Creating a Resume for Mba Applications

CREATING A RESUME

FOR MBA APPLICATIONS

CR EAT I NG A R ES U ME FO R MBA A P PLI CAT IO NS

Copyright © 2013 by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Inc, Los Angeles, California, USA. www.stacyblackman.com Cover design by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Inc No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. Contact Stacy Blackman Consulting at [email protected].

ISBN 13: 978-1-61755-911-2 ISBN 10: 1-61755-911-3

Visit www.StacyBlackman.com/store for the latest Stacy Blackman Consulting ebooks.

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TA BLE O F CON T EN TS CHAPTER 1: Background

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CHAPTER 5: Section 3 – Education

The Purpose of the MBA Resume

Goal of the Education Section

The Resume’s Role in MBA Admissions

What to Include

The Audience – Who is Reading the Resume

Format

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What Not to Include CHAPTER 2: Format

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The One Page Resume

CHAPTER 6: Section 4 – Additional Information

Margins

Goals of the Additional Information Section

Font

Information to Include

How to Save Space

What Not to Include

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CHAPTER 3: Section 1 – Contact Information

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EXHIBIT A: Action Verbs

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CHAPTER 4: Section 2 – Professional

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APPENDIX

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Why This Comes First

Sample Resumes

Which Jobs to Include Information to Include

ABOUT STACY BLACKMAN CONSULTING

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Formatting Content of Bullet Points How Much Detail do you Need? What Not to Include Action Verbs Quantifying Results Remembering Your Audience Demonstrating Progression Transforming Bullets from Blah to Winning Translating Technical Jargon into MBA Language

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CHAPTER ONE: Background THE PURPOSE OF THE MBA RESUME In general, the purpose of the resume is to provide someone (a decision maker) with a quick snapshot of who you are, professionally. A well designed resume should be easy to scan, and should tell a chronological story of an individual’s professional and academic development. If you understand the purpose of the resume, it makes it easier to design one well. A resume should not be an all inclusive, comprehensive look at everything you have done. Details can be explored in interviews, essays and follow up conversations. The goal of the resume is to help someone quickly get up to speed on who you are and what you have accomplished. It is a quick reference piece to hold on to in an interview, or something to orient or jog the memory as a decision maker sorts through a pile of applicants. It is important that a resume demonstrates progression and highlights significant experiences and accomplishments, rather than “everything you have ever done”. These accomplishments and experiences should illustrate what a given job or educational experience has encompassed. The resume can highlight important aspects of an individual and help an applicant to stand out a bit. Sometimes, a detail on a resume can serve as an icebreaker, or enable conversation in an interview.

THE RESUME’S ROLE IN MBA ADMISSIONS For most MBA programs, the resume is part of your written application. Even if you are not including your formal resume, the application will ask you to put the contents of the resume into the data form of the application. Being able to distill your experiences down to a few meaningful lines of text will be imperative, regardless of whether you submit your formal resumes or transfer that text to the school’s unique form. The resume will also play a role in your MBA interview. It is not uncommon for an interviewer to have a copy of the resume prior to the interview or to ask for a copy when you meet. This is because, once again, it is a visual way for them to easily keep track of your story. With resume in hand, an interviewer may start off an interview by asking you to “walk them through your resume”. This is helpful for them as they are trying to take stock of where you are, where you have been, and understand all of that in the context of your goals for the future. For someone who needs to very quickly get up to speed on you, a well designed resume is an important and useful tool. Keep this in mind as you design your resume. Think about how you want to “walk someone through your resume,” and design your resume to meet your needs. The resume can be an important first step in the MBA application process, because it forces the applicant to take stock of his or her progression and think about how to articulate that in a very succinct way. Going through the exercise of developing a resume is useful in helping an individual organize thoughts and pull out most significant experiences and accomplishments. The resume is the skeleton of an application, and it can be a guide for moving forward. The meat of your application will be how you fill in and reveal your personality through essays, interviews, recommendations and informal communications with the admissions committee.

THE AUDIENCE – WHO IS READING THE RESUME Just as it is important to consider the role of the resume in your application process, it is vital to keep in mind your audience. The reader of your MBA resume will be different than the person hiring you for an investment banking job or an engineering position. The MBA reader will be looking for things that are important to an MBA program. In most cases this does not include skills such as programming in SQL and Javascrpit and wisilywug or creating highly complex, technical financial models. MBA programs are looking for individuals who will be successful as leaders and in highly collaborative work environments. They are seeking skills that are transferable to success in any industry. When you are seeking job in a certain industry, there is a good chance the hiring manager will want you to be experienced with a certain type of real estate software or accounting technique. But these specifics will not be of interest to an MBA program. In fact, an MBA interviewer or admissions committee member might not even know what these things are. © 201 3 STACY B L ACKM AN CO NS ULT I N G I NC. w ww.Sta cy Bla c kman.com A LL RIG HTS RES ERV ED.

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When you draft a resume for an MBA program, it is likely that you will change aspects of it that are too industry specific. You will want to focus on three key goals. In addition to telling the chronological story of your academic and professional career, much of your information should be focused on supporting these things: 1. Showcasing leadership 2. Showcasing other “MBA relevant” skills such as teamwork, collaboration, innovation 3. Demonstrating growth and progression

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CHAPTER 2: Format THE ONE PAGE RESUME There are certainly those who will disagree, but we fervently believe that in almost every case, the resume should be one page only. Many applicants have too many jobs to fit on a page, or have lists of publications, patents or other accomplishments that they want to include. However, when a resume becomes too long, it defeats the purpose of the resume as described above. “Quick snapshot, quick reference point, skeleton of the application”. While we would like to think that members of the admissions committee have time to pour over a four page resume in detail, this is not the case. The goal for your resume should be to convey important information about your self efficiently, and to make it easy for the decision maker to digest. Why would you make them read more than one page? It is highly likely that eyes will start to gaze once a page is turned. Certain formatting conventions will also make the resume easy to read and digest. Squeezing an enormous amount of text into one page by reducing margins, font and spaces also defeats the purpose of the “easy to read” resume. You will want to adhere to specific format rules in order to make your resume clean, clear and user friendly.

MARGINS One inch margins are ideal, but margins are one area where you can play around with spacing. If the resume is clean, and does not look too cramped, you may be able to reduce your margins to as small as .75. Use your own eye as a guide. If it looks cramped or if you are questioning it, stop questioning and increase the size of your margins.

