7

Present Yourself: Understand the Principles

Business school admissions are truly a puzzle for international applicants. Each school tries to portray itself as unique and states the qualities it wants in its student body, which sets it apart from others. The applicants, after painstaking research, shortlist the schools they feel best suited for. But the fact remains that their knowledge of their safe/reach/dream school is almost always secondhand—very few applicants can afford the high cost of going abroad and understanding the culture of their choice schools by staying over and interacting with faculty, students and staff at the school, as well as sitting in on the classes and taking part in events. They are forced to accept at face value what they get from Web sites, business magazines and, if they are lucky, by talking to alumni or current students.

Their biggest dilemma then is—how to present oneself in the best manner to his/her choice schools? Applicants need to present themselves to the school as the ideal student who they (the school) seem to be looking for, going by the smooth-flowing words on their Web sites and glossy brochures.

This is where we realized, through a detailed research into admissions practices of various schools, that whatever might have been stated, the top schools look for very similar attributes in the candidates. All of them usually look for good and proven academic ability, integrity and strength of character, leadership potential, ability to work in teams and clarity about career goals, among other things in an applicant. However, they differentiate themselves by the weight they ascribe to each of these qualities and that is the most important thing that you need to look for, when working on your application. You need to understand the fabric of the school and its admissions process and, hence, what factors to highlight more, while leaving out some minor details, which will allow you to put your best foot forward. Here we try to help you understand these factors in greater detail, so you may draw the maximum mileage from your achievements by doing justice to the presentation of your application.

Expectations of the Admissions Committee

In this section, we have given what the admissions staff of top three business schools, Harvard, Stanford and Wharton, describe as their admissions criteria for all applicants. The data given below has been taken from the Web sites of the respective schools.

Harvard Business School

As you prepare to apply to HBS, it may help to understand what they look for in prospective candidates. In evaluating your application, they look for three qualities.

Academic Abilities Because the MBA programme is personally and intellectually demanding for even the best-prepared students, they look for candidates who clearly have the academic skills and discipline to succeed.

Leadership Experience Since their mission is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world, they are keenly interested in how you have demonstrated leadership, formally and informally, in college, in your extracurricular interests, and in the workplace.

Personal Qualities and Characteristics They look to learn about the personal qualities and characteristics that have contributed to your success as a leader and to understand how you intend to use the MBA experience to reach your career goals. They seek candidates who have the highest ethical standards and respect for others, and who will be actively engaged in the educational process. In their learning model, students teach as they learn, so a commitment to teaching and learning is essential.

Stanford Graduate School of Business

They evaluate all applicants in the context of the application year and in three primary areas.

Demonstrated Leadership Potential They are interested in who you are as a person and in how the combination of your personal qualities and experiences has produced your leadership aspirations. They learn about your leadership potential from your letters of reference and from your extracurricular, professional, and community achievements to date. They rely heavily on your letters of reference as a gauge of your professional achievements, teamwork, interpersonal skills, and leadership contributions. They are also interested in the depth and breadth of your work experience and community/extracurricular impact.

Strong Academic Aptitude Because the MBA programme is rigorous and challenging, entering students must possess a strong academic foundation. They seek candidates with a sincere desire to engage intellectually in the classroom and to take full advantage of the opportunities available to the MBA students. They learn about your academic aptitude and attitude from your college record, your work experience, and your test scores. They pay particular attention to your undergraduate and graduate academic performance, and review your test scores. They seek to learn how you have taken advantage of the opportunities available to you as well as your level of intellectual curiosity and motivation. They are also interested in quantitative and analytic preparation because their core courses require a comfort with and facility for quantitative concepts.

Breadth of Perspectives Among Students They believe collaboration leverages students’ diverse backgrounds to deliver a range of approaches to real-world business problems. They learn the immeasurable perspectives that you bring to the GSB community, and how the GSB experience can help you from your application in its entirety. They believe each candidate brings a special quality or perspective to the business school. They rely on your essays to provide us with insight on the person behind the accomplishments and achievements. They define diversity in the broadest possible terms, encompassing (but not limited to) citizenship, class, culture, educational and professional backgrounds, ethnicity, gender, nationality, personal experiences and goals, and sexual orientation.

The Wharton School

Generally, three different members of the admissions committee independently review each application. They do not use any formulas or ranking systems or give specific weight to individual sections of the application. By reviewing essays, interviews, recommendations, lists of extracurricular activities and transcripts, they invest the time and energy necessary to evaluate an applicant’s entire profile and to measure each candidate within the context of a large, talented, and diverse applicant pool.

Academic Profile They look at all your academic experiences to get a whole picture of your ability to succeed at Wharton. The academic rigour of your curriculum and the intellectual curiosity you have demonstrated are important. Wharton considers undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as professional certification and continuing education credit in both related and unrelated fields. If you do not have a quantitative background, taking calculus or business-related quantitative classes may bolster your preparation.

