Creating a resume_for_mba_applications

C R EATI NG A RESUME
FOR MBA APPLICATIONS

c Re ati n g a ReSu m e Fo R m Ba a PPli cation S

Copyright © 2011 by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Inc, Los Angeles, California, USA. www.stacyblackman.com

Cover design by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Inc

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© 201 1 Stacy B l ac k m a n co nS ult i n g in c. w ww.StacyBl ack m an.com a l l RightS R eS eRv ed. 1

CREATING A RESUME FOR MBA APPLICATIONS

TABLE OF CON TEN TS
CHAPTER 1: Background 3 CHAPTER 5: Section 3 – Education 17
The Purpose of the MBA Resume Goal of the Education Section
The Resume’s Role in MBA Admissions What to Include
The Audience – Who is Reading the Resume Format
What Not to Include

CHAPTER 2: Format 5
The One Page Resume CHAPTER 6: Section 4 – Additional Information 20
Margins Goals of the Additional Information Section
Font Information to Include
How to Save Space What Not to Include

CHAPTER 3: Section 1 – Contact Information 7 EXHIBIT A: Action Verbs 23

CHAPTER 4: Section 2 – Professional 8 APPENDIX 24
Why This Comes First Sample Resumes
Which Jobs to Include
Information to Include
Formatting ABOUT STACY BLACKMAN CONSULTING 31
Content of Bullet Points
How Much Detail do you Need?
What Not to Include
Action Verbs
Quantifying Results
Remembering Your Audience
Demonstrating Progression
Transforming Bullets from Blah to Winning
Translating Technical Jargon into MBA Language

© 2010 STACY BLACKMA N CO NSU LTING INC. www.stacybl ackman.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


CHAPTER 1: Background
THE PURPOSE OF THE MBA RESUME

In general, the purpose of the resume is to provide someone (a decision maker) with a quick snapshot of who you are,
professionally. A well designed resume should be easy to scan, and should tell a chronological story of an individual’s
professional and academic development. If you understand the purpose of the resume, it makes it easier to design one
well. A resume should not be an all inclusive, comprehensive look at everything you have done. Details can be explored
in interviews, essays and follow up conversations. The goal of the resume is to help someone quickly get up to speed
on who you are and what you have accomplished. It is a quick reference piece to hold on to in an interview, or something
to orient or jog the memory as a decision maker sorts through a pile of applicants.

It is important that a resume demonstrates progression and highlights significant experiences and accomplishments,
rather than “everything you have ever done”. These accomplishments and experiences should illustrate what a given
job or educational experience has encompassed.

The resume can highlight important aspects of an individual and help an applicant to stand out a bit. Sometimes, a
detail on a resume can serve as an icebreaker, or enable conversation in an interview.

THE RESUME’S ROLE IN MBA ADMISSIONS

For most MBA programs, the resume is part of your written application. Even if you are not including your formal resume,
the application will ask you to put the contents of the resume into the data form of the application. Being able to distill
your experiences down to a few meaningful lines of text will be imperative, regardless of whether you submit your formal
resumes or transfer that text to the school’s unique form.

The resume will also play a role in your MBA interview. It is not uncommon for an interviewer to have a copy of the
resume prior to the interview or to ask for a copy when you meet. This is because, once again, it is a visual way for them
to easily keep track of your story. With resume in hand, an interviewer may start off an interview by asking you to “walk
them through your resume”. This is helpful for them as they are trying to take stock of where you are, where you have
been, and understand all of that in the context of your goals for the future. For someone who needs to very quickly get
up to speed on you, a well designed resume is an important and useful tool. Keep this in mind as you design your resume.
Think about how you want to “walk someone through your resume,” and design your resume to meet your needs.

The resume can be an important first step in the MBA application process, because it forces the applicant to take stock
of his or her progression and think about how to articulate that in a very succinct way. Going through the exercise of
developing a resume is useful in helping an individual organize thoughts and pull out most significant experiences and
accomplishments. The resume is the skeleton of an application, and it can be a guide for moving forward. The meat of
your application will be how you fill in and reveal your personality through essays, interviews, recommendations and
informal communications with the admissions committee.

© 2010 STACY BLACKMA N CO NSU LTING INC. www.stacyblackman.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 3

HARVA RD RESUME FOR MBA APPLICATIONS
CREATING A BU SINESS SCHO O L ESSAY GUI DE

THE AUDIENCE – WHO IS READING THE RESUME

Just as it is important to consider the role of the resume in your application process, it is vital to keep in mind your
audience. The reader of your MBA resume will be different than the person hiring you for an investment banking job or
an engineering position. The MBA reader will be looking for things that are important to an MBA program. In most
cases this does not include skills such as programming in SQL and Javascrpit and wisilywug or creating highly complex,
technical financial models.

MBA programs are looking for individuals who will be successful as leaders and in highly collaborative work environments.
They are seeking skills that are transferable to success in any industry. When you are seeking job in a certain industry,
there is a good chance the hiring manager will want you to be experienced with a certain type of real estate software or
accounting technique. But these specifics will not be of interest to an MBA program. In fact, an MBA interviewer or
admissions committee member might not even know what these things are.

When you draft a resume for an MBA program, it is likely that you will change aspects of it that are too industry specific.
You will want to focus on three key goals. In addition to telling the chronological story of your academic and professional
career, much of your information should be focused on supporting these things:

1. Showcasing leadership
2. Showcasing other “MBA relevant” skills such as teamwork, collaboration, innovation
3. Demonstrating growth and progression



CHAPTER 2: Format
THE ONE PAGE RESUME

There are certainly those who will disagree, but we fervently believe that in almost every case, the resume should be one
page only. Many applicants have too many jobs to fit on a page, or have lists of publications, patents or other
accomplishments that they want to include. However, when a resume becomes too long, it defeats the purpose of the
resume as described above. “Quick snapshot, quick reference point, skeleton of the application”. While we would like
to think that members of the admissions committee have time to pour over a four page resume in detail, this is not the
case. The goal for your resume should be to convey important information about your self efficiently, and to make it easy
for the decision maker to digest. Why would you make them read more than one page? It is highly likely that eyes will
start to gaze once a page is turned.

Certain formatting conventions will also make the resume easy to read and digest. Squeezing an enormous amount of
text into one page by reducing margins, font and spaces also defeats the purpose of the “easy to read” resume. You will
want to adhere to specific format rules in order to make your resume clean, clear and user friendly.

MARGINS

One inch margins are ideal, but margins are one area where you can play around with spacing. If the resume is clean,
and does not look too cramped, you may be able to reduce your margins to as small as .75. Use your own eye as a guide.
If it looks cramped or if you are questioning it, stop questioning and increase the size of your margins.