FONT Typical fonts for a resume are Times New Roman, Verdana, Cambria and Arial, with Times New Roman being the most common. The business resume is not the place to experiment with fancy fonts. Keep the fonts and format conservative. You can allow your personality to shine through in other parts of your MBA application package. A clear, readable size for resume font is 10pt. This will ultimately depend on the font style you select, but benchmark at about 10pt.

HOW TO SAVE SPACE Adhering to a one page resume admittedly can be challenging when you have several years of work experience or a long list of accomplishments you want to highlight. Some applicants try to squeeze it all in by reducing font and eliminating margins. This is a good way to ensure that your resume is not reviewed! No one wants to go blind scrutinizing resume number 207 of the day. The first step to creating the one page resume is taking the time to assess each entry on the resume and decide if it really adds to your story. If it does need to be included, you can trim any resume verbiage, just as you will likely need to decrease word count in your essays. There are also very simple techniques that can help you to reduce the amount of space you are using. We often start with the contact information at the top of the page. It is not unusual to see the top of a resume looking like this: STACY S. BLACKMAN 7162 Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90036 323.934.3996 [email protected] Compare that header to this one: STACY S. BLACKMAN 7162 Beverly Blvd, LA, CA 90036 ~ 323.934.3936 ~ [email protected] This approach looks just as polished and professional, but takes up about one third of the space. Small tweaks like these are perfectly appropriate when trying to conserve as much space as possible. © 201 3 STACY B L ACKM AN CO NS ULT I N G I NC. w ww.Sta cy Bla c kman.com A LL RIG HTS RES ERV ED.

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CHAPTER 3: Section 1: Contact Information The first section of any resume should be Contact Information. For reasons that are hopefully obvious, you want to lead with your full name and make it slightly more eye catching than the rest of your resume. This way, your interviewer can easily spot your name and avoid any awkwardness! And admissions officers with piles of resumes can easily sort and organize. Contact information does not need to be comprehensive. In most cases, your permanent mailing address, home phone number and personal email address is all you need. Avoid including all of your phone numbers or multiple addresses – it is just not necessary and can even be confusing. If you are deciding which phone number to include, we recommend that you include your home line. You do not want to be caught off guard by a call to your cell phone when you are at the grocery store or can barely hear. In some cases, a phone number and email address is enough.

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CHAPTER 4: Section 2: Professional WHY THIS COMES FIRST The second section on your business school resume will be the professional section, which summarizes and chronologically illustrates your career. Some people place the education section first, but this is generally incorrect. The information on the resume appears in reverse chronological order, so if you are currently working, you should place the professional section first. In most (not all, but most) cases, the career progress is also most important to MBA admissions representatives and that is what they will want to focus on and discuss. This order will flip as soon as you are in business school, interviewing for summer jobs. At that point, the education section will precede the professional section.

WHICH JOBS TO INCLUDE Even a young applicant just a few years out of school may have several jobs, starting with part time jobs during school, and developing into full time jobs after graduation. Some of these jobs may have lasted less than a year. In today’s environment, an applicant could have four or more internships and part time jobs in college, and two to three full time jobs in the three years after college. If you are older, these numbers quickly rise. So, how does one decide which experiences to include on the resume, and which ones to axe? There are several key questions to ask your self when considering this question. 1. Is the work meaningful? Can you leverage this position to illustrate a specific skill set that you acquired or an accomplishment that is important? 2. Does it support your career path? Does it support your future goals? Does it make sense for your overall story? Or was it just a way to make some extra money? An unpaid internship doing marketing outreach for a university department will be more important to include than that paying job working in the cafeteria that you held for four years during college. (Note that holding a job during college is impressive, and it should be noted elsewhere in your application but it does not need to be in the Professional section of your resume.) 3. How long were you at the job? Once you graduate from college, it is important to account for your time. If omitting a position from your resume will create a year long gap, then it can be in your best interest to keep it on, so that the reviewer can keep track of your progress through the years. Conversely, if you were at a job for only a very short period of time (a couple of months), even if it is an all-star position, it generally will not make sense to include it. 4. How recent was it? The longer you have been out of college, the more it makes sense to omit early career positions. Even if these positions took up several years, it is okay to omit them. If you have been out of school for ten years, and have some meaty experiences filling the last five years, the first five years of your full time experience may not be necessary. It is impossible to apply a blanket rule to this process. However, an applicant can combine some judgment with answers to the questions above and you should be in good shape. Beware of becoming too attached to any one line item. You will need to scrutinize each one and be willing to cut when and if it makes sense.

INFORMATION TO INCLUDE You will need to include some basic information for each position that you list on your resume. The information to be included is as follows: 1. Name of company 2. Location (of your specific job, not company headquarters)

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3. Your job title 4. Dates of this position (start and end) 5. Bullet points outlining key responsibilities and accomplishments This information needs to be clearly displayed for each position. If you have more than one position with one company, you will need to include dates of each position, responsibilities that are specific to each position, and detail location of each position if that changes. Some applicants like to include information on their company, such as general mission of the company, common activities of the company or annual revenue. This company-level information is not necessary. After all, anyone reviewing your resume cares about what you have done, not what the company does. The “bullet points” under each job description will describe your specific activities and these will be much more important than anything at the company level. Company information can even confuse or mislead. For example, if someone is working in a marketing function at a financial services company, or in a CFO position at a consumer products company, the two descriptions (company and applicant’s job) will be extremely different. In summary, keep the focus on you!

FORMATTING While there is no format that you absolutely must adhere to, the following format is recommended because it keeps the audience in mind. It is easy to scan, it helps to highlight job progression and in general it is clean and easy to review. 2006 –2008

CHARLES SCHWAB Senior Product Manager 2007-2008 • I led a team • I made millions for the company

San Francisco, CA

Product Manager 2006-2007 • I crunched numbers • I assisted with market research The key to this format is that the dates and locations stand alone so that a reviewer can easily piece together the story of your career. It also makes it very easy to see how you have progressed in your career.

CONTENT OF BULLET POINTS The bullet points that you list under each position should provide the reader with an idea of what you do in your job, highlighting specific accomplishments. If done effectively, the reviewer can develop a good grasp for your abilities and responsibilities, and he or she will be able to understand how you have progressed in your career as they review the transitions from one job description to the next. Some applicants have very traditional pre-MBA jobs. If you have been working as a Staff Consultant at Bain, or as an Analyst at Goldman Sachs, chances are the admissions committee will go in with a pretty good feel for your overall job description. While you will want the bullets under your job description, to confirm and bolster their preconceived notions of what you are doing in your role, this is also an opportunity to illustrate the things that you have done that may set you apart from the typical analyst. So, in addition to outlining some of your standard activities, you may want to include that you trained a newly hired analyst, led college recruiting efforts, or organized an office-wide volunteer initiative. These activities may have taken less of your time, but they are a bit outside of traditional responsibilities and give great insight into how you have made a difference for your firm.

