How to list Mba On Resume
MBA Resume Tips: How to Craft the Perfect Resume
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all right hi good morning good afternoon
good evening everyone thank you so much
for joining me here today um before I
even get started I would first like to
thank GMAT club.com for asking me here
and inviting me to present to you I
don't know if you guys know but usually
admissions consultants like me charge
you know a lot of money for our
expertise and GMAT Club is able to
convince us to give you our expertise
for free so to show them how much you
appreciate them doing this as we go
through today's video or heckle right
now start off by giving a like for this
video down below because that will show
GMAT Club that you like having us here
and then they'll be more likely to ask
us back um all right so with that out of
the way hello everyone my name is Maria
wick Vela and today we are going to be
talking about the resume in your MBA
application I am really excited to go
through this we've got a lot to cover
but I think you are going to get a lot
out of it this is actually one of my
sort of most highly ranked you know I
get a lot of good feedback on this of
course if you have negative feedback I
love to hear that too so that way I can
always be improving but with that let us
jump right in to PowerPoint slideshow
alright great so here's what we're gonna
talk about today first of all I'm gonna
tell you what the importance is of the
resume in the application just how
important is it anyways it's just
something they kind of look at really
quickly even throw aside or is it in
fact a more pivotal piece of your
candidacy what is the purpose of the
resume in the eyes of the admissions
committee why do they even really ask
for it then we're gonna talk about lots
of different tips to make your resume as
powerful as possible so how do you
incorporate your overall application
strategy into the resume and then I'm
gonna give you lots of little tips to
make your resume ischemic and easy on
the eye as possible but first of all Who
am I
that's me hi
I'm Maria wick Vela I'm a 2005 graduate
of Harvard Business School and I am the
founder of applicant lab comm which is
the effective efficient and affordable
alternative to traditional MBA
admissions consulting it is a DIY
do-it-yourself platform that walks you
through my best guidance step-by-step on
how to assemble the strongest
application possible so let's jump in
what are the key pieces of an MBA
application right just to make sure that
everyone is on the same page some of you
might have already applied in the past
some of you might be just starting your
MBA application journey so let's just
start out by looking at what are all the
different pieces that go into an
application right first of all there are
the quantitative elements your GMAT or
GRE score and your GPA and grades from
your undergraduate then you're gonna
need to write one or more essays the
resume which is why we're here today
you're going to need usually two letters
of recommendation that I think that was
my last session so if you want some
advice on that click click on back and
check out that other video from me um
and then the application form usually
has a bunch of like little short answer
questions little text boxes that you
need to fill in about your background or
your responsibilities or what have you
and then should these written elements
of your application be successful you
will then be invited to the interview so
when we talk about the MBA application
usually this is what people are like
yeah Maria I know all this but there are
also some sort of invisible elements of
the application that sort of tie all of
these pieces together and those are the
career vision why what is it you want to
do in the world what kind of impact do
you want to have why do you need an MBA
to get there a lot of career visions
actually don't need the MBA so you need
to make that case pretty strongly and
then why and it Behe from this school
what is it about this particular school
that you think is gonna get you or do
you need to go and then in the middle of
everything the sort of I put it in the
center on purpose is leadership showing
admissions committees that you are a
positive motivational leader wherever
you go is one of the key things they are
looking for so even if you're aware that
these are all the things that are
important in an application one thing
that a lot of people don't realize is
that all of these pieces
match together and in fact they all have
to sort of be moving in the same
direction for your application to be a
well-oiled machine right so for example
if the career vision let's say that your
career vision is I want to start working
in marketing but the other elements of
your application like your resume only
focus not on your creativity or your
ability to understand customers but only
focus is on say your quantitative skills
then the career vision is one that
involves a lot of creativity and
compassion and empathy with customers
but the resume is showing and focusing
on skills that are nice but not relevant
then those two pieces of the gears are
going to start going in opposite
directions and the entire machinery of
your application is going to come
screeching to a grinding halt so you
need all of the pieces of your
application to be flowing together in
harmony
so speaking of all of these different
pieces of the application how important
are they anyway
should we guess should we sort of make
an estimation we don't have to because
several years ago GMAC the organization
that issues the GMAT exam asked MBA
admissions officers from about a hundred
US business schools how much percentage
of importance they would allocate to
each of these different pieces of a
candidate's application in terms of how
important it is in making their decision
and here's what they said first of all
the GMAT 20% or GRE whatever that sort
of standardized test is GPA or previous
academic achievement is 18% these are on
the left-hand side because these are
sort of like the quantitative these are
sort of hard and fast numbers right you
calculate them and it's your score is
either X or Y but on the right hand side
of the screen we have the more
subjective elements of the application
