Notre Dame MBA

Résumé Guide

Graduate Business Career Development

YOUR RÉSUMÉ

Writing a résumé is a critical step in a successful job search strategy. Your résumé is your one-page personal selling

tool, and it may be the first impression you make with a potential employer. Writing your résumé also provides you

with an opportunity to assess your professional and personal experiences and think about what you accomplished,

why you made the decisions you did, what you liked (or didn’t like) about your choices, and how this all plays into

your career search going forward.

(things you were responsible for). Bring your best!

• Relevant Highlights. A résumé is not a job description, nor is it a summary of everything you’ve ever done. A

good résumé is more about where you are going than where you have been. It is important to closely link your

past experience to the requirements of the job you are seeking and place emphasis on the parts of your

experience that are most applicable.

• Transferrable Skills. Employers want to know that you are capable of doing what they need, especially if you did

not hold a similar job in the past. So you want to sell your transferable skills – that is, core skills that can transfer

across various jobs, fields, and careers. Examples include managing people, analyzing data, leading teams,

creativity, communicating and presenting, and problem-solving.

• Key Competencies. Companies with formal recruiting programs compile a list of behaviors, technical skills, and

• Inspiration. Collect your thoughts and revisit your accomplishments by looking at past documents, such as:

• Business school applications and essays

• Previous résumés

• Performance evaluations

• Project reports from work

• ND MBA Résumé Template. You can view and download a Word version of the résumé template via Vmock.

• This Résumé Guide. Review the remaining pages of this guide for tips on creating a high-impact MBA résumé.

Most (if not all) top MBA programs ask students to use a specific résumé template, and those templates tend to

look very similar. Why?

Because your résumé should be about the content.

Using a template means you don’t have to spend your time worrying about things like which sections go where,

Because they have limited time, and have to review so many résumé, some employers are very rigid about this. For

example, based on feedback from dozens of Fortune 100 recruiting partners, the MBA Veterans Conference website

automatically rejects résumé that are longer than a single page. Many companies have similar policies. CVs can be

shared if asked for, but rarely do you see this in the MBA space.

Finally, a one-page résumé is much easier to manage and hand out when meeting people in person. You don’t want

to be the only candidate handing out two-sided (or, worse yet, stapled) résumés to potential employers. Again, in

this regard, deviating from the template comes with some degree of risk.

As previously mentioned, deviating from the résumé template comes with some degree of risk. That works against

your goal as a job seeker, which is to eliminate as much risk from the process as possible.

Choosing to deviate from the template may communicate less-than-desirable attributes to a potential employer.

This MBA student eliminated himself as a candidate before interviewing for the role by positioning himself as a

somebody who may be hard to work with. That’s certainly not what he intended, but once you hit “send” on a

resume, there’s no telling how your audience will receive it. That’s why it’s best to eliminate risk whenever possible.

ND MBA RÉSUMÉ TEMPLATE

Margins:

• 0.5-1.0 inches on all sides

Font:

• Times New Roman

• 14-pt for name

• 10.5-12-pt for other content

Section Titles:

• Align Right

(all other

content left)

Co. Names:

• Bold

• Italics

Blank Lines Between All Section Titles, New Sections, and Jobs

MBA/MSBA, 5 year student representative education section at end of guide

• Font type: Times New Roman

• Font size for Body: 10.5 - 12-pt

• Listing Clubs under Education: list all on one line preferably

• GMAT optional: recommend only if 700 or above, do not include Q/V scores

• GPA optional

• Bullets under “Education”: no more than 3

• Graduate with honors: put on same line as degree in lower case and italics (i.e. summa cum laude)

• Description of company, if needed: Same line of company name, in parentheses and in italics.

• No sub bullets

• Dates: Months not required with years unless same year (i.e. 2016 - 2017, Apr 2017 - July 2017)

• Promotions: if listed, should be placed last within the appropriate section

• Keep the header balanced with the information that you do provide

5

• Start with your Notre Dame MBA

• Listing your major(s) is optional, but encouraged

• Include no more than 3 bullets to show achievement and/or involvement as a

student

• All bullet points should be in past tense (unless you will still be in the role as a student)

WRITING STRONG RÉSUMÉ BULLET POINTS

Writing bullet points for the Experience section is where you will spend most of your time when working on your

résumé. As you review past accomplishments, think of everything you’ve done in terms of “stories”:

• What was the problem you addressed?

• What actions did you take?

• What were the results of your actions?

Structuring your résumé in this way will help the document be more achievement-oriented and will also prepare

you to speak succinctly about your experiences in interviews.

Thinking in terms of stories and results will also help you avoid a résumé that reads like a generalized job

Career Gap

A career gap is time spent away from the workforce. Reasons for career gaps include, taking care of a family, taking

a sabbatical, or being laid off.

Frame the explanation of your gap under the Experience section in a way that highlights your skills, achievements,

and experience.

want to be prepared to talk about it in an interview. Examples: Intentionally left workforce to raise children who no

now returning to work.