Writing an MBA resume is not an easy task. This resume is particularly going to decide your fate and your dream of getting an admission into the top B-school and can simply be crushed if the cards are not played right.
This post is intended to help you understand the process inside-out!
Let’s talk about everything that an ideal MBA resume should include in order to hit the target in the first go.
The Style
The first thing you need to know about an MBA application resume is that it is going to be different from your standard resumes which you make for applying to various jobs. This resume will particularly deal with highlighting your strong points which will set you apart from the rest of the applicants. This is the reason you will need to incorporate all the factors which will boost your chances of getting accepted in one of the prestigious institutions.
Try to quantifyOne thing that admission committees of most of these schools look for in a resume is a set of quantifiable facts and figures. If you present any ambiguous detail in your resume, the evaluators might get confused and your achievements may not be clear to them, this might result in you dropping out of the race for a spot in their program. This is why you need to develop the skill of ascertaining the impact of your actions and put that in your resume . For example, if you say that you have led a team of 4 people to prepare a bid for $1Mn project and finally ended up winning the bid, it speaks volumes about your credibility as a leader.
Talk about results, not achievementsYou are not the only one who is sending their resume to top B-schools and let's face it, some of the resumes will be better than yours. The secret here is to grab the attention of the selectors and make sure they remember your resume. One way to catch the attention of the readers is to give coherent bullet points in your resumes. Talk more about the results and output you were able to fetch in real time rather than talking about the achievements. Focus on words like “resulting” which will tell the selectors that your work has helped to achieve a certain result. It is highly recommended to make the bullets logical and to the point such that selectors get answers to their questions on the go.
You might like to include something like: Deployed a mobile app for the company, resulting in 10% increase in the internal communication and 25% increase in the salesforce engagement through the app.
Get your grammar rightA common mistake in any MBA resume is the placement of prepositions and conjunctions. This is something which happens when you are engrossed in jotting down the details in your resume. The problem is that these mistakes are so glaring that they can be detected pretty easily. A quick fix to this problem is to keep the number of conjunctions and prepositions to a minimum and correctly placed.
For example, Led a team created to drive enhancement to mobile app that resulted an increase of 10% in the downloads
This can simply stated as,
Led a team to increase the reach of mobile app resulting in 10% increase in downloads
Articulate wellNo one is interested in reading endlessly about you! Remember, it is a resume to get into a business school and not your autobiography which is why detailing should be done with utmost caution. Always keep it in mind that you have to tell them your story but in such a way that they can understand you as a person and get to see what you bring to the school.
Always about peopleGood B-Schools are always looking for people who are team players. Another thing that they look for is the ability of the candidate to impact the life of others to verify whether they can be good leaders or not. So, your resume should send a clear message to the admission board that you are a people’s person and can lead if and when required.
The Format
Admission officers are the people who are going to decide your fate; so getting to know how the format of your MBA application resume should be like is definitely going to put yourself in an advantageous position.
FontAvoid fancy fonts, and instead stick to old-school fonts.Going for size 10 Times New Roman is always going to be safe. Calibri is also a good option as it gives a cleaner look.
Top of your resumeHave your name and contact information placed clearly at top of the resume. Include your email address, mailing address and your contact number. Try to to fit all the contact information in one line. If per chance your resume goes onto a second page, include your name and contact address in the second page as well.
Length of the resumeKeep everything short and precise. Keeping your resume restricted to one page is highly recommended as it helps the officer to scan through your life achievements quickly and easily.
MarginsMaintain at-least 0.7 overall margin. Presence of white space makes it easier to skim through the resume which most evaluators are going to do.
TyposThere is nothing really to be said here. It’s a complete no for your essays and it’s a complete no for your resume. Do a specll check, ensure all punctuation marks are in place. Multiple revisions often make a word to be left here and there that does not match up to the whole sentence. Have someone else read the resume for you to catch such mistakes.
If your application deadlines are around the corner , make sure your resume has all these points covered. Have any queries? Write to us by replying here.
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