HOW MUCH DETAIL DO YOU NEED? This question will be largely answered by the amount of space you have. You are forced to be succinct by the one page format. Certain details are truly unnecessary; as they provide background information that does not really help to explain what you did. As always, be sure to keep the focus on you.

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Some jobs can be summarized with just a couple of bullet points. Others need many more, perhaps ten bullets to summarize all of the diverse responsibilities. If you have been in a job for a long period of time, it is likely that there is a lot to say about it. You certainly do not need to explain every task ever completed in a certain role. The bullets should be activities that you spend a great deal of time doing, or activities that do a good job of highlighting important qualities or skills. The bullets should be very brief, as short as one to two lines long. Keeping in mind that the reviewer will likely do a quick scan, you will want to keep everything brief, and easy to digest. At the same time, you do want to make sure that you are complete. It will be a balancing act – trying to keep your verbiage succinct while still communicating all important points.

WHAT NOT TO INCLUDE 1. SALARY – Salary is generally asked for in the data forms of your application. Salary can be a good indication of the level of responsibility in your job. It also demonstrates progression when your salary increases over time. Thus, this information is valuable to admissions representatives, but it should not go into your resume.

2. REFERENCES – References are required as part of your MBA application and will play a big role in your candidacy. However, there is no need to include them on your resume. You do not need a line such as “References available upon request” or a listing of reference contacts. 3. REASON FOR LEAVING A JOB – Whether you were laid off, fired, decided to try something new, or were offered a huge promotion – these explanations do not belong on your resume. Some schools will ask for the reason you left a job as part of their data form. And there is certainly opportunity to explain these things in your interview, recommendations and essays, if you want the reasons to be known.

4. MISSION STATEMENT – Many applicants include a mission statement at the top of their resume: “Seeking a challenging entry level marketing role at a financial service company”. However, in the context of the MBA application process, everyone has the same objective, and it is to go to business school. Thus, the mission statement is irrelevant.

ACTION VERBS Every bullet should lead with a strong and interesting action verb. Imagine scanning a resume and spotting words such as “Was, Did, and Made”, as opposed to “Managed, Spearheaded and Created”. The latter set is composed of stronger, more interesting words and they can really set the tone for your resume. We have included a list of Action Verbs in Exhibit A. As you develop your resume, refer to this list and think of ways that you can strengthen the language in your resume by utilizing words from this list. Sometimes the same task can be described in different language, creating a completely different impression for the reviewer. For example consider these two statements: A) Filing system was upgraded by my team… B) Initiated and managed complete overhaul of company information management system… The second statement showcases an individual who is proud of his/her work and is injecting it with confidence and personality, right down to the description on the resume. Also related to this is the fact that the resume should utilize the active tense throughout. Avoid passive language as much as possible in your resume and throughout the application. Not only is it better grammar to use the active tense, but it also conveys a more direct, driven and in control feeling from the resume. © 201 3 STACY B L ACKM AN CO NS ULT I N G I NC. w ww.Sta cy Bla c kman.com A LL RIG HTS RES ERV ED.

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QUANTIFYING RESULTS Another rule to keep in mind for every bullet is to quantify results as much as possible. While it is nice to know that you created a new marketing program, conceived of new revenue streams or led the analyst training program, it is also important to know that: • the new marketing program increased awareness by 32 • the new revenue streams boosted revenue by 18 • the analyst training program halved ramp up time required by new analysts and tripled analyst productivity Again, consider the two bullets presented in the preceding section on Action Verbs. If you add a result to the latter statement, it becomes even stronger: A) Filing system was upgraded by my team. B) Initiated and managed complete overhaul of company information management system. Revamped system increased employee productivity by 16 , cut information management costs by 33 and was adopted at seven satellite offices nationwide. As you can see, including results catapults this bullet into an entirely different level in terms of how hard it works for you on the resume! While not all responsibilities and activities have quantifiable results, most are measurable in some way, and it is always important to include results to the extent possible.

REMEMBERING YOUR AUDIENCE When crafting your MBA resume, keep in mind that this audience is unique from the audience that will review your resume when you are interviewing for a job. While many of the resume conventions remain constant, the general content of your bullet points should change in almost every case. When you are interviewing for a certain kind of job, such as investment banking, an engineering role, or a consulting position, you will need to include evidence that you are proficient in that type of role. You will need to demonstrate that you have a certain set of skills, are familiar with certain types of software, or that you have worked on certain types of deals. MBA programs do not necessarily care about these specifics. Admissions representatives are looking for evidence of specific characteristics that can translate across any type of job, across all sorts of job categories. If you are being hired for a Lead Engineering role, you may need to show that you can code in Java Script. This will be an essential skill to getting this specific job done. Harvard, however, does not really care if you can code in Java Script. Coding in Java Script will not specifically make you good at leading organizations, building great companies or innovating world changing products and services. They are much more focused on whether or not you are an effective manager and have strong leadership potential. When interviewing for a transactional banking role, many candidates will list out specific deal names with dollar amounts. However, this type of detail will not be of interest to a school like Kellogg. Kellogg will be much more interested in understanding how you worked as a team to close these deals. They will be interested in your overall quantitative skills, but beyond that, the fact that you collaborated with an international team across three time zones, or the fact that you developed and trained others on a new analysis technique will be more relevant. When you consider which details to emphasize, keep in mind the general qualities that most business school programs are looking for. The qualities that MBA admissions committees are looking for are fairly well-known and intuitive.

