What is an MBA RESUME?
An MBA resume is a synopsis of your educational qualifications and work experiences. It is also a long and short of your volunteer activities, skills and accomplishments. MBA resume is your first preface with the MBA admissions committee, so it is always worthwhile to devote an introspective mind to create a lasting, impression with a Resume.
Everyone has different experiences, and a resume highlights your personality and distinctiveness. MBA resume has to be a strong proponent of your demonstrated expertise, leadership and it must be able to sell your future potential.MBA resumes typically demand leadership qualities to attract committee members’ attention.
What Purpose Does an MBA Resume Serve?
MBA Colleges are in search for such candidates who have the potential to contribute markedly to the world of business. They keep looking for students who can innovate and bring transitions. Being able to think critically, working well in teams, leading the followers and cracking profitable business deals are few qualities that place you above others in this race.
More than the job skills much is emphasized about your leadership capabilities. So, watch a few things before you sit down to write your resume and considerately compile a plan to get success in your MBA admissions.
- Find out about your personal and professional goals in detail.
- Explore more colleges and identify the college that match your objectives.
- Work towards capitalizing on what outstanding professional performances you have had.
- Think about the leadership opportunities you got and any volunteered engagements you had in past.
- Try to reach the targeted college students and alumni.
How to Write a Strong MBA Resume
Remember, that the admissions to top colleges do not just happen but one has to make it happen. So leave no stone unturned to get your chance. Your MBA resume is your gateway to the college of your choice. The first questions that will be asked in the interview will sizably be based on your essay in the resume.
The resume is consulted by the committee to frame the questions for you during the admission process. A strong resume gives an account of a story from your past to future career route. So what story you should tell? Here is an outline of how your MBA resume can be a substantial tool to admission in an MBA program.
Also Read: Here is the list of Top MBA Exams you must take in India
Some points to remember while writing a strong MBA Resume
- Professional Objective
A strong career objective statement is the one that is able to catch the attention of the selector immediately. The sentence should contain only information that is vital and is relevant. One short sentence must be able to explain what are your strengths and what are you aiming at.
- Size and Structure
An ideal MBA resume is about 1-2 pages. This should be a rapid glimpse of your professional/academic journey and personality. A highlight of your achievements in the resume is the embodiment of your potentials as well. The resume must be brief, yet it must contain everything that is relevant about your education and profession.
Points you should mention in your Resume
- Key dates of employment
- Key dates of graduation
- Have a different section to list your skills.
List all of the dates chronologically. Build a proficient CV Structure and remember that business schools have different expectations. Start with:
- Contact information,
- Add work experience,
- Education and
- Additional Information
Place the information in resume, in the above order.
It is good to design your work experience section in bullet form. Express your accomplishments in each job. Emphasize a bit more than the others show significant achievements, so that the busiest of admission committee is also able to read through essential points. While writing about your job role, mention:
- ‘Job Title’,
- ‘Company’, ‘
- Responsible for’,
- ‘Achievements ’ in a proper arrangement
Resume should focus on what were your contributions to various projects and how you can differentiate yourself. Volunteer works have a special focus point in MBA resumes, it reflects on what your interests are and how much readiness and willingness you have to work hard.
What have you been doing apart from your work, what is its impact on you, helps selectors understand a few more things about you? They are always looking to build a set of diverse people and who can be real leaders. Many successful applicants pursue different types of activities with various purposes, which often times bring a positive impact on candidates.
- Demonstrate Leadership And Teamwork
Cite examples of some leadership qualities and express how this benefitted your company. Know what your differentiators are and how you are different from other qualified applicants.
Also, establish that you are good around teams. Since most managers need to be good team players the committee easily approves of those who complete the majority of their work in team settings.
- Action Verbs
Use verbs that represent action e.g. assist, support, provide, or contribute etc. These action verbs are crucial as they demonstrate skills. Words like managed, innovated, collaborated, strategized, achieved, negotiated to tell a story about your strengths. Imagine reading only first word of the bullet points. With these kinds of words, it will sound like a leader already.
So the verbs in the resume play a vital role to bring out your personality distinction. Achievements and goals are different, while the first is about what better you can do but goals are about where you want to go. Use your resume to clear the hurdles between both. The words ‘resulting in’ can be used to fill this gap. Do not be ambiguous about the accomplishments.
- Formatting
Do not waste the resume space to write unimportant subjects and focus more on conveying your brand themes. The typographic errors, wrong spellings and unequal formatting styles will disqualify the resume upfront.
- Proofread and edit the resume well. Grammatical mistakes and spelling mistakes can be punishing.
- Use at least 10 points font size.
- Use simple and professional font style.
- Keep the margins reasonable (not extremely small or large).
- Keep the resume easy to read and do not distract from the information.
Related Topics: 10 Business and Leadership Books that help MBA Students Succeed
Next Steps
A resume written with a little carefulness and acumen will serve as a foundation and building block to your MBA. The tips will help you craft a resume to set the tone of your application. The resume is promoting you to the committee members. It should summarize careful information about you, importantly outlining professional, educational material along with your interests and activities.
This has to be tailored in a way that the interview based on this resume drives the conversation in your favor. The interview questions stem from the material in resume. As the members will always have lesser time to scrutinize so many applications, try to be as explicit as possible.
Finally, always remember the words by Jodi Keating Wharton, “There is probably someone applying to your target college with the exact same job title as you. Your resume needs to show exactly why you are better at that job.”
