How to Create Strong MBA Resume

All MBA programs require a 1-2 pages resume for MBA in their applications. Schools use your CV/resume to get a quick snapshot of your professional progression and persona. Your MBA candidate resume should focus on your professional and educational background, and highlight your achievements in these areas. In many cases this is their first impression of your accomplishments and potential. The MBA CV is quite different from a traditional business resume in that it should focus heavily on MBA skills and traits such as leadership, teamwork and international work experience.

Here are some tips from ARINGO for creating a strong MBA CV, as well as an overview of an appropriate MBA resume format:

“CV Speak”

1. Less is more:

Drop any word that is not likely to promote any admission driver.
If you can say something in two ways, say it in the shorter way.

2. In CV’s, use “word economy” as much as possible. For example:

Instead of: the largest bank in Canada –> Canada’s largest bank
Instead of: a project worth $1 million –> a $1 million project
Instead of: the financial status of the company –> the company’s financial status
Instead of: negotiations that lasted one year –> one-year-long negotiations

3. Words such as “of”, “for”, “in”, “which”, “that” should raise a flag: here’s a place where you may be able to change the text to “word economy” structure.

4. In “CV Speak” you may omit “a” and “the” although it’s grammatically incorrect. This is common practice for resume-type documents, to keep them short. For example: “Led company’s negotiations” instead of “led the company’s negotiations”.

5. However, in about half the cases, it’s impressive and better to keep the word “the”.

We keep the word “the” when we want to emphasize that something or someone is “The real thing” (singular).
Examples: “Received the Distinguished Soldier Award”, “Presented the company’s annual plan to the CEO”

6. Try to use the word “and” as little as possible. We need the sentences to be brief and crisp.

Instead of using “and”:
For example:

Obviously, in this case alternative 1 is better.

7. Try to avoid using words such as “I”, “my”, “our”

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Work Experience

1. Work experience is comprised of responsibilities (less important) and achievements (more important).

2. The responsibilities and achievements usually start with a verb.

3. Avoid using subjective terms such as “excellent” or “fast”, use facts and objective terms only.

4. If the numbers related to the responsibility/achievement are large/impressive, provide them. Otherwise, don’t.

Often you can turn an unimpressive number into an impressive number by using %.
For example, if sales went up from $10,000 to $30,000 – these numbers are not impressive, you don’t want to use them.
Instead, you can say: “sales went up 200%”. This is true, and more impressive.

5. Consider including work in the family business (if there is any) – part time or full time.

6. If a person was only doing projects, one after the other, there may be no responsibilities, just achievements.

7. Try to describe any position in laymen terms. Avoid technical/professional explanations.

Responsibilities

1. Responsibility examples:

Manage a team of 4.
Conduct development review meetings.

2. Responsibilities in the current position start with verbs in the present simple tense (“manage”).

3. Responsibilities in past positions start with verbs in the past tense (“managed”).

4. Teaching assistant positions: if a teaching assistant position included leading class sessions of 50 students – say it (gives us points on presentation and leadership skills).

Achievements

1. Achievement example:

Achieved a 120% increase in Department’s net income within 18 months.
Reorganized the three import activities to fit with the new zero inventory model.
Re-structured the costing, pricing and financing models of the activities.
Re-negotiated supplier and client contracts.

2. Achievements are a critical component in the CV. We need strong, impressive achievements.

3. Achievement bullets usually start with verbs in the past tense.

4. An achievement is often connected with a specific project.

5. An achievement is comprised of “action” and “result”.

6. You may use sub-bullets, which are sub-components of the general action or of the result.

7. The result part of the achievement

The result sentences are specific facts.
The result should include numbers if possible.