these are the sort of sort of more human
elements that are based primarily on
communication and less on a
hard-and-fast number so we've got the
interview at 21% the resume at 15% the
essays at 11% the recommendations at 8
and those little short answer boxes I
talked about a minute ago are 3% now you
at this part of the presentation people
will sort of react with a little bit of
surprise because they'll say oh my gosh
the resume is 15% so it's funny because
when you start looking into like the
excellent advice being given and you
know GMAT club message boards there's so
much emphasis on the essays essays what
am I gonna write in my essay what should
I do on this essay but in fact the
resume is more important than the essays
and this is something that often shocks
people if this shocks you and you're
like wow this is a cool thing to know
give me a little like below again we're
trying to we're trying to get the get
the enthusiasm up on the GMAT clubs part
to keep asking us back but anyway so why
is the resume more important than the
essays is that weird
no it it actually it makes a lot of
sense when you think about it because
the essays are going to give you
opportunities to describe your previous
experiences right to tell them details
about how you accomplished certain
things but if I just read the essays
without the resume I am not gonna have
any context whatsoever for where do you
work
what's your job what are your day-to-day
responsibilities so the essays are
almost kind of floating conceptually in
space without the resume to anchor it
and to give the reader a very concrete
idea of where your career has been so
far so the resume tells them a lot about
what you've done and how you've done it
and then the essays allow you to go into
more more detail so the resume is
usually the first document that most MBA
admissions committees look at so
hopefully I've been able to convince you
that this is in fact a very important
part of your application quick side note
I don't know if your if you're watching
this on YouTube in the future then this
might not be applicable but as of right
now it is March 1st I think so the round
one deadlines aren't for another sort of
six or seven months and then the round
two deadlines are beyond that so you
might be saying yourself well the
deadlines so far away Maria why are we
even talking about this now well I'll
tell you um
because a key part of your application
is also networking I'm gonna ask you and
you're gonna see all of the advice for
this in applicant lab but just in case
you are gonna want to network with
current students at a minimum alumni if
you can find them your resume twins when
I say resume twin I mean people whose
pre-mba backgrounds were very similar to
your pre MBA background before they went
to business school right because that
shows you if they ended up getting into
school X that's an indication for you
that school X is in fact open to people
from backgrounds like yours and then
also people whose careers you want to
emulate right I want you to reach out to
a few people who have jobs where you're
like wow
that's a really cool job I want that job
and if they have MBAs you can reach out
to them and say hey how did your MBA
help you get there as part of your
research so half as you reach out to
them if you send them like this kind of
like hey my name is Maria and I'm
interested in the television industry
and I would love to chat with you about
your MBA experience I've attached my
resume for your reference if you send
them a resume that is like hard to read
or has a bunch of information that
doesn't really matter right they're
gonna be like oh right so by sending
them a clean easy-to-read impactful
resume now you'll be more likely to get
that sort of positive response from the
people when you try to network with them
now when we talk about how important the
resume is and it's actually more
important than the essays sometimes
people have said in the past you know I
sometimes give this presentation live in
front of you know audiences of
applicants and when I first started
doing this years ago someone raised
their hand and they were like Maria this
is actually this is amazing news for me
because my current resume is amazing my
resume is actually pretty awesome and I
know that it's awesome because my resume
got me my current job and since I got me
my current job it's got to be a pretty
strong resume this is actually a common
blunder thinking that I'm just gonna
take my existing resume from my last job
search maybe update it a little bit and
then submit that and easy peasy I'm done
using the same resume for your MBA
application that you that you would use
in a job search is a terrible mistake
don't do it
and why is this well let's think a
little bit about what the goal is of the
resume for a job
versus the goal of the resume for an MBA
admissions committee so let's imagine
that this is you today looking good I
like that color on you it's really it's
a nice blue you look good in blue and so
you have a job that you do today and
that job is frankly kind of on the
junior side or probably more junior than
you would want it to be otherwise you
wouldn't be applying for the MBA anyway
right so you've got this job and you're
doing your tasks and you're really good
at your job and let's say I reach out to
you as a recruiter or as a hiring
manager since most people only stay at a
job for about two years as a hiring
manager my big question is what can you
do for me tomorrow and what skills do I
think you're gonna grow into in the next
one to two years and I don't really
think beyond that because usually I know
that you're gonna leave on that most
people leave a job after two years right
that's kind of the average so when I'm
looking at your resume and looking at
your candidacy I'm looking at your
current responsibilities and I'm asking
myself okay can this person do a
slightly higher level version of the
responsibilities they have today
therefore when you're job hunting it is
very important to give a detailed
explanation of how many programming
languages you know and how many you know
database I know sequel and I know
tableau and I know Excel and I now have
all these skills right makes perfect
sense however the admissions committee
is not looking at you through the same