• LEADERSHIP – evidence of accomplishing things through others, challenging the status quo, instilling a vision, facing challenges, standing up for what’s right, prioritizing the needs of the organization above personal needs, and uniting people behind a goal

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• DIVERSITY - elements of background, values, experience, and personal qualities that prove the candidate will add something new, exciting, and different to their community

• SELF-AWARENESS – Takes responsibility for actions; understands how those actions impact others • INTELLECTUAL HORSEPOWER – a love for learning and a desire for mastery of new subjects; ability to handle the program’s rigorous academic demands; quantitative abilities

• INTERPERSONAL ABILITIES – the ability to advocate, persuade, and negotiate compromise; charm, charisma, and exceptional social skills

• EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – evidence of team work and team building; creating clear goals, building a sense of urgency, identifying the unique talents of team members, motivating teammates, managing a complex project, and resolving differences

• DETERMINATION - The ability to overcome setbacks and hardships; determination and courage in the face of adversity; drive; the desire to make an impact personally and professionally

• HUMANITARIAN VALUES - Service to a community, selflessness, generosity • INTEGRITY/ETHICS – a clear sense of principles and values; evidence of putting principles into action • CAREER PROGRESSION – evidence that you have distinguished yourself from your peers • AMBITIOUS CAREER GOALS - Clear career goals and a convincing, achievable action plan for achieving career objectives

• GLOBAL POINT OF VIEW – awareness of the global nature of business; evidence of adapting to new cultures and working effectively with a diverse group of people Getting too detailed with regards to industry-specific skills is generally not a good idea. Make sure that you are speaking the same language as the admissions committee; do not expect them to be experts in your particular niche. Of course most of the above qualities will come through in other elements of your application, in particular, your essays. However, it never hurts to keep these all important qualities in mind. Sometimes you can illustrate your leadership or other important skills through examples that are tangential to your basic job responsibilities. We discussed this a bit in “Content of Bullet Points” above, but as you consider how to describe a certain job, don’t forget to think about some of the following activities, that are all important in spite of the fact that they may not be part of your core job.

• MANAGING OTHERS – If you formally manage one or more people, it is important to discuss this. Even if you informally supervise and mentor someone, it is worth including on the resume

• RECRUITING EFFORTS – If you have taken a lead in recruiting, you are acting as the face of your company. This shows that leaders at your company respect you and trust that you will represent them well. • VOLUNTEER INITIATIVES – This highlights that you are committed to a balance between work and outside, and that you are enough of a leader to draw others into your initiatives. • TRAINING OTHERS – Training, teaching, mentoring and managing are all inter-related and all parts of being a leader. If you have played a role in training peers, subordinates or even those senior to you (perhaps on a new type of software), it is worth including on your resume. © 201 3 STACY B L ACKM AN CO NS ULT I N G I NC. w ww.Sta cy Bla c kman.com A LL RIG HTS RES ERV ED.

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• NEW PROJECTS – Perhaps you spearheaded that new filing system, created a template for a new and essential report, facilitated relationships with an important partner or streamlined routine processes. Anything that demonstrates you identifying an opportunity and taking initiative is a great thing to include. All of the above examples can help to highlight skills that MBA programs value.

DEMONSTRATING PROGRESSION It is always great to show that you are actually progressing in your career. You need to make it clear that over the course of your career, you have picked up new skills, assumed new responsibilities, developed as an individual and that all of this growth has been recognized by others. It is relatively easy to demonstrate progression on your resume, when you are promoted while working for one company. When you show that you were an Analyst one year, and then a Senior Analyst the next year, that is a clear progression. However, you need to show progression with more than just your title. The information in the bullets under your title needs to reflect the title change, and to illustrate how you have grown. For example, as an Analyst, you might be creating extensive financial models. As a Senior Analyst, you might be training others on modeling, you might be supervising direct reports, you might be spearheading new deals. The description of your responsibilities serves as a way to track your progress. It can be more challenging to illustrate your progress when you are hopping between jobs. Sometimes these jobs are in different functional areas, so you really are starting from scratch in a new position, as you learn the ropes. However, even if you go from learning about brand management to tax audits, you can show that as an employee you are gaining greater levels of responsibility and taking more initiative. As you mature, you may have to learn a new skill, but you are still more capable of running with and managing a project. The most difficult scenario is when you have been in the same position with the same company, for many, many years. In this case, you may have to distill five years of experience into a single list of bullets under that one job title. In this case, you can list your responsibilities chronologically; most recent first and can pepper the list with dates so that a reviewer can see when certain activities took place. Of course in the context of your full application, your interview, essays and recommendations will also work to show the story of progression. Here is the example of list of bullets for someone who has been in a job for five years: • Led development of business unit’s 2008 advertising and publicity strategy, including marketing plan for introduction and design of website. Resulted in 32 increase in leads. • Trained and supervised newly hired financial analyst. • Developed western region’s 2006 investment strategy and debt portfolio analysis. • Priced and structured over $500 million in commercial mortgage transactions. • Designed and negotiated an innovative shelf financing structure, which served as model for future company transactions. • Responded to internal inefficiencies by creating software model that facilitated deal analysis and tracking. Model was later implemented in all field offices. • Led legal counsel, engineers and environmental consultants in completing due diligence work.

TRANSFORMING BULLETS FROM BLAH TO WINNING: EXAMPLES To inspire you, we are presenting you with examples of how to make even the most mundane tasks shine. As you will notice, adding specific details makes the information come alive and helps to clarify the writer’s role. All of our “blah” examples were taken from actual first drafts of resumes (with permission):

BLAH: Responsible for updating weekly deal pipeline. © 201 3 STACY B L ACKM AN CO NS ULT I N G I NC. w ww.Sta cy Bla c kman.com A LL RIG HTS RES ERV ED.

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WINNING: Overhauled and managed weekly communication which ultimately facilitated internal knowledge sharing and enhanced external client relations.

BLAH: Helped with new software implementation.

WINNING: Spearheaded software upgrade in the San Francisco field office by coordinating with software developer, leading training sessions and facilitating implementation schedule.

BLAH: Assisted new hires with learning company processes.

WINNING: Created and managed training program for new hires, which significantly decreased average ramp up time. Program has run in two offices for past three years.

BLAH: Analyzed new product prospects for go/no go launch decision.

WINNING: Led cross-functional team in strategic assessment of new product launch for summer 2008. Developed and tested new product concepts and conducted preliminary analysis of pricing strategy, volume projections, packaging, promotions budget and trade spending.

BLAH: Drafted competitive overview with recommendations and presented to management.

WINNING: Prepared a competitive analysis for the convenience store channel by assessing competitive marketing strategy and analyzing competitive merchandising, media and pricing activity. Presented to Senior Management along with comprehensive defense plan. Plan implementation led to 8 growth in market share in just two months.

TRANSLATING TECHNICAL JARGON INTO MBA LANGUAGE As we have mentioned above, it can be particularly difficult to summarize job responsibilities and accomplishments effectively if you become mired in the technical jargon associated with your role. While this is especially common with engineering positions, it can really happen in any industry. Beware of specific computer programs, programming languages, company acronyms and other lingo that will cause a reader to tune out or become confused. The following “what?” examples are taken from real resumes. We think you will be just as confused as we were when we first read these. Our winning examples show how to make the content more accessible and understandable to an MBA admissions audience.

