Creating A Resume For Mba Applications
Creating A Resume For Mba Applications
Creating A Resume For Mba Applications
FOR MBA
APPLICATIONS
CR EAT I NG A R ES U ME FO R MBA A P PLI CAT IO NS
Published by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Inc, Los Angeles, California, USA. www.stacyblackman.com
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without
written permission from the publisher. Contact Stacy Blackman Consulting at [email protected].
TA BLE O F CON T EN TS
CHAPTER 2: Format 6
Action Verbs
Quantifying Results
Demonstrating Progression
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It is important that a resume demonstrates progression and highlights significant experiences and accomplishments, rather
than everything you have ever done. These accomplishments and experiences should illustrate what a given job or
educational experience has encompassed.
The resume can highlight important aspects of an individual and help an applicant to stand out a bit. Sometimes, a detail
on a resume can serve as an icebreaker, or enable conversation in an interview.
The resume will also play a role in your MBA interview. It is not uncommon for an interviewer to have a copy of the resume
prior to the interview or to ask for a copy when you meet. This is because, once again, it is a visual way for them to easily
keep track of your story. With resume in hand, an interviewer may start off an interview by asking you to walk them
through your resume. This is helpful for them as they are trying to take stock of where you are, where you have been, and
understand all of that in the context of your goals for the future. For someone who needs to very quickly get up to speed
on you, a well designed resume is an important and useful tool. Keep this in mind as you design your resume. Think about
how you want to walk someone through your resume, and design your resume to meet your needs.
The resume can be an important first step in the MBA application process, because it forces the applicant to take stock of
his or her progression and think about how to articulate that in a very succinct way. Going through the exercise of
developing a resume is useful in helping an individual organize thoughts and pull out most significant experiences and
accomplishments. The resume is the skeleton of an application, and it can be a guide for moving forward. The meat of your
application will be how you fill in and reveal your personality through essays, interviews, recommendations and informal
communications with the admissions committee.
MBA programs are looking for individuals who will be successful as leaders and in highly collaborative work environments.
They are seeking skills that are transferable to success in any industry. When you are seeking job in a certain industry,
there is a good chance the hiring manager will want you to be experienced with a certain type of real estate software or
accounting technique. But these specifics will not be of interest to an MBA program. In fact, an MBA interviewer or
admissions committee member might not even know what these things are.
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When you draft a resume for an MBA program, it is likely that you will change aspects of it that are too industry specific.
You will want to focus on three key goals. In addition to telling the chronological story of your academic and professional
career, much of your information should be focused on supporting these things:
1. Showcasing leadership
2. Showcasing other MBA relevant skills such as teamwork, collaboration, innovation
3. Demonstrating growth and progression
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CHAPTER 2: Format
THE ONE PAGE RESUME
There are certainly those who will disagree, but we fervently believe that in almost every case, the resume should be one
page only. Many applicants have too many jobs to fit on a page, or have lists of publications, patents or other
accomplishments that they want to include. However, when a resume becomes too long, it defeats the purpose of the
resume as described above. Quick snapshot, quick reference point, skeleton of the application. While we would like to think
that members of the admissions committee have time to pour over a four page resume in detail, this is not the case. The
goal for your resume should be to convey important information about your self efficiently, and to make it easy for the
decision maker to digest. Why would you make them read more than one page? It is highly likely that eyes will start to gaze
once a page is turned.
Certain formatting conventions will also make the resume easy to read and digest. Squeezing an enormous amount of text
into one page by reducing margins, font and spaces also defeats the purpose of the easy to read resume. You will want
to adhere to specific format rules in order to make your resume clean, clear and user friendly.
MARGINS
One inch margins are ideal, but margins are one area where you can play around with spacing. If the resume is clean, and
does not look too cramped, you may be able to reduce your margins to as small as .75. Use your own eye as a guide. If it
looks cramped or if you are questioning it, stop questioning and increase the size of your margins.
FONT
Typical fonts for a resume are Times New Roman, Verdana, Cambria and Arial, with Times New Roman being the most
common. The business resume is not the place to experiment with fancy fonts. Keep the fonts and format conservative.
You can allow your personality to shine through in other parts of your MBA application package. A clear, readable size for
resume font is 10pt. This will ultimately depend on the font style you select, but benchmark at about 10pt.
