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All top MBA programs require a resume (also known as a CV) from applicants. Importantly, this resume will be different to the one you use for work. Use our downloadable templates to adapt your resume for MBA applications.
Contents:
Video Summary
Your resume is your first pitch to the admissions committee. But the resume that got you hired to your current role will not get you into business school. Unlike a job resume, which focuses on skills and responsibilities aligned with a specific role, the MBA resume is designed to highlight leadership potential, career progression, and personal impact.
Here's how the two differ:
A job resume is read by hiring managers or recruiters who understand your industry. An MBA resume, on the other hand, is read by admissions officers who might have zero background in your field. Your achievements need to be framed in a way that is accessible, strategic, and impactful.
A job resume answers: Do you have the skills to do this job? Your MBA resume answers: Does your career arc show leadership potential, impact, and a sense of direction?
In your MBA resume, you’ll need to tell a growth story – how you’ve moved the needle in your organization and evolved upwards as a professional and a leader.
Length of your MBA Resume
Stick to 1 page. Some schools even recommend 1 page for every 10 years of work experience. Most MBA applicants have anywhere from 3-8 years of experience; if that’s you, make sure you keep your resume concise and easy to read by limiting it to a page.
MBA Resume Dos and Don’ts
Do:
✔️ Use a professional email address, or a formal personal id.
✔️ Include three core sections 1. Education & Qualifications, 2. Work Experience, 3. Additional Information.
✔️ Write in chronological order. Your Education and Work Experience should be in reverse-chronological order, starting with your most recent experience.
✔️ Use strong, active verbs in the past tense and focus on outcomes rather than responsibilities.
✔️ Wherever possible, add dates and details to quantify your achievements; it makes your contributions more tangible.
✔️ Include leadership positions in a separate section if you have consistent and meaningful contributions in an extracurricular, workplace initiative, or volunteer role.
✔️ If you’re involved in extracurriculars or community work, choose those that reflect your character and values. Don’t just say you like to swim or run, however; make sure you quantify where possible.
✔️ Get feedback; ideally from someone with MBA admissions insight, your consultant, or an alum or current student who has been through the process.
Don’t:
❌ Don’t combine promotions in one job title. A presentation style which divides your roles and promotions clearly shows upwards career progression.
❌ Steer clear of vague terms like “assisted,” “helped,” or “was responsible for.” Be specific and direct about what you did.
❌ Avoid filler hobbies unless they show dedication or leadership.
❌ Don’t include a professional summary. You can explain your work experience and skills in your MBA application.
❌ Make sure there are no gaps in your timeline. If you do have unemployment gaps, explain these in the optional essay.
❌ Avoid using flowery prose or embellishing your achievements. Instead, add specific data points about the outcome and impact of your work.
How to Format Your MBA Resume
Admissions officers scan thousands of MBA resumes each application cycle. They don’t have the time to navigate creative graphics or multiple sections and sub-sections. Your MBA resume should be formatted cleanly and maintain a clear structure.
Fonts and Sizing:
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Use a standard, easy-to-read font like Calibri, Times New Roman, or Arial
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Font size 12 for section titles, 10/10.5/11 for the body.
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Use bold for section titles, organizations, and schools.
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Italics for job and degree titles.
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Set 0.5-inch margins on each side to maximize space.
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Use consistent spacing and formatting for all sections.
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Don’t bold entire lines of text.
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Align all text to the left.
Photo:
Typically, business schools discourage including a photo on your MBA resume to avoid any discrimination on the basis of age, race, or gender. Some schools may optionally ask you to attach a picture separately. As a rule of thumb, don’t include one unless asked.
Color:
Avoid any unnecessary color marking on your resume. This isn’t your design portfolio! Keep it simple and clean.
Transform your Resume for MBA Applications in 10 Steps
We see resumes in need of major TLC come across our desk everyday. So we made a walkthrough. Watch to see the before and after of an example MBA resume.
The 3 Sections of an MBA Resume
1. Education & Qualifications
Your education section should contain a functional summary of your academic foundation, qualifications, and grades.
What to include:
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Name of institution, degree, major, dates (month and year) of matriculation and graduation
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Academic distinctions (GPA, class rank [like summa cum laude, valedictorian] honors)
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Scholarships or fellowships
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Relevant certifications
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Leadership roles in college organizations and student associations
If you don’t have a strong GPA, you might want to lean into other markers of excellence, like awards, competitive scholarships, or high grades in relevant courses. You may also want to include academic projects, research papers, or capstones that are relevant to your post-MBA goals.