FONT

Typical fonts for a resume are Times New Roman, Verdana, Cambria and Arial, with Times New Roman being the most
common. The business resume is not the place to experiment with fancy fonts. Keep the fonts and format conservative.
You can allow your personality to shine through in other parts of your MBA application package. A clear, readable size
for resume font is 10pt. This will ultimately depend on the font style you select, but benchmark at about 10pt.



HOW TO SAVE SPACE

Adhering to a one page resume admittedly can be challenging when you have several years of work experience or a
long list of accomplishments you want to highlight. Some applicants try to squeeze it all in by reducing font and
eliminating margins. This is a good way to ensure that your resume is not reviewed! No one wants to go blind scrutinizing
resume number 207 of the day. The first step to creating the one page resume is taking the time to assess each entry
on the resume and decide if it really adds to your story. If it does need to be included, you can trim any resume verbiage,
just as you will likely need to decrease word count in your essays.

There are also very simple techniques that can help you to reduce the amount of space you are using. We often start
with the contact information at the top of the page. It is not unusual to see the top of a resume looking like this:

STACY S. BLACKMAN
7162 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036

323.934.3996
stacy@stacyblackman.com

Compare that header to this one:

STACY S. BLACKMAN
7162 Beverly Blvd, LA, CA 90036 ~ 323.934.3936 ~ stacy@stacyblackman.com

This approach looks just as polished and professional, but takes up about one third of the space. Small tweaks like these
are perfectly appropriate when trying to conserve as much space as possible.



CHAPTER 3:
SECTION 1 : Contact Information

The first section of any resume should be Contact Information. For reasons that are hopefully obvious, you want to lead
with your full name and make it slightly more eye catching than the rest of your resume. This way, your interviewer can
easily spot your name and avoid any awkwardness! And admissions officers with piles of resumes can easily sort and
organize. Contact information does not need to be comprehensive. In most cases, your permanent mailing address,
home phone number and personal email address is all you need. Avoid including all of your phone numbers or multiple
addresses – it is just not necessary and can even be confusing. If you are deciding which phone number to include, we
recommend that you include your home line. You do not want to be caught off guard by a call to your cell phone when
you are at the grocery store or can barely hear. In some cases, a phone number and email address is enough.



CHAPTER 4:
Section 2 : Professional

WHY THIS COMES FIRST

The second section on your business school resume will be the professional section, which summarizes and
chronologically illustrates your career. Some people place the education section first, but this is generally incorrect. The
information on the resume appears in reverse chronological order, so if you are currently working, you should place the
professional section first. In most (not all, but most) cases, the career progress is also most important to MBA admissions
representatives and that is what they will want to focus on and discuss. This order will flip as soon as you are in business
school, interviewing for summer jobs. At that point, the education section will precede the professional section.

WHICH JOBS TO INCLUDE

Even a young applicant just a few years out of school may have several jobs, starting with part time jobs during school,
and developing into full time jobs after graduation. Some of these jobs may have lasted less than a year. In today’s
environment, an applicant could have four or more internships and part time jobs in college, and two to three full time
jobs in the three years after college. If you are older, these numbers quickly rise.

So, how does one decide which experiences to include on the resume, and which ones to axe? There are several key
questions to ask your self when considering this question.

1. Is the work meaningful? Can you leverage this position to illustrate a specific skill set that you acquired
or an accomplishment that is important?

2. Does it support your career path? Does it support your future goals? Does it make sense for your overall
story? Or was it just a way to make some extra money? An unpaid internship doing marketing outreach for
a university department will be more important to include than that paying job working in the cafeteria that
you held for four years during college. (Note that holding a job during college is impressive, and it should
be noted elsewhere in your application but it does not need to be in the Professional section of your resume.)

3. How long were you at the job? Once you graduate from college, it is important to account for your time.
If omitting a position from your resume will create a year long gap, then it can be in your best interest to keep
it on, so that the reviewer can keep track of your progress through the years. Conversely, if you were at a
job for only a very short period of time (a couple of months), even if it is an all-star position, it generally will
not make sense to include it.

4. How recent was it? The longer you have been out of college, the more it makes sense to omit early career
positions. Even if these positions took up several years, it is okay to omit them. If you have been out of
school for ten years, and have some meaty experiences filling the last five years, the first five years of your
full time experience may not be necessary.

It is impossible to apply a blanket rule to this process. However, an applicant can combine some judgment with answers
to the questions above and you should be in good shape. Beware of becoming too attached to any one line item. You
will need to scrutinize each one and be willing to cut when and if it makes sense.



INFORMATION TO INCLUDE

You will need to include some basic information for each position that you list on your resume. The information to be
included is as follows:

1. Name of company

2. Location (of your specific job, not company headquarters)

3. Your job title

4. Dates of this position (start and end)

5. Bullet points outlining key responsibilities and accomplishments

This information needs to be clearly displayed for each position. If you have more than one position with one company,
you will need to include dates of each position, responsibilities that are specific to each position, and detail location of
each position if that changes.

Some applicants like to include information on their company, such as general mission of the company, common activities
of the company or annual revenue. This company-level information is not necessary. After all, anyone reviewing your
resume cares about what you have done, not what the company does. The “bullet points” under each job description
will describe your specific activities and these will be much more important than anything at the company level.
Company information can even confuse or mislead. For example, if someone is working in a marketing function at a
financial services company, or in a CFO position at a consumer products company, the two descriptions (company and
applicant’s job) will be extremely different. In summary, keep the focus on you!

FORMATTING

While there is no format that you absolutely must adhere to, the following format is recommended because it keeps the
audience in mind. It is easy to scan, it helps to highlight job progression and in general it is clean and easy to review.

2006 –2008 CHARLES SCHWAB San Francisco, CA
Senior Product Manager 2007-2008
• I led a team
• I made millions for the company

Product Manager 2006-2007
• I crunched numbers
• I assisted with market research

The key to this format is that the dates and locations stand alone so that a reviewer can easily piece together the story
of your career. It also makes it very easy to see how you have progressed in your career.



CONTENT OF BULLET POINTS

The bullet points that you list under each position should provide the reader with an idea of what you do in your job,
highlighting specific accomplishments. If done effectively, the reviewer can develop a good grasp for your abilities and
responsibilities, and he or she will be able to understand how you have progressed in your career as they review the
transitions from one job description to the next.