lens for the purposes of the MBA
application the admissions committee is
not thinking so much about where you're
gonna be in one to two years they're
thinking about who are you gonna be in
20 years because admissions committees
are basically looking for people who
have already demonstrated that they are
on their way up the corporate ladder or
the business world or the nonprofit
world or what have you which makes sense
because at the end of the day they want
you to end up being the CEO of YouTube
or whatever you know I think I think the
CEO of YouTube went to UCLA Anderson and
so if you go to like the UCLA Anderson
website guess what they've got a big
picture of her because of course they
want you to become an illustrious
alumnus or alumna
so they're trying to think to themselves
okay is this person 20 years from now
gonna be on the cover of Forbes and then
our school is gonna look super good
compared to other business schools and
so how do they try to figure out if
you're going to be successful or that
c-suite executive in 20 years they look
for those key business leadership skills
because 20 years from now that
functional day-to-day aspects of those
functional day-to-day aspects of your
job like Excel or entering in the Google
Adwords in the you know the AdWords
interface or debugging a Java Script
whatever like you're not gonna be doing
that hopefully in 20 years right you
will have been you'll be doing much much
more senior things so they're looking at
your your innate leadership abilities to
see if they think that you've got what
it takes to advance to that level in the
future so let's take an example I know
that might have been a little kind of
not concrete so we've got a concrete
example it's not a hypothetical example
it is a hundred percent true because
it's my husband and that's he looks a
lot like you look at him um so in 2001
when he was applying to business school
yeah we rolled he was a financial
analyst for a movie studio and so when
he was applying what defined success in
his job as a finance business
development analyst success was
predicated upon his ability to do
Microsoft Excel build financial models
and then create these kind of like
industry projections of like what do we
think the box office is gonna be for
this movie and whatever now today he is
the CFO of a company that makes movies
and today he's not really doing the
stuff on the left-hand side of the
screen anymore right he's I mean sure he
has to do a little bit in Excel here and
there but today what defines him as
successful as a CEO the things that made
him successful 20 years ago are not the
same things that make him successful
today today he's successful if he can
for example persuade his CEO to do
something different he has to negotiate
with banks constantly right he is
managing sort of a 500 million dollar
credit facility and that actually
requires like constant relationship
management with banks to convince them
to give him more money
um he has to smooth over internal
squabbles right so you can imagine as a
CFO one department says the marketing
department says oh we need to hire three
more people because we're too overworked
and then another department says we need
to hire three more people because we're
too overworked and so if one department
gets a new higher than the other
departments like why were they able to
get you know we're just as busy as they
are and why did they get this and what
it happens a lot so he has to smooth
that over that's not something he had to
do 20 years ago but it's something he
has to do today and he's also one of the
key people on his company staff setting
the strategic vision he doesn't need to
do the stuff on the left anymore because
he has junior team members that do this
and so why does this matter for your MBA
application resume in very pragmatic
terms do not focus your MBA application
resume on these sort of technical skills
of your day-to-day job today instead try
to focus as much as possible on showing
that you have the personality traits
necessary to eventually become a
high-level executive so this brings us
to our first concrete tip of the day
don't focus on junior skills so don't
waste my time with a summary of
qualifications section right don't say
oh I'm an experienced you know coder who
has like whatever I'm not hiring you to
be a coder I'm hiring you to be an
executive in the future don't bother
with a skill section don't list at the
bottom like programming languages C++
JavaScript Ruby on Rails no don't say
Microsoft Office Excel Word PowerPoint
or things like google adwords or tablet
any of that don't waste my time with
that because if your career is gonna be
the kind of career I want it to be as an
admissions officer 20 years from now
you're not going to be doing that stuff
right you're gonna have people who do
that for you and also don't waste any
bullet points on what I call
quote-unquote secretarial or janitorial
aspects of your job and I don't mean
that you're literally a secretary or
literally the person you know cleaning
cleaning the floors what I mean by that
is anything that involves something very
basic that an administrative assistant
could do so you know collecting
information from different parties and
putting that information together into a
document
or janitorial any sort of cleanup right
so anything like I'm in charge of
finding bugs in the code and then I fix
the bugs I clean up the code or I'm
responsible for reading over our grant
funding proposals and finding typos in
the proposal don't focus on those sorts
of skills because I don't want them to
associate you with being the low-level
person I want to focus their very
limited attention on those greatest hits
so now it's only fair I used my husband
a second ago it's only fair that I use
my own career now as an example so when
I was applying to business school one of
the key emphases on my resume was that I
had spent several months in India
working on the business plan for a
business that we were internally calling
I sky B for India Sky Broadcasting today
it's known as Tata Sky it's basically
for those of you who've never heard of
Tata Sky
it's like DirecTV but for India and it's
currently about an 800 million dollar a
year business and I was responsible for
building the first financial model to