WHAT? Created VA1 Business Acquisition.

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WINNING: Devised and launched outbound communications plan for our premier voice activated product. Product was well received and became cash flow positive within 14 months.

WHAT? Worked on Project “Type Top”

WINNING: Conducted market research in order to gather requirements for complex translation program. Led product team in prioritizing and implementing all audio requirements related to the award winning product.

WHAT? Assessed PY capabilities for inefficiencies.

WINNING: Assessed seven shared features of a major gas utility for process inefficiencies through user research and competitive analysis, identifying over $6 million in monthly savings.

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CHAPTER 5: Section 3: Education GOAL OF THE EDUCATION SECTION The Education section should include very basic information about your educational background. It should show a chronology of schools attended, areas of study and significant activities and accomplishments. As with the rest of the resume, it should be easy to scan, so that someone who is becoming acquainted with your background can very easily identify names of schools and dates and start to piece together your background. Keep in mind that while it is necessary to include an education section, the MBA resume is first and foremost, a professional document. Thus, the education section should be brief, and you will not go into the level of detail in this section that you do in the professional section. You can feel free to elaborate on anything that is important in your essays and interview. Your academic transcript(s) will also help to develop a complete picture of your academic experience.

WHAT TO INCLUDE You will need to include some basic information for each educational institution that you list on your resume. The information to be included is as follows: 1. Name of school 2. Location 3. Years attended 4. Degree obtained Other information is frequently included, but not essential. You must use your judgment and decide if it makes sense for you to include. 1. Overall GPA, Major GPA – For an MBA resume, it often does not make a lot of sense to include the GPA. Your GPA will be on your data forms and official transcript. No need to present it again. But if you have the space, and you have a high GPA, it also does not hurt to include it. 2. Major - This can be helpful, especially if your major sheds further light on your career path. For example, if you earned a BS Economics, with a major in Marketing, and then went on to pursue a marketing career, that major in marketing helps to connect the dots. If the reviewer only saw that you earned a BS Economics, the early interest in marketing may not be as clear. 3. Activities, Offices held – There is no need to list all activities, but it is certainly worth including meaningful and interesting ones. It is definitely worth highlighting elected or appointed leadership positions within activities that were important to you. However, it may not be necessary to include any more than the position title. You can elaborate on interesting experiences or responsibilities in your essays. The primary goal of the resume is to describe your professional background so go light on this section even if you are tempted to explain everything you did. Don’t list every club of which you were a member as an undergraduate. 4. Part time jobs – Part time jobs can take up a lot more space than they really require. As we discuss in the Professional Section above, if a part time job helped you to gain relevant skills and meaningful experience, you may want to briefly include it. If it was just a way to make money, no need to list the jobs at all. 5. Explaining that school was self financed - Rather than describing the actual jobs that you held to self finance school, you can include a statement such as, “self financed 85 of education by working 30 hours a week throughout college”. This conveys the idea that you were very motivated and that you successfully juggled academics and outside commitments. Or if your GPA was low, this can provide some insight into why.

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6. Academic awards, such as Dean’s List – Your decision to include these awards depends on the actual award. They will undoubtedly be listed elsewhere in your application, so if you do not have the space, you might cut these out completely, or at least consider abbreviating a long list. 7. Scholarships – As with the awards, you will have to leave it to your judgment to decide how prestigious and important your awards are. 8. Study Abroad – This can be a helpful item to include. It shows that you had an interest in learning about another country, and learning another language, and it may be a good tie in with the story of your career progress to date or your future goals. In general, it is appropriate to include this in the education section, although it does not need to be given a great deal of space – nothing more than a mention. 9. Classes taught – Teaching positions can be a relevant data point to include since leadership, and subsets of leadership such as teaching, mentoring and managing are all very interesting to an admissions committee. It also shows that you are respected by professors, you have strong communications skills and could command the respect and attention of your peers. It generally makes sense to include at least some of these details. Many of them will drop off your resume the longer you have been out of school. Again, remember that many of these things will be repeated elsewhere in your application. GPA will appear on your official transcript, and you will self report it in your data forms. Items such as awards and scholarships will be listed in data forms as well. As you decide what to include, space will, as always, be a consideration, as will the story you are trying to tell. Is it really essential that the admissions committee knows you were a member of the ski club, in a fraternity, or that you coauthored ten white papers on a topic that is not relevant to your post-MBA goals? Quite possibly not, especially if you are tight on space.

FORMAT The format for the initial, essential information should be consistent with whatever you have used in your professional section. You will highlight name of school, location and dates in the same way you did for your jobs. Beyond that, you will briefly list out additional information in simple, hopefully one line, bullet points. Anywhere from two to six bullet points is reasonable.

WHAT NOT TO INCLUDE 1. Lists of courses taken – When you apply for a job, it can make sense to list out very relevant coursework that will help you get the job done. However, when you apply to business school, remember that the school already will have your transcript, and it is not necessary to detail the classes or types of classes taken. 2. Specifics of part time jobs taken to pay tuition – As detailed above, if the skills utilized in the position are not relevant, you can skip going into detail. 3. Description of school – Some candidates write a brief description of their schools, especially in cases when the school is not well known: “Small pre-professional college which is consistently ranked in top 10 of engineering programs”. This type of description does not belong on your resume. If you feel strongly about providing this information, you can incorporate it into optional information sections on your application or perhaps in an essay, interview, or a recommender can incorporate it. 4. Every program attended – If you took a few classes at a local college one summer, or did some sort of exchange with a school close to your home university, no need to outline every one of these experiences. All of your credits will show up on your transcripts and it really is not necessary to list out several schools on your resume, unless you attended full time.