There are also very simple techniques that can help you to reduce the amount of space you are using. We often start with
the contact information at the top of the page. It is not unusual to see the top of a resume looking like this:
STACY S. BLACKMAN
7162 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.934.3996
[email protected]
STACY S. BLACKMAN
7162 Beverly Blvd, LA, CA 90036 ~ 323.934.3936 ~ [email protected]
This approach looks just as polished and professional, but takes up about one third of the space. Small tweaks like these
are perfectly appropriate when trying to conserve as much space as possible.
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CHAPTER 3:
Section 1: Contact Information
The first section of any resume should be Contact Information. For reasons that are hopefully obvious, you want to lead
with your full name and make it slightly more eye catching than the rest of your resume. This way, your interviewer can
easily spot your name and avoid any awkwardness! And admissions officers with piles of resumes can easily sort and
organize. Contact information does not need to be comprehensive. In most cases, your permanent mailing address, home
phone number and personal email address is all you need. Avoid including all of your phone numbers or multiple addresses
it is just not necessary and can even be confusing. If you are deciding which phone number to include, we recommend
that you include your home line. You do not want to be caught off guard by a call to your cell phone when you are at the
grocery store or can barely hear. In some cases, a phone number and email address is enough.
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CHAPTER 4:
Section 2: Professional
WHY THIS COMES FIRST
The second section on your business school resume will be the professional section, which summarizes and chronologically
illustrates your career. Some people place the education section first, but this is generally incorrect. The information on
the resume appears in reverse chronological order, so if you are currently working, you should place the professional
section first. In most (not all, but most) cases, the career progress is also most important to MBA admissions representatives
and that is what they will want to focus on and discuss. This order will flip as soon as you are in business school, interviewing
for summer jobs. At that point, the education section will precede the professional section.
So, how does one decide which experiences to include on the resume, and which ones to axe? There are several key
questions to ask your self when considering this question.
1. Is the work meaningful? Can you leverage this position to illustrate a specific skill set that you acquired or an
accomplishment that is important?
2. Does it support your career path? Does it support your future goals? Does it make sense for your overall story?
Or was it just a way to make some extra money? An unpaid internship doing marketing outreach for a university
department will be more important to include than that paying job working in the cafeteria that you held for four
years during college. (Note that holding a job during college is impressive, and it should be noted elsewhere in
your application but it does not need to be in the Professional section of your resume.)
3. How long were you at the job? Once you graduate from college, it is important to account for your time. If
omitting a position from your resume will create a year long gap, then it can be in your best interest to keep it
on, so that the reviewer can keep track of your progress through the years. Conversely, if you were at a job for
only a very short period of time (a couple of months), even if it is an all-star position, it generally will not make
sense to include it.
4. How recent was it? The longer you have been out of college, the more it makes sense to omit early career
positions. Even if these positions took up several years, it is okay to omit them. If you have been out of school
for ten years, and have some meaty experiences filling the last five years, the first five years of your full time
experience may not be necessary.
It is impossible to apply a blanket rule to this process. However, an applicant can combine some judgment with answers to
the questions above and you should be in good shape. Beware of becoming too attached to any one line item. You will
need to scrutinize each one and be willing to cut when and if it makes sense.
INFORMATION TO INCLUDE
You will need to include some basic information for each position that you list on your resume. The information to be
included is as follows:
1. Name of company
2. Location (of your specific job, not company headquarters)
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This information needs to be clearly displayed for each position. If you have more than one position with one company, you
will need to include dates of each position, responsibilities that are specific to each position, and detail location of each
position if that changes.
Some applicants like to include information on their company, such as general mission of the company, common activities
of the company or annual revenue. This company-level information is not necessary. After all, anyone reviewing your
resume cares about what you have done, not what the company does. The bullet points under each job description will
describe your specific activities and these will be much more important than anything at the company level. Company
information can even confuse or mislead. For example, if someone is working in a marketing function at a financial services
company, or in a CFO position at a consumer products company, the two descriptions (company and applicants job) will be
extremely different. In summary, keep the focus on you!
FORMATTING
While there is no format that you absolutely must adhere to, the following format is recommended because it keeps the
audience in mind. It is easy to scan, it helps to highlight job progression and in general it is clean and easy to review.
The key to this format is that the dates and locations stand alone so that a reviewer can easily piece together the story of
your career. It also makes it very easy to see how you have progressed in your career.
Some applicants have very traditional pre-MBA jobs. If you have been working as a Staff Consultant at Bain, or as an Analyst
at Goldman Sachs, chances are the admissions committee will go in with a pretty good feel for your overall job description.