8. Placing the Result in the Achievement – Four recommended options for placing the result:

Option 1: The main, upper bullet will be short. It will hardly include anything but the result. We often use this option if the result is exceptionally impressive. Example:
- Led the second largest sale in the company’s 20-year history.
- Managed…
- Negotiated…
Option 2: Put both the action part and the result part in the main bullet and connect them with words such as:
- that cut
- that generated
- which saved
- which netted
- which created
- which increased
- that decreased, etc.
Option 3: Put both the action part and the result part in the main bullet. Put them in two separate sentences. For example:
- Led post-merger strategy development [[action]]. Net income increased by 15% within two years [[result]].
- Managed…
- Presented…
Option 4: if the result is not that impressive –
Either include the result in a sub-bullet, Or do NOT mention the result at all.
If the action part is also not impressive, consider dropping the achievement.

9. Try to avoid “spoon-feeding” words such as “resulting in” and “leading to” (“…resulting in a 20% increase in annual profits”).

10. Which of the above 4 options to choose?

The more impressive the result, the more conspicuous (glaring) it should be.
Use your judgment and practical (content) considerations.

The Best Results

1. The best descriptions of results are relative (descriptions that compare the result to other results).
For example:

“Fastest promotion in the Division’s history”
CEO Alan Corey cited project as “one of the three most successful projects in the company’s history” (company’s annual conference, 11/02/09).

2. If needed: develop, together with the client, a metric that measures the result.
For example:

“defect occurrence rate”:
Reduced defect occurrence rate by 50%.
“on-time delivery ratio”: Increased the on-time delivery ratio from 70% to 90% within one year (2002).
“labor costs”: Led a training program for customer integration teams which generated support-labor cost savings of 50%.

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The following table shows the formal CV requirement and limits at the top MBA programs:

School	CV Requirement
Berkeley-Haas	Required (Upload a one page resume in a standard business format. A second page may be used if you have extensive business or research experience.)
Cambridge-Judge	Required (Please download this curriculum vitae template and complete, providing a full overview of your career to date. Do not exceed one page.)
Chicago-Booth	Required (1-2 pages)
Columbia	Required (1-2 pages)
Cornell	Required (unlimited)
Cornell Tech	Required (up to 2 pages)
Darden	Required (unlimited)
Duke-Fuqua	Required (1 page)
Harvard	Required (Ideally, this would be about 1-2 pages in length and include dates and locations of your employment.)
IE	Required (unlimited)
IESE	Required (Please limit your CV to 1 or 2 pages maximum, one page is preferable)
INSEAD	Required (unlimited) Your curriculum vitae can either be on a free format or follow the format of the INSEAD official CV e-book – click here to view the template.
Kellogg	Required (unlimited)
LBS	Required (1 page only)
Michigan-Ross	Required (1 page)
MIT-Sloan	Required (Please submit a one page resume that includes the following information and formatting: One page limit ; Times New Roman font ; Size 10 font ; Word or PDF formats only ; Redact (remove or black out) your name, address, and contact information. Information should be included in the following order in reverse chronological order: Education ; Work Experience ; Additional information)
NYU-Stern	Required (unlimited)
Oxford-Said	Required (You should have at least two years of previous full-time work experience, detailed on a 1 page CV. Please use the following template as a guideline to provide a comprehensive 1 page CV.)
Stanford	Required (A good rule of thumb is one page per decade of experience. For less than 10 years of experience, one page is usually enough.)
Tepper	Required (1-2 pages ; The purpose of this document is to provide a snapshot of your education and professional achievements in your career. Use a standard (i.e. Times New Roman or Arial), 12-pt. font for your 1-2 page resume. It is important to include month and year for starting and ending dates for each position held. If this key information is not included, we will ask for an updated resume, which may delay your application.)
Tuck	Required (unlimited)
UCLA-Anderson	Required (unlimited)
Wharton	Required (1 page)
Yale	Required (1 page ; Please upload a copy of your current resume. You may use any resume format of your choosing. If you are looking for a place to start, we offer this version of the official Yale SOM resume template, which all students use once they begin the program. We strongly recommend that you limit your resume to one page.)

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Watch this video: How to write a strong CV for MBA applications