Some applicants have very traditional pre-MBA jobs. If you have been working as a Staff Consultant at Bain, or as an
Analyst at Goldman Sachs, chances are the admissions committee will go in with a pretty good feel for your overall job
description. While you will want the bullets under your job description, to confirm and bolster their preconceived notions
of what you are doing in your role, this is also an opportunity to illustrate the things that you have done that may set
you apart from the typical analyst. So, in addition to outlining some of your standard activities, you may want to include
that you trained a newly hired analyst, led college recruiting efforts, or organized an office-wide volunteer initiative.
These activities may have taken less of your time, but they are a bit outside of traditional responsibilities and give great
insight into how you have made a difference for your firm.

HOW MUCH DETAIL DO YOU NEED?

This question will be largely answered by the amount of space you have. You are forced to be succinct by the one page
format. Certain details are truly unnecessary; as they provide background information that does not really help to
explain what you did. As always, be sure to keep the focus on you.

Some jobs can be summarized with just a couple of bullet points. Others need many more, perhaps ten bullets to
summarize all of the diverse responsibilities. If you have been in a job for a long period of time, it is likely that there is
a lot to say about it.

You certainly do not need to explain every task ever completed in a certain role. The bullets should be activities that
you spend a great deal of time doing, or activities that do a good job of highlighting important qualities or skills.

The bullets should be very brief, as short as one to two lines long. Keeping in mind that the reviewer will likely do a quick
scan, you will want to keep everything brief, and easy to digest. At the same time, you do want to make sure that you
are complete.

It will be a balancing act – trying to keep your verbiage succinct while still communicating all important points.



WHAT NOT TO INCLUDE

1. SALARY – Salary is generally asked for in the data forms of your application. Salary can be a good indication
of the level of responsibility in your job. It also demonstrates progression when your salary increases over
time. Thus, this information is valuable to admissions representatives, but it should not go into your resume.

2. REFERENCES – References are required as part of your MBA application and will play a big role in your
candidacy. However, there is no need to include them on your resume. You do not need a line such as
“References available upon request” or a listing of reference contacts.

3. REASON FOR LEAVING A JOB – Whether you were laid off, fired, decided to try something new, or were
offered a huge promotion – these explanations do not belong on your resume. Some schools will ask for the
reason you left a job as part of their data form. And there is certainly opportunity to explain these things
in your interview, recommendations and essays, if you want the reasons to be known.

4. MISSION STATEMENT – Many applicants include a mission statement at the top of their resume: “Seeking a
challenging entry level marketing role at a financial service company”. However, in the context of the MBA
application process, everyone has the same objective, and it is to go to business school. Thus, the mission
statement is irrelevant.

ACTION VERBS

Every bullet should lead with a strong and interesting action verb. Imagine scanning a resume and spotting words such
as “Was, Did, and Made”, as opposed to “Managed, Spearheaded and Created”. The latter set is composed of stronger,
more interesting words and they can really set the tone for your resume. We have included a list of Action Verbs in
Exhibit A. As you develop your resume, refer to this list and think of ways that you can strengthen the language in your
resume by utilizing words from this list. Sometimes the same task can be described in different language, creating a
completely different impression for the reviewer.

For example consider these two statements:

A) Filing system was upgraded by my team…

B) Initiated and managed complete overhaul of company information management system…

The second statement showcases an individual who is proud of his/her work and is injecting it with confidence and
personality, right down to the description on the resume. Also related to this is the fact that the resume should utilize
the active tense throughout. Avoid passive language as much as possible in your resume and throughout the application.
Not only is it better grammar to use the active tense, but it also conveys a more direct, driven and in control feeling from
the resume.



QUANTIFYING RESULTS

Another rule to keep in mind for every bullet is to quantify results as much as possible. While it is nice to know that you
created a new marketing program, conceived of new revenue streams or led the analyst training program, it is also
important to know that:

• the new marketing program increased awareness by 32%

• the new revenue streams boosted revenue by 18%

• the analyst training program halved ramp up time required by new analysts and tripled analyst productivity

Again, consider the two bullets presented in the preceding section on Action Verbs. If you add a result to the latter
statement, it becomes even stronger:

A) Filing system was upgraded by my team.

B) Initiated and managed complete overhaul of company information management system. Revamped system
increased employee productivity by 16%, cut information management costs by 33% and was adopted at
seven satellite offices nationwide.

As you can see, including results catapults this bullet into an entirely different level in terms of how hard it works for you
on the resume! While not all responsibilities and activities have quantifiable results, most are measurable in some way,
and it is always important to include results to the extent possible.

REMEMBERING YOUR AUDIENCE

When crafting your MBA resume, keep in mind that this audience is unique from the audience that will review your
resume when you are interviewing for a job. While many of the resume conventions remain constant, the general content
of your bullet points should change in almost every case.

When you are interviewing for a certain kind of job, such as investment banking, an engineering role, or a consulting
position, you will need to include evidence that you are proficient in that type of role. You will need to demonstrate that
you have a certain set of skills, are familiar with certain types of software, or that you have worked on certain types of deals.

MBA programs do not necessarily care about these specifics. Admissions representatives are looking for evidence of
specific characteristics that can translate across any type of job, across all sorts of job categories.

If you are being hired for a Lead Engineering role, you may need to show that you can code in Java Script. This will be
an essential skill to getting this specific job done. Harvard, however, does not really care if you can code in Java Script.
Coding in Java Script will not specifically make you good at leading organizations, building great companies or innovating
world changing products and services. They are much more focused on whether or not you are an effective manager
and have strong leadership potential.

When interviewing for a transactional banking role, many candidates will list out specific deal names with dollar amounts.
However, this type of detail will not be of interest to a school like Kellogg. Kellogg will be much more interested in
understanding how you worked as a team to close these deals. They will be interested in your overall quantitative skills,
but beyond that, the fact that you collaborated with an international team across three time zones, or the fact that you
developed and trained others on a new analysis technique will be more relevant.



When you consider which details to emphasize, keep in mind the general qualities that most business school programs
are looking for. The qualities that MBA admissions committees are looking for are fairly well-known and intuitive.

