MBA Resume Question - Importance of Skills Section

Question

Hello,

I am wrapping up my resume for submission. With my 2 past work experiences, 2 extracurricular activities (1 volunteering at a non-profit and 1 co-founding a startup), and 3 undergrad activities (including leadership at 40-member student organization), I realized that I don't really have a space for the Skills section.

Is it okay to omit the Skills section, or should I make room for it? For a couple of undergrad leadership activities, I was thinking that perhaps I could just list them as "Other Activities: XXX club, XYZ club, WYZ club."

Thank you!

ARLeeConsulting · Answer

Hi  theusualapplicant ,

it depends on the type of skills you want to list.

For example, if you speak several languages it would be good to make room for a Language Skills section.

However, if you are referring to skills like Computer Skills and so on, I would omit the section.

I hope this helps.

Thank you
Alex

theusualapplicant · Answer

Hi Alex,

Thank you for the response. My skills section would have been a list for proficiency with software tools and programming skills, so I guess I could skip that.

I have a follow-up question: Is it okay to simply list  non-leadership  undergrad activities? For instance, under college name, I was thinking of including a bullet point "Member of XXX club, XYZ club,..." I would like to show that I was involved in different things, but they weren't necessarily leadership-focused. I don't know if this piece of info helps, but I am not planning on describing these on the extracurricular activities section on the application.

Thank you!

ARLeeConsulting · Answer

Hi  theusualapplicant ,

yeah, you can skip that then.

And yes, you can add those non-leadership activities since it is important to show that you had an active life outside the classroom.

I hope this helps.
Alex

ARINGO · Answer

Basically, you should put on your resume only things that strengthen your profile and candidacy, but also follow the school's instructions. If the school requires a 1 page resume, focus on the most important stuff and omit everything else. You can see some resume tips and requirements here: https://aringo.com/mba-resume-tips-and-requirements/ Also, take a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bio5kNGGFQI

JatinBhandari1 · Answer

If you want me to do a quick review, send your resume to [email protected]

In your work experience section, you might be able to change some of the two liner bullets to one liners. There are ways to minimise the action verbs and get straight to the result. Applicants at times tend to share more details in each of the Accomplishment bullets in the main work experience section than the schools care for. I mean- I am currently working with someone with 12 years of GREAT Leadership experience( Awesome background) and he and I have a two page resume and a strong sense of GREED to keep the entire information intact. However, we are cutting a lot of fat from the existing bullets without actually removing the bullets completely( Even though we will have to let some bullets go) .

The point is- Read your resume from the perspective of a Layman who has not worked in your industry, and then ask yourself- How much of the extra details will that Layman really understand. If you are not able to see this, pick up a resume from another industry/Function and try to figure out how much of that are you able to understand.

Do this and you should be able to create something really nice.

MBA Resume Question - Importance of Skills Section

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