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CHAPTER 6: Section 4: Additional Information GOALS OF THE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION SECTION This is a brief, informal section which basically encompasses everything that you want to include on your resume that does not fit into the first three sections (Contact Information, Professional, Education). Some people have a lot they want to squeeze into this section. Unfortunately, it should be very brief, not more than five to six lines at the bottom of your resume, at the most, with two to three lines being more appropriate. If you do not have essential information that you are anxious to include, you can use this section to outline activities and interests. It is not uncommon to see two sentences at the bottom, such as this: Interests include skiing, surfing, drawing and world travel. Speak Mandarin and Spanish fluently. This may not add a ton to what you can offer professionally, but it does add some color and depth to who you are as an individual. It also helps to “break the ice” in an interview. It is not uncommon for an interviewer to scan your resume and find something interesting in that bottom section, that helps both of you ease into the conversation. A mutual interest in tennis, or an intriguing hobby about which the interviewer is curious, can make for a nice introductory conversation. In summary, the goals of this section are: 1. Show that you are multi-dimensional, reveal a bit more about who you are 2. Help break the ice in an interview, facilitate some easy conversation 3. Allow you to insert “miscellaneous” information that you want to include in the document, that does not have a home elsewhere

INFORMATION TO INCLUDE The following is a list of the types of information that you can consider including in this section: 1. Published papers, books 2. Patents 3. Interests such as cooking, reading, writing, painting, athletics, travel 4. Hobbies such as stamp collecting 5. Athletic teams 6. Languages spoken 7. Awards won 8. Scholarships received 9. Unique facts about you: “I climbed Mt. Everest”, “I have traveled to every continent”, “I have participated in seven triathlons”. 10. Volunteer involvements 11. Computer skills While much of your resume will be focused on highlighting your professional activities, it is okay for items in this section to just show off a fun, informal and personal side of who you are. We have had clients submit resumes with full page sections entitled, “Volunteer Activities”, “Leadership Activities”, “Publications”. We have then omitted these sections and filtered all of the contents into one of the three standard sections. Much of the material might completely get the axe. If there is something that is really great but does not fit into Education or Professional, the Additional Information Section is the perfect home for it.

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WHAT NOT TO INCLUDE Always keep in mind that this is the “extras” section, and as such it should be kept very brief. And it is still part of your professional resume, so remember to not get too informal. While this may seem obvious to some readers, we have reviewed resumes that boast of titles such as “Beer Drinking Champion”. This type of content is not desirable for your resume. The following is a list of what not to include:

1. CONTROVERSIAL POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS – It is okay to state that you worked on the Democratic presidential campaign, but you may want to steer clear of more controversial topics and issues. You do not want to risk starting off the interview with someone immediately knowing that you are pro x, when they are anti.

2. DRINKING, PARTYING – As mentioned above, don’t boast about your ability to guzzle beer faster than your peers. Of course it is okay to say that you organized a fundraising party or that you were social chair for your sorority, but highlighting that in general you organize great, well attended social events…well, use your best judgment. 3. LONG LISTS OF ANYTHING – A page long list of publications you authored can and should be condensed into “authored over 70 publications on the heart, including ‘The impact of alcohol on the aortic valve’”.

4. TOO MANY HOBBIES OR INTERESTS – How passionate can you be about 20 different hobbies? Be selective if you want to be taken seriously. It is much better to choose a few things that really interest you and show your commitment to them, than to provide a rambling list of everything you have ever tried. 5. ANYTHING YOU CANNOT SUBSTANTIATE ON THE SPOT – You know about 20 words of Spanish, enough to get by when you vacation in Mexico, and decide that it would not be too much of a stretch to write “fluent in Spanish” on your resume. It’s all okay until your interviewer decides to test your abilities on the spot by conducting the interview in Español. The same goes for your interest in Asian Art, your golf game or your involvement with a community organization. If you are not prepared to speak to it with an enthusiastic interviewer, it’s better to omit.

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EXHIBIT A: Action Verbs Accumulated Achieved Adapted Addressed Administered Advised Analyzed Answered Anticipated Appraised Approved Arbitrated Arranged Ascertained Assembled Assessed Assigned Assisted Attained Audited Began Bought Brought Built Budgeted Calculated Cared for Catalogued Categorized Charted Checked Classified Coached Coded Collected Communicated Compiled Completed Composed Computed Conceived Conceptualized Conducted Confronted Consolidated Conserved Constructed Contracted Contributed Controlled Coordinated Copied Corresponded Counseled Created Dealt with Decided

Defined Delegated Delivered Demonstrated Derived Designed Detailed Detected Determined Developed Devised Diagnosed Directed Disapproved Discovered Dispensed Displayed Disproved Dissected Distributed Diverted Dramatized Edited Effected Empathized Encouraged Endured Enhanced Enlarged Entertained Equipped Established Estimated Evaluated Examined Exhibited Expanded Experimented Explained Expressed Extracted Facilitated Filed Financed Fixed Focused Formulated Found Gathered Generated Governed Grouped Guided Handled Harmonized Headed Heightened

Helped Hurried Hypothesized Identified Illustrated Imagined Implemented Improved Improvised Increased Indexed Influenced Informed Initiated Innovated Inspected Inspired Installed Instituted Instructed Integrated Interacted Interpreted Interviewed Introduced Intuited Invented Inventoried Investigated Kept Lectured Learned Led Listened Located Logged Made Maintained Managed Mapped Measured Mediated Memorized Mentored Met Moderated Modified Monitored Motivated Moved Navigated Negotiated Observed Obtained Offered Operated Ordered

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Oriented Organized Outlined Oversaw Participated Perceived Performed Persuaded Photographed Piloted Placed Planned Predicted Prepared Prescribed Presented Presided Printed Problem-Solved Processed Produced Programmed Projected Promoted Proof-read Proposed Protected Proved Provided Publicized Purchased Questioned Raised Read Realized Reasoned Reassured Received Recommended Recorded Recruited Rectified Reduced Referred Regulated Rehabilitated Related Rendered Reorganized Repaired Repeated Reported Represented Researched Reshaped Resolved Responded

Restored Retrieved Reviewed Revised Risked Scheduled Searched Selected Sensed Separated Served Set-up Shaped Showed Simplified Sketched Sold Solved Sorted Sought Spoke Straightened Streamlined Strengthened Studied Succeeded Summarized Supervised Supplied Supported Symbolized Systematized Synthesized Talked Taught Tested Timed Took Trained Transcribed Translated Treated Trouble-shot Tutored Typed Undertook Unified United Updated Upgraded Used Utilized Verbalized Verified Volunteer Worked Wrote 20

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APPENDIX: Sample Resumes The following resume samples are all based on actual resumes of applicants who were successful in the MBA admissions process. They leverage a variety of styles, all of which are acceptable. RESUME 1 [email protected] ~ 510.657.8989 EXPERIENCE 2004-2007

JONES CAPITAL GROUP San Francisco, CA Senior Investment Analyst, 2006-2007 • Responded to internal inefficiencies by creating software model that facilitated internal deal analysis and tracking. Model was later implemented in all field offices. • Designed and negotiated an innovative shelf financing structure, which invested $250 million and served as model for future Jones transactions. • Led development of business unit’s 2007 Advertising and Publicity Strategy, including marketing plan for introduction and design of Web page. Resulted in 12% increase in target awareness. • Coordinated and performed financial analyses for over $500 million in prepayments. • Trained and supervised newly hired Financial Analyst. Financial Analyst, 2004-2006 • Spearheaded software upgrade in the San Francisco field office by coordinating with software developer, leading training sessions and facilitating implementation schedule. • Led legal counsel, engineers and environmental consultants in completing due diligence work. • Developed Western Region investment strategy and debt portfolio analysis. • Priced and structured over $500 million in commercial mortgage transactions. • Performed property valuations, market studies and credit risk analyses.

