THE QUICK GUIDE

TO ADMISSIONS
RESUMES

An Accepted Admissions Guide

2016 Accepted
www.accepted.com

The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes

Introduction
Often, your resume will be the first component of your application that the admissions
committee readers review. They look at it as a sort of snapshot a quick introduction to
and overview of your accomplishments and strengths, a small window into who you are
and how you may fit into their program.
The resume plays a major role in contributing to the adcoms first impression of your
candidacy, and yet, applicants rarely give their resumes the attention they deserve!
In this guide, we emphasize the importance of the application resume, and then provide
you with the tips and tools needed to optimize your resumes in ways that will help you
get noticedand then accepted. We address critical topics such as what to include in
your resume, how to format your resume, and how to make it more readable. Most
importantly, well teach you how to ensure that your resume serves as an instrumental
vehicle in highlighting the impressive experiences you have had and displaying those
qualifications that make you who you are an ideal candidate for your target graduate
school program.
Enjoy The Quick Guide to Admissions Resume!

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The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes

Table of Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 2
What is Accepted? ............................................................................................................................. 4
Why Our Clients Love Us ................................................................................................................. 5
8 Tips for Better Resumes ................................................................................................................. 6
How to Write a Resume that is Readable, Impactful, and Unique .................................................... 9
Putting it All Together ..................................................................................................................... 11
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 12

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The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes

What is Accepted?
Accepted is the premier admissions consultancy that offers:

1-on-1 consulting for business school, medical school, law school, graduate school, and
college applicants
Expert editing of all application components (essays, resumes, letters of recommendation,
waitlist letters, and more)
Interview prep
Free resources guides, webinars, and a podcast
Sample essays
Our interactive blog where you can get the latest admissions news, solid advice, and
answers to your questions

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The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes

Why Our Clients Love Us

No matter where you live and no matter where you're applying, our expert admissions consultants
are ready to listen, mentor, and guide you as you prepare an outstanding application that will get
you accepted. You'll love us because you'll see from the first phone call or email that we care about
you and support you as you strive to achieve your goals and dreams.
But you don't need to take our word for it. See what some of our clients have to say about
Accepted
As you are aware, we have been working together on my MBA applications. Just to jog
your mind, you helped me apply to 7 schools in the USA including Haas, Kellogg and
Fuqua. I was invited to interview with every school that I applied to despite my low GMAT
of only 660. Now the results have started coming out and so far I have been admitted to
Tuck and Fuqua. There is no way I would have been successful without your invaluable
edits and mock interviews. I owe this success to you Jennifer.
Oh and btw, the resume you did for me has earned me an interview with McKinsey.

"Guess what? YES... I got accepted!!! I have only just received NYU's accepting letter in
the mail, isn't this just brilliant? I really have to thank you for helping me with my essay.
Without your help, I don't think this could be happening. ...Thanks for all the patience,
efforts and time you have spent on my essay, thanks for helping me to achieve this goal...
Please share this good news with Ms. Abraham, I have to thank her for helping me with one
of my recommendation letters too. Again... Thank you thank you thank you!"

"Thank you again for all of your support and advice throughout this process. I wouldn't
even think about trying this "gamble" without having the confidence of 5 amazing essays
and an outstanding resume on my application to support me. The quality of those
documents would not have been even remotely possible without your help. I can only
describe your contributions to my application with one word...stellar."

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The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes

8 Tips for Better Resumes

Looking for solid tips for the actual writing of your resume? What should you include? What
should you leave out? What sort of tone should you use? What do you need to know? The
following eight tips will guide you towards creating an impressive, persuasive, accurate resume:
1. Know your target programs mission.
The best way to convince the admissions board to offer you a spot in their next class is to
understand the goals and mission of their program. Before starting your resume, you should learn
as much as possible about what sorts of candidates your program seeks. Then, customize your
resume to reflect the aspects of your background that are most relevant to the program you are
applying to.
2. Know yourself professionally your skills and your accomplishments.
What skills are you particularly good at? What accomplishments are you proudest of? What have
you achieved that gained you the most recognition? Interview yourself and inventory your
previous jobs, the skills you acquired, and your "greatest hits" as a professional the times when
you contributed to your organization the most. Look through your formal performance reviews
for glowing appraisals, scan your work files for successes you may have forgotten about, or keep
a personal career folder where you keep track of new skills youve learned or the comments of
happy customers.
Additional questions to consider: Do you fill a role traditionally filled by someone much older
than you? Have you become one of only a few to transition to a coveted department or role?
Have you earned awards for your work that far surpass the average rate of recognition? You can
list these types of data points in a Highlights section at the top of your document.
3. Stand out personally.
Fight negative stereotypes about your profession to show that you are exceptional. If you are an
accountant, admissions committees tend to assume you are risk averse, so you need to add
material that shows some of the bigger risks youve taken: entrepreneurial efforts, motorcycle
racing, etc. If youre a finance type, you might be perceived as conceited or aloof, so you should
be sure to include evidence of your social skills and humility: community service efforts,
mentoring, etc.
4. Be concrete, specific, quantitative.
Dont say "Developed e-commerce plan that was selected for implementation" when you mean
"Designed $5 million e-commerce strategy that increased revenues by 12% and attracted six new
clients." If you work for a private company and cant disclose revenue figures, refer to
percentage increases or improvements or cite the improved industry ranking of the
organizations product or performance as a result of your contribution. Think of numbers and
other hard details as the proof that you can deliver.
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5. Know how far back to go.

You need to know how far back in time to detail in this document. As a general rule, if you
are applying to graduate school and have at least two years of work experience, your high
school activities should not be included in your resume. However, there are exceptions to this
rule. For example, if you won a prestigious national award in high school, you may certainly
consider including this important recognition.
6. Know your negatives.
The vast majority of us have screwed up once or twice in our careers: been downsized, locked
in a dead-end job, or just failed to work to our full potential for a time. You cant lie about
these career plateaus (see Tip #7) but you can present them in the best possible light so you
have the chance to explain them fully if they come up during the interview. It all starts with
your resume. With the right strategy you can deal with everything from typecasting and jobhopping to limited experience and unemployment.
7. Dont lie.
Making up degrees, accomplishments, and other personal and professional facts is always a
bad idea. Dont do it its unethical and potentially self-destructive. Adcoms wont hesitate to
show students to the door when they learn their resume is more fiction than fact. But even less
brazen forms of dishonesty should stay far from your resume. For example, if you were one of
six members of a team of managers with equal rank and responsibility, dont say you "Served
as lead of six-member management team.
8. Be strategically creative.
No, we dont mean using DayGlo ink or faux marble resume paper. We do mean bringing to
the preparation of your resume the same capacity for thinking outside the box that you bring to
your career. For example, if the traditional chronological resume will bury your best material
near the bottom, consider using a "functional" resume format or even a combination of the
chronological and the functional. Similarly, if you paid for your entire college education, add a
line mentioning this in your resumes education section. Want to let the adcom know that
youre from a minority group without committing the no-no of adding a personal data section?
Add a memberships section to your resume and include the name of community organizations
(for example, "South Asian Business Alliance of Ohio") you belong to so adcom readers know
what groups you identify with.

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The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes

For more specific suggestions and examples, see our "Resume Dos and Donts" and review
our sample resumes. If youre still not sure how to develop a comprehensive profile or youre
too busy achieving to do damage control on a negative, contact an Accepted consultant. Let
professionals highlight your professionalism. Because youre outstanding shouldnt your
resume be?

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The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes

How to Write a Resume that is Readable, Impactful, and Unique

Now that you know what elements should and should not be included in your resume, its time to
turn to how to make your resume read well and look good.
Here are some important rules for formatting your application resume;

There should be no more than four bullet points beneath each position.

Each bullet point should ideally be no more than two lines long.

To ease the readers eye strain, the font should not be smaller than 10 pt.

Margins should be as close to one inch all around as possible, without going less than 0.7
inches.