• LEADERSHIP – evidence of accomplishing things through others, challenging the status quo, instilling a vision,
facing challenges, standing up for what’s right, prioritizing the needs of the organization above personal needs,
and uniting people behind a goal

• DIVERSITY - elements of background, values, experience, and personal qualities that prove the candidate will
add something new, exciting, and different to their community

• SELF-AWARENESS – Takes responsibility for actions; understands how those actions impact others

• INTELLECTUAL HORSEPOWER – a love for learning and a desire for mastery of new subjects; ability to handle
the program’s rigorous academic demands; quantitative abilities

• INTERPERSONAL ABILITIES – the ability to advocate, persuade, and negotiate compromise; charm, charisma,
and exceptional social skills

• EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – evidence of team work and team building; creating clear goals, building a sense
of urgency, identifying the unique talents of team members, motivating teammates, managing a complex
project, and resolving differences

• DETERMINATION - The ability to overcome setbacks and hardships; determination and courage in the face of
adversity; drive; the desire to make an impact personally and professionally

• HUMANITARIAN VALUES - Service to a community, selflessness, generosity

• INTEGRITY/ETHICS – a clear sense of principles and values; evidence of putting principles into action

• CAREER PROGRESSION – evidence that you have distinguished yourself from your peers

• AMBITIOUS CAREER GOALS - Clear career goals and a convincing, achievable action plan for
achieving career objectives

• GLOBAL POINT OF VIEW – awareness of the global nature of business; evidence of adapting to new cultures and
working effectively with a diverse group of people

Getting too detailed with regards to industry-specific skills is generally not a good idea. Make sure that you are speaking
the same language as the admissions committee; do not expect them to be experts in your particular niche. Of course
most of the above qualities will come through in other elements of your application, in particular, your essays. However,
it never hurts to keep these all important qualities in mind.



Sometimes you can illustrate your leadership or other important skills through examples that are tangential to your
basic job responsibilities. We discussed this a bit in “Content of Bullet Points” above, but as you consider how to describe
a certain job, don’t forget to think about some of the following activities, that are all important in spite of the fact that
they may not be part of your core job.

• MANAGING OTHERS – If you formally manage one or more people, it is important to discuss this. Even if you
informally supervise and mentor someone, it is worth including on the resume

• RECRUITING EFFORTS – If you have taken a lead in recruiting, you are acting as the face of your company. This
shows that leaders at your company respect you and trust that you will represent them well.

• VOLUNTEER INITIATIVES – This highlights that you are committed to a balance between work and outside, and
that you are enough of a leader to draw others into your initiatives.

• TRAINING OTHERS – Training, teaching, mentoring and managing are all inter-related and all parts of being a
leader. If you have played a role in training peers, subordinates or even those senior to you (perhaps on a new
type of software), it is worth including on your resume.

• NEW PROJECTS – Perhaps you spearheaded that new filing system, created a template for a new and essential
report, facilitated relationships with an important partner or streamlined routine processes. Anything that
demonstrates you identifying an opportunity and taking initiative is a great thing to include.

All of the above examples can help to highlight skills that MBA programs value.

DEMONSTRATING PROGRESSION

It is always great to show that you are actually progressing in your career. You need to make it clear that over the course
of your career, you have picked up new skills, assumed new responsibilities, developed as an individual and that all of
this growth has been recognized by others.

It is relatively easy to demonstrate progression on your resume, when you are promoted while working for one company.
When you show that you were an Analyst one year, and then a Senior Analyst the next year, that is a clear progression.
However, you need to show progression with more than just your title. The information in the bullets under your title
needs to reflect the title change, and to illustrate how you have grown.

For example, as an Analyst, you might be creating extensive financial models. As a Senior Analyst, you might be training
others on modeling, you might be supervising direct reports, you might be spearheading new deals. The description of
your responsibilities serves as a way to track your progress.

It can be more challenging to illustrate your progress when you are hopping between jobs. Sometimes these jobs are in
different functional areas, so you really are starting from scratch in a new position, as you learn the ropes. However, even
if you go from learning about brand management to tax audits, you can show that as an employee you are gaining
greater levels of responsibility and taking more initiative. As you mature, you may have to learn a new skill, but you are
still more capable of running with and managing a project.

The most difficult scenario is when you have been in the same position with the same company, for many, many years.
In this case, you may have to distill five years of experience into a single list of bullets under that one job title. In this
case, you can list your responsibilities chronologically; most recent first and can pepper the list with dates so that a
reviewer can see when certain activities took place. Of course in the context of your full application, your interview,



essays and recommendations will also work to show the story of progression. Here is the example of list of bullets for
someone who has been in a job for five years:

• Led development of business unit’s 2008 advertising and publicity strategy, including marketing plan
for introduction and design of website. Resulted in 32% increase in leads.

• Trained and supervised newly hired financial analyst.

• Developed western region’s 2006 investment strategy and debt portfolio analysis.

• Priced and structured over $500 million in commercial mortgage transactions.

• Designed and negotiated an innovative shelf financing structure, which served as model
for future company transactions.

• Responded to internal inefficiencies by creating software model that facilitated deal analysis and tracking.
Model was later implemented in all field offices.

• Led legal counsel, engineers and environmental consultants in completing due diligence work.

TRANSFORMING BULLETS FROM BLAH TO WINNING: EXAMPLES

To inspire you, we are presenting you with examples of how to make even the most mundane tasks shine. As you will
notice, adding specific details makes the information come alive and helps to clarify the writer’s role. All of our “blah”
examples were taken from actual first drafts of resumes (with permission):

BLAH:
Responsible for updating weekly deal pipeline.
WINNING:
Overhauled and managed weekly communication which ultimately facilitated internal knowledge sharing and enhanced
external client relations.

BLAH:
Helped with new software implementation.
WINNING:
Spearheaded software upgrade in the San Francisco field office by coordinating with software developer, leading training
sessions and facilitating implementation schedule.

BLAH:
Assisted new hires with learning company processes.
WINNING:
Created and managed training program for new hires, which significantly decreased average ramp up time. Program has
run in two offices for past three years.



BLAH:
Analyzed new product prospects for go/no go launch decision.
WINNING:
Led cross-functional team in strategic assessment of new product launch for summer 2008. Developed and tested new
product concepts and conducted preliminary analysis of pricing strategy, volume projections, packaging, promotions
budget and trade spending.

BLAH:
Drafted competitive overview with recommendations and presented to management.
WINNING:
Prepared a competitive analysis for the convenience store channel by assessing competitive marketing strategy and
analyzing competitive merchandising, media and pricing activity. Presented to Senior Management along with
comprehensive defense plan. Plan implementation led to 8% growth in market share in just two months.

TRANSLATING TECHNICAL JARGON INTO MBA LANGUAGE

As we have mentioned above, it can be particularly difficult to summarize job responsibilities and accomplishments
effectively if you become mired in the technical jargon associated with your role. While this is especially common with
engineering positions, it can really happen in any industry. Beware of specific computer programs, programming
languages, company acronyms and other lingo that will cause a reader to tune out or become confused.

The following “what?” examples are taken from real resumes. We think you will be just as confused as we were when
we first read these.

Our winning examples show how to make the content more accessible and understandable to an MBA admissions
audience.

WHAT?
Created VA1 Business Acquisition.
WINNING:
Devised and launched outbound communications plan for our premier voice activated product. Product was well received
and became cash flow positive within 14 months.

