The B-School resume -- guest post by Conrad from 2 minute gmat

During my Booth interview, the first thing that my interviewer said was 'You have got a very impressive resume' but the rest is not history ;). Resume is not everything when it comes to b-school journey but for sure it is very important to have a good resume. Not only it will help you stand out during app process but also it will aid you during your job search. Below is a great article from Conrad, i will add my bit in anonter post. For now just read on:

Advice For Your Business School Resume

When completing your MBA application, you will probably need to include your resume. When including this document, you should look for your resume to be one page long. Your resume will also most likely be different than the resume you send when applying for a job. As opposed to including skills that are specifically for a certain position (as an example including social media skills for a marketing position), you will be targeting your resume for your business school application. Therefore, for your business school resume you should emphasize your experience in leadership and communication skills.

In your resume, the professional, education, and additional information sections will need to be included. Your resume will mostly consist of your professional section. Each section in the professional section should include strong action verbs from your specific experiences. This is very important to remember; using passive verbs will not have as strong of an effect. When you have the opportunity, you should also use numbers.

The second part of your resume, the education section, should focus on your undergraduate studies. If you have pursued other degrees in the past, this is where you should include this section. The last section of your resume, the additional information section, should only be a few lines and you should include any interesting facts about yourself and your interests.

I hope this was of help.

Conrad and the 2minuteGMAT Team

For more advice on improving your GMAT score, visit http://www.2minutegmat.com/.
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Applications -- Some dos and don'ts

I did not get an admit this year but learnt lots of lessons. My stats were well above median for all my target schools. Be it the GMAT, GPA, Work ex, career progression, extra currics, i had some stellar numbers. But i failed to write a good story {and here i am aspiring to be a writer}. Following are some tips that "might" help others:

1. Career Goals -- I have a crystal clear picture of my career goals. But clarity alone doesn't help, i failed to show why i am so passionate about my goals. Since my goals were entrepreneurial, i also failed to show viability of my goals.

Learning: Know your goals {short term , medium term, long term} -- reading career literature or visiting the websites of your post MBA target companies is a great help. Go to the career sections, most of the companies share the typical career paths and also the associated skills, competencies and job responsibbilities. You will get a clear idea of what you will be doing and which skills you need to hone.

Why are you passionate about your goals: Don't just say i am passionate about marketing and hence i want to get into a marketing role. SHOW PASSION through some of your actions. I first got acquainted with marketing while working at college fest. I was responsible of marketing the fest to corporates and other colleges. I learnt x, y and z. i enjoyed doing a, b and c. despite of challenges m,n and p i did my job and fest was a huge hit. {This is just an example...you dont have to go back to college .. you can start with your last job or some extra curric that you re pursuing for a long time}. The basic idea is to link your goal with your passion.

Why is your goal feasible: I want to establish a company that will build golf clubs that will have analytics augmented in them. such clubs will automatically gather the data of your swings/hits/misses and once you push the analyze button, it will tell you your flaws and will guide you to a perfect swing. In the next decade there is going to be an increase of 50% in golf playing population and this club will have a huge demand..i envision that such a club can also help sportspersons and take the game to next level...blah blah...{obviously you need to put all of this succinctly...something that i consistently fail to do}

2. Leadership essays: one of the friends told me that best way to appraoch this essay is to prepare a MS Excel sheet. In one cloumn you write down all the leadership qualities that you possess and that you want to highlight in your essays. In second column put down all the stories from your life where you acted as a leader. Now play a mix and match...the story that can highlight maximum number of qualities should be your answer...SHOW THAT CHALLENGE -- HOW YOU RESOLVED IT -- WHY YOU BEHAVED IN THIS PARTICULAR MANNER -- WAT DID YOU LEARN -- WAT SKILLS YOU HOPE TO DEVELOP...

3. Never start writing an essay without having a good idea about your story....work on the plot first and then write the narrative...

4. School research does not mean listing down courses, faculty names, clubs etc,. again it shud be abt you..wat do you hope to develop thru a particular course/lab/club and how you will apply it in your post mba career...i made this mistake of simply listing down a lot of things i was excited about...better approach is to list few things and write about them in detail and how they are related to you...

Suggestions/Feedbacks are most welcome...

The married bachelor

I have read a lot about time management and prioritizing but never applied the principles to my life. Till now i faired poorly while delegating tasks and focussing on important chores. I have made a to do list for 2011 that i plan to follow:

1. Practice Yoga for 30 mins each day -- good for my broken back {not brokeback mountain type}. Actually i have been diagnosed with a minor slipped disc and winters are like a curse for me...practising Yoga helps a lot...

