How to Create Strong MBA Resume

CV Speak refers to the practice of using concise, impactful language in your MBA resume to maximize clarity and impress admissions committees. To use it effectively, focus on word economy by dropping unnecessary words, shortening phrases (e.g., 'Canada’s largest bank' instead of 'the largest bank in Canada'), and omitting articles like 'a' and 'the' where appropriate to keep sentences brief and crisp. Additionally, minimize the use of 'and' by either selecting the most important point or breaking long sentences into shorter ones, and avoid personal pronouns like 'I', 'my', and '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).

How to describe the best results in your MBA resume?

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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