MBA Resume: Example for an Application

Have you been working for a few years and are looking to take the next step in your career? Have an idea for a business you want to start and need some fellow entrepreneurs as partners?

Getting an MBA is a great way to start networking and realize your goals.

However, MBA programs (especially from prestigious universities) have strict requirements and only accept highly qualified candidates. If you want to maximize your chances of getting into a top program, it’s essential to include a well-written resume for your MBA application.

Check out these four insider tips for writing a convincing MBA resume (that helped Resume Genius staff writer Nick get into his MBA program), and you’ll be on your way to being accepted into the MBA program of your choice.

1. Choose the best MBA resume format

Before you start writing the resume for your MBA, you should decide on a format that emphasizes your strengths. In most cases, the chronological resume format is the best choice for MBA candidates. 

That’s because admissions departments for business programs are primarily interested in your career progression and work history, and a reverse-chronological resume clearly and concisely communicates your career progress.

Other common resume formats, such as the functional resume or combination resume, have their strengths but should be avoided when applying for an MBA program. These two formats trade highlighting your experience for general skills, and therefore won’t give the admissions departments an in-depth look into your work experience. 

Additionally, they may not adhere to the requirements of some admissions departments and could ultimately hurt your chances of being accepted into a program.

2. Use action verbs to describe your experience

Admissions departments at competitive MBA programs are always looking for candidates who are driven and focused on achieving results in their professional lives.

One of the easiest ways to demonstrate these qualities in your MBA resume is by starting each of the bullet points in your resume’s experience section with a specific action verb.

In other words, avoid using words such as “responsible for”, “collaborated with”, “worked with”, etc. These passive phrases don’t effectively communicate your skills or what you’ve accomplished in your career up to this point.

Instead, use words such as initiated, designed, spearheaded, led, negotiated, oversaw, etc.

Action verbs like these more accurately convey your accomplishments and show institutions that you’re a passionate and motivated candidate. Additionally, admissions departments will believe that you can share concepts and ideas from your work experience and make a greater contribution to the program.

Here’s an example of a passive bullet point (above) on an MBA resume that’s been improved using action verbs (below):

Passive Experience Bullet

• Tasked with managing a team of 6 sales associates, teaching them company SOPs on client relationships and sales

Actionable Experience Bullet

• Led and mentored a team of 6 sales associates, coaching and critiquing them on company SOPs on recruiting clients and sales negotiations

If you’re unsure what words to include on your MBA resume, here’s a list of 25 actions verbs to help you get started:

3. Quantify your experience

To show admissions departments that you’re a qualified MBA candidate, add numbers to your bullet points to highlight the quantifiable impact you’ve made in previous positions. This is especially important on resumes for MBA applications because business (at its core) is about earning revenue and generating profits.

Adding hard numbers to your resume helps the admissions department understand how much revenue you saved or created, giving them a clear picture of what you’re capable of.

Here are two examples of how to quantify the experience on your MBA resume:

• Established, maintained, and improved relations with top 30 company clients, adding 20% of annual growth to the company sales portfolio valued at 3 million USD
• Guided an average of 50 customers per day in finding, selecting, and recommending products which generated an additional 5% in annual revenue valued at 200,000 USD

4. Keep technical jargon to a minimum

If you’ve already started your career and are now applying for an MBA program, there’s likely a lot of industry-specific words that you’ve picked up through your work.

However, the people working in admissions departments likely aren’t familiar with your industry’s specialized lingo. While it’s important that the experience on your MBA resume is impressive, you also need to make it easy to read for people.

When writing your resume, avoid using acronyms that might not be known outside your company or field of expertise. Instead, spell things out when possible.

Here are some examples of common industry-specific acronyms that you should spell out on your MBA resume:

• CAPEX (Capital Expenditure)
• FA (Failure Analysis)
• PE Ratio (Price-to-Earnings Ratio)
• OPEX (Operational Expenditure)
• OJT (On the job training)
• QA (Quality Assurance)
• QC (Quality Control)
• RA (Risk Assessment/Risk Analysis)