Your resume is one of the most critical pieces of your business school application: it is the first component that admissions committee members review, and it is often the only information that they provide to interviewers before your interview. Quantifying your value on your resume is worth the extra effort because doing so adds credibility and helps you stand out\u2014which can give you an edge in the competitive world of MBA admissions.<\/p>\n
If you are having trouble identifying powerful data points to add to your resume, you are not alone. This can be particularly difficult to do if you are coming from a position without highly analytical or financially driven responsibilities. Here are some tricks and techniques to help you along the way!<\/p>\n
If your business school resume doesn\u2019t already show your business impact, can you calculate it? This can be easier said than done (which is why I\u2019m discussing it first!), and you may need to spend some time thinking about your impact or even getting information from your colleagues.<\/p>\n
For example, a recent Stratus client was proud of the analytical tools he\u2019d built and launched in a recent role. In his resume, he described how one tool was a big time saver for call center agents, but he didn\u2019t really provide any details beyond that. After talking to the call center management team, he soon learned that the tool saves each agent about an hour per week on a specific report. There are 30 agents, so he revamped his bullet from<\/p>\n
\u201cDesigned and implemented new innovative analytics tools.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n to<\/p>\n \u201cDesigned and implemented 4 new innovative analytics tools, including an advanced call center platform that saved 30 labor hours per week.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n To revamp your resume bullets to focus on business results, think about how your work has directly (or indirectly) increased sales\/revenue, decreased costs, improved the customer or employee experience, and saved time through efficiency gains or process automation. If you need to, do what my client did and go ask some of your coworkers how your work has contributed to their success.<\/p>\n Consider how often you do a task, how that adds up over time, and what it helps achieve in business terms. When I first started working with a client, one of her resume bullets was<\/p>\n \u201cCreated reports for leadership to make decisions based off data insights.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n After learning how often she created reports (one to two per week), how long she did it (roughly 20 weeks), to whom she delivered them (about 30 senior executives), and how they used the reports (to make product decisions based on updated competitive activities), the bullet was updated to<\/p>\n \u201cCreated 25+ reports for ~30 senior executives to make product decisions based on updated competitive intelligence.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n When using this technique, ask yourself questions like \u201cHow often?,\u201d \u201cHow many\/much?,\u201d \u201cFor how long?,\u201d \u201cWho does this help (and how many of them are there)?,\u201d and \u201cHow does it help them and by how much?\u201d <\/em>Just continue going deeper\u2014asking questions and writing down any metrics or business impacts along the way.<\/p>\n In a related scenario, many people who are at an early stage in their career have experienced leadership without formal management reporting and therefore struggle to demonstrate this with numbers. For example, maybe they trained new hires (enabling them to onboard more quickly than expected to start delivering impact of their own), ran an internship program (allowing interns to execute projects in a time-constrained environment), or managed a client project (whose success can be validated by the results of a customer satisfaction survey). If this is you, use this technique and ask yourself these same questions to help quantify your leadership.<\/p>\n Admissions committees like to see how you\u2019ve progressed relative to your peer group, so think about where you\u2019ve outperformed your peers. Some roles tend to have big peer groups (think about the big \u201cincoming class\u201d hires where everybody starts at the same time). I\u2019ve seen people highlight their milestones in ways such as<\/p>\n \u201cFast-tracked promotion to Associate due to performance (18 months to promotion versus 2-year average among peers).\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n and<\/p>\n \u201cSelected as 1 of 10 (out of >1,000 qualified applicants) for ABCco\u2019s Leadership Program.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Some questions to consider are \u201cWere you the most junior in a peer group?,\u201d \u201cAre performance metrics shared that indicate where you did well?,\u201d and \u201cDid you achieve milestones at a fast pace?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n If you don\u2019t know your impact specifically, estimate it\u2014but be realistic, and NEVER embellish! One way to be transparent about the numbers not being exact is to add the term \u201cestimated\u201d or even just the \u201c~\u201d symbol. To describe his experience as a health clinic volunteer during his undergrad years, one of our clients changed his resume bullet from<\/p>\n \u201cCared for and served patients.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n to<\/p>\n \u201cProvided care for ~10 patients weekly at a homeless shelter.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Adding this metric gives the admissions committee a sense of your impact. So, if you don\u2019t know exactly, apply some logic (or recollection) and come up with your best estimate.<\/p>\n Things change from week to week or year to year, but don\u2019t let this derail your metrics efforts. If you\u2019re omitting metrics because you don\u2019t know how to concisely describe something that changed over time, providing a range can be a good tool. This can be especially helpful for annual activities that fluctuate for various reasons. Consider someone who is involved in organizing community events as a volunteer (extracurricular):<\/p>\n \u201cProvided community support throughout the year including holiday outreach.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n versus<\/p>\n \u201cOrganized 4-6 fundraising events annually, each with 100\u2013150 attendees, primarily focused on holiday outreach.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n What happens if you are asked during an interview about a range you provided on your resume? In the example above, you could explain the variance in the number of annual events by simply saying you had work or family commitments that conflicted for an event during the second year.<\/p>\n If you have an annual performance review or have received feedback and grades from courses, this is a great opportunity to document your achievements. Even without an actual number, you can still demonstrate your accomplishments. One recent client took a leadership development course during college, which initially was outlined in the following resume bullet:<\/p>\n2. Quantify volume and frequency.<\/h3>\n
3. Highlight your performance relative to peers.<\/h3>\n
4. Come up with a best estimate.<\/h3>\n
5. Provide a range.<\/h3>\n
6. Share your ratings.<\/h3>\n