While you will want the bullets under your job description, to confirm and bolster their preconceived notions of what you
are doing in your role, this is also an opportunity to illustrate the things that you have done that may set you apart from
the typical analyst. So, in addition to outlining some of your standard activities, you may want to include that you trained
a newly hired analyst, led college recruiting efforts, or organized an office-wide volunteer initiative. These activities may
have taken less of your time, but they are a bit outside of traditional responsibilities and give great insight into how you
have made a difference for your firm.
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Some jobs can be summarized with just a couple of bullet points. Others need many more, perhaps ten bullets to summarize
all of the diverse responsibilities. If you have been in a job for a long period of time, it is likely that there is a lot to say about
it.
You certainly do not need to explain every task ever completed in a certain role. The bullets should be activities that you
spend a great deal of time doing, or activities that do a good job of highlighting important qualities or skills.
The bullets should be very brief, as short as one to two lines long. Keeping in mind that the reviewer will likely do a quick
scan, you will want to keep everything brief, and easy to digest. At the same time, you do want to make sure that you are
complete.
It will be a balancing act trying to keep your verbiage succinct while still communicating all important points.
1. SALARY Salary is generally asked for in the data forms of your application. Salary can be a good
indication of the level of responsibility in your job. It also demonstrates progression when your salary
increases over time. Thus, this information is valuable to admissions representatives, but it should not go
into your resume.
2. REFERENCES References are required as part of your MBA application and will play a big role in
your candidacy. However, there is no need to include them on your resume. You do not need a line such as
References available upon request or a listing of reference contacts.
3. REASON FOR LEAVING A JOB Whether you were laid off, fired, decided to try something new,
or were offered a huge promotion these explanations do not belong on your resume. Some schools will
ask for the reason you left a job as part of their data form. And there is certainly opportunity to explain
these things in your interview, recommendations and essays, if you want the reasons to be known.
4. MISSION STATEMENT Many applicants include a mission statement at the top of their resume:
Seeking a challenging entry level marketing role at a financial service company. However, in the context
of the MBA application process, everyone has the same objective, and it is to go to business school. Thus,
the mission statement is irrelevant.
ACTION VERBS
Every bullet should lead with a strong and interesting action verb. Imagine scanning a resume and spotting words such as
Was, Did, and Made, as opposed to Managed, Spearheaded and Created. The latter set is composed of stronger, more
interesting words and they can really set the tone for your resume. We have included a list of Action Verbs in Exhibit A. As
you develop your resume, refer to this list and think of ways that you can strengthen the language in your resume by
utilizing words from this list. Sometimes the same task can be described in different language, creating a completely
different impression for the reviewer.
The second statement showcases an individual who is proud of his/her work and is injecting it with confidence and
personality, right down to the description on the resume. Also related to this is the fact that the resume should utilize the
active tense throughout. Avoid passive language as much as possible in your resume and throughout the application. Not
only is it better grammar to use the active tense, but it also conveys a more direct, driven and in control feeling from the
resume.
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QUANTIFYING RESULTS
Another rule to keep in mind for every bullet is to quantify results as much as possible. While it is nice to know that you
created a new marketing program, conceived of new revenue streams or led the analyst training program, it is also
important to know that:
the new marketing program increased awareness by 32
the new revenue streams boosted revenue by 18
the analyst training program halved ramp up time required by new analysts and tripled analyst productivity
Again, consider the two bullets presented in the preceding section on Action Verbs. If you add a result to the latter
statement, it becomes even stronger:
B) Initiated and managed complete overhaul of company information management system. Revamped
system increased employee productivity by 16 , cut information management costs by 33 and was
adopted at seven satellite offices nationwide.
As you can see, including results catapults this bullet into an entirely different level in terms of how hard it works for you
on the resume! While not all responsibilities and activities have quantifiable results, most are measurable in some way,
and it is always important to include results to the extent possible.
When you are interviewing for a certain kind of job, such as investment banking, an engineering role, or a consulting
position, you will need to include evidence that you are proficient in that type of role. You will need to demonstrate that
you have a certain set of skills, are familiar with certain types of software, or that you have worked on certain types of deals.
MBA programs do not necessarily care about these specifics. Admissions representatives are looking for evidence of specific
characteristics that can translate across any type of job, across all sorts of job categories.
If you are being hired for a Lead Engineering role, you may need to show that you can code in Java Script. This will be an
essential skill to getting this specific job done. Harvard, however, does not really care if you can code in Java Script. Coding
in Java Script will not specifically make you good at leading organizations, building great companies or innovating world
changing products and services. They are much more focused on whether or not you are an effective manager and have
strong leadership potential.