Use design elements to enhance your resume. The skillful use of understated design
elements can result in an eye-catching resume that projects a sophisticated, successful
image. These elements can be uncomplicated, such as using white space generously or
replacing the traditional round bullet with the less common diamond- and arrow-shaped
bullet. Or they can be more complex, such as using expanded text (kerning) to highlight a
key term or enclosing the professional profile section of your resume in a shaded box.
Naturally, applicants for positions in management or traditional industries will want to
stick with conservative typefaces and avoid "flashy" visual elements.

Eliminate extra lines. Keep your address and contact information on one line if possible,
avoid listing your job titles and company names for each position on two separate lines,
and trim the writing of each bullet point to keep it to a maximum of two lines.

Include ample white space. Make margins no less than around 0.8 inches and instead of
pressing the Enter key twice between positions or sections, use MS Words Format,
Paragraph, Spacing Before box to add a bit of white space between lines and sections
more compactly.

With these rules in mind, how should applicants to the top programs focus the resume on their
most relevant and compelling experiences? Limit the number of bullet points describing your
early entry-level roles and instead expand the space dedicated to those in which you made the
most impact.

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The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes

For instance, if you were promoted from an entry-level programming position with your
company, then you dont even need to dedicate a separate line to describe that first role. Instead,
you can simply impress the reader by describing the fast pace of promotion in a line of the job
description, like this:
Team Lead, IT Consulting Company

2010-Present

Twice promoted from Analyst (2010-2011) to Senior Analyst (2011) and then Team Lead
in record 12 months, a full four times faster than the average rate of promotion.
What if one position has allowed you significant leadership opportunities and impact? Or what if
you have been in your current role for several years? How can you detail all that you have
accomplished in just four bullet points? The trick is to break that down into sections, like this for
example:
Private Equity Associate, PE Firm

2011-Present

Lines of job description here

Leadership Accomplishments Include:

First point
Second point
Third point
Fourth point

Financial Impacts Include:

First point
Second point
Third point
Fourth point

Keep in mind that the majority if not all of those bullet points should include quantifiable
impact that you had on the organization. Breaking up a bulk of text with numbers and section
headings makes the entire document more compelling.

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The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes

Putting it All Together

MBA and other graduate school applicants frequently submit a resume with their applications.
Many schools require it, and some schools, such as Columbia Business School, even specify a
given format. The resume not only will present a valuable context for your other materials, but it
also will give the adcom readers an easy point of reference as they read your essays.
To use the resume strategically in the application, you must align it with your essays. First,
follow the basic rules of good resume writing for your application resume. Beyond that, there are
several points to consider in preparing your resume for your graduate school applications:
Approach your application holistically.
The resume can free up space in your essays. By summarizing your experience, responsibilities,
and achievements in the resume, you dont have to worry about cramming every noteworthy
item into your essays or sketching out your career path. Rather, you can be very selective and
detailed in the experiences you do elaborate on in the essays. These two components, the essays
and the resume, should complement each other rather than being redundant. When they
harmonize, they sharpen your message and give both depth and breadth to your application.
Be consistent in your resume and essays.
Refer to companies, job titles, departments, technologies, and other items in the same way in
both pieces. Not only does this practice prevent confusion, it also heightens the unity and
coherence of the overall application.
Use your resume to highlight your strengths.
Review your essays and determine whether there are particular skills, abilities, talents, or
experiences that you should reinforce. Then use your resume to do so. For example, if your
verbal score was low, presumably you demonstrated your verbal skills in your essays. Use the
resume to further strengthen the impression of strong verbal skills.
Use your goals to anchor your application essays and statements of purpose.
Everything you write, including your resume, should directly or indirectly relate to your goals. In
selecting the experiences and accomplishments to highlight, give the resume a slant that reflects
your goals.

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Conclusion
Thanks for checking out The Quick Guide to Admissions Resumes!
Now it's time to move from general tips to personalized advice tailored just for you. Explore our
admissions consulting and editing services and work 1-on-1 with a pro who will help you get
ACCEPTED.

2016

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