The CV is one of the best indicators of the applicant’s potential, qualifications and achievements. The business schools take into consideration the CV that reflects ‘who you are’ and ‘what you can bring to the table’. It casts your first impression, so it should be designed perfectly and effectively. Let’s take a look at how to write cv?
Tips To Write a Good Resume for MBA Admission
Focus on Achievements and Results
The admission panel looks for candidates who will make a difference, both in and out of the class. The CV should highlight your strengths and quantify accomplishments. To improve your CV, focus on results. Instead of jotting down responsibilities, mention your contributions, achievements, and results with concrete numbers as this will make you stand out among others.
Example: “Responsible for making sales calls or lead generation”- this statement will not prove your accomplishments; it just states your responsibilities. The more effective statement is “Established 20 new clients by cold-calling and face-to-face meetings and generated revenue of Rs.15 lakhs in just 1 month”. The latter statement is succinct and clearly highlights your contribution and achievements.
Consider Internships: A Great Booster
Internships are a great booster. They demonstrate the traits and qualities that academics cannot. So, go for an internship that is relevant for your career or stream that you will be applying to in the business school.
Show Your Volunteer Work Experience
Every volunteer work is not equal. Volunteer work that highlights your leadership, initiative and interpersonal skills is beneficial. Volunteer works like organizing an event, raising funds for charity or working at an animal shelter or an NGO, etc. demonstrate your leadership potential and present yourself as an all-rounder. Such volunteer work experience shows that you have left an impact on the community/organization. So, do such kinds of volunteer work and mention it on the resume.
Demonstrate Leadership Experience
Getting involved in activities or society is definitely an added advantage, but just getting involved may not impress the admission board. Take a role/position that allows you to demonstrate your leadership and people management skills. You need to show that you are a leader and not a follower. The chances of securing a seat in the b-school increase by a significant margin for applicants, whose CV reflects team management and leadership capabilities.
Shows Your Passion to Extracurricular Activities
Academics and professional work is not the only thing that can make you a viable candidate for b-school. In fact, involvement in extra-curricular activities or pursuing your hobby like sports, music, drama, learning a foreign language, writing blogs, outdoor activities like water-skiing, water rafting, etc. add a different perspective to your application and contributes immensely to your personality. It brings a different side of you, determines how enterprising you will be and helps you stand out from the hundreds of applicants. It shows your passion, ambition and commitment.
Mention Professional Experience Clearly and Briefly
If you do not have any extra-curricular activity to put on your CV, fret not! Lack of extra-curricular involvement can be compensated by professional experience. Mentioning professional experience will demonstrate that you know how things work outside the classroom and you have got a grip of things like team work, commitment and punctuality. Mention the professional experience clearly and briefly. Emphasize on the skills you acquired and developed at the workplace; your career progression and how you turned your responsibilities into the accomplishments and invaluable contribution to your company and team. Click to know importance of work experience in MBA Profile Evaluation
Express Accomplishment of Part-Time Work
By taking up a part-time work, you are building up work experience and demonstrating work skills like punctuality, self-management, initiative, learning, etc. These skills when put on a CV will give you an edge over the applicants that do not possess any experience but possess an equally good degree. For each part-time work you undertook, determine at least one accomplishment that will make you stand out from others. Know how work experience is important in MBA profile evaluation.
Highlighting Your Social Media Presence
In today’s digital world, business schools consider applicants who have or know how to use social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. to their advantage. Create a great and engaging online profile, start a YouTube channel, start a blog or involve in any social media project or social media campaign, it is an added advantage. Highlighting your social media presence is one of the best ways to improve your CV.
Make a Reader Friendly Resume
There is a stack of CV’s in front of admission board and a short period to review them all. To stand out in that stack, it is important to make it reader-friendly. A few tips for keeping your CV reader-friendly are:
• Keep it 1-2 page, do not exceed extraordinary lengths
• Narrow your margin
• Use small font size; a font size of 11-point is perfect!
• Use bulleted style, instead of paragraph-style
• Do not use jargons
• Add a summary of educational and professional qualifications
• Add links of your work
• Mention these two things: Leadership capability (Have you lead a team or managed any projects?) and career progression (how have you progressed and grown through career and have you achieved anything?)
• Keep it concise, current, accurate and clear
• Polish and edit
Though a CV is just a small chunk of the entire application, but it is a crucial one that demonstrates your experience, skills and achievements.
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