Applying to B-School? Résumé Perils to Avoid

The résumé may seem simple, but it's an application minefield. Handled carelessly it can dash any hope of landing a top B-school spot

By Francesca Di Meglio

The required résumé on the typical business school application is the first impression most MBA applicants make on the admissions committee, yet it is often their last priority.

Most people who work on admissions committees at top business schools say they read the applicant's résumé before anything else, said Scott Shrum, director of MBA admissions research at Veritas Prep, a test prep and admissions consultancy in Malibu, Calif., in an interview. In addition, students and alumni, who conduct interviews with applicants on behalf of the admissions committee, often see the résumé and nothing else, said Shrum.

"The résumé is sometimes the last thing candidates think about," said Shrum. "It's the only place where you have the entire candidacy on one page, and admissions committees often look at this first and start to form an opinion on your candidacy."

Completing the résumé as an afterthought is a mistake, said Mary Miller, assistant dean of admissions at Columbia Business School (Columbia Full-Time MBA Profile) in New York, in an interview. "The résumé gives me a picture of the applicant," said Miller. "I use it as an introduction before reading the rest of the application."

Career Progression

Admissions committees at top business schools are looking for one thing when scanning a résumé: career progression, said Rodrigo Malta, director of MBA admissions at the University of Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business (McCombs Full-Time MBA Profile), in an interview. Including accurate dates of employment and simple, yet thorough, explanations of your accomplishments and promotions helps your case, he said.

"We're looking for progression more so than canned job descriptions," said Malta. "You must show the impact you've had."

Admissions committee members are inundated with thousands of applications, which is why formatting becomes pivotal, said Michael Cohan, president of the MBA admissions consultancy MBAPrepAdvantage in Miami Beach, Fla., in an interview. For each job description, applicants should begin with an action verb, such as "managed." Then, said Cohan, they should describe their accomplishments in that role and quantify them. For example, one could write: "Managed project that led to $800,000 in sales."

"What you're trying to do is make the information as easily accessible to your audience as possible," said Cohan.

Using the same résumé that one would to secure a job or even for all the schools to which an applicant is applying, will not fly, said Cohan. For example, an engineer might use technical vocabulary in a résumé for a potential employer, but leave out those details on a business school résumé, said Cohan.

School-Specific Format

Look at the résumé books that each business school has in its career services department and follow its format, wrote Julie Liu, a 2004 graduate and former student admissions committee member at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Booth Full-Time MBA Profile), in an e-mail. Refrain from writing paragraphs of text or being inconsistent with the use of punctuation, tenses, and formatting, such as bold titles, wrote Liu.

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