2. Work Experience
Admissions committees want to see what difference you’ve made to the organizations and people you’ve worked with. That means you’ll have to focus on impact, not just listing off your accomplishments and responsibilities in your work experience section.
Don’t worry about coming off as boastful; this is exactly the place to highlight your achievements! Focus on achievements that are measurable, relevant, and strategic. Instead of just listing tasks, consider what changed because you were in that role.
What to include:
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Company name, your title, location, and dates
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Bullet points focused on quantifiable achievements
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Promotions, role expansions, or special projects
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Leadership of people, processes, or initiatives
Follow these steps to write about your work experience strategically:
Step 1: Use a resume template tailored for business school. For each role you’ve held, write detailed bullet points that showcase your achievements, aiming to quantify results where possible. Prioritize moments where you solved a critical problem, helped steer a struggling project or team to success, took on a challenging project, or took initiative to start something new like an Employee Resource Group or mentorship program.
Step 2: Take time to reflect on the skills you’ve built throughout your career. Under each position, emphasize how your responsibilities evolved and what new capabilities you picked up, especially through hands-on experience or formal training. AdComs particularly value skills like leadership, strategic thinking, teamwork, innovation, resilience, and effective communication, so make sure these shine through. If you’ve had non-linear growth (like lateral moves, sabbaticals, career pivots), draw parallels between the skills you’ve picked up in each role and how they show upwards growth.
Step 3: Review your bullet points to avoid repetition. For instance, if you’ve worked in multiple client-facing roles, there’s no need to mention that you conducted client research in every entry. Instead, cover it once and use the extra space to highlight different dimensions of your contributions.
Step 4: Keep industry-specific jargon to a minimum. Remember, the AdCom reader might not be familiar with your sector or technical field. Use clear, accessible language to describe your role and impact, ensuring that your value is evident even to someone outside your job. This is especially important if you come from a technical or niche industry.
Structure your Bullet Points:
Your work experience should tell a story of the business challenges you tackled, what value you created, and how you grew. If you've managed teams, launched initiatives, or worked cross-functionally, highlight the scope and result of those contributions. Even in roles where you are an individual contributor, like entrepreneurial roles, you can show ownership, creativity, and initiative.
So how do you write about your work to show maximum impact?
Use the A-C-E structure: Action, Context, End Result.
Action: Start with a strong action verb that shows what you did (like led, designed, launched, scaled).
Context: Provide the context – why this work mattered, what the objective was, or what challenge you were solving.
End Result: Finally, end your bullet point with the result of your action. Ideally, this result will be quantified with metrics like revenue growth, cost savings, efficiency gains, or user engagement metrics to show (not tell) your impact.
For example, instead of “Increased Q1 sales by 25% in Southeast Asia”, you could say, "Led a team of 12 to launch a market-entry strategy in Southeast Asia, resulting in a 25% increase in Q1 sales."
It’s clear, data-driven, and shows leadership. Every bullet doesn’t need a number, but every bullet should tell a complete story. When metrics are hard to come by, lean on qualitative results like process improvements, client outcomes, or cross-functional impact.
3. Additional Information
Business schools aim to build a diverse and dynamic class, not just through work or academic backgrounds, but a range of life experiences. Your extracurriculars are where you can show who you are beyond your job title. They give the AdCom insight into your personality, leadership experience outside of work, passions and interests, and core values.
Focus on activities where you demonstrated sustained commitment or held leadership positions. A one-off charity event is nice, but a three-year stint mentoring underprivileged youth tells a far more compelling story. Look for experiences that demonstrate initiative: did you organize something from scratch, scale an existing initiative, start a side business, or inspire others to join?
Connect your activities to your values or goals. If you're passionate about sustainability, your role in a climate-focused NGO adds authenticity. If you're switching to the nonprofit sector post-MBA, your long-standing work with grassroots organizations shows alignment. Personal hobbies like sports, music, or language learning are valuable too, but only if you’ve taken them seriously and committed time to them.
Tip: Avoid listing activities just to check a box. Focus on extracurriculars that show character, initiative, or personal investment - things that can make you stand out to AdCom.
What to include:
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Volunteering or community engagement
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Entrepreneurial ventures
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Languages, travel, international exposure
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Awards, certifications, hobbies (if consistent)
Templates
Use the following resume templates unless your target school provides a specific template. Schools that have their own MBA resume templates include Oxford and INSEAD.
