Ross MBA Essay Part 2: Pick one thing from your resume and tell us more. (100 words)

Ross MBA requires that applicants include a 1-page MBA resume. The resume should follow a chronological order of your educational, professional work experience, community service, and hobbies/interest.

Before you start shortlisting one of the experiences, read the chapter “Start with an IMPACT Table.” You will learn to quantify your achievements regardless of the nature of the engagement.

Post-Quantification

Once you quantify the results, read through each entry. Despite the quantification, which entry doesn’t convey the complete picture of your involvement, the challenges, the learning opportunities, the teamwork, and the feeling of awe that you felt on reaching a milestone.

If you are not sure, here are 3 scenarios where you should quote an entry from the resume:

1) Complexity

A lot of the times when I brainstorm with clients about their professional work experiences, the entries that seem like a typical entry about consulting, building evaluation models, implementing a technology solution, or developing a marketing campaign, have several layers of complexities.

A single entry in the resume can fit in a maximum of three variables without losing the IMPACT. It could be the size of the company/project, the revenue, cost-saving, time saved, improving the accuracy of a model by a certain percentage, the increase in profit/revenue in percentage, the team size, and even the reach of the brand in countries/states/cities.  

As an Editor, I must make the tough choice of removing a variable to offer more context on the applicant’s contribution. That means removing team size that might not be relevant for an ‘individualistic’ contribution. It could also be time saved or money saved if a similar entry has been captured for the employer.

Examples of Complexity that you can capture for the Ross Pick one thing from your resume and tell us more include:

a) Team Dynamics: Pick the time saved, money saved, or team size and include a narrative on work dynamics, working with a diverse team, or other interesting teamwork-oriented narratives - crossing language and cultural barriers, improving productivity, and working across challenging time zones. A nuanced take on team dynamics cannot be captured with just 1.5 or 2 lines in a resume.

b) Change Management: The complexity might be introduced from a change in requirement from the client, a change in market dynamics, or an unforeseen event (pandemic-driven shift in demand or regulation or supply chain challenges). The context and introduction of complexity due to the change might not be obvious in the resume.

c) Technology: The introduction of a new technology into an ecosystem is met with resistance – culturally within the organization and from the friction, it might generate in the customer interactions. Such resistance is tough to capture in a line in a resume where the focus is on the IMPACT of the technology.

Related Download: F1GMAT's Ross MBA Essay Guide (Sample Essays plus over 300 Pages of Essay Writing, Editing and Storytelling Tips)

2) Negotiation

Another context that is often missed in a 1-page resume is the negotiations that are part of achieving your goals. Those who work in M&A and Sales already have several examples of negotiations with stakeholders. Although the metrics can be captured with the deal size, the shortening of days it took to close a deal, or the number of stakeholders, the nature of the negotiations might not be captured in 1-2 lines.

The 100-word space could be used to convey the hostile, tricky agenda included in the negotiation or the pressures you faced to close the deal. Include what was at stake for the successful completion of the negotiation.

Those who work outside Finance and Sales/Marketing are also involved in negotiations, although not in core functions. It could be in the form of negotiating with suppliers, team members in a different department or function, and in rare cases, if you were in client-facing roles, negotiating with the client. 

If the negotiations were vital for the successful completion or release of a product, include them in the 100-word essay.

3) Scale

Another metric that could easily be misinterpreted or assumed is the scale of your achievement.

A $2m contribution in a Fortune 500 company is insignificant, but in a startup, it is not. The cash flow might have been instrumental in opening a hiring spree or triggering marketing spend. Obviously, such information on the IMPACT of your contributions might not be obvious. Consult with your supervisor to capture this information.

If you can’t find an accurate or at least a ballpark estimation of the IMPACT, offer the context about the contribution. Compare it with the total revenue or cash flow of the company.

A 1-5% contribution towards the revenue of the company is a significant contribution for a startup.

For those who are working in Fortune 500 companies, the scale might not be obvious, but you can find information about the impact of your project on retaining or acquiring a client. Collecting and mapping the press release on a timeline will give you significant information about the impact of your project on the company’s strategic and revenue goals. Always consult with your supervisor and senior managers while doing your research.