WHAT?
Worked on Project “Type Top”
WINNING:
Conducted market research in order to gather requirements for complex translation program. Led product team in
prioritizing and implementing all audio requirements related to the award winning product.

WHAT?
Assessed PY capabilities for inefficiencies.
WINNING:
Assessed seven shared features of a major gas utility for process inefficiencies through user research and competitive
analysis, identifying over $6 million in monthly savings.



CHAPTER 5:
Section 3 : Education

GOAL OF THE EDUCATION SECTION

The Education section should include very basic information about your educational background. It should show a
chronology of schools attended, areas of study and significant activities and accomplishments. As with the rest of the
resume, it should be easy to scan, so that someone who is becoming acquainted with your background can very easily
identify names of schools and dates and start to piece together your background.

Keep in mind that while it is necessary to include an education section, the MBA resume is first and foremost, a
professional document. Thus, the education section should be brief, and you will not go into the level of detail in this
section that you do in the professional section. You can feel free to elaborate on anything that is important in your
essays and interview. Your academic transcript(s) will also help to develop a complete picture of your academic
experience.

WHAT TO INCLUDE

You will need to include some basic information for each educational institution that you list on your resume. The
information to be included is as follows:

1. Name of school

2. Location

3. Years attended

4. Degree obtained

Other information is frequently included, but not essential. You must use your judgment and decide if it makes sense
for you to include.

1. Overall GPA, Major GPA – For an MBA resume, it often does not make a lot of sense to include the GPA. Your
GPA will be on your data forms and official transcript. No need to present it again. But if you have the
space, and you have a high GPA, it also does not hurt to include it.

2. Major - This can be helpful, especially if your major sheds further light on your career path. For example, if
you earned a BS Economics, with a major in Marketing, and then went on to pursue a marketing career, that
major in marketing helps to connect the dots. If the reviewer only saw that you earned a BS Economics, the
early interest in marketing may not be as clear.

3. Activities, Offices held – There is no need to list all activities, but it is certainly worth including meaningful and
interesting ones. It is definitely worth highlighting elected or appointed leadership positions within activities
that were important to you. However, it may not be necessary to include any more than the position title.
You can elaborate on interesting experiences or responsibilities in your essays. The primary goal of the
resume is to describe your professional background so go light on this section even if you are tempted to
explain everything you did. Don’t list every club of which you were a member as an undergraduate.



4. Part time jobs – Part time jobs can take up a lot more space than they really require. As we discuss in the
Professional Section above, if a part time job helped you to gain relevant skills and meaningful experience,
you may want to briefly include it. If it was just a way to make money, no need to list the jobs at all.

5. Explaining that school was self financed - Rather than describing the actual jobs that you held to self finance
school, you can include a statement such as, “self financed 85% of education by working 30 hours a week
throughout college”. This conveys the idea that you were very motivated and that you successfully juggled
academics and outside commitments. Or if your GPA was low, this can provide some insight into why.

6. Academic awards, such as Dean’s List – Your decision to include these awards depends on the actual award.
They will undoubtedly be listed elsewhere in your application, so if you do not have the space, you might cut
these out completely, or at least consider abbreviating a long list.

7. Scholarships – As with the awards, you will have to leave it to your judgment to decide how prestigious and
important your awards are.

8. Study Abroad – This can be a helpful item to include. It shows that you had an interest in learning about
another country, and learning another language, and it may be a good tie in with the story of your career
progress to date or your future goals. In general, it is appropriate to include this in the education section,
although it does not need to be given a great deal of space – nothing more than a mention.

9. Classes taught – Teaching positions can be a relevant data point to include since leadership, and subsets of
leadership such as teaching, mentoring and managing are all very interesting to an admissions committee.
It also shows that you are respected by professors, you have strong communications skills and could
command the respect and attention of your peers.

It generally makes sense to include at least some of these details. Many of them will drop off your resume the longer
you have been out of school.

Again, remember that many of these things will be repeated elsewhere in your application. GPA will appear on your
official transcript, and you will self report it in your data forms. Items such as awards and scholarships will be listed in
data forms as well. As you decide what to include, space will, as always, be a consideration, as will the story you are trying
to tell. Is it really essential that the admissions committee knows you were a member of the ski club, in a fraternity, or
that you co-authored ten white papers on a topic that is not relevant to your post-MBA goals? Quite possibly not,
especially if you are tight on space.



FORMAT

The format for the initial, essential information should be consistent with whatever you have used in your professional
section. You will highlight name of school, location and dates in the same way you did for your jobs. Beyond that, you
will briefly list out additional information in simple, hopefully one line, bullet points. Anywhere from two to six bullet
points is reasonable.

WHAT NOT TO INCLUDE

1. Lists of courses taken – When you apply for a job, it can make sense to list out very relevant coursework that
will help you get the job done. However, when you apply to business school, remember that the school
already will have your transcript, and it is not necessary to detail the classes or types of classes taken.

2. Specifics of part time jobs taken to pay tuition – As detailed above, if the skills utilized in the position are not
relevant, you can skip going into detail.

3. Description of school – Some candidates write a brief description of their schools, especially in cases when
the school is not well known: “Small pre-professional college which is consistently ranked in top 10 of
engineering programs”. This type of description does not belong on your resume. If you feel strongly about
providing this information, you can incorporate it into optional information sections on your application or
perhaps in an essay, interview, or a recommender can incorporate it.

4. Every program attended – If you took a few classes at a local college one summer, or did some sort of
exchange with a school close to your home university, no need to outline every one of these experiences. All
of your credits will show up on your transcripts and it really is not necessary to list out several schools on
your resume, unless you attended full time.



CHAPTER 6: Section 4 – Additional Information

GOALS OF THE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION SECTION

This is a brief, informal section which basically encompasses everything that you want to include on your resume that
does not fit into the first three sections (Contact Information, Professional, Education). Some people have a lot they want
to squeeze into this section. Unfortunately, it should be very brief, not more than five to six lines at the bottom of your
resume, at the most, with two to three lines being more appropriate.

If you do not have essential information that you are anxious to include, you can use this section to outline activities and
interests. It is not uncommon to see two sentences at the bottom, such as this:

Interests include skiing, surfing, drawing and world travel. Speak Mandarin and Spanish fluently.

This may not add a ton to what you can offer professionally, but it does add some color and depth to who you are as an
individual. It also helps to “break the ice” in an interview. It is not uncommon for an interviewer to scan your resume
and find something interesting in that bottom section, that helps both of you ease into the conversation. A mutual
interest in tennis, or an intriguing hobby about which the interviewer is curious, can make for a nice introductory
conversation.