When interviewing for a transactional banking role, many candidates will list out specific deal names with dollar amounts.
However, this type of detail will not be of interest to a school like Kellogg. Kellogg will be much more interested in
understanding how you worked as a team to close these deals. They will be interested in your overall quantitative skills, but
beyond that, the fact that you collaborated with an international team across three time zones, or the fact that you
developed and trained others on a new analysis technique will be more relevant.
When you consider which details to emphasize, keep in mind the general qualities that most business school programs are
looking for. The qualities that MBA admissions committees are looking for are fairly well-known and intuitive.
LEADERSHIP evidence of accomplishing things through others, challenging the status quo, instilling a vision, facing
challenges, standing up for whats right, prioritizing the needs of the organization above personal needs, and uniting people
behind a goal
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DIVERSITY - elements of background, values, experience, and personal qualities that prove the candidate will add
something new, exciting, and different to their community
SELF-AWARENESS Takes responsibility for actions; understands how those actions impact others
INTELLECTUAL HORSEPOWER a love for learning and a desire for mastery of new subjects; ability to handle
the programs rigorous academic demands; quantitative abilities
INTERPERSONAL ABILITIES the ability to advocate, persuade, and negotiate compromise; charm, charisma, and
exceptional social skills
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE evidence of team work and team building; creating clear goals, building a sense of
urgency, identifying the unique talents of team members, motivating teammates, managing a complex project, and resolving
differences
DETERMINATION - The ability to overcome setbacks and hardships; determination and courage in the face of
adversity; drive; the desire to make an impact personally and professionally
INTEGRITY/ETHICS a clear sense of principles and values; evidence of putting principles into action
CAREER PROGRESSION evidence that you have distinguished yourself from your peers
AMBITIOUS CAREER GOALS - Clear career goals and a convincing, achievable action plan for
achieving career objectives
GLOBAL POINT OF VIEW awareness of the global nature of business; evidence of adapting to new cultures and
working effectively with a diverse group of people
Getting too detailed with regards to industry-specific skills is generally not a good idea. Make sure that you are speaking
the same language as the admissions committee; do not expect them to be experts in your particular niche. Of course
most of the above qualities will come through in other elements of your application, in particular, your essays. However, it
never hurts to keep these all important qualities in mind.
Sometimes you can illustrate your leadership or other important skills through examples that are tangential to your basic
job responsibilities. We discussed this a bit in Content of Bullet Points above, but as you consider how to describe a
certain job, dont forget to think about some of the following activities, that are all important in spite of the fact that they
may not be part of your core job.
MANAGING OTHERS If you formally manage one or more people, it is important to discuss this. Even if you
informally supervise and mentor someone, it is worth including on the resume
RECRUITING EFFORTS If you have taken a lead in recruiting, you are acting as the face of your company. This
shows that leaders at your company respect you and trust that you will represent them well.
VOLUNTEER INITIATIVES This highlights that you are committed to a balance between work and outside, and
that you are enough of a leader to draw others into your initiatives.
TRAINING OTHERS Training, teaching, mentoring and managing are all inter-related and all parts of being a leader.
If you have played a role in training peers, subordinates or even those senior to you (perhaps on a new type of software),
it is worth including on your resume.
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NEW PROJECTS Perhaps you spearheaded that new filing system, created a template for a new and essential
report, facilitated relationships with an important partner or streamlined routine processes. Anything that demonstrates
you identifying an opportunity and taking initiative is a great thing to include.
All of the above examples can help to highlight skills that MBA programs value.
DEMONSTRATING PROGRESSION
It is always great to show that you are actually progressing in your career. You need to make it clear that over the course
of your career, you have picked up new skills, assumed new responsibilities, developed as an individual and that all of this
growth has been recognized by others.
It is relatively easy to demonstrate progression on your resume, when you are promoted while working for one company.
When you show that you were an Analyst one year, and then a Senior Analyst the next year, that is a clear progression.
However, you need to show progression with more than just your title. The information in the bullets under your title needs
to reflect the title change, and to illustrate how you have grown.
For example, as an Analyst, you might be creating extensive financial models. As a Senior Analyst, you might be training
others on modeling, you might be supervising direct reports, you might be spearheading new deals. The description of
your responsibilities serves as a way to track your progress.
