Talking About Your Accomplishments in MBA Applications
Many MBA hopefuls who have come to this blog for guidance feel uncomfortable talking up themselves in their B-school applications. They know their worth but are humble about shouting their successes from the rooftops. While humility is admirable, the fact is that you must talk about your accomplishments in MBA applications. How else can you convey what differentiates you from other candidates? The goal is to lose some of that awkwardness when tooting your own horn—without veering into obnoxiousness. So, let’s dive into how you can do that in different parts of the application.
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Promoting Accomplishments in the MBA Resume
As we often stress, your resume is arguably the most crucial part of your MBA application package. You have one page to communicate what makes you stand out from the pack. Fortunately, that limited space can work for you when it comes to making blunt statements that would sound boastful in a conversation.
The cardinal rule for resumes is to quantify accomplishments and shift the focus toward achievements over responsibilities as much as possible. For instance, if you led a project that resulted in cost savings or increased revenue, emphasize those hard numbers. Always include leadership skills, too, because they demonstrate your ability to make impactful decisions.
“I was kind of obsessed with the fact that I wasn’t a typical MBA candidate,” says SBC consultant and B-Schooled co-host Chandler. “To get around that, I specifically formatted my resume to highlight the quantifiable results I’d driven.
“I put a big focus on quantifying successes not only in terms of dollars raised or children reached, but also in terms of how I performed relative to the goal, relative to expectations, and relative to performance in previous years.”
Highlighting specific examples of organizational impact is a terrific way to boost your profile’s appeal significantly. Mention how you streamlined processes resulting in efficiency gains or developed strategies leading to market expansion. These instances showcase problem-solving abilities and capacity for strategic thinking—both highly valued traits within business schools’ context.
As these examples show, your resume is where you can pull off being direct when stating your accomplishments because that’s what the admissions committee expects. (The data form, with its character limits, is another place where conciseness is a must.)
Bragging by Proxy
A prime place for touting your accomplishments in MBA applications is through your recommendation letters. But don’t assume your recommender will remember all your glowing achievements. They also may not know what schools seek in letters of recommendation.
To help them get started, create a bullet-point list of the projects you have worked on. Next, give them an outline of your strengths that goes into more detail than your resume. You want your recommenders to read this document, so keep it to one page and don’t overload them with information. It should be a quick, helpful reference.
Then, decide on four or five characteristics you would like them to emphasize throughout the letter. For example, think of leadership, teamwork, creative thinking, determination, focus, intelligence, charisma, and integrity. Finally, develop at least one concrete example that illustrates each characteristic.
Likewise, if you have a stellar accomplishment that feels too “braggy” to mention yourself, let your recommender do the heavy lifting! For example, if you were:
- The youngest person in a specific role
- Promoted early,
- The first person in a particular role,
- The only associate to work on a deal of that scale,
- Or, if the company created a role just for you,
Those statements sound much better coming from your recommender. That’s because a recommender will have the context of managing people in your role and your level. So, if they say you’re “the youngest” or “the first” to do X, that’s a more believable and objective source than if you say it.
The Essays: Prime Real Estate for Talking About Accomplishments in MBA Applications
People often struggle with trumpeting their accomplishments when writing those MBA essays. Again, our advice is to keep it factual and direct. A favorite technique we recommend is to use the STAR method, which stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Especially in the context of an essay with word limits, the STAR format helps you get rid of extra stuff that could border on bragging or not being self-aware. If you keep to:
- The project was about this,
- Here’s what I had to do,
- Here is what I did,
- Here was the result,
It can help you avoid anything that might not be serving you.
Finally, note that while it’s crucial to highlight your accomplishments and strengths, some applicants make the mistake of turning their essays into a laundry list of achievements. They focus solely on what they’ve done without delving into the “why” or the impact of those accomplishments.
Why not dig deeper? Instead of merely cataloging your accomplishments in MBA applications, share the stories behind them. What challenges did you overcome? What did you learn from your experiences? How have they shaped your aspirations and values? By providing context and reflection, you’ll make your essays more engaging and meaningful.
Nailing the MBA Interview
MBA applicants can run into trouble with the MBA interview without word count limits or scripts to corral them. Presenting yourself succinctly can be especially difficult with behavioral questions (“Tell me about a time you…”) because it is natural to launch into a story without a clear destination. The goal is to stay focused on telling your story to demonstrate the qualities you wish schools to see.
A surefire way to control that is to use the STAR format for your interviews as well. The power of the STAR method is that it allows you to formulate a complete answer, but it keeps your answer organized and prevents you from rambling on and on—a common occurrence in interviews.
Here’s one example of how you can organize your notes:
Situation: “Product A was losing market share to a new competitor.”
Task: “I needed to create a plan to regain our lost share.”
Action: “I led a team to implement tactics A, B, and C.”
Result: “We regained lost share, plus 10 percent.”
And then you stop.
The interviewer will often probe further, asking for specific details related to your story. You need to be prepared to elaborate, but start with your story’s essential elements. STAR will help you get there.
B-Schooled Podcast #94: A Deep Dive on Behavioral Interviews
You should always have multiple stories in your back pocket that you have practiced out loud. These should include new stories you haven’t mentioned anywhere else in your applications. Consider recording yourself as you rehearse. That way, you can assess your body language and tone and adjust as needed. Also, be ready for situations that you did cover in your essays, but practice recounting them with new details to mix it up a bit.
If you’d like expert assistance to help you prepare for your interviews, SBC offers an MBA interview coaching service. Contact us today to learn more.
Finally, the most vital advice we can give is to be yourself and allow your personality to shine through. The AdCom wants to admit authentic people, so it’s okay to show your nerdy, quirky or sarcastic side in the MBA interview.
The information on evaluation criteria for admission at Stanford GBS includes the following instructions to candidates:
“Take time to reflect on who you are, and have confidence. There is neither an ‘ideal’ candidate nor a ‘typical’ Stanford MBA student. In your application, we would like you, quite simply, to be yourself.”
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Stacy Blackman Consulting offers multiple services to meet your MBA application needs, from our All-In Partnership and Interview Prep to hourly help with essay editing, resume review, and much more! 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.
Ashley
Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...
×Kerry
Kerry is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). During her 5+ year tenure at HBS, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a wide range of backgrounds across the globe. She also led marketing and outreach efforts focused on increasing diversity and inclusion, ran the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), and launched the 2+2 Program during her time in Admissions. Kerry holds a B.A. from Bates College and ...
×Pauline
A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally. Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...
×Geri
Geri is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). In her 7 year tenure in HBS Admissions, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a diverse set of academic, geographic, and employment backgrounds. Geri also traveled globally representing the school at outreach events in order to raise awareness for women and international students. In additio ...
×Laura
Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years. Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...
×Andrea
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...
×Jennifer
Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...
×Erin K.
Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...
×Susie
Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...
×Dione
Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford. Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...
×Anthony
Anthony 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. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year. Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...
×Meghan
Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...
×Amy
Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team. During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...
×Ally
Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS). During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...
×Erin B.
Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...
×Emma
Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director. Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants. ×