prove that Tata sky would be a viable
business right this was a pretty big
deal I'm not gonna lie uh and it was a
pretty cool cool thing that was a big
part of my job but there were also kind
of smaller more secretarial / janitorial
aspects of my job for example as the
junior most person on the team I was
also responsible for I just put a little
image up on the lower right-hand side of
the screen I don't know if you if you
know what that is it's like a little
machine that like you print out
presentations and then you put the
papers together and it kind of like puts
that you know that little plastic
curlicue thing to assemble the pages
together that's what that little machine
does so another part of my job when I
was applying to business school was also
- every time we had a board meeting as
the junior Mouse person I was
responsible to stay until 2:00 in the
morning look at the PowerPoint slides
correct any typos print the PowerPoint
slides collate the PowerPoint slides put
them together etc so let me ask you do
you think on my resume that I included
that right hand side responsibility I
didn't even put it on there it was
nowhere to be found
anywhere in my application because I
would rather spend that precious space
right remember the resume is going to be
it's one page long don't go more than
one page it's one page of paper I did
not want to spend any of that precious
precious resume space distracting them
and have them think of me as like oh is
she just like this low-level Lackey no
it was it's kind of like misdirection
though he's a magician you know like
look over here I want you to look at
this shiny sexy project that I worked on
in lets not really focus on that I know
more lower-level tasks that I did so I
want this to be the same thing for you
I don't know if I if this is useful for
you or not so far but if it is again
let's give a little like below so let's
go on to a actual concrete example hi
this is based on a real person I've of
course changed the identifying
information but let's say that there is
someone who is a software engineer who's
applying to business school so they go
through the applicant lab modules and
the exercises and so this person says
okay the strengths and weaknesses module
is saying is telling me that I have a
technical job and oftentimes the
technical parts of my job are not that
interesting to admissions committee is
my career vision is that I one day want
to become an entrepreneur and the
financial services industry this is also
an industry that now is being referred
to as FinTech right so let's say that
she is a software engineer she wants to
one day start her own thing tech company
and why does she need the MBA well she
needs to learn some startup skills and
fundraising skills and all that jazz
so let's pretend that this is her
initial like sort of the top part of her
resume for her current job so she works
for sample tech inc she's worked there
since 2015 she's a senior software
engineer and let's look at these two
bullet points on her original job
hunting resume built data import API for
the Playa Vista database a module on the
PV DM and I thoroughly tested all
solutions to ensure compliance so I'm
gonna give you guys a second to in the
comments based on some of what I've been
telling you so far what do you think is
wrong with this sample resume I'll give
you about five or 10 second
to type that in while I'd grab a sip of
coffee okay I can't actually see your
comments so I'm just gonna keep going
I'm gonna assume that's at least one
person who's ready to comment all right
so now let's let's dissect what is
suboptimal about this example that we
put here let's start off with sample
Tech Inc I have never heard of sample
Tech think right your industry or your
bazaar your business might be a very big
deal in your existing industry but if
you're applying to say tuck Dartmouth
tuck what is the chances that an
admissions officer sitting in Hanover
New Hampshire has heard of your company
sometimes it's not that great right so
I've never heard of sample tech so I
don't know is sample tech big is it a
huge fortune 500 company is it a teeny
business is it focused on a niche
domestic market is it global
does it create spanking security
solutions or is it like a fashion
tutorial company right this the title so
vague I can't figure it out and if it's
part of a big company what does it do
where does it fit within that broader
organization so even if you second ago
you started ignoring me because you're
like well whatever I work for Google so
everyone's heard of Google or I work for
JP Morgan and everyone's heard of JP
Morgan not so fast
Google is huge JP Morgan is huge JP
Morgan has investment banking trading
debt there's an IT division of JP Morgan
that is you know like there are so many
different there's like 20 billion
different divisions and offices of these
big companies so for you so for the
smaller company people it's about
helping the admissions committee
understand right off the bat here's my
company is you've never heard of it
for people who work for big companies
you're not off the hook either instead
of telling them like JP Morgan is a 40
zillion dollar company they already know
that your challenge is to explain to
them well within this 40 zillion dollar
company where do I sit which division
which department do I sit in because
otherwise they're gonna be like I don't
know there's like 4 million offices and
five zillion employees how do we know
where you fit in that organization so
how can we fix this our applicant here
could fix this by saying something like
the following right underneath her title
I want you to put something like
sample tech inc is the 30 million dollar
European division of larger Corp which
is in fact a publicly traded company and
it creates software solutions for the
banking industry now why did I have her
include the information about the
banking industry well by adding this
line into the resume I now know that
this company is a division of a larger
corporation it has pretty significant
revenue it's not a small potatoes thing
and I know what it actually does and
thinking back remember those gears that
I showed fixing meal fitting together
there's a career vision tie-in here
because since this applicant wants to be
a fin tech entrepreneur it is very