In summary, the goals of this section are:

1. Show that you are multi-dimensional, reveal a bit more about who you are

2. Help break the ice in an interview, facilitate some easy conversation

3. Allow you to insert “miscellaneous” information that you want to include in the document,
that does not have a home elsewhere



INFORMATION TO INCLUDE

The following is a list of the types of information that you can consider including in this section:

1. Published papers, books

2. Patents

3. Interests such as cooking, reading, writing, painting, athletics, travel

4. Hobbies such as stamp collecting

5. Athletic teams

6. Languages spoken

7. Awards won

8. Scholarships received

9. Unique facts about you: “I climbed Mt. Everest”, “I have traveled to every continent”,
“I have participated in seven triathlons”.

10. Volunteer involvements

11. Computer skills

While much of your resume will be focused on highlighting your professional activities, it is okay for items in this section
to just show off a fun, informal and personal side of who you are.

We have had clients submit resumes with full page sections entitled, “Volunteer Activities”, “Leadership Activities”,
“Publications”. We have then omitted these sections and filtered all of the contents into one of the three standard
sections. Much of the material might completely get the axe. If there is something that is really great but does not fit
into Education or Professional, the Additional Information Section is the perfect home for it.



WHAT NOT TO INCLUDE

Always keep in mind that this is the “extras” section, and as such it should be kept very brief. And it is still part of your
professional resume, so remember to not get too informal.

While this may seem obvious to some readers, we have reviewed resumes that boast of titles such as “Beer Drinking
Champion”. This type of content is not desirable for your resume. The following is a list of what not to include:

1. CONTROVERSIAL POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS – It is okay to state that you worked on the Democratic
presidential campaign, but you may want to steer clear of more controversial topics and issues.
You do not want to risk starting off the interview with someone immediately knowing that you are pro x,
when they are anti.

2. DRINKING, PARTYING – As mentioned above, don’t boast about your ability to guzzle beer faster than your
peers. Of course it is okay to say that you organized a fundraising party or that you were social chair for
your sorority, but highlighting that in general you organize great, well attended social events…well, use your
best judgment.

3. LONG LISTS OF ANYTHING – A page long list of publications you authored can and should be condensed into
“authored over 70 publications on the heart, including ‘The impact of alcohol on the aortic valve’”.

4. TOO MANY HOBBIES OR INTERESTS – How passionate can you be about 20 different hobbies? Be selective
if you want to be taken seriously. It is much better to choose a few things that really interest you and show
your commitment to them, than to provide a rambling list of everything you have ever tried.

5. ANYTHING YOU CANNOT SUBSTANTIATE ON THE SPOT – You know about 20 words of Spanish, enough to
get by when you vacation in Mexico, and decide that it would not be too much of a stretch to write “fluent
in Spanish” on your resume. It’s all okay until your interviewer decides to test your abilities on the spot by
conducting the interview in Español. The same goes for your interest in Asian Art, your golf game or your
involvement with a community organization. If you are not prepared to speak to it with an enthusiastic
interviewer, it’s better to omit.



EXHIBIT A: Action Verbs
Accumulated Controlled Facilitated Listened Proposed Solved
Achieved Coordinated Filed Located Protected Sorted
Adapted Copied Financed Logged Proved Sought
Addressed Corresponded Fixed Made Provided Spoke
Administered Counseled Focused Maintained Publicized Straightened
Advised Created Formulated Managed Purchased Streamlined
Analyzed Dealt with Found Mapped Questioned Strengthened
Answered Decided Gathered Measured Raised Studied
Anticipated Defined Generated Mediated Read Succeeded
Appraised Delegated Governed Memorized Realized Summarized
Approved Delivered Grouped Mentored Reasoned Supervised
Arbitrated Demonstrated Guided Met Reassured Supplied
Arranged Derived Handled Moderated Received Supported
Ascertained Designed Harmonized Modified Recommended Symbolized
Assembled Detailed Headed Monitored Recorded Systematized
Assessed Detected Heightened Motivated Recruited Synthesized
Assigned Determined Helped Moved Rectified Talked
Assisted Developed Hurried Navigated Reduced Taught
Attained Devised Hypothesized Negotiated Referred Tested
Audited Diagnosed Identified Observed Regulated Timed
Began Directed Illustrated Obtained Rehabilitated Took
Bought Disapproved Imagined Offered Related Trained
Brought Discovered Implemented Operated Rendered Transcribed
Built Dispensed Improved Ordered Reorganized Translated
Budgeted Displayed Improvised Oriented Repaired Treated
Calculated Disproved Increased Organized Repeated Trouble-shot
Cared for Dissected Indexed Outlined Reported Tutored
Catalogued Distributed Influenced Oversaw Represented Typed
Categorized Diverted Informed Participated Researched Undertook
Charted Dramatized Initiated Perceived Reshaped Unified
Checked Edited Innovated Performed Resolved United
Classified Effected Inspected Persuaded Responded Updated
Coached Empathized Inspired Photographed Restored Upgraded
Coded Encouraged Installed Piloted Retrieved Used
Collected Endured Instituted Placed Reviewed Utilized
Communicated Enhanced Instructed Planned Revised Verbalized
Compiled Enlarged Integrated Predicted Risked Verified
Completed Entertained Interacted Prepared Scheduled Volunteer
Composed Equipped Interpreted Prescribed Searched Worked
Computed Established Interviewed Presented Selected Wrote
Conceived Estimated Introduced Presided Sensed
Conceptualized Evaluated Intuited Printed Separated
Conducted Examined Invented Problem-Solved Served
Confronted Exhibited Inventoried Processed Set-up
Consolidated Expanded Investigated Produced Shaped
Conserved Experimented Kept Programmed Showed
Constructed Explained Lectured Projected Simplified
Contracted Expressed Learned Promoted Sketched
Contributed Extracted Led Proof-read Sold



APPENDIX: Sample Resumes
The following resume samples are all based on actual resumes of applicants who were successful in the MBA admissions
process. They leverage a variety of styles, all of which are acceptable.



RESUME 1
financegirl@coolresume.com ~ 510.657.8989

EXPERIENCE

2004-2007 JONES CAPITAL GROUP San Francisco, CA
Senior Investment Analyst, 2006-2007
• Responded to internal inefficiencies by creating software model that facilitated internal deal
analysis and tracking. Model was later implemented in all field offices.
• Designed and negotiated an innovative shelf financing structure, which invested $250 million
and served as model for future Jones transactions.
• Led development of business unit’s 2007 Advertising and Publicity Strategy, including marketing
plan for introduction and design of Web page. Resulted in 12% increase in target awareness.
• Coordinated and performed financial analyses for over $500 million in prepayments.
• Trained and supervised newly hired Financial Analyst.

