The Wire

August 21, 2025 3,199 views

How to Create a Powerful MBA Resume

green typewriter with curriculum vitae paper symbolizing a powerful MBA resume.

What we’re about to say will surprise many MBA aspirants. Namely, your resume is probably the most critical piece of your MBA application materials. If done correctly, a powerful MBA resume gives the admissions committee a sense of what’s unique about your career path. It clearly highlights the kind of impact you’ve had professionally—whether at your company, on a client project, or with end users of a product or service.

A powerful MBA resume also previews the kinds of stories that you’ll share with peers during classroom discussions. It shows the admissions committee what you were involved with outside of class during college, and what you’re involved with now outside of work. Ideally, it conveys your passions, too.

Of course, every aspect of your MBA application materials must build a strong case for your candidacy. Your essays provide the best opportunity to give the AdCom a sense of your personality and leadership experience. But even the best essays lose their luster next to a poorly executed resume.

“A weak resume tells the admissions committee that you don’t know how to make good use of a page to highlight the best of your academic, professional, and extracurricular life,” says SBC consultant Erika in this episode of the B-Schooled podcast.

Strong applicants use their MBA resume to communicate clearly, quantify impact, and sell themselves with confidence. Let’s look at how you can do the same.

Check out Stacy Blackman’s Guide to Creating a Resume for MBA Applications

MBA applicant writing a strong resume on laptop with coffee cup nearby

Anatomy of a Powerful MBA Resume

A non-negotiable tenet of a powerful MBA resume—or any resume, for that matter—is to use action verbs. Start each bullet point in your career section with one of these, in the past tense or present, depending on whether they still apply. Here are a few common examples:

  • Managed
  • Led
  • Spearheaded
  • Initiated
  • Created
  • Oversaw
  • Ran
  • Directed
  • Supervised

Ensure you use more than just the same action verb repeatedly or twice in the same bullet point. Additionally, consider upgrading your action words, as some are more powerful. For example, “wrote report” doesn’t sound as impressive as “developed report.”

Then, go further: “developed 50-page report detailing sales by region.” Something even more powerful might look like this: “Developed 50-page report detailing sales by region; presented findings to CEO and 20-person executive committee.” Or, “Developed 50-page report detailing sales by region; distributed quarterly to 2,000 employees.”

Once you get into this frame of mind, start finding ways to strengthen your resume bullets with quantifiable details that help the reader better understand the scope of your accomplishments. If you work in the pharmaceutical or healthcare space, you could use robust numbers about how many patients or users of a particular medicine or recipients of a specific surgery might ultimately benefit from a solution you helped develop.

close-up of typewriter message something worth reading symbolizing a standout MBA resume

Everyone Can Use This Strategy

You can think along these same lines for any industry: Who was, or will be, impacted by your work? Perhaps you’re streamlining a process that will be implemented in 200 locations of a restaurant chain across six states, saving X labor hours per year. You may be helping to automate a solution that will be used in five 5,000-worker factories across three countries, saving the client’s company or your own $500,000 annually.

Details like these give the AdCom reader a greater understanding of your role and bring to life why what you did matters. Remember, you always want to quantify things when it helps your case.

@stacyblackmanconsulting Ten common mistakes applicants make on sn MBA resume #resumetips #applicationadvice #bschooladmissions #mbaapplications #icangetyouin ? Hip Hop with impressive piano sound(793766) – Dusty Sky

A Common Blunder

One thing you won’t find on a powerful MBA resume is industry jargon. Such words or expressions may be commonplace within a particular profession. Nonetheless, they’re difficult for outsiders to understand. Often, applicants are so steeped in their company’s culture they don’t even recognize it.

Yet as admissions consultants, we see it all the time. Even when people think they’ve been extra careful about not using company jargon, we inevitably find a sentence, bullet point, or phrase that assumes the reader knows something they likely do not know.

You don’t want the AdCom member reading your resume to stumble over any aspect of this document. So, ask someone outside your industry to review your resume and provide any comments or questions. An objective pair of eyes looking out for this potential pitfall is indispensable.

For more tips, check out B-Schooled Podcast Episode #16: How to ‘MBA’ Your Resume

More Must-Include Resume Items

International experience. Your resume should always highlight international work or international collaboration. Training a counterpart in another country or working online with coworkers or clients from abroad also counts. While you may not have traveled there in person, mention it if that work is significant enough in your daily life.

hand holding globe symbolizing international experience on an MBA resume

Exposure to another culture, especially in a professional setting, is always a differentiator. Similarly, always mention study abroad programs. These should always be on your resume if you’re only a few years out of school. Relevant internships might also be worth including if they make sense with your career story overall, particularly if they’re relevant to what you want to do in the future.

Varied leadership experience. Create a clear picture of the kind of person you are and the kind of student and campus leader you aspire to be. We’ve worked with many applicants who devote too much of their resumes to their careers and ignore all leadership positions held in college. Remember that the admissions committee looks to your undergraduate experience to gauge how involved you might be on campus outside of class in their MBA program.

They’re looking for evidence of leadership from all phases of your life. And it’s especially great when a particular passion that you have now or might want to focus on in the future was evident in college as well.

On the other hand, if you weren’t active in clubs and didn’t have leadership experiences in college, it’s better to keep that section concise. You can expand a personal section at the bottom of the resume to give the AdCom a sense of how you spend your free time.

Maximizing the Personal Section

These days, nobody’s impressed by an applicant who works all the time. MBA programs seek well-rounded individuals who can share a diverse range of personal and professional experiences with their classmates. Indeed, there isn’t much space to convey the unique aspects of your life in a one-page resume. Even so, we have clients dedicate a few lines at the end to share memorable tidbits about themselves.

This is where you should be very strategic about what you share.

man running marathon as an example of common interests on an MBA resume

Activities like running marathons, skiing, golfing, and being a fan of a particular sports team are not unique or differentiating. The admissions committee sees these personal interests all.the.time. You’re much better off thinking of something thousands of other candidates aren’t likely to include.

For instance:

  • Do you enjoy going to midnight sing-alongs of cult movies?
  • Were you ever on a game show?
  • Do you have an unusual hobby or collection?
  • Have you experienced something extraordinary in another country or on a domestic vacation?
  • Are you obsessed with a particular podcast or TV show?
  • Did you ever have an unusual job when you were younger?

Anything like that makes for a great conversation piece or icebreaker in an MBA interview. It can also be just the thing that sparks the AdCom’s curiosity and helps you stand out from the pack.

We hope this advice helps you craft a compelling MBA resume that will capture the attention of the admissions committee. Consider carefully how to employ descriptive language and present quantifiable results. Be sure to highlight examples of leadership in college and beyond. And remember, international experience, through work or a study abroad program, is always attractive to the admissions committee.

If you can successfully incorporate these elements into your resume, your achievements will stand out in a clear and memorable way.

***

Stacy Blackman Consulting offers multiple services to meet your MBA application needs, from our All-In Partnership to hourly help reviewing your MBA resume. Contact us today for a free 15-minute advising session to talk strategy with a Principal SBC consultant.

Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.

This entry was posted in Application Tips and tagged , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark this post

SBC’s star-studded consultant team is unparalleled. Our clients benefit from current intelligence that we receive from the former MBA Admissions Officers from Wharton, Columbia CBS and every elite business program in the US and Europe.  These MBA Admissions Officers have chosen to work exclusively with SBC.

Just two of the many superstars on the SBC team:
Meet Anthony, who served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise.

Meet Erin, who has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Tap into this inside knowledge for your MBA applications by requesting a consultation.

Learn About Our All-In Service

Meet the SBC Consulting Team