In this MBA resume tip, I will share two approaches to position your resume into a traditional profile or a profile with leadership and entrepreneurial experience.
I want to start with an insight that not all schools want an entrepreneurial or a profile with diverse leadership experiences. Although if you have had such experiences, it is important to highlight them. Many top 10 schools want to see how you have progressed in a company or a function.
Traditional Progression
Traditional career progression goes through an Analyst -> Associate -> Managerial role if you are in Finance or Consulting, or an Associate -> Team Lead -> Managerial Role if you are in Technology with seniority often attached to the title like Sr. Manager or Sr. Associate and so on.
For an experienced admissions consultant, the first thing that we observe is the years that you took to get the promotion. Traditionally, it is one title a year for the first 3 years. Once you reach a managerial role, the progression slows down, and that is often when an MBA becomes a motivation.
A lot of applicants switch jobs after the first year when they don’t get a promotion. This is fine if you get a promotion in the 2nd company within another year, but if again there is a third switch, that is when an MBA from a Top 10 school becomes a huge challenge.
Another group of applicants switch employers for an opportunity to change function within their niche, like from coding to technology integration, sell side to buy side in IB, or marketing analytics to marketing strategy, and so on. It should be obvious in the IMPACT entries if the change is not clear to an industry outsider.
During the pandemic and even in an economic slowdown, companies postpone promotions. They must pay a higher salary with promotion. This small nuance is not clear in a resume. The admissions team will start making assumptions that your performance was not up to par or you performed the bare minimum, and that was not sufficient for a promotion. The optional essay becomes an excellent space to capture such nuance. It is not just for explaining low grades or below median GMAT/GRE scores.
Entrepreneurial Progression
If you are applying to Stanford, Harvard, MIT, or any school with strong entrepreneurial DNA, the traditional career progression will be sufficient if you have a promotion every year, excellent IMPACT for your clients and in your team, and commendation for starting new initiatives in your company.
If you don’t have such experiences, then highlighting entrepreneurial thinking within a project will improve your admission chances. One-way applicants do that is by showcasing cross-functional collaboration skills, communicating and persuading CXO to adopt a process or approach, and demonstrating an understanding of the company’s strategic goals.
The language that you use in the resume is often a hint on whether you are an Entrepreneurial applicant or a traditional applicant. An experienced admissions person can spot exaggeration even within these two broad branding.
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