It can be more challenging to illustrate your progress when you are hopping between jobs. Sometimes these jobs are in
different functional areas, so you really are starting from scratch in a new position, as you learn the ropes. However, even
if you go from learning about brand management to tax audits, you can show that as an employee you are gaining greater
levels of responsibility and taking more initiative. As you mature, you may have to learn a new skill, but you are still more
capable of running with and managing a project.
The most difficult scenario is when you have been in the same position with the same company, for many, many years. In
this case, you may have to distill five years of experience into a single list of bullets under that one job title. In this case,
you can list your responsibilities chronologically; most recent first and can pepper the list with dates so that a reviewer can
see when certain activities took place. Of course in the context of your full application, your interview, essays and
recommendations will also work to show the story of progression. Here is the example of list of bullets for someone who
has been in a job for five years:
Led development of business units 2008 advertising and publicity strategy, including marketing plan
for introduction and design of website. Resulted in 32 increase in leads.
BLAH:
Responsible for updating weekly deal pipeline.
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WINNING:
Overhauled and managed weekly communication which ultimately facilitated internal knowledge sharing and enhanced
external client relations.
BLAH:
Helped with new software implementation.
WINNING:
Spearheaded software upgrade in the San Francisco field office by coordinating with software developer, leading training
sessions and facilitating implementation schedule.
BLAH:
Assisted new hires with learning company processes.
WINNING:
Created and managed training program for new hires, which significantly decreased average ramp up time. Program has
run in two offices for past three years.
BLAH:
Analyzed new product prospects for go/no go launch decision.
WINNING:
Led cross-functional team in strategic assessment of new product launch for summer 2008. Developed and tested new
product concepts and conducted preliminary analysis of pricing strategy, volume projections, packaging, promotions budget
and trade spending.
BLAH:
Drafted competitive overview with recommendations and presented to management.
WINNING:
Prepared a competitive analysis for the convenience store channel by assessing competitive marketing strategy and
analyzing competitive merchandising, media and pricing activity. Presented to Senior Management along with
comprehensive defense plan. Plan implementation led to 8 growth in market share in just two months.
The following what? examples are taken from real resumes. We think you will be just as confused as we were when we
first read these.
Our winning examples show how to make the content more accessible and understandable to an MBA admissions audience.
WHAT?
Created VA1 Business Acquisition.
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WINNING:
Devised and launched outbound communications plan for our premier voice activated product. Product was well received
and became cash flow positive within 14 months.
WHAT?
Worked on Project Type Top
WINNING:
Conducted market research in order to gather requirements for complex translation program. Led product team in
prioritizing and implementing all audio requirements related to the award winning product.
WHAT?
Assessed PY capabilities for inefficiencies.
WINNING:
Assessed seven shared features of a major gas utility for process inefficiencies through user research and competitive
analysis, identifying over $6 million in monthly savings.
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CHAPTER 5:
Section 3: Education
GOAL OF THE EDUCATION SECTION
The Education section should include very basic information about your educational background. It should show a
chronology of schools attended, areas of study and significant activities and accomplishments. As with the rest of the
resume, it should be easy to scan, so that someone who is becoming acquainted with your background can very easily
identify names of schools and dates and start to piece together your background.
Keep in mind that while it is necessary to include an education section, the MBA resume is first and foremost, a professional
document. Thus, the education section should be brief, and you will not go into the level of detail in this section that you
do in the professional section. You can feel free to elaborate on anything that is important in your essays and interview.
Your academic transcript(s) will also help to develop a complete picture of your academic experience.
WHAT TO INCLUDE
You will need to include some basic information for each educational institution that you list on your resume. The
information to be included is as follows:
1. Name of school
2. Location
3. Years attended
4. Degree obtained
Other information is frequently included, but not essential. You must use your judgment and decide if it makes sense for
you to include.
1. Overall GPA, Major GPA For an MBA resume, it often does not make a lot of sense to include the GPA. Your
GPA will be on your data forms and official transcript. No need to present it again. But if you have the space,
and you have a high GPA, it also does not hurt to include it.
2. Major - This can be helpful, especially if your major sheds further light on your career path. For example, if
you earned a BS Economics, with a major in Marketing, and then went on to pursue a marketing career, that
major in marketing helps to connect the dots. If the reviewer only saw that you earned a BS Economics, the
early interest in marketing may not be as clear.
3. Activities, Offices held There is no need to list all activities, but it is certainly worth including meaningful and
interesting ones. It is definitely worth highlighting elected or appointed leadership positions within activities
that were important to you. However, it may not be necessary to include any more than the position title.
