UPDATE: This article was originally posted on June 25, 2018. It has been updated with new information and tips below.
As the saying goes, first impressions last a lifetime.
When considering your applications to elite business schools, first impressions (and the network they allow you to join) truly have a lifelong impact.
But with so many MBA application components, which one is most important for leaving a good first impression?
The answer: your CV.
An MBA CV is a sales document that helps you sell your experience and education to the admissions committee. It speaks to your career path and accomplishments and can be the deciding factor between an acceptance letter and applying for the next round of admissions.
Without a well-written CV, admissions committees may not dive deeper into your application and instead dedicate their limited time to a candidate who uses his or her CV to instantly demonstrate a strong track record of success. Having a strong CV also immediately indicates that you know how to present a properly formatted and easy-to-read professional document.
When 80% of candidates are fully qualified to attend top schools like Wharton, using every element of your profile to stand out matters.
While there is much to consider when preparing a winning MBA CV, expertly using data and numbers is one of the greatest tools you have to craft a document that makes an unforgettable first impression.
Let’s dive into several strategies for showcasing numbers on your CV.
Include ALL quantifiable outcomes
What is one of the weaknesses we see in MBA CVs? Not using data and numbers to demonstrate the magnitude and impact of your work.
If you know you managed a multimillion-dollar budget for a client, you want to make sure the person reading your CV knows that too. If you leave out numbers, readers won’t know if your project generated a $2K USD consulting fee or a $5M USD consulting retainer. They will be left guessing if the “significant results” of your project generated $5M USD in immediate savings or $75M USD in potential revenue over 3 years.
Using dollar amounts, percentages and ratios clue the reader in and subtly allows you to demonstrate how important and impactful your work is.
Try to avoid quantifier words like “very,” “many,” “large,” or “significant.” Not only are they vague, but they miss the opportunity to add actual data to your experience. If you notice any of these words when reviewing your CV, it’s a clue that you should quantify your information and back up your claims with real data.
Quantifying your results is critical no matter your industry. For common MBA applicant profiles, such as management consultants, data and numbers are important tools that allows the admissions committee to separate stars from superstars.
Here’s a sample bullet point from a consulting resume:
Conducted deep strategy assessment of the wholesale banking market for a European bank’s operations in Asia.
OR
Conducted deep strategy assessment of the wholesale banking market for a European bank’s operations in Asia using advanced analytics software; identified growth opportunities and developed a strategic plan with projected impacts of USD170M+ in revenues through 2025.
Let’s take a look at another industry.
In this Private Equity CV, we prompted our client to add information about deal size and rate of return to show the INSEAD admissions committee she has what it takes to seek out and close high-impact deals.
Conducted sector analysis for major energy company; identified market opportunities to sell debentures in the secondary market.
OR
Conducted sector analysis for top 3 Brazilian energy company, resulting in the US$25M acquisition of company’s debentures; identified market opportunities to sell debentures in the secondary market at a premium with a 20% realized gross internal rate of return.
If you have an atypical work experience or background, percentages, and other numbers provide a point of reference for readers who may be unfamiliar with specific programs, industries, or initiatives.
For example, if you were selected for a highly-competitive program, using numbers can show just how impressive being chosen was.
“Selected as the only Associate from South America to join the International Associate program, a highly selective global mobility program dedicated to ~30 top-performing associates worldwide, and transferred to iBanking’s New York office.”
Though not every highlight from your career will be tied to some sort of quantifiable outcome, most are. Try to challenge yourself to show the quantifiable impact of your work and include as much hard data as possible.
While including this data, remember that it may be cross-referenced with your letters of recommendation, interview answers, essays, and application. It goes without saying that all numbers should be accurate and honest throughout your entire MBA application.
Don’t let a small mistake like a misplaced decimal point or conflicting numbers ruin your chance; consistency is key!
A note for creative professionals
In our experience working with clients around the globe, we have found that professionals currently working in the creative industries tend to think there is no way to demonstrate any quantifiable outcomes on their CVs, given the nature of their work.
That is a mistake.
You might not be able to show that a campaign you designed led to X% in increased sales (though with today’s digital tools, you just might be able to show this!), but this does not mean your CV should be devoid of numbers.
Take, for instance, this bullet from a recent CV we worked on for a client in the fashion industry:
“Supervised the implementation of a B2B e-commerce solution specialized in fashion wholesale, creating a 300% efficiency increase in placing orders during meetings with clients.”
By showing how her actions influenced the overall business, we get a sense that this creative professional actually has the basic foundational skills she needs to succeed in the MBA classroom.
For that reason, make sure you dig deep. Though numbers and data may not be immediately obvious to include on your CV, spending some time creatively brainstorming how to include them is an important step to being admitted into your dream school.
Bullet points = bragging points
Standing out from the crowd is no easy task.
At Harvard Business School every year, for example, nearly 9,000 applicants compete for only 1015 spots. However, the thousands of other applicants who don’t quite make the cut are still highly impressive.
