MBA Program Career Guide: Resumes & Cover Letters

Look through half a dozen books or websites on resumes, and you’ll find six versions of what a resume “must,” and “must not” include. In reality, many of these rules are merely the writers’ opinions. However, we’ll start with the premise that the resume will be read quickly with a second, closer look occurring if a candidate makes the first cut. Therefore, a resume has to be easy to read, short, but filled with information. Having said that, the following guidelines make sense:

1. One page is usually sufficient for internship and entry level resumes.
2. List items in reverse chronological format.
3. An objective or summary of qualifications is your opportunity to communicate at the top of the page that you know what you’re looking for and are qualified for the job.
4. Focus on the “hot spot.” Is the most impressive, relevant information on the upper half of the page?
5. It’s better to read like a list than a letter. This is achieved with action-oriented “bulleted” statements (note: these are rarely complete sentences and personal pronouns (such as I, we, etc). are not included).
6. Lead your statements with verbs.