2. Complete my Novel -- have already shared my idea with one of the publishers. The novel is called 'The Married Bachelor' and is all about transition from bachelorhood to married life...Publisher appreciated my idea but didn't like the narrative. Actually i wrote the narrative in 3rd person and that's not going down well with publisher...so have to work on the narrative...plan to complete the novel by 31-mar-2011 {but then plans are plans}..Also i need to practice writing properly .. need to do away with .... { yes the dots.... i write pathetically.. will try and organize my thoughts and then put them in words rather than haphazardly putting down anything and everything.} Will be more organized from next post onwards.

3. Chase Booth's waitlist -- have put up a waitlist strategy and i am going to execute it to the best of my capabilities...keeping my fingers crossed....

4. Read books -- till 2006 i used to read 3-4 books/month and now the frequency has dropped to 3-4/year. Need to read more and will start with raghu Rajan's 'Fault Lines'...

5. travel with friends and relaxx-- that's what i love to do.......i plan to explore 3-4 new places this year...

6. If i fail to convert booth's WL -- apply again -- will spend Aug/Sep -2011 preparing my apps

So unlike 2010, 2011 is all about focus..only 2 things for me - 1. Novel 2. MBA....no guitar, no marathons, no singing, no painting etc etc...

“Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” - Qui-Gon to Anakin, Star Wars Episode I

Posting the prologue of my novel on blog for the first time. Will try and track the progress of my novel thorugh this blog:

Prologue -- The Turning Point!!

Jan-05-2010

I could see that her hazel eyes were swollen and her curly eye lashes were misty. She had not slept whole of the previous night; the thought of being away from me for the next 5 days must have made her restless. On top of that she was supposed to arrange my suit-case, making her mood even more somber.

“Shall I keep the blue shirt” Shivani asked me

“Yes” I ordered and moved to the drawing room to watch TV

The emotional indifference exhibited by me was in total contrast to the emotional turbulence playing havoc in her heart.

“I love you and I will miss you” in between she ran towards me and hugged me innocently.

“Please hurry up, I have to catch the flight” I gently pushed her away and she went back and continued packing

We had never lived without each other since the time we got married. We had dated for 2 and half years before we got married, things were different then.

“Why don’t you go to your parent’s place?” I suggested

“Have I ever gone there alone since the time we got married?” she replied and then asked in a low voice – “Can’t I accompany you to Goa?”

“It’s an official off-site and I have told you many times that families are not allowed” I almost screamed

“How will i live without getting a glimpse of you?” she mumbled from our bed-room

I increased the volume of T.V. to avoid distraction

“Do you want the red tie?” she asked me “Do you want the red tie?”

I think it was then that she heard the news and turned to see the remote slipping from my hand.

“KT are you alright?” she shouted and ran towards me as a stream of tears erupted from my eyes

Happy New Year!!!

Happy new year to all the readers of this blog!! 2010 was a year that i would like to forget. A lot of my friends moved to new cities {limiting my option for partying}, i got 2 dings and 1 WL {probably because i didn't work smartly},  a bad back that bugged me from time to time..

But then 2010 was kind of good too because it made me introspect. I never gave my heart to anything that i tried. I was trying everything on superficial level. First and foremost problem was lack of focus. I wanted to get into a top b-school, i wanted to complete my novel, i wanted to learn guitar, i wanted to x, y and z ... but i failed to prioritize.

I started my novel and shared its plot with lots of people. Almost everyone praised the plot but when it came to completing the novel i never worked hard. Then came b-school apps..i started early and had a stellar profile {as per some ad consultants and some friends} but again i failed to put up quality apps.
I believe that i never worked hard on my apps and there were conspicuous flaws that i should ve corrected. In my next post i will definitely share some don'ts while applying to a b-school. Obviously a person who has not made it to a single school can only share don'ts..if i had known do's i wud have had an admit... ;)..
guitar..ah well i tried playing some chords but again never gave it the time....

i tried putting up R2 apps but decided not to waste $$$ and time...i didn't even plan for r2 till i got dinged from Fuqua {reading the ding from Fuqua was like ad-com sayin Fuq ya}...

For next few months i am not thinking abt b-school essays...last year i started too early..people had not even written their gmats and i was trying to write essays...i think i had too much time at hand but never used it judiciously..I have a lot of time at hand and i have to use it constructively...will try and prioritize...

Hope on Jan 1 2012 i will have plenty of good memories.. {ah 2012 is supposed to be the end of the world...gud i got dinged...else i wud have paid thousands of $$$ and wud have been dealing with hectic b-school life only to see the end of the world... ;) ... sour grapes for me...}