relevant that she has worked on banking
industry applications because there's a
tie-in right so now is an admissions
officer I'm like oh
banking is actually a really complicated
industry there's a million different
laws and regulations but she's already
familiar with some of them because she's
worked in that industry ok now I feel
more confident that she you know that
she might be she'll be successful as a
fin tech entrepreneur now let's go down
to that first bullet point built data
import API for the Playa Vista database
module BBD and I admittedly this one's a
little bit of overkill so this is the
one that people normally are like yeah
yeah we get it Maria okay so obviously
what's an API right most admissions
officers come from human resource
backgrounds so they've never you know
they might like computers but very few
of them have ever coded a line of code
in their lives and perhaps more
importantly than what is an API how did
you build whatever an API might be how
did you build it were you by yourself
locked in a corner you know and your
cubicle not talking to anyone or were
we're teamwork skills involved were you
in fact working with others motivating
others and getting people to collaborate
and work together to reach this shared
goal I have no idea what the PV DMS so
it's bad enough to have any sort of
technical jargon in your application
that they might know it's even worse
sometimes people are so used to like
their internal tools a lot of big
companies right they make their own
internal tools the vill then reference
the internal tool so if I don't know
what an AP
is how am I supposed to know what your
internal company tool the PV DM is oh
forget it there's no way they're gonna
know and not to be rude but at the end
of the day why should I care and you
built an API so what how does the API
thing help the business how is the
business better off because you spent
your precious time doing this so here's
how you need to do this you need to
start your bullet points on your resume
by explaining the impact that your
project or accomplishment had so start
the bullet point by saying by answering
the question so what so what well I'll
tell you so what I helped increase
company revenue by 15% by instead of
building an API I identified an
opportunity to build a new product that
would expand our customers but the
product does what coding language it was
built in who cares it's a new product
that's all you need to know that
expanded our customer base notice also
that this person added in the word
identifying an opportunity that is she
came up with the idea herself it's not
like her boss went to her and said hey I
need you to build this by Friday I mean
that's ok but it's even better if she
takes that initiative and demonstrates
that internal innovation to identify new
solutions moving on coordinated a team
of five to build the product and
successfully pitched it to new clients
now is this all she did as part of this
project
no there was probably a million other
things that she did she probably had
meetings and deadlines and budgets and
Gantt charts and stand-ups and whatever
but why do we very strategically select
these details to put into the resume
first of all it's answering so what it
could scrub x' what she did in plain
english it highlights the leadership of
others even if indirect right if you
were sort of running a project even
though you were not technically the
project leader you can use terms like
coordinated or managed a team to show
that you were in fact like the person
trying to get everyone you know all the
ducks in a row as it were and once again
and that career vision tie-in as a fort
as a future FinTech entrepreneur I've
underlined certain key skills that all
entrepreneurs are going to need right
entrepreneurs need to identify new
opportunities they need to know how to
grow a customer base and they need how
they need to know how to pitch pitching
their ideas the clients pitching the
ideas to VC pitch pitch pitch pitch
pitch as entrepreneurs do all day long
so we were very strategic in choosing
the aspects of that project that show
leadership in general and the tie-in to
making me feel more comfortable like
okay she she's got what it takes to be a
you know an entrepreneur then this other
bullet point thoroughly tested all the
solutions to ensure compliance
isn't it obvious like don't most people
double-check their work before they do
it like I I don't always but I mean most
of us do right if you're about to send
something to your boss don't you usually
give it like a 1-over so saying that you
tested the software is kind of like low
level right isn't it a little too junior
to mention it sort of dilutes the story
a little now instead of seeing her as
this creative visionary who propelled
the team forward to build this new
product it's like womp womp
I'm also the QA tester no you don't want
to be associated with that low level
stuff because in the long term a tech
CEO is not gonna be doing the QA so how
did we change this bullet but we didn't
change it we just deleted it to
reallocate that precious space somewhere
else your resume is better off and this
is counterintuitive for some people
which is why I'm going to say this part
slowly for emphasis your resume is
better off with fewer bullet points but
each bullet point being as impactful as
possible if your current resume has
something like seven bullet points for
your current job go through each one and
ask yourself does it answer so what does
it show me leading others does it show
me being innovative I'd rather have a
bullet point sort of explained like if
we go if we go down here so this is sort
of like the before and after right see
how now increased company revenue by 15%
but how this is now taking up two lines
instead of one line I'd
rather have one bullet point that takes
up two lines but it is much more
powerful than one or two lines that are
a lot weaker so now time for a pop quiz
in the comments let me know this is also
my time to get my second sip of coffee
how much time you think is spent reading
let's submit an application but not like
total throughout the application process
because the further your application
goes in the process the more and more
people are gonna read it and reread it
but for that first time they read it