You can elaborate on interesting experiences or responsibilities in your essays. The primary goal of the
resume is to describe your professional background so go light on this section even if you are tempted to
explain everything you did. Dont list every club of which you were a member as an undergraduate.
4. Part time jobs Part time jobs can take up a lot more space than they really require. As we discuss in the
Professional Section above, if a part time job helped you to gain relevant skills and meaningful experience,
you may want to briefly include it. If it was just a way to make money, no need to list the jobs at all.
5. Explaining that school was self financed - Rather than describing the actual jobs that you held to self finance
school, you can include a statement such as, self financed 85 of education by working 30 hours a week
throughout college. This conveys the idea that you were very motivated and that you successfully juggled
academics and outside commitments. Or if your GPA was low, this can provide some insight into why.
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6. Academic awards, such as Deans List Your decision to include these awards depends on the actual award.
They will undoubtedly be listed elsewhere in your application, so if you do not have the space, you might cut
these out completely, or at least consider abbreviating a long list.
7. Scholarships As with the awards, you will have to leave it to your judgment to decide how prestigious and
important your awards are.
8. Study Abroad This can be a helpful item to include. It shows that you had an interest in learning about
another country, and learning another language, and it may be a good tie in with the story of your career
progress to date or your future goals. In general, it is appropriate to include this in the education section,
although it does not need to be given a great deal of space nothing more than a mention.
9. Classes taught Teaching positions can be a relevant data point to include since leadership, and subsets of
leadership such as teaching, mentoring and managing are all very interesting to an admissions committee.
It also shows that you are respected by professors, you have strong communications skills and could
command the respect and attention of your peers.
It generally makes sense to include at least some of these details. Many of them will drop off your resume the longer you
have been out of school.
Again, remember that many of these things will be repeated elsewhere in your application. GPA will appear on your official
transcript, and you will self report it in your data forms. Items such as awards and scholarships will be listed in data forms
as well. As you decide what to include, space will, as always, be a consideration, as will the story you are trying to tell. Is it
really essential that the admissions committee knows you were a member of the ski club, in a fraternity, or that you co-
authored ten white papers on a topic that is not relevant to your post-MBA goals? Quite possibly not, especially if you are
tight on space.
FORMAT
The format for the initial, essential information should be consistent with whatever you have used in your professional
section. You will highlight name of school, location and dates in the same way you did for your jobs. Beyond that, you will
briefly list out additional information in simple, hopefully one line, bullet points. Anywhere from two to six bullet points is
reasonable.
2. Specifics of part time jobs taken to pay tuition As detailed above, if the skills utilized in the position are not
relevant, you can skip going into detail.
3. Description of school Some candidates write a brief description of their schools, especially in cases when the
school is not well known: Small pre-professional college which is consistently ranked in top 10 of engineering
programs. This type of description does not belong on your resume. If you feel strongly about providing this
information, you can incorporate it into optional information sections on your application or perhaps in an
essay, interview, or a recommender can incorporate it.
4. Every program attended If you took a few classes at a local college one summer, or did some sort of
exchange with a school close to your home university, no need to outline every one of these experiences. All of
your credits will show up on your transcripts and it really is not necessary to list out several schools on your
resume, unless you attended full time.
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CHAPTER 6:
Section 4: Additional Information
GOALS OF THE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION SECTION
This is a brief, informal section which basically encompasses everything that you want to include on your resume that does
not fit into the first three sections (Contact Information, Professional, Education). Some people have a lot they want to
squeeze into this section. Unfortunately, it should be very brief, not more than five to six lines at the bottom of your resume,
at the most, with two to three lines being more appropriate.
If you do not have essential information that you are anxious to include, you can use this section to outline activities and
interests. It is not uncommon to see two sentences at the bottom, such as this:
Interests include skiing, surfing, drawing and world travel. Speak Mandarin and Spanish fluently.
This may not add a ton to what you can offer professionally, but it does add some color and depth to who you are as an
individual. It also helps to break the ice in an interview. It is not uncommon for an interviewer to scan your resume and
find something interesting in that bottom section, that helps both of you ease into the conversation. A mutual interest in
tennis, or an intriguing hobby about which the interviewer is curious, can make for a nice introductory conversation.