2003-2004

BANK OF ANGELO San Francisco, CA Associate, Securities Lending • Created marketing presentation materials for potential clients. • Designed and produced detailed informational trade reports for institutional trust customers. • Negotiated bond prices and lending interest rates with broker-dealers. • Performed portfolio and investment profitability analyses.

EDUCATION 1999-2003

THE WHARTON SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia, PA Bachelor of Science in Economics, The Wharton School, May 2003. Concentration in Marketing. Dean’s List, May 2003. • Founding Member, Public Relations Director, Curator: Penn Student Art Gallery. • Marketing Coordinator: University Department of Psychiatry. • Tutor: West Philadelphia Tutoring Project. • Study abroad in Madrid, Spain, Spring 2002.

OTHER DATA Received Jone’s Community Champions Award for dedicated community service. Developed and published the first edition of the Smithsonian Institute’s Air and Space Compendium. Participated in San Francisco softball league. Biked over 300 miles through Southern France. Alumni interviewer for the University of Pennsylvania. Interests include travel, skiing, hiking and art.

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RESUME 2 (217) 733-9005 ~ [email protected] EXPERIENCE 2007- present

K. BUILDERS Minneapolis, MN Management and holdings in $50million in commercial real estate Co-Founder and Director of Strategy • Developed business plan and assisted in set up of general operations. • Managed all fundraising and marketing efforts for initial fund.

2005 – 2007

MONTGOMERY AND COMPANY, INC Minneapolis, MN Business Analyst • Designed Asian marketing strategy for a global technology company. Managed projects that focused on ecommerce strategy and general distribution issues. Led international teams of 32 people in Bangkok, Tokyo and Beijing. Recommended changes in distribution strategy in order to meet 18% growth in sales projections. • Worked with private equity fund to develop and implement investment model identifying industry discontinuities and favored companies. Performed valuations to recommend a $750 million portfolio of investments and M & A deals. • Designed retail marketing strategy for deregulation of a utility company. Led client teams in identifying target markets and potential product portfolios. • Created turnaround strategy for Children’s Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Developed strategic assessment focused on building market awareness, increasing membership, and improving operating profitability. Worked with children to determine exhibit strategy. Recommended expansion of current museum. • Founded and co-led Office Community Leadership Aspirations Project creating community involvement opportunities. • Led Harvard Business Analyst recruiting effort.

EDUCATION 2001-2005

HARVARD COLLEGE • Bachelor of Arts degree in American Civilazation. • Honors: Beta Sigma Alpha Academic Honor Society. • Women’s Varsity Rugby Team. • Director: Campus-wide Social Planning and Events Committee. • Semester abroad in Paris, France.

Boston, MA

OTHER DATA • Community Activities: Children’s Medical Center of Cincinnati, Angels Elementary School Young Friends Board Member • YMCA youth soccer coach • Other Interests: skiing, woodworking, travel, adventure sports (rock climbing, kite surfing)

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EXPERIENCE 2004-2007

RESUME 3 1745 Orrin Avenue San Diego, CA 60222 (612) 866-9678 [email protected] JASONS DEVVERS, INC. Start-up firm providing financial consulting on behalf of corporations involved in business litigation. Manager, 2007 San Diego, CA • Developed and maintained client relationships with attorneys and corporate executives. • Led five-person team to complete quantitative analysis and compile report in 75% of the time specified. The study included tracing the $400 million fortune of an executive and determining methods of allocating assets in a highstakes marital dissolution case. Senior Consultant, 2005-2007 San Diego, CA • Supervised, trained and evaluated teams of Staff and Senior Consultants. • Managed cross-functional teams consisting of clients’ engineers, project managers, and finance personnel to successfully develop and defend against lost profits and increased costs claims exceeding $500 million. • Initiated and organized new Staff/Senior meeting program, which increased communication and interaction between staff and management by providing organized forum for discussions. • Designed and conducted Internet research and database management training workshops. • Leveraged creative-problem solving to quantify financial damages under variety of circumstances including trademark infringement, business interruption, and breach of contract. Member of Start-up Team, Staff Consultant, 2004 Los Angeles, CA • Assisted with start-up activities such as selecting office space and 401K plan. • Created and organized original company recruiting program including development of recruiting guidelines and processes, design of print materials, and creation of presentation visuals.

2003-2004

JOHNSON CONSULTING, L.L.P. Los Angeles, CA Staff Consultant • Developed complex computer models to analyze financial impact of lost profits and increased costs. • Performed research and analyses on industries such as software, entertainment, and public utilities.

EDUCATION 1999-2003

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO San Diego, CA Bachelor of Science in Economics, June 2003. • Magna cum laude, Dean's list, Platinum Honor Society, GPA 3.65/4.0.

OTHER DATA Worked with Lulu, a childrens’ clothing importer, during start-up phase. Volunteer weekly as a tutor in the “I Have A Dream” program. San Diego Goldworks community service volunteer. Volunteer kids’ camp counselor. Enjoy travel, skydiving, fine art, and yoga.

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RESUME 4 [email protected] ~ (415) 676-3535 EXPERIENCE July 2007 - Present

Arrow International, Inc., Reading PA Project Leader: • Product manager responsible for Percutaneous Thrombolytic Device (PTD) catheter system designed to treat patients suffering from end-stage renal disease. • Coordinated and supervised product team to develop innovative PTD system. • Interfaced and built strong relationships with world-renowned physicians to meet the needs of the hemodialysis field. • Organized successful clinical research studies to prove superiority of device over competitive technologies, gained 19% market share within 18 months. • Developed strategic marketing plan to introduce product into international and domestic markets, launch exceeded forecasts by 17%. • Trained and supported 150 person sales force to effectively market product to health-care community.

2005 - 2007

Project Engineer: • Modified and enhanced design features of Pullback Atherectomy Catheter (PAC) system to improve treatment of patients suffering from coronary heart disease. • Conducted extensive market research to better understand patient needs. • Assessed competitive environment to create feature specifications.

