Tactics to Transform Your Resume
TMMBA students and alumni find many opportunities to network with each other as well as employers and individuals from other Foster MBA programs. This can naturally lead to career conversations and job opportunities.
As a first step in readying for potential career transitions or advancement, TMMBA Career Management hosted a resume workshop for new TMMBA students in November. A student said,
“The workshop made me realize that updating my resume was a top priority and motivated me to begin this process almost instantly. The session provided practical tips, valuable resources and best practices that I can successfully use while updating my resume. It was a great idea to introduce to participants early in the program.”
Elaine Newtson, MBA Career Coach, shared these tactics and expectations to give an MBA resume a distinctive advantage and resonate with recruiters, interviewers, and decision makers:
- Add a specific and targeted Summary under your heading. This should highlight key skills and abilities that are relevant to the kind of work you’re seeking. It tells the reader what you want to do, creates a personal brand, and is your best argument as to why they should hire you. Know your audience. Use relevant keywords that show your leadership experience, broad technical skills, and business competencies. Eliminate an objective that describes the type of position desired.
- Include a few results-oriented accomplishment bullets (1-2 sentences each) for every position. Clearly describe how your actions contributed to the team, department, or long-term impact of the company. Include quantitative metrics and numerical support (#, $, %).
- Make your resume easy to read quickly. Eliminate groups of words that can be said in a single word. Avoid large paragraphs jammed with text. Remove “References Available upon Request” at the bottom of your resume. Trends: hyperlinked testimonials, call-out boxes and breakaway text. More 2015 trends: http://www.careerealism.com/top-resume-trends-2015/.
- Optimize for Applicant Tracking Software (ATS). Use keywords from industry-specific competencies, job postings, and company websites. (Two resources: https://www.vmock.com/ and https://www.jobscan.co/.) Use different document formats for system compatibility, a PDF resume when possible and a txt version when inputting data into specific application fields.
Minimum expectations for an MBA resume:
- Refined and polished
- Strategic and accomplishment-based
- Clearly showcases long-term business impact that you made
- Appropriate density and smooth contemporary formatting
