Writing Resume for MBA admission
We suggest that you follow the standard one-page, reverse-chronological order format. Producing a resume that is longer than one page shows an inability to state concisely the important aspects of your background. Given the fact that admissions representatives probably won’t spend much more than two minutes reviewing your resume, your goal should be to make your points succinct yet effective. Writing your resume in reverse chronological order allows you to display your progress over time. Additionally, the admissions representative will probably spend the majority of her time concentrating on the top of your resume, so you want your best stuff to come across first.
One way that you can make sure that your format fits well with your target schools is by using your target schools’ formats in creating your resume. Many business schools have standard formats that their students are required to follow. Using those formats can be a simple way to show that you’ve done some due diligence on the school and ensure that your format works. You should be able to gain access to a school’s format through a friend, colleague, or a quick search on www.google.com. Going with a business school’s standard format gives you the added benefit of having a pre-formatted baseline resume from which you can work once you start classes. In general though, your resume should consist of three sections: education, experience, and additional. The commonly followed rule is that if you are coming out of school, you should place the education section first, but in other cases, the experience section should be placed first. The placement of one in front of the other is supposed to reflect their level of relative importance based on where you are in your career. In terms of business school admissions, your academic background is just as important as your professional background, so you have some flexibility here in terms of placement. If you follow a business school’s format, then the education section will almost certainly come first.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in figuring out what format you want to use for the resume, but don’t let that overshadow the more important task of creating your resume’s content. As much as possible, you should try to make sure that your resume reflects the four dimensions: innovation, maturity, leadership, and teamwork. You should also make sure that progression in responsibility and achievements are highlighted. Finally, it should be clear that your career goals are achievable in light of your background, and that the target school is a good place for you to develop the skills you need to achieve those goals. This means emphasizing the experiences that are relevant to your career goals and deemphasizing those that are not. In covering your experiences, you should focus on your actions and their result, not on your job descriptions. Provide tangible figures as much as possible.