Summers 2002-2004

LMT Swim Club, Yardley, Pa Head Swimming Coach: • Managed and trained two top-ranked swimming teams with over 200 age-group swimmers aged 8-18 years. • Conducted practice, swimming meets, and fund-raisers (raised $15,000 for American Cancer Society). Supervised four assistant coaches.

Summers 2003, 2004

Magic Wok Restaurant, Langhorne, PA Waiter: Provided waiter service to restaurant customers.

EDUCATION

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. B.S. Mechanical Engineering, June 2005 President of Gamma Delta Engineering Honors Society

ADDITIONAL

Enjoy running, computers and horseback riding. Launched program to provide support to families of patients at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital.

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RESUME 5 225 South 18th Street #, Philadelphia, PA 19103, (123) 456-7890 [email protected] PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE MCKINSEY & COMPANY Minneapolis, MN Associate 2008-2010 Identified revenue enhancement opportunities exceeding $300 million for a major airline joint venture. • Isolated regional sales performance weaknesses and designed a plan to recover $50 million in revenues. • Researched and analyzed various channel margins, identifying a $20 million channel improvement opportunity. • Identified $30 million opportunity to leverage existing data to pursue targeted offers and fill product gaps. DAVIS MARTIN CORPORATION, Information Systems Company Orlando, FL Senior Software Engineer 2006-2007 Remote Editing Fingerprint Software, System Control and Database Lead • Developed transaction-based system that enables police departments to access federal identification resources. • Led team of four in implementation of control system/database interface. Delivered 10% ahead of schedule. • Performed requirements analysis, teamed with client to define object-oriented strategy to achieve objectives. Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), Integration and Test Lead, Software Developer • Designed search capability enabling FBI searches against a 400 million-fingerprint database within two hours. • Performed detailed image scanner trade study and made recommendations that saved client 15%of future costs. • Developed and integrated graphical user interfaces for fingerprint editing and system control. Software Engineer 2005-2006 Singapore Truck Driver Trainer Simulator System, System Communications Lead • Engineered simulator to provide superior training, resulting in a projected 20%decrease in future driver accidents. • Managed team of three in implementation of graphical user interfaces for operator control and debrief stations. • Designed real-time software communication link between truck simulator and operator stations. EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Orlando, FL Master of Science in Computer Engineering, Major in Computer Architecture May 2008 VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY Villanova, PA Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude May 2005 • Full tuition Presidential Scholar; Academic Excellence, Meritorious Service, ECE Student of Year Awards • Division I Volleyball Team Member/Captain, Athletic Scholarship, GTE Academic All-American Team ADDITIONAL INFORMATION • Volunteer: Young Entrepreneur Program, Give Kids the World (Make-A-Wish), OASIS, and Community Care. • Davis Martin Recruiter: Spoke at career events and conducted interviews for prospective employees. • Interests: Beach volleyball, team sports, taking pictures, running, camping, and traveling.

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XX Second Avenue North, Suite 112 Nashville, TN 37201

RESUME 6

(323) 451.6767 [email protected]

PROFESSIONAL Gable Capital Partners, Nashville, TN July 2009 – Present Associate • Sole associate in a $280 million, multi-partner private equity fund which invests debt and equity in later stage growth companies. • Portfolio Monitoring – Review monthly financial results with company management to prepare partner reports. Provide financial, fundraising and operational analysis. Make strategic industry and capital markets introductions. Industries of portfolio companies include business services, healthcare services, IT services, and telecommunications equipment. • Deal Origination – Initiate, analyze and screen potential investment opportunities. Present investment opportunities to Gable Capital Commitment Committee. Assist in the structuring and issuance of term sheets. Perform due diligence. Negotiate terms and legal documents with potential portfolio companies and counsel. • Fund Raising – Wrote private placement memorandum, created marketing materials, and assisted partners in the solicitation of LP interests for the Gable Equity Fund, targeted at $100 million. TopKing Securities, Inc. – Communications & Technology Investment Banking, Richmond, VA July 2008 – July 2009 Financial Analyst • Experience on a variety of equity, private placement, debt and mergers and acquisition deals at various stages in their development raising nearly $2.0 billion in capital for companies including Triton PCS, Traingl, Silkost Software and The InterCept Group. • Constructed various company valuation models: Comparable Company Analysis, Comparable Acquisition Analysis, Leveraged Buyout, Merger models, and Internal Rate of Return calculations. • Considerable client exposure: participated in pitches, due diligence and drafting sessions and preparing FairnessOpinions. • Created and presented materials for Commitment Committee meetings, constructed company profiles for industry conferences and worked on a three-person team that wrote and developed the business plan for what became First Union Securities’ most profitable industry group – Communications and Technology, Investment Banking Division. • Additional experience in Real Estate Investment Banking through a three month rotation in the industry group. • Managed undergraduate recruiting at Duke University. James & Peterson, Raleigh, NC Spring 2007 Tax Auditing Intern The Bank of Lafayette, New York, NY Summer 2006 Corporate Banking Intern in the Latin America Division covering Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay EDUCATION James Univeristy, Providence, Rhode Island 2005-2008 Cum Laude; Cumulative GPA: 3.5 / 4.0 B.A. in Political Science with Minor in Economics, May 1998 Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 2004-2005 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The Masked Ball - Co-chairman of the “Late Party”, Junior Achievement Teaching / Tutoring Program, Enjoy backpacking, FlyFishing, Golf, Hunting, Rock Climbing, Running, Soccer & Skiing., Board of Directors of the HighLand Fund, Board of Directors of James Alumni Association

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ABOUT STACY BLACKMAN CONSULTING Stacy Blackman Consulting's mission is to help our clients achieve their most ambitious educational and professional goals by making the MBA application process less stressful and more successful. Since 2001, we have helped hundreds of candidates with their applications to top business schools; our clients have been admitted to every top MBA program worldwide. Stacy Blackman Consulting offers Comprehensive, Hourly and Editing services. Services may include: • School selection • Strategy development • Assistance with essay writing: coaching, review and feedback • Interview coaching • Planning for school visits • Reference selection, preparation and editing • Developing resumes • Review of data forms • Wait list and deferral strategy • Assistance with extracurricular involvements • Coordinating school communications In addition to our consulting services and our online essay, interview and application basics guides, we have published a book on the MBA admissions process entitled The MBA Application Roadmap. To learn more about our services and resources, or to schedule a free consultation, visit our website (www.StacyBlackman.com). For MBA news and admissions tips, updated daily, visit: http://www.StacyBlackman.com/blog To see more Stacy Blackman Consulting products, visit: http://www.StacyBlackman.com/products

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