Your MBA resume is the first document the admissions committee reads in your application, so it had better be impactful. Not only should it have impressive content, but it should be spotless even in formatting and structure.
Here’s an easy to follow guideline we have created for you. Follow this and you will get all your resume basics in place!
MBA Resume Cheat Sheet
A complete guide to structuring, formatting, and writing your b-school resume
01
Basic Resume Rules
| Question | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| How long should your resume be? |
One single page
EMBA applicants or those with 10+ years of experience may extend to two pages.
|
| Should it include a professional summary? | No |
| Should there be an objective statement? | No Its clear your objective is to get admission into b-school. |
02
Personal Information to Include
| Element | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Name | Yes Clearly mention your full name |
| Address | Not needed But check target b-school’s guidelines. |
| Contact Details | Include your email address, phone number, and, if asked, your LinkedIn address |
| Age / Gender | No |
| Nationality | No |
| Photograph | No Unless a b-school explicitly asks for it. |
Your header should be clean and simple. Do not make it look like a visiting card or a design portfolio.
03
Formatting
| Element | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Visual CV | No |
| Font size | 10 to 12 |
| Font Style | The best font styles are Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman |
| White space | Essential. Protect it. A cluttered resume is your worst enemy. It does not show that you have done a lot of things, it shows your inability to discern what is valuable and worth highlighting. |
| Margins | Keep .5 inch top/bottom and .75 inch left/right |
| Tabular formatting | Avoid tables, boxes, and heavy formatting. Use a flowing, reverse-chronological resume format. |
| Bold text | Use bold only for section headings, organization names, roles. Do not bold individual words within bullets to create emphasis — it looks distracting. |
| Time duration | Align the time duration for jobs / other bullets to the right hand side. Use the Year-Year (2011–2015) or Mon, Year – Mon, Year (Sep, 2011 – May 2025) format. |
| Length of Bullet point | 1–2 lines maximum. Write one clear impact statement per bullet — do not chain facts together with semicolons. |
| Tone | Keep language in third person. Do not use words such as I, me, we etc. |
04
Resume Structure
| Section | Notes |
|---|---|
| 1. Professional Experience | Required |
| 2. Education | Required |
| 3. Additional Information | Required |
| Optional sections | Leadership Experience, International Experience, or Entrepreneurial Experience, but only if they are strong enough to deserve a separate section. |
05
Professional Experience
| Elements | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Company Description | After naming your organizations, add a single line company description on what it does, its annual revenue, number of employees or number of countries it operates in. This is particularly important for smaller organizations that admissions teams may not be aware of and have no context about them. |
| Order of Bullet Points | List your jobs in reverse chronological order (latest job first) |
| Bullet Focus | Bullets should focus on quantified achievements and leadership qualities, not responsibilities |
| Strong Action Verbs |
Start the bullets with strong action verbs that show impact, such as:
increasedreducedlaunchedbuiltledgeneratedimprovednegotiatedexpandedcreatedinnovatedsavedscaledachieved
|
| Passive Words to Avoid |
Avoid starting bullet points with doer verbs — these make your role sound passive:
supportedhelpedmaintainedcoordinatedcommunicatedworked on
|
| Verb Repetition | Use each action verb only once within a single role section |
| Variety | Each bullet should highlight a different type of achievement. Avoid repeating the same kind of work across multiple bullets — a common trap for consultants who list similar client projects several times. |
| Career Growth and Leadership | If you have been in the same company for a long time, do not club all the bullet points under one large section. Instead use multiple sections highlighting every job role and corresponding bullet points. |
| Industry Lexicon | Do not use industry jargon or acronyms that a layman will not understand. Use full forms instead of acronyms. |
06
Education
| Element | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Order | List education in reverse chronological order, starting with your latest degree or certification. |
| What to Include |
Include: College / university name; Degree; Year of graduation; Major / specialization; GPA or rank only if it strengthens your profile; Academic honors, scholarships, or distinctions like Dean’s List, summa cum laude, or scholarships to underscore excellence.
Add bullet points about your leadership experiences and achievements at college. Quantify the achievements to show what impact you created.
|
| What to Omit | Do NOT mention anything related to your secondary education. The resume should provide information only about what you studied at college or beyond. |
06b
Certifications and Technical Skills
| Type | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Business-relevant certifications | Include Certifications relevant to business school, like CA, CFA, PMP, Six Sigma, Product Management, Scrum Master etc. |
| Technical certifications | Do not add Technical certifications such as GCP Certified Associate Cloud Engineer, Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals. Any certifications you add should be relevant to your MBA admission. |
| Technical skills | Do not add Technical skills and technologies such as SQL, Python, Snowflake, Azure etc. Instead save the space to mention other leadership experiences. |
| Online courses | Avoid Coursera or other learning courses unless relevant to your job / future roles. Usually application forms have space for these. |
07
Additional Information
| Element | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Why this section matters | You MUST have this section. It is where you show your personality, leadership, initiative, and contribution beyond your job. |
| What to include |
|
| How to write it | Write bullet points focussing on quantified achievements. Don’t just mention the activity name, but make the bullet interesting by telling how you led and what impact you created. |
The Golden Rule
Every bullet should ideally answer at least one of these questions:
- What did you improve or build?
- What was the scale of your work?
- What changed because of your contribution?
- Which leadership skill did you use?
If a bullet does not answer any of these, it probably does not deserve space on your MBA resume.