right most schools will have two initial
readers those two initial readers will
come up will come up with a gut feel
accept but move forward
maybe waitlist reject and if both
readers come to the same conclusion then
you know if both readers say move
forward then that person automatically
moves forward both readers say reject
that person gets rejected if the readers
disagree then usually at that point a
third reader comes in and makes the
ultimate decision to move forward or to
reject so how much time do you think you
spent on that first read throughout the
application I picked up my coffee but I
forgot to drink now I'm gonna do that
part now okay well here's what we wish
would happen in an ideal world it's 9:00
a.m. on a Monday morning look it's the
admissions officer there she is she is
so well-rested she just spent the
weekend at a relaxing spa her desk is
clear her computer is turned off there
are no emails or notifications to bother
her she's got her entire morning
calendar clear to just look at your
application in fact she's gonna pay so
much attention to your application that
look what's that in her hand a tiny
magnifying glass that's how detailed
she's gonna pour over every word of your
application this is what we wish
admissions officers were like this is
what admissions officers wish their
lives look like however I've got lots of
friends who are admissions officers that
I've met through the years at admissions
conferences and their lives don't look
like this you know peaceful scene there
lives look a little bit more like this
admissions officers are constantly
traveling all over the world to the mba
booths and if you've ever been to like
an mba fair filled with like 50 schools
at the tables and all the people all of
those people are admissions officers so
they have to travel all over the world
to the booths people email questions all
day long to admissions - someone's gotta
answer them people are like my login
doesn't work or blah blah blah my my
recommender just you know fled the
country what do I do so and not only
that but most most readers admissions
readers are given a quota of how many
applications they have to get through in
a given day right Harvard Business
School has 10,000 applications a year it
needs to get through and they only have
you know they don't hire like alumni or
current students to do it
so that's like hundreds and hundreds of
applications a week that each individual
admissions officer has to go through so
it's like this sort of oppressive amount
of paperwork that has to be gone that
has to they have to go through so this
is a thought exercise I want you to use
with your resume
not just your resume but your essay -
don't imagine when you're picturing the
person on the other end of that screen
who's going to be reading that resume I
don't want you to imagine someone who
looks like this I want you to imagine
someone who looks like this right who's
just literally being crushed by
paperwork and it's not 9 a.m. on a
Monday morning like this lovely woman no
no it's 6:40 p.m. on a Friday night and
your application the person is about to
leave they have a huge awesome weekend
plan they are gonna go see the new Top
Gun movie that's me putting in my
husband's company as the one making the
Top Gun movie coming out in a few months
so see see boom guerrilla marketing yay
okay you're gonna he's gonna go see the
Top Gun movie he's so excited and then
he thinks to himself you know what let's
just do one more just one last candidate
before I head out the door for the
weekend so I want you to imagine that
this person reading your resume has read
about let's say I don't know a hundred
and fifty other applications that week
they are dying to get out of the office
to see that awesome movie put
self in their shoes imagine that you are
the admissions officer and it's 6:40
p.m. on a Friday you've got this amazing
weekend ahead plan for you you open you
have one last file let's just go through
one more you open up the file you pull
up the PDF and you go to the resume and
the resume look something like this how
would you react if you if you saw a
resume that looked like this and it's
blurry don't try to read it I know you
might be squinting right now to try it
you can't read it I blurred it out on
purpose because I'm not talking about
specific wording here I'm talking about
what is that initial visceral reaction
that you have to a piece of paper that
is filled from top to bottom with text
would your reaction be Oh hot diggety I
can't wait to dig into the six point
font jam-packed piece of paper whoo-hoo
is that gonna be a reaction that's not
gonna be your reaction I wouldn't feel
that way you wouldn't feel that way and
guess what they don't feel that way
either because they're people to imagine
that instead you get a resume that looks
more like the one on the right I think
your reaction would be more like ah okay
this is nice this is this is manageable
this is doable
instead of like oh oh not something I
have to go through this oh no it's more
like okay this I can get through this
yeah this is let's let's dig in because
there's not so much you know competing
for my eyeballs attention I know exactly
where to go on the page there's plenty
of white space to give my eyeballs a
chance to rest it's subtle but it's
there to rest from one bullet point to
another the page flows very nicely and
logically and I don't feel overwhelmed
like I'm suddenly being attacked by an
avalanche of text and details Musa as
we've been discussing up until now a lot
of times people put a ton of details
into their resume that don't actually
matter so what makes for a skimmable
resume you want it to be easy on the eye
easy on the eye means as much white
space as possible and how do you get
white space sometimes people are like my
career resume whose two pages long and
there is no
way to get it down to one page there is
always a way to get it down to one page
and one of the best ways to do that is
to consolidate consolidate consolidate
and smush together pieces together so I
want you to ask yourself as you're sort
of going through and writing your resume
ask yourself for every bullet point that
you write what is the point of this
bullet point what's the point of it so
for example let's say you work in