Take, for example, a 24-year-old honor student from Oxbridge who applied to HBS with a 770 GMAT score after 2 years at a top management consulting firm but was rejected without an interview.
Or the first-generation immigrant who arrived in Canada with $100 in his pocket and successfully launched a career in a top biotech company while also volunteering in a free health clinic in Africa.
Considering how stiff your competition is, your CV is no place for modesty. You are competing against many other extremely-qualified candidates, often from the same industry you work in.
The best way to get yourself into the right mindset is to think of your bullet points as “bragging points,” indisputable facts that you’re presenting to the admissions committee to show your fit for the program.
Each bullet you craft should go one step further in reinforcing the personal brand you are presenting to the school and should be a combination of building a story around your accomplishments and then backing up the size of your accomplishments with data.
For example, a client recently helped create one of the first loans to fashion retailers at Latin America’s largest bank.
A bullet like:
“Created and now lead new Fashion Loan division at iBank, which offers fashion companies subsidized loans for the first time ever in Latin America.”
does an excellent job of telling the story of her accomplishment.
However, a highly-trained admissions officer will look at this and wonder if the loan might have been to a single company for a very small dollar amount. Though still a tremendous achievement, the lack of data and numbers casts doubt on the true importance of the achievement.
The final bullet tells a much more complete story:
“Created and now lead new Fashion Loan division at iBank, which offers fashion companies subsidized loans for the first time ever in Latin America and which offered more than $600MM in loans to more than 10 leading retailers in the first year.”
That’s good bragging, and that’s exactly what you want to make sure each and every bullet on your CV does for you!
While each bullet should be short and concise, make sure that your CV isn’t just a “data dump” with no context surrounding the numbers.
For example, let’s look at this number-packed bullet point:
“Led a team of 20 during a turnaround in a Fortune 500 company, overseeing $6M in budget while achieving a 15% decrease in costs.”
Wow! Their numbers are impressive, but the reader still doesn’t have a strong understanding of the context. Here are some questions that immediately come to mind:
- Who was on the team? Were they clients, senior leadership, or analysts?
- Were the team members spread across multiple countries and from many cultures?
- What department or departments were impacted by the turnaround? Did it require your ability to manage across specializations and areas of expertise?
When you ask these types of questions, here’s what your new and improved bullet point may look like:
“Led a team of 7 senior client leaders and 13 McKinsey team members distributed across the U.S., Mexico and Peru, managing a $6M budget and collaborating with marketing, IT and support teams; achieved a 15% decrease in costs”
The second example paints a much more vivid picture of an international consultant who is comfortable working with senior clients and internal colleagues across departments, borders, languages, and culture.
While sometimes the context is unimportant or unimpressive, ask yourself questions like these to discover if there are other details that can enhance your CV and overall candidate profile.
Struggling to get started? Check out our MBA Resource Center. With hundreds of essays, interview mocks, CV templates, reapplicant essays, and much more, you’ll have everything you need to make this year your year. Join here!
Demonstrate progress over time
The MBA is a great way to take your career to the next level.
By adding data to your CV, you can potentially show the admissions committee that you have already progressed your career effectively, indicating that you are equipped to leverage business school into a promotion.
Numbers and data, in particular, speak louder than words when describing your career progression.
For example, as Head of Healthcare at a regional hedge fund, this client was already accumulating leadership and management experience, as stated in this bullet:
“Lead negotiator for all investments in the healthcare sector, totaling $50M over the past 3 years, and responsible for managing a team of 5.”
After being promoted to his most current role, Head of Sales and Partner, he took on even greater responsibilities, as demonstrated by this bullet:
“Responsible for supervising a team of 15 in originating investments in the healthcare, real estate and retail sectors”
In this case, since the team hadn’t made any investments by the time this candidate applied, we weren’t able to add the deal value to the bullet.
Nonetheless, seeing that his team increased from 5 people to 15 shows that his employer is confident in his leadership abilities and is giving him additional responsibilities in the firm, a surefire way to prove to the admissions committee that he’s going places.
A bonus tip: think about each program’s values and how you can connect data and numbers to them.
For example, if you are applying to HBS, quantifying leadership growth (i.e. team size) is a smart move. If you are applying to INSEAD, which values international professionals and diversity, you might want to quantify the number of cultures or countries you have encountered professionally.
Ensure your CV wows the admissions committee
Done correctly, your MBA CV will help you achieve your goal of being accepted to your preferred program. You’ve worked and studied hard to reach this point, and your CV is proof!
However, gathering the data and carefully crafting each bullet point takes a great deal of preparation and careful revision. To avoid sending a lackluster CV to your dream school, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to work on this critical sales document.
If you want to be absolutely confident your MBA CV makes a stellar first impression with elite business schools, we’re ready to help you transform a good CV into a great CV. Our team of CV experts has years of experience helping applicants like you ensure their CVs make an outstanding first impression. Find out more about our CV editing options here.
Real MBA Essays That Got People In
School-specific sample essays that got our clients accepted
