The Isenberg Resume: A How-To Guide for MBAs and Career Transitioners (2024)

Projects

Incorporating project experience into your resume demonstrates your practical application of technical skills and knowledge. This showcases your ability to work effectively in real-world scenarios, solving problems, meeting deadlines, and collaborating with others. It provides concrete evidence of your accomplishments, highlighting your contributions and impact. Project experience can include academic and program-specific projects, research projects, and relevant independent projects.

Leadership Involvement & Associations

Discuss with a career coach whether adding Leadership Involvement is necessary to include as it relates to your program and career interests. If so, cite your extracurricular involvement including clubs, professional or industry associations, sports, volunteerism, community, and civic engagements, along with your titles, and dates of service. However, if you already listed the organization or activity elsewhere, don’t repeat that information here.

Again, use bullets to call attention to transferrable knowledge and skills not addressed elsewhere and be sure to note any leadership positions held.

Activities

Cite your extracurricular activities including clubs, sports, volunteerism, community, and civic engagements, along with your titles, and dates of service. However, if you already listed the organization or activity elsewhere, don’t repeat that information here.

Again, use bullets to call attention to transferrable knowledge and skills not addressed elsewhere and be sure to note any leadership positions held.

Consider bolstering new knowledge and skills through additional short-term courses and real, short-term, virtual work experiencesavailable on IConnect.

Skills

This section is for computer and language skills only. Don’t list skills such as communication, collaboration, or customer service. Those are best reflected in your SMART bullets.

Include technical, software, programming, licenses, and certifications. Be sure to indicate if you are highly proficient in one type of software (especially if it’s relevant to the position).

Proficiency or fluency in a second language is highly desirable. Make sure to indicate your level of proficiency (e.g., conversational, proficient, fluent).

Cite any specific certifications provided by a reputable institution, board, or professional organization, such as LEAN Six Sigma Blackbelt training, project management, SCM certification, and licensures.

Step 4: Polish Your Resume with Formatting

Isenberg employers have worked with the school to develop a resume organization and format that delivers the most important information as directly and efficiently as possible.

A professionally formatted resume makes the content easy to skim and understand – an essential feature for readers, who typically spend about 5-6 seconds reviewing your resume before deciding if they want to read more. It is also important to note that a plain text format adheres to standards set for applicant tracking systems (ATS) and ensure your resume is not filtered out.

ATS- How to format for Applicant Tracking Systems

The applicant tracking system (ATS) is a unique type of software utilized by large organizations to streamline and assist in the recruitment process. Resume-reading robots scan your documents to determine whether you have the key skills for the position.

Tips for Outsmarting an ATS

Simple Headers: While resumes should include some personal touches, headers are not the place to do it. Use straightforward terms such as “Education,” “Work History,” “Professional Experience,” or “Job Skills.”

Clean Format: Take care to make the format and layout of your resume simple in order to prevent any errors or miscommunication. Do not include graphics, which are not processed in the same way as text.

Keywords/Phrases: ATS software will not take into account all the words in your resume, so try your best to anticipate what the software is looking for. Include occupation-related phrases such as “leading a team” or “profit and loss”

Industry-Specific Jargon: Using relevant industry language can also give your resume an edge over the competition. This jargon can give you the appearance of professional experience and familiarity with the job’s requirements.

Appendix: Additional Resources and Resume Samples

Writing WHO Bullets Exercise

Writing impactful bullets starts with thinking about thevalueandimpactof your experiences. Consider how your experiences align specifically with the position to which you are applying and how you have demonstrated transferable skills that will deliver results in this new position.

The WHO Bullets Exercise will help you capture key information, skills, and outcomes from your experiences.Click on each step below for more detailed guidance to help you draft your bullets.

Your first step is to consider your recent experiences (jobs, internships, volunteering, club or organization involvement, project work, study abroad, research, fellowship, job shadow, etc.). Within each experience, list the individual tasks and responsibilities. Consider the responsibilities that are most relevant to the internship or job you are applying.

Example:

If you have work experience as a Sandwich Artist, you may have baked bread, prepared vegetables and meats, cleaned floors and refrigerator cases, interacted with customers and facilitated payments. If applying for a finance related role, you’ll want to focus specifically on more relevant customer service, sales, and finance related tasks. A refined list may include:

Your next step is to describe how you performed your tasks. You can provide additional context for the environment or volume of work. Make sure to include specific skills and/or software, platforms, or technologies you used to complete your tasks. Job descriptions often include desired qualifications and skills: highlighting those specific skills, as able, will show why you are uniquely qualified. Search the job description for job/industry terminology and other keywords too.

The following questions can help you to provide more specific details about your responsibilities and skills:

• What were you specifically doing, and why were you doing it?
• What relevant skills were you using to perform your task?
• Did you use any specific software, platform, or technology, and how?
• Did you resolve any problems? How would you describe the problem(s) and your actions?
• Did you engage with customers, clients, team members?
• Did you receive recognition or awards?
• Did you lead a project or take initiative on your own?
• Did you train or supervise anyone?
• Did you perform research? Provide recommendations? Produce a report or presentation?
• Were you involved in decision-making?
• Were you given additional responsibilities?
• What were the results and how did you deliver impact?

The final step is to determine measurable results that will showcase your contributions and positive impact. Outcomes should describe what change resulted from your specific execution of the task and should be quantified as able.

Describe the type of change and the measured result that you delivered:

Action Verb Bank

Using clear and descriptive actions verbs is essential to crafting bullets that effectively showcase your skills and experiences. Be sure that you’re using a variety of verbs without repeating too often. Utilize the same or similar action verbs in your resume that you see listed in the description of the internship or job to which you are applying. Click on each of the categories below to find action verbs that are relevant to your experiences and career goals.

Associations, Certifications, and Software

Customize Your Resume

How to Beat the ATS

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are used by recruiters and employers to track a candidate’s job application throughout the recruiting and hiring process, making it easy for businesses of any size to filter, manage, and analyze potential candidates. Learn how toensure your resume is successfully received and processed by employers.

Samples for FT MBA & Duals

Click below to preview and download sample resumes for full-time and dual MBAs that will show you the appropriate formatting, bullet point structure, and tailoring for a variety of focus areas.

*Note: ALWAYS tailor resumes to your experiences, skills, and the position/company you’re applying for.

Samples for Online MBAs & Transitioners

Click below to preview and download sample resumes for online MBAs and career transitioners that will show you the appropriate formatting, bullet point structure, and tailoring for a variety of focus areas.

*Note: ALWAYS tailor resumes to your experiences, skills, and the position/company you’re applying for.