management consulting let's say it's
supply chain consulting and you've
optimized the supply chain for one
running shoe company one agricultural
company and a mining company I don't
know you could if you did sort of
similar stuff for each job you could
make it three different bullet points
the shoe company the agricultural
company the mining company or you could
consolidate it and say I worked on
supply chain optimization for three
different companies where I did blah
blah blah and collectively I saved them
twelve million dollars right that could
be a way for example if you're doing
sort of similar stuff and from project
to project consider consolidating those
projects down into one bullet point or
anytime you can you can consolidate
things together to get the point across
so this is an extreme example but I do
think it is instructive so that's why I
keep it and I have again changed all of
the identifying information about this
candidate but once many years ago I got
a resume that had the following bullet
points in it underneath the college part
it had here varsity rowing a member of
the market you know the varsity like
crew team I was the NCAA rowing champion
in 2011 I ran I won this race I was
named the best rower in New York there's
some sort of there's some sort of a
rowing award that I won and then so that
was in college and then now since the
person had graduated from college they
had continued rowing and that so what
what am i doing now with it well I'm a
member of the San Francisco rowing club
I won first place in the Bay Bridge race
I'm third place in the country I'm an
alternate on the US Olympic team I was
named the most promising rower under the
age of 30 by rowers observer magazine
who I don't know about you but I'm
starting to get a sense
do you think this guy's good at rowing
do you think he's good at rowing I think
he's good at rowing do you think this
person needed to spend sure much time
making the point I'm good at rowing so
many words this is a true story part of
the reason why I put this in because
this really happened to me the first
time I saw this candidates resume I
started doing what any human being would
do I started reading and I was like yeah
yeah I get it this is gonna be a rowing
bullet point yeah yeah yeah heroes I get
it right you would do that I would do
that they do that too yeah yeah yeah
it's around I completely skipped this
line here alternate u.s. Olympic team
London 20 2012 so on the revised resume
for the bottom part I just had them keep
alternate US Olympic rowing team London
2012 and that might seem like an overly
dramatic and perhaps far too aggressive
haircut but let me ask you this is it
not clear that if somebody is good
enough to almost go to the Olympics is
it not obvious that this person probably
also trains and wins a lot of races is
it not obvious that they are probably
Road you know you know they've done
these 15 different races of course
because you don't make it to the
Olympics
or almost make it to the Olympics unless
you've done all of the other stuff so
let's clear up the space let's save it
for that one I thought this was the most
impactful part right I see the word
Olympics and I'm like oh so that's why I
kept that one so you're like Maria I'm
not an Olympic rower don't worry I'm not
gonna live in row or I'm not Olympic
anything I mean I'm I'm an Olympic
Netflix watcher um but no this is
actually relevant to you too because
first of all well before we go on ask
yourself for example let's say you were
leading a project and that project
involves ten different steps ask
yourself do I need to describe all ten
steps on the resume right if you're like
I led a project that did X do you really
need to include I had weekly meetings at
the weekly meetings I wrote the agenda I
then led the meanings
we then adjourned the meetings I then
emailed everyone about the next meeting
like
come on isn't it obvious if the project
ends and was successful and you were in
charge of it it's sort of in assumed
that you probably had to call a meeting
here or there so don't waste the space
on the things that could be easily
assumed another way to eliminate
repetition if you have been at the same
company for more than one job title a
lot of people will do something like
this they'll sort of break it out the
part they'll have company name at the
top and then they'll have like oh here's
my most sort of current job title and
then here's the more junior one right
here at first when I started off I was a
junior whatever and here's the junior
things I was doing but now I'm a more
senior whatever and look at the more
senior things I'm doing if you've been
in like the same company with similar
similar roles I advocate stacking the
job titles right because for example
down here let's say right now okay now
that you're a senior whatever you're
presenting the monthly analyses in front
of senior management when you were more
junior you weren't the one presenting it
but you were putting it together right
you were using the machine with the
curlicue plastic so is it not clear if
today you're the person presenting the
analysis is it not obvious that you
probably know how to put together the
analysis right because most people can't
present something they don't understand
so the fact that you understand the
analysis is implicit in the fact that
you're presenting the analysis so what I
suggest people do is usually is usually
if you have a more senior job put that
and then stack the junior job title
beneath it and consider eliminating
these junior bullet points because again
I don't care that you were really really
good at something six years ago that you
are not gonna need to know again and
it's obvious to me as a reader that you
were really really good at first of all
number one I don't care that you were
good at the junior stuff for reasons
we've already discussed ad nauseam and
number two I'm assuming that you're
really good at that junior stuff because
if you weren't good you would have never
gotten promoted to the senior whatever
title so why waste my time proving to me
something that I don't care about and
that does not need to be proved because
it is implicitly proved by the fact that
you got a promotion
am i doing this you free up a lot of
space and also very quickly it shows
