a full-time role

My confusion is that HBS Employment Section states to not list the same employer twice and to rather change the starting and ending positions. So in my mind, that would mean Starting Position of "Summer Intern" and ending position of "Full Time Analyst". However, if I were to do that, the starting date would be June 2014 and ending date would be April 2017, which implies I worked that entire time when I actually had almost a year gap between the end of my internship and starting full-time.

Please let me know if that clarifies my question and thanks again for the help!

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

They don't want you to list the same employer twice but in the situation it is *much* better to do that then to give misleading dates.

I feel that it's worth the risk and I imagine they will understand why you needed to list it twice, because of the subsequential gap due to returning to school.

If you would rather leave off the internship then there's a way for you to show this on your resume to emphasize the progression factor. You don't have to fill out three boxes and this might be the best way to handle this situation.

This client gave me permission to share all of his materials out of gratitude for me getting him into Wharton with a 650.

He had a similar situation, internship graduated then full time

DASSAULT FALCON JET 2012, 2014 – Present
Program Engineer, Department of Service Engineering, Little Ferry, NJ 2014 – Present
Create and deliver programs to ensure reliability of 116 private jets located across the Western Hemisphere.
Collaborate with FAA to improve fleet airworthiness; implement jointly-derived solutions and best practices.
Promoted in August 2016 to develop ancillary services for a fleet of 1350 new aircrafts and lead price negotiation
discussions with aircraft part suppliers.
 Programs reduced all Western Hemisphere flight cancellations by 35%, including 61% reduction for Asia-based jets
 Conducted jet update seminars in 10 cities across North America and Europe; 98% of clients rated presenter as being
clear, concise, and a subject-matter expert.
 Prevented grounding of 265 jets by conducting effective negotiations with FAA.
 Obtained authorization for $24M in parts; developed multivariate model to determine new part allocation.
 Founded Corrosion Prevention Program in 2015. Partnered with 8 service centers throughout Asia, Europe, and the
Americas to implement the program; later rolled out to all updated plane models.
Saved clients $5M in immediate
repair costs and prevented client payout of $380M in corrosion repair costs over the life of the fleet.

Internship – Developed design for aircraft cabin parts. Hired upon graduation. Little Rock, AR 2012

PEUGEOT CITROËN, Internship – Sound-tested newly developed car models, Velizy, France

https://mbaprepcoach.com

Burgundy90 · Answer

Great, thanks for the advice! If I left off the internship, I would still have to show 3 jobs (i.e., a prior internship) even if they weren't my most recent 3 correct?

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

No not at all HBS is actually not terribly interested in internships. If theres something spectacular about it put that on your resume. By the way I'm correcting voice text errors as I go so make sure to refresh

https://mbaprepcoach.com

Burgundy90 · Answer

That makes sense. Yeah, I personally didn't see the need to list internships, but since they asked for 3 most recent jobs and weren't clear on whether that included internships, I figured to be safe and include it. Just wasn't sure how meaningful it would be

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

I mean it's part of your experiences like everything else.... if it connects the dots with your goals or the brand that you're putting across about yourself, feel free to discuss it.

But they are not including internships as compulsory employment to include, if that were the case they would give you a lot more than three boxes.

I'm hoping that you deciphered what I put down for the resume sample on how you would portray in CV that to show you were hired on post grad.

Good luck to you

https://mbaprepcoach.com

Burgundy90 · Answer

Yes, I was able to understand the resume you posted and thanks again for the helpful advice

eastcoastchamps · Answer

How about I did an internship between two full-time jobs as I wanted to experience the start-up corporate environment? My long term goal is to start my own company so I think this is important to include?

HBS Employment Section

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