1. Show that you are multi-dimensional, reveal a bit more about who you are
2. Help break the ice in an interview, facilitate some easy conversation
3. Allow you to insert miscellaneous information that you want to include in the document,
that does not have a home elsewhere
INFORMATION TO INCLUDE
The following is a list of the types of information that you can consider including in this section:
While much of your resume will be focused on highlighting your professional activities, it is okay for items in this section
to just show off a fun, informal and personal side of who you are.
We have had clients submit resumes with full page sections entitled, Volunteer Activities, Leadership Activities,
Publications. We have then omitted these sections and filtered all of the contents into one of the three standard sections.
Much of the material might completely get the axe. If there is something that is really great but does not fit into Education
or Professional, the Additional Information Section is the perfect home for it.
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While this may seem obvious to some readers, we have reviewed resumes that boast of titles such as Beer Drinking
Champion. This type of content is not desirable for your resume. The following is a list of what not to include:
1. CONTROVERSIAL POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS It is okay to state that you worked on the Democratic
presidential campaign, but you may want to steer clear of more controversial topics and issues.
You do not want to risk starting off the interview with someone immediately knowing that you are pro x,
when they are anti.
2. DRINKING, PARTYING As mentioned above, dont boast about your ability to guzzle beer faster than your peers.
Of course it is okay to say that you organized a fundraising party or that you were social chair for your sorority, but
highlighting that in general you organize great, well attended social eventswell, use your best judgment.
3. LONG LISTS OF ANYTHING A page long list of publications you authored can and should be condensed into
authored over 70 publications on the heart, including The impact of alcohol on the aortic valve.
4. TOO MANY HOBBIES OR INTERESTS How passionate can you be about 20 different hobbies? Be selective
if you want to be taken seriously. It is much better to choose a few things that really interest you and show your commitment
to them, than to provide a rambling list of everything you have ever tried.
5. ANYTHING YOU CANNOT SUBSTANTIATE ON THE SPOT You know about 20 words of Spanish, enough
to get by when you vacation in Mexico, and decide that it would not be too much of a stretch to write fluent in Spanish
on your resume. Its all okay until your interviewer decides to test your abilities on the spot by conducting the interview in
Espaol. The same goes for your interest in Asian Art, your golf game or your involvement with a community organization.
If you are not prepared to speak to it with an enthusiastic interviewer, its better to omit.
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RESUME 1
[email protected] ~ 510.657.8989
EXPERIENCE
2004-2007 JONES CAPITAL GROUP San Francisco, CA
Senior Investment Analyst, 2006-2007
Responded to internal inefficiencies by creating software model that facilitated internal deal analysis and tracking.
Model was later implemented in all field offices.
Designed and negotiated an innovative shelf financing structure, which invested $250 million and served as model
for future Jones transactions.
Led development of business units 2007 Advertising and Publicity Strategy, including marketing plan for
introduction and design of Web page. Resulted in 12% increase in target awareness.
Coordinated and performed financial analyses for over $500 million in prepayments.
Trained and supervised newly hired Financial Analyst.
EDUCATION
OTHER DATA
Received Jones Community Champions Award for dedicated community service. Developed and published the first edition of the
Smithsonian Institutes Air and Space Compendium. Participated in San Francisco softball league. Biked over 300 miles through
Southern France. Alumni interviewer for the University of Pennsylvania. Interests include travel, skiing, hiking and art.
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RESUME 2
(217) 733-9005 ~ [email protected]
EXPERIENCE
EDUCATION
OTHER DATA
Community Activities: Childrens Medical Center of Cincinnati, Angels Elementary School Young Friends Board
Member
YMCA youth soccer coach
Other Interests: skiing, woodworking, travel, adventure sports
(rock climbing, kite surfing)
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RESUME 3
1745 Orrin Avenue
San Diego, CA 60222
(612) 866-9678
[email protected]
EXPERIENCE
EDUCATION
OTHER DATA
Worked with Lulu, a childrens clothing importer, during start-up phase. Volunteer weekly as a tutor in the I Have A Dream
program. San Diego Goldworks community service volunteer. Volunteer kids camp counselor. Enjoy travel, skydiving, fine art, and
yoga.
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RESUME 4
[email protected] ~ (415) 676-3535
EXPERIENCE
Product manager responsible for Percutaneous Thrombolytic Device (PTD) catheter system designed to
treat patients suffering from end-stage renal disease.
Coordinated and supervised product team to develop innovative PTD system.
Interfaced and built strong relationships with world-renowned physicians to meet the needs of the
hemodialysis field.
Organized successful clinical research studies to prove superiority of device over competitive
technologies, gained 19% market share within 18 months.