right off the bat that your company
likes you that they have given you
increasing levels of responsibility
through increasing titles so it makes it
creates like this visual impact right
away boom it's obvious I've been
promoted as opposed to up here where
it's more sort of spread out so then I
get here I move down I move down and I'm
like oh oh they started as a more I get
it no let's have it be let's have them
sort of hit them in the face with it
right up front and now this brings us to
my last tip I call it just taking the
time to make sure I'm not running over
ok the real estate rule so my real
estate rule is as follows
the amount of space you dedicate on the
sheet of paper for your resume to a job
an extracurricular activity a nonprofit
that you're involved with whatever it is
should be directly proportional to how
much importance you want the admissions
committee to give to it and what what
does this mean I have seen even as
recently as I think yesterday or two
days ago I was I was reviewing and
ss-sorry a resume of someone who has
been an entrepreneur for five years but
before that worked in some sort of
finance job it's something different
some of the kind of boring and the
amount of space on the resume there was
like an even amount of space given to
the startup and then the previous job
the previous job was a years ago B has
nothing to do with the entrepreneur like
who cares like they're applying to
business schools to continue being an
entrepreneur so why do I care that they
had some low-level finance jobs six
years ago I don't care so don't put even
amounts don't think like what every job
needs three bullet points uh-uh if your
most recent job is the more impressive
one and if it ties in more closely to
your career vision put more to dedicate
more space to it
similarly if you've got say two
different things that you've done in the
community right you've got one that's
kind of a minor thing like oh yeah once
a month I volunteer at a soup kitchen
but also I'm a board member of the
nonprofit and education nonprofit in my
city
I led a fundraiser to raise $50,000 for
that nonprofit don't don't devote one
bullet point for the soup kitchen and
then one bullet point for the $50,000
fundraiser right make a couple of bullet
points for the $50,000 fundraiser and
then one bullet point for the soup
kitchen think or consider leaving the
soup kitchen off just like with your job
you don't have to list every single
thing community service you've ever done
in your entire life mm-hmm no focus on
quality over quantity
so as we finish up here remember these
i'm your application i'm the machinery
of your application well it all has to
flow together super quick before i end
applicant lab comm is the online
platform that i have created that guides
you step by step right all of like see
these different gears a lot like career
vision why mba resume interview if you
look here i've got career vision my mba
where does resume resume is right here
resume interview and then the writing
the essay writing i break out into
several small steps because the essays
the resume is more important than the
essays but writing an essay is actually
a little bit more complicated it usually
tends to be a little more difficult so
that's why i break that process out into
multiple steps but basically there is an
alternative to expensive mba admissions
consulting you don't need to spend
$4,000 $8,000 $10,000 or more if you are
a self-motivated person and if you like
the tips I gave here today guess what
there's a lot more where that came from
it's in applicant lab comm so here's the
resume module and the cost of applicant
lab is only 299 dollars for as many
schools as you want you just add just
add in as many schools as you want
um versus sort of eight thousand dollars
and I put that because most people apply
to about four business schools
on average so the average cost for a lot
of these admissions firms is eight
thousand dollars for a for school
package or if you're self self starter
type checkout applicant lab for $2.99
don't just take my word for it applicant
lab was voted audience favorite in HBS
alumni new venture competition it is the
only admission service endorsed by the
harvests Harvard Business School student
newspaper and check out my reviews on
GMAT Club
those are all real reviews by real
people that GMAT club verifies um so
yeah so did I it help in any way with
your resume process today if I taught
you anything new or anything surprising
please give this video a like if you can
if you didn't like it go ahead and give
me a don't like that's great - I need
that I need that feedback feedback makes
it better and better and better every
time right so I unfortunately do not
have time today sometimes I have time to
hang out and ask and answer questions at
the end today unfortunately I do have a
hard stop right about now so I can't but
here's what I'm gonna ask you to do in
the comments below
GMAC club's gonna let me know if you
comment something in the sort of if you
ask a question in the not that like not
like the comments on the side of the
screen but the comments underneath the
video do you know what I mean so if you
have a question that I didn't answer and
I have a feeling you do you might at
least put it there and then over the
course of the next couple days I will
try to jump back in and answer it so
thank you all so much for your time
today um yeah okay every second I
couldn't see anything on the screen I'm
like what happened so thank you all so
much for your time today I hope again
that this has been useful please try
you're free that you know applica lab
has a free trial i also have a 7 day
money-back guarantee so it really is a
risk-free thing for you to try and you
know if you subscribe to the GMAT club
if you hit a subscribe below I think
it'll be like right here somewhere
um it GMAT Club will actually give you
access to a bunch of their practice
tests which is huge because as we talked
about the GMAT test itself is about I
think 20% of the admissions decision so
you do want to take your test prep
seriously and GMAT Club is a great
resource for you to do that
so thank you all again so much for
joining me here today and I look forward
to hearing from you and helping you all
on your journeys thank you
you
