Top 5 MBA Resume Mistakes by: Karen Marks, President and Founder of North Star Admissions Consulting on August 04, 2017 | 2,047 Views August 4, 2017 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit Your resume is a critical part of your business school applications. Are you making these 5 common MBA resume mistakes? 1. Too Vague. What do you, personally, actually do? Phrases like āparticipated inā or ācontributed toā are way too vague. Did you set up the conference call line and make copies? Or were you the person who analyzed all of the data, identified the business opportunity and delivered the winning pitch? Without specificity the admissions committee will suspect that you were in a supporting, collateral role. 2. Too Jargony. Be super careful not to use jargon. Avoid overly technical terms, as well as terms that are specific to your firm or industry. You also want to stay away from trendy words like āover-rotateā and āvertical.ā 3. No Activities. Business schools want to see that you have a history of balancing work and school with community involvement. Your activities in college, as well as your current hobbies and volunteer activities are totally relevant. In fact, if you donāt list any activities they will assume that you donāt have any and worry that you wonāt be engaged at business school, so be sure to include them. Also, itās appropriate to list languages that you speak and interests like watching āGame of Thronesāā you want the schools to get a feel for your personality. 4. Too Modest. Itās great to be collaborative and humble, but you need to sell yourself on your MBA resume. If your resume downplays your accomplishments the schools wonāt understand what you bring professionally, and may well go with your seemingly more impressive peer. Also, candidates sometimes assume that their recommenders will sing their praises for them. This is a huge mistake! Recommenders may or may not capture your seniority, progression and impact ā but even if they do, business schools are also interested in your ability to sell yourself. They are evaluating your ability to get a job after business school, and will be concerned if your recommender sells your qualifications more effectively than you do. 5. Misrepresentations. It should go without saying that you never want to exaggerate or misrepresent anything in your applications. Even small inaccuracies like rounding your GPA up from a 3.26 to a 3.3 or fudging dates of employment can undermine your credibility. Make sure that your resume is 100% accurate. Your MBA resume is a powerful tool, and itās worth investing the time to craft a document that reflects your potential and personality. Karen has more than 12 years of experience evaluating candidates for admission to Dartmouth College and to the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Since founding North Star Admissions Consulting in 2012, she has helped applicants gain admission to the nationās top schools, including Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Wharton, MIT, Tuck, Columbia, Kellogg, Booth, Haas, Duke, Johnson, Ross, NYU, UNC, UCLA, Georgetown and more. Clients have been awarded more than $47 million dollars in scholarships, and more than 98% have gotten into one of their top choice schools.