Developed strategic marketing plan to introduce product into international and domestic markets, launch
exceeded forecasts by 17%.
Trained and supported 150 person sales force to effectively market product
to health-care community.
ADDITIONAL Enjoy running, computers and horseback riding. Launched program to provide support to families of
patients at Philadelphia Childrens Hospital.
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RESUME 5
225 South 18th Street #, Philadelphia, PA 19103, (123) 456-7890
[email protected]
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
MCKINSEY & COMPANY Minneapolis, MN
Associate 2008-2010
Identified revenue enhancement opportunities exceeding $300 million for a major airline joint venture.
Isolated regional sales performance weaknesses and designed a plan to recover $50 million in revenues.
Researched and analyzed various channel margins, identifying a $20 million channel improvement opportunity.
Identified $30 million opportunity to leverage existing data to pursue targeted offers and fill product gaps.
EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Orlando, FL
Master of Science in Computer Engineering, Major in Computer Architecture May 2008
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Volunteer: Young Entrepreneur Program, Give Kids the World (Make-A-Wish), OASIS, and Community Care.
Davis Martin Recruiter: Spoke at career events and conducted interviews for prospective employees.
Interests: Beach volleyball, team sports, taking pictures, running, camping, and traveling.
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RESUME 6
XX Second Avenue North, Suite 112 (323) 451.6767
Nashville, TN 37201 [email protected]
PROFESSIONAL
Gable Capital Partners, Nashville, TN July 2009 Present
Associate
Sole associate in a $280 million, multi-partner private equity fund which invests debt and equity in later stage growth companies.
Portfolio Monitoring Review monthly financial results with company management to prepare partner reports. Provide financial,
fundraising and operational analysis. Make strategic industry and capital markets
introductions. Industries of portfolio companies include business services, healthcare services, IT services, and telecommunications
equipment.
Deal Origination Initiate, analyze and screen potential investment opportunities. Present investment
opportunities to Gable Capital Commitment Committee. Assist in the structuring and issuance of term sheets.
Perform due diligence. Negotiate terms and legal documents with potential portfolio companies and counsel.
Fund Raising Wrote private placement memorandum, created marketing materials, and assisted partners in the solicitation of LP
interests for the Gable Equity Fund, targeted at $100 million.
TopKing Securities, Inc. Communications & Technology Investment Banking, Richmond, VA July 2008 July 2009
Financial Analyst
Experience on a variety of equity, private placement, debt and mergers and acquisition deals at various stages in their development
raising nearly $2.0 billion in capital for companies including Triton PCS, Traingl, Silkost Software and The InterCept Group.
Constructed various company valuation models: Comparable Company Analysis, Comparable Acquisition Analysis, Leveraged
Buyout, Merger models, and Internal Rate of Return calculations.
Considerable client exposure: participated in pitches, due diligence and drafting sessions and preparing FairnessOpinions.
Created and presented materials for Commitment Committee meetings, constructed company profiles for
industry conferences and worked on a three-person team that wrote and developed the business plan for what became First Union
Securities most profitable industry group Communications and Technology, Investment Banking Division.
Additional experience in Real Estate Investment Banking through a three month rotation in the industry group.
Managed undergraduate recruiting at Duke University.
EDUCATION
James Univeristy, Providence, Rhode Island 2005-2008
Cum Laude; Cumulative GPA: 3.5 / 4.0
B.A. in Political Science with Minor in Economics, May 1998
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 2004-2005
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The Masked Ball - Co-chairman of the Late Party, Junior Achievement Teaching / Tutoring Program, Enjoy backpacking, Fly-
Fishing, Golf, Hunting, Rock Climbing, Running, Soccer & Skiing., Board of Directors of the HighLand Fund, Board of Directors of
James Alumni Association
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Since 2001, we have helped hundreds of candidates with their applications to top business schools; our clients have been
admitted to every top MBA program worldwide.
Stacy Blackman Consulting offers Comprehensive, Hourly and Editing services. Services may include:
School selection
Strategy development
Interview coaching
Developing resumes
In addition to our consulting services and our online essay, interview and application basics guides, we have published a
book on the MBA admissions process entitled The MBA Application Roadmap.
To learn more about our services and resources, or to schedule a free consultation, visit our website
(www.StacyBlackman.com).
For MBA news and admissions tips, updated daily, visit: http://www.StacyBlackman.com/blog
To see more Stacy Blackman Consulting products, visit: http://www.StacyBlackman.com/products
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