Resumes give you an opportunity to introduce yourself and begin telling your story to a future employer. A good resume will be a summary of who you are, where you’ve been and where you are headed. It is important to target your resume to your audience as directly as you can by incorporating what you’ve learned from career conversations, the job description, and research you have done.
We recommend you get an early start to give yourself four to six weeks to get your resume updated.
Getting Started
In these following three sections we will help you build your resume step by step with useful tips to maximize impact on your intended audience.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to think about your resume
- Overview of the recommended sections of a Haas resume
Next steps:
- Update your resume by adding your Haas MBA to the education section and including your current/most recent role and projects.
- Create a master document highlighting all your skills, projects, and job duties from all of your experiences (jobs, internships, volunteer and school activities). This would be your Family & Friends resume (video) allowing you to pull the relevant information to target each application.
What You’ll Learn:
- The components of a strong bullet point for your resume
- How to arrange your content to support your career development
Next steps:
- Write your content – for each bullet on your resume include three out of the four components: what, how, result, why (context). You can use this Accomplishment Statement Worksheet to help you.
- Reorganize your resume bullets to reflect your career strategy (pivoting role, pivoting industry or advancing).
- Consider the interview story you would tell for each point on your resume.
- Research the relevant language for your target industry/role/company.
Additional resources:
- Action Verbs for your Resumes – Start each bullet point with a unique action verb to highlight your diverse skillset; list adapted from job search blog The Muse.
- Remember that your resume is your Interview Agenda (video).
- JobScan – Analyzes how well your resume matches a job description in just a few seconds.
What You’ll Learn:
- The Haas Resume format
- How to use VMock to check formatting and grammar
Next steps:
- Update your resume to the Haas Resume template:
The Haas Format is required for anyone going through on-campus interviewing (OCI), and is the best layout for most job or internship applications. Employers expect your resume to be in the Haas format as it is clear and easy to read.
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- Blank Haas Format Resume
- Haas Format Resume – If you are struggling with the rulers, gridlines, and working with tables – Download as a Microsoft Word document, go to Table Tools > Layout > View Gridlines
- Annotated Haas Format Resume
- Run your resume through VMock
The CMG Resume Checklist will equip you with “Best Practices” to convey your skills and experience in a clear and compelling way to a recruiter.
Resume Types
A reverse chronological format is the most common way to arrange your content in your Haas resume. You want to highlight three to five bullet points per experience.
EXAMPLES:
A hybrid Haas format can be used if you are making a pivot to a new role, as it helps to explicitly highlight the skills and experience you have directly related to the job you are targeting.
Skill Headings for MBA Resumes – Suggested headings to help you highlight specific skill sets.
EXAMPLES:
A functional resume is typically used when making a pivot in both industry and function, or you need to summarize a longer career history. This format shifts the focus to skills required for the new role.
Meet with a coach if you are interested in creating a functional resume.
EXAMPLE:
- Experienced Hire Resume (annotated) – Marketing 2021
- Experienced Hire Resume (annotated) – Real Estate Executive Resume 2021
- Experienced Hire Resume (annotated) – Real Estate 2021
- Experienced Hire Resume (annotated) – Strategy & Investment Professional 2021
- Experienced Hire Resume (annotated) – Strategy and Ops 2021
- Experienced Hire Resume (annotated) – Finance Manager 2021
- Experienced Hire Resume (annotated) – Financial Planning & Analysis 2021
- Experienced Hire Resume (annotated) – Venture Investor & Business Development 2021
Please note: these resume examples are merely for your reference and do not meet the formatting requirements for inclusion in the Candidate Search function in CMG BEARS (relevant for EWMBAs in their 2nd and 3rd years).
Finishing Touches
Now that you have built your resume here are some next steps to refine and target the content:
VMock is an AI resume development application designed for MBAs. The system will check your resume for correct Haas formatting, read for grammar, and ensure the use of leadership language. This tool is available for current students once classes have begun.
- VMock instructions on how to upload your resume for review
- See VMock in action
Please note you have ten resume uploads per academic year.
- CMG coaches can help you think about your resume strategy, brainstorm, and refine content.
- CMG Peer Advisors or Industry Specialists can assist you in tailoring your resume with industry-specific language.
- SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool – Create an account. Find 10-15 job descriptions and paste the text into the “Plain Text” tab to identify key words and key word pairings and review your resume and LinkedIn profile to see how you’re doing with key word inclusion.
- TagCrowd – Helps you find the keywords in a job description.
- JobScan – Analyzes how well your resume matches a job in just a few seconds.