The best MBA Resume Example and how an AdCom grades it

1. MBA application resume – A good example:

Let’s spend a minute scanning this resume and shedding some thoughts on it. 

(For now, we’ll just focus on this one example. If you want to find the example of YOUR career background, go to the end of this article)

2. Resume for MBA application – A walk through:

What impresses you about this resume? Let’s together do a walk-through to analyze it.

2.1. Resume format

The resume format is the first and easiest kick to score the AdCom’s goal. In this example, you might have the first impression of a nicely formatted resume: everything is neat and consistent; that’s a score already!

How to do that? These are some general rules you can apply in your own resume:

Rule #01: ONE PAGE ONLY

Anytime you consider adding a piece of information, ask yourself:

• Instead of every achievement, can you just showcase the “greatest hits” only?
• Can this information be put elsewhere in the application package?
• Finally, if the information is necessary, is there a shorter, briefer way to deliver it? (there’ll be tutorials on this in the Wordings section down below)

Rule #02: MARGINS, FONT, SPACING

Margins: 

The ideal margins on the top, bottom, and sides are all 1”. However, if you struggle to squeeze your information, the margins can be adjusted to 0.75”.

In the example above, the margins are 1” on the top and 0.75” on the sides. This creates enough feeling of openness in the document.

Font: 

Spacing:

Spacing plays a vital role in dividing levels of information within the resume. You have to be mindful about using it flexibly to separate between major blocks, as well as adding some rest for the eyes between bullet points. 

• Use a single-line spacing (8-10 pts) between major blocks, e.g. “Leadership Activity” and “Additional Information”.
• Apply a minimum spacing of 1.5 pts between the bullet points

2.2. Resume wordings

Rule #03: LESS IS MORE

When writing this one-page document, always remind yourself: “Less is more” – Less excessive words, more impactful information. In helping you eliminate words not likely to promote any admission driver, we have some tips here:

• Use the concise “world economy” kind of noun phrases

A sentence with multiple relative pronouns: “that”, “which”, “who”, “whom”… should raise a red flag of places needing shorter structure, ideally be adjusted to “world economy” phrases. 

• Avoid “and”

More often than not, people try to cram as much information as possible into one bullet point, without noticing that those information might be blended together. My advice: Just either say one between the two if one is better than the other. It makes the sentence crisp and sound.

e.g. Led and supervised a team -> Led a team

2.3. Resume content

We’ve done a quick tutorial on how to make the resume look neat and easy-to-read. However, the resume is nothing without quality content at its heart. So let’s dig deeper to see how great this candidate elaborates himself.

EDUCATION

Put the most impressive achievement into the first bullet. We see this candidate place the impressive Ranking (Magna cum Laude) right after the degree name, “wow”-ing the screeners immediately. 

Clearly quantify and qualify achievements. Just the name of the thesis will be technically confusing and not result-oriented at all, but here the candidate makes it more sound by explaining and grading it.

WORK EXPERIENCE

The first bullet must be impressive. By the impressive quantitative worth of the project ($150M), the candidate has catched the screener’s attention.

Action, explanation, result. This is the formula for writing every killer-bullet. The second bullet point demonstrates this well: the action – execution planning optimization, the result – all segments run simultaneously, the explanation – by cutting process redundancies and outsourcing. This candidate really understands his job and have a result-oriented spirit.

A balance between qualitative and quantitative. In this same bullet, besides the perfect length (1.5 lines) and result-oriented writing, there is another subtle thing I really like. Notice how the bullet contains both qualitative data (cutting process redundancies) and quantitative data (reduce construction time by 10%). Many people just went crazy for numbers but in fact, you can say a lot just by qualitative description!

Consistency. There’s no bad bullet in this whole Professional Experience section. Every single bullet is really well crafted: perfect length, perfect rhythm, specific results, sharp writing. No matter where the screener lays his eyes on, for sure he will land on a good one.

LEADERSHIP ACTIVITY

Apply the killer-bullet rules. The way to write this section is just like that of the working experience section, with the emphasis on Leadership potential and Community engagement. The candidate has well used the action – explanation – result format for both bullets.

OTHER INFORMATION

Listing information likely to promote admissions drivers. Rather than listing random personal traits, this candidate utilizes this section to meet AdCom’s criteria: Intellectual curiosity (multiple languages), Analytical aptitude (software skills), and Uniqueness (diversified interests), etc.

3. Resume for MBA Application – AdCom grading

Now that we’re done with the bullet-by-bullet evaluation, let’s come into conclusion with the ultimate grading for this resume. Listed below are the grading metrics common to many AdComs, whether they use them explicitly or implicitly.