Financial Analyst, 2004-2006
• Spearheaded software upgrade in the San Francisco field office by coordinating with software
developer, leading training sessions and facilitating implementation schedule.
• Led legal counsel, engineers and environmental consultants in completing due diligence work.
• Developed Western Region investment strategy and debt portfolio analysis.
• Priced and structured over $500 million in commercial mortgage transactions.
• Performed property valuations, market studies and credit risk analyses.

2003-2004 BANK OF ANGELO San Francisco, CA
Associate, Securities Lending
• Created marketing presentation materials for potential clients.
• Designed and produced detailed informational trade reports for institutional trust customers.
• Negotiated bond prices and lending interest rates with broker-dealers.
• Performed portfolio and investment profitability analyses.

EDUCATION

1999-2003 THE WHARTON SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia, PA
Bachelor of Science in Economics, The Wharton School, May 2003.
Concentration in Marketing. Dean’s List, May 2003.
• Founding Member, Public Relations Director, Curator: Penn Student Art Gallery.
• Marketing Coordinator: University Department of Psychiatry.
• Tutor: West Philadelphia Tutoring Project.
• Study abroad in Madrid, Spain, Spring 2002.

OTHER DATA

Received Jone’s Community Champions Award for dedicated community service. Developed and published the first
edition of the Smithsonian Institute’s Air and Space Compendium. Participated in San Francisco softball league. Biked
over 300 miles through Southern France. Alumni interviewer for the University of Pennsylvania. Interests include travel,
skiing, hiking and art.



RESUME 2
(217) 733-9005 ~ cconsultamt@ddt.com

EXPERIENCE

2007- present K. BUILDERS Minneapolis, MN
Management and holdings in $50million in commercial real estate
Co-Founder and Director of Strategy
• Developed business plan and assisted in set up of general operations.
• Managed all fundraising and marketing efforts for initial fund.

2005 - 2007 MONTGOMERY AND COMPANY, INC Minneapolis, MN
Business Analyst
• Designed Asian marketing strategy for a global technology company. Managed projects that
focused on e-commerce strategy and general distribution issues. Led international teams of 32
people in Bangkok, Tokyo and Beijing. Recommended changes in distribution strategy in order
to meet 18% growth in sales projections.
• Worked with private equity fund to develop and implement investment model identifying
industry discontinuities and favored companies. Performed valuations to recommend a $750
million portfolio of investments and M & A deals.
• Designed retail marketing strategy for deregulation of a utility company. Led client teams in
identifying target markets and potential product portfolios.
• Created turnaround strategy for Children’s Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Developed strategic
assessment focused on building market awareness, increasing membership, and improving
operating profitability. Worked with children to determine exhibit strategy. Recommended
expansion of current museum.
• Founded and co-led Office Community Leadership Aspirations Project creating community
involvement opportunities.
• Led Harvard Business Analyst recruiting effort.

EDUCATION

2001-2005 HARVARD COLLEGE Boston, MA
• Bachelor of Arts degree in American Civilazation.
• Honors: Beta Sigma Alpha Academic Honor Society.
• Women’s Varsity Rugby Team.
• Director: Campus-wide Social Planning and Events Committee.
• Semester abroad in Paris, France.

OTHER DATA

• Community Activities: Children’s Medical Center of Cincinnati, Angels Elementary School
Young Friends Board Member
• YMCA youth soccer coach
• Other Interests: skiing, woodworking, travel, adventure sports (rock climbing, kite surfing)



RESUME 3
1745 Orrin Avenue
San Diego, CA 60222
(612) 866-9678
e-cars@gm.com

EXPERIENCE

2004-2007 JASONS DEVVERS, INC.
Start-up firm providing financial consulting on behalf of corporations involved in business litigation.

Manager, 2007 San Diego, CA
• Developed and maintained client relationships with attorneys and corporate executives.
• Led five-person team to complete quantitative analysis and compile report in 75% of the time
specified. The study included tracing the $400 million fortune of an executive and determining
methods of allocating assets in a high-stakes marital dissolution case.

Senior Consultant, 2005-2007 San Diego, CA
• Supervised, trained and evaluated teams of Staff and Senior Consultants.
• Managed cross-functional teams consisting of clients’ engineers, project managers, and
finance personnel to successfully develop and defend against lost profits and increased costs
claims exceeding $500 million.
• Initiated and organized new Staff/Senior meeting program, which increased communication
and interaction between staff and management by providing organized forum for discussions.
• Designed and conducted Internet research and database management training workshops.
• Leveraged creative-problem solving to quantify financial damages under variety of circumstances
including trademark infringement, business interruption, and breach of contract.

Member of Start-up Team, Staff Consultant, 2004 Los Angeles, CA
• Assisted with start-up activities such as selecting office space and 401K plan.
• Created and organized original company recruiting program including development of recruiting
guidelines and processes, design of print materials, and creation of presentation visuals.

2003-2004 JOHNSON CONSULTING, L.L.P. Los Angeles, CA
Staff Consultant
• Developed complex computer models to analyze financial impact of lost profits and increased costs.
• Performed research and analyses on industries such as software, entertainment, and public utilities.

EDUCATION

1999-2003 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO San Diego, CA
Bachelor of Science in Economics, June 2003.
• Magna cum laude, Dean's list, Platinum Honor Society, GPA 3.65/4.0.

OTHER DATA

Worked with Lulu, a childrens’ clothing importer, during start-up phase. Volunteer weekly as a tutor in the “I Have A
Dream” program. San Diego Goldworks community service volunteer. Volunteer kids’ camp counselor. Enjoy travel,
skydiving, fine art, and yoga.



RESUME 4
medical@arrow.com ~ (415) 676-3535

EXPERIENCE

July 2007 - Present Arrow International, Inc., Reading PA
Project Leader:
• Product manager responsible for Percutaneous Thrombolytic Device (PTD) catheter system
designed to treat patients suffering from end-stage renal disease.
• Coordinated and supervised product team to develop innovative PTD system.
• Interfaced and built strong relationships with world-renowned physicians to meet the needs of
the hemodialysis field.
• Organized successful clinical research studies to prove superiority of device over competitive
technologies, gained 19% market share within 18 months.
• Developed strategic marketing plan to introduce product into international and domestic
markets, launch exceeded forecasts by 17%.
• Trained and supported 150 person salesforce to effectively market product
to health-care community.

2005 - 2007 Project Engineer:
• Modified and enhanced design features of Pullback Atherectomy Catheter (PAC) system to
improve treatment of patients suffering from coronary heart disease.
• Conducted extensive market research to better understand patient needs.
• Assessed competitive environment to create feature specifications.

