MBA Resume Examples

Having an MBA on your resume makes you a competitive candidate and shows employers that you’re motivated, knowledgeable, and definitely someone they want to have on their team.

But knowing how to write a compelling MBA resume can be a challenge. Whether you’re a recent MBA graduate, a current student, or looking to apply for an MBA program, we’ve got you covered.

Use these four expert tips below to create an MBA resume that highlights all your business savvy, experience, and skills, and lands you that acceptance letter or job interview.

1. Choose the best MBA resume format for your experience level

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

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 because they won’t give the admissions departments an in-depth look into your work experience.

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

Expert Tip

If you’re a current student or recent graduate without much professional experience to show, you can highlight your relevant academic experience by putting your education section higher up on your resume. Expanding your education section to include relevant coursework, awards, or certifications is also a good way to demonstrate your qualifications.

2. Illustrate and quantify your experience

Admissions departments at competitive MBA programs, as well as employers, are always looking for candidates who are driven and focused on achieving results.

Use these two tips to show employers and admissions departments the value of your experience:

Use expressive action verbs

One of the easiest ways to demonstrate your drive and focus is by starting each of the bullet points in your resume’s experience section with a compelling action verb.

Avoid using words such as “responsible for”, “tasked with”, “worked with”, etc. These passive phrases don’t effectively communicate your skills or what you’ve accomplished in your career.

Instead, use vivid words that give employers a clear idea of how you performed in your role, like initiated, designed, spearheaded, etc.

Action verbs like these more accurately convey your accomplishments and demonstrate that you’re a passionate and motivated candidate who has a lot to contribute.

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

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:

Quantify your experience with numbers

Adding numbers to your resume objective and work experience bullet points highlights the quantifiable impact you’ve made in previous positions. This is especially important on MBA resumes because business (at its core) is about earning revenue and generating profits.

Adding hard numbers to your resume helps employers and admissions departments 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

3. Keep technical jargon to a minimum

As an MBA candidate, student, or graduate, you’ve likely picked up a lot of industry-specific words and related business terms or acronyms.

While it’s important that the experience on your MBA resume is impressive, you also need to make it easy to read for people.

Employers or the people working in admissions departments may not be familiar with the specialized lingo you learned in a niche industry or during your MBA program, so it’s best to keep the language on your resume simple.

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:

4. Highlight your areas of expertise

Including details about any specializations or concentrations can help you land a job or program in your area of interest, such as finance, international management, consulting, entrepreneurship, marketing, business analytics, or operations management.

If you’re applying for an MBA program to further your education in one of these areas, impress admissions counselors by showcasing your relevant experience on your MBA application resume. Use targeted keywords to demonstrate that you already have a solid foundation in your area of interest.

For example, if you’re pursuing an MBA with a concentration in technology management, include any past relevant experience you have, such as implementing technology strategies, adapting to emerging technologies, or in IT project management.

Resume Insight

Be sure to include any specialized technical skills that may set you apart from other candidates.

If you’re a student or graduate, you can highlight your specialization in your education section as well as any work experience you may have by including any relevant coursework, projects, or skills you developed. Include the same skills and experience mentioned in the ad for your target job.

Here’s an example of an education section for an MBA graduate with a specialization in management consulting:

Expanding your education section like this works well if you don’t have much work experience to include on your resume just yet. However, if you have professional experience to draw from, it’s better to emphasize this over your education.