Summers LMT Swim Club, Yardley, Pa
2002-2004 Head Swimming Coach:
• Managed and trained two top-ranked swimming teams with over 200 age-group swimmers
aged 8-18 years.
• Conducted practice, swimming meets, and fund-raisers
(raised $15,000 for American Cancer Society). Supervised four assistant coaches.

Summers Magic Wok Restaurant, Langhorne, PA
2003, 2004 Waiter: Provided waiter service to restaurant customers.

EDUCATION Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA.
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, June 2005
President of Gamma Delta Engineering Honors Society

ADDITIONAL Enjoy running, computers and horseback riding. Launched program to provide support to
families of patients at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital.



RESUME 5
225 South 18th Street #, Philadelphia, PA 19103, (123) 456-7890
techy@skylab456.com

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

MCKINSEY & COMPANY Minneapolis, MN
Associate 2008-2010
Identified revenue enhancement opportunities exceeding $300 million for a major airline joint venture.
• Isolated regional sales performance weaknesses and designed a plan to recover $50 million in revenues.
• Researched and analyzed various channel margins, identifying a $20 million channel improvement opportunity.
• Identified $30 million opportunity to leverage existing data to pursue targeted offers and fill product gaps.

DAVIS MARTIN CORPORATION, Information Systems Company Orlando, FL
Senior Software Engineer 2006-2007

Remote Editing Fingerprint Software, System Control and Database Lead
• Developed transaction-based system that enables police departments to access federal identification resources.
• Led team of four in implementation of control system/database interface. Delivered 10% ahead of schedule.
• Performed requirements analysis, teamed with client to define object-oriented strategy to achieve objectives.

Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), Integration and Test Lead, Software Developer
• Designed search capability enabling FBI searches against a 400 million-fingerprint database within two hours.
• Performed detailed image scanner trade study and made recommendations that saved client 15% of future costs.
• Developed and integrated graphical user interfaces for fingerprint editing and system control.

Software Engineer 2005-2006
Singapore Truck Driver Trainer Simulator System, System Communications Lead
• Engineered simulator to provide superior training, resulting in a projected 20% decrease in future driver accidents.
• Managed team of three in implementation of graphical user interfaces for operator control and debrief stations.
• Designed real-time software communication link between truck simulator and operator stations.

EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Orlando, FL
Master of Science in Computer Engineering, Major in Computer Architecture May 2008

VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY Villanova, PA
Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude May 2005
• Full tuition Presidential Scholar; Academic Excellence, Meritorious Service, ECE Student of Year Awards
• Division I Volleyball Team Member/Captain, Athletic Scholarship, GTE Academic All-American Team

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Volunteer: Young Entrepreneur Program, Give Kids the World (Make-A-Wish), OASIS, and Community Care.
• Davis Martin Recruiter: Spoke at career events and conducted interviews for prospective employees.
• Interests: Beach volleyball, team sports, taking pictures, running, camping, and traveling.



RESUME 6
XX Second Avenue North, Suite 112 (323) 451.6767
Nashville, TN 37201 frankie@noth.com

PROFESSIONAL
Gable Capital Partners, Nashville, TN July 2009 – Present
Associate
• Sole associate in a $280 million, multi-partner private equity fund which invests debt and equity in later stage
growth companies.
• Portfolio Monitoring – Review monthly financial results with company management to prepare partner reports.
Provide financial, fundraising and operational analysis. Make strategic industry and capital markets
introductions. Industries of portfolio companies include business services, healthcare services, IT services, and
telecommunications equipment.
• Deal Origination – Initiate, analyze and screen potential investment opportunities. Present investment
opportunities to Gable Capital Commitment Committee. Assist in the structuring and issuance of term sheets.
Perform due diligence. Negotiate terms and legal documents with potential portfolio companies and counsel.
• Fund Raising – Wrote private placement memorandum, created marketing materials, and assisted partners in
the solicitation of LP interests for the Gable Equity Fund, targeted at $100 million.

TopKing Securities, Inc. – Communications & Technology Investment Banking, Richmond, VA July 2008 – July 2009
Financial Analyst
• Experience on a variety of equity, private placement, debt and mergers and acquisition deals at various stages
in their development raising nearly $2.0 billion in capital for companies including Triton PCS, Traingl, Silkost
Software and The InterCept Group.
• Constructed various company valuation models: Comparable Company Analysis, Comparable Acquisition
Analysis, Leveraged Buyout, Merger models, and Internal Rate of Return calculations.
• Considerable client exposure: participated in pitches, due diligence and drafting sessions and preparing Fairness Opinions.
• Created and presented materials for Commitment Committee meetings, constructed company profiles for
industry conferences and worked on a three-person team that wrote and developed the business plan for what
became First Union Securities’ most profitable industry group – Communications and Technology, Investment
Banking Division.
• Additional experience in Real Estate Investment Banking through a three month rotation in the industry group.
• Managed undergraduate recruiting at Duke University.

James & Peterson, Raleigh, NC Spring 2007
Tax Auditing Intern

The Bank of Lafayette, New York, NY Summer 2006
Corporate Banking Intern in the Latin America Division covering Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay
EDUCATION

James Univeristy, Providence, Rhode Island 2005-2008
Cum Laude; Cumulative GPA: 3.5 / 4.0
B.A. in Political Science with Minor in Economics, May 1998

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 2004-2005

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Masked Ball - Co-chairman of the “Late Party”, Junior Achievement Teaching / Tutoring Program, Enjoy backpacking,
Fly-Fishing, Golf, Hunting, Rock Climbing, Running, Soccer & Skiing., Board of Directors of the HighLand Fund, Board of
Directors of James Alumni Association



ABOUT STACY BLACKMAN CONSULTING
Stacy Blackman Consulting's mission is to help our clients achieve their most ambitious educational and professional
goals by making the MBA application process less stressful and more successful.

Over the past decade we have helped hundreds of candidates with their applications to top business schools; our clients
have been admitted many times over to every top MBA program worldwide.

We offer Comprehensive, Hourly and Editing services, including:

• School selection
• Strategy development
• Essay writing assistance: coaching, review and feedback
• Interview coaching
• Planning for school visits
• Reference selection, preparation and editing
• Developing resumes
• Review of data forms
• Wait list and deferral strategy
• Assistance with extra-curricular involvements
• Coordinating school communications

In addition to our consulting services, and online publications we have published a companion book entitled The MBA
Application Roadmap.

To learn more about our services and resources visit: http://www.stacyblackman.com
For MBA news and admissions tips, updated daily, visit: http://www.stacyblackman.com/blog
To see more Stacy Blackman Consulting products, visit: http://www.stacyblackman.com/products


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