GMAT scores also help them evaluate scholarship. They evaluate the overall score and each section of the test. There are no cutoff scores for the GMAT, though they are concerned about verbal and quantitative section scores that fall below 80 per cent. If you are disappointed with your test results and believe you can do better with additional preparation, they encourage you to retake the test. They always consider your highest score.

Professional Development and Goals The career choices you have made till date are important to the committee in evaluating your application. They also look at how you have distinguished yourself professionally. They do not place value on the type of work you have done, but rather on what you have gained from your experiences. Someone who has worked as a museum curator, for example, may be just as strong a candidate as someone who has been a business consultant. What you have contributed is more important than the industry, and what you’ve learned from successes and failures is most critical of all.

They are very interested in your short and long-term goals and why a business school, particularly the Wharton MBA programme, represents an important step in achieving your goals. They assess your leadership potential as demonstrated at work, whether you were leading projects, affecting change within a team or directly managing personnel. Leadership potential can be demonstrated in activities outside of work, during extracurricular activities as an undergraduate, or via current volunteer activities. They look for evidence of effective interpersonal skills because the Wharton environment emphasizes teamwork both inside and outside the classroom.

Presentation and Timing The presentation of your application is critical to its success. Because so many of their candidates are highly qualified, the way you present your candidacy can be pivotal to evaluation. It is important for international students to possess skills in English language that are strong enough to be active learners and contributors in the programme. They assess demonstrated comfort with spoken English in interviews and written English in the essays.

Also, consider the timing of your application as part of your presentation. Wharton uses three rounds. Students are encouraged to submit their application to one of the first two rounds because space can be limited in the third round at the close of the academic year.

Personal Qualities and Leadership The admissions committee is interested in the whole person. What makes you unique? What can you contribute to the Wharton community? Specifically, they look for quality attributes: emotional intelligence quotient (EQ), leadership potential, team skills, work/life balance, entrepreneurial spirit, and community engagement. These attributes are not mutually exclusive. Certain events and stages of your career and life should be able to demonstrate these attributes.

Emotional Intelligence is your ability to understand the influence of emotions on yourself and others and to use intuition and principles to guide your behaviour in a conscientious and ethical manner. In addition to emotional management, sensitivity, and self-awareness, other qualities associated with emotional intelligence include integrity, self-motivation, empathy, communication skills, and personal style.

Leadership may be demonstrated through your work experience, your involvement in communities outside of work, or your undergraduate activities. They would like to see how you have challenged yourself, how you have reached beyond your comfort zone, how you have affected change in your organization or led a team through a process. Some applicants, but not most, have managerial experience through work, which can be used to assess your potential in this area.

They consider extracurricular and volunteer leadership because they believe that applicants who get involved beyond what is required are well-rounded and want to make a difference in their communities. In addition, candidates should demonstrate a balance between work life and outside activities.

Team skills are essential to success in Wharton’s curriculum because of their learning team structure. Students are randomly assigned to teams with a flat hierarchy. Each team is comprised of individuals from around the world, from multiple industries, and with diverse goals. Flexibility, tolerance for difference, and communications skills are all required to succeed.

Outside the classroom, they look to the students to work together to make Wharton a better place for everyone and to increase the opportunities available for each within our community. Wharton cultivates a collaborative environment, which can only be sustained by students motivated to operate in a team-based culture.

Entrepreneurial spirit does not necessarily mean that you have experience with an entrepreneurial business. Rather, it means you can think and behave in an entrepreneurial mode, continually moving forward. This is as important in large international companies as it is in small start-ups. They will, therefore, look at how you have challenged the status quo and made a difference, regardless of your environment.

Good citizenship, an individual’s willingness to contribute to the common good, is a key value for Wharton. They believe that business leaders should fulfill their responsibilities to shareholders, workers, and customers to improve lives and unlock human potential within their own companies, communities, and the global marketplace.

 

If you look closely, there is a clear thread of commonality among the attributes—what varies is their relative importance. To put it simply, the schools appear to be mentally awarding a different weightage to these factors. Take a look at an example given in Table 7.1.

The weights shown in Table 7.1 above are only indicative figures and are more from our understanding of the various schools (as they have not been vetted by the admissions staff) and their admissions process as well as the type of students studying at these institutions. This now gives us an overall view of what the schools seek from applicants.

An easier way to understand the specific areas that you need to focus upon in your application is by looking at the recommendation form that the university asks your recommenders to complete and provide comments with regard to your application. This form is provided by each university and can be downloaded and printed to help the recommender, even though the entire application process usually needs to be completed online. Each institute lists down several parameters and asks the recommender to rate you on those parameters in a quantitative format such as in top 5 per cent, 10 per cent and so on or in a qualitative format such as excellent, good, average, etc. Stanford GSB is a clear exception in that it lists down a parameter and then lists down the various stages as reflective of personality traits or stages of maturity and experience relating to that parameter and asks the recommender to judge you as a closest match to one of those statements, which makes the process supremely qualitative as well as more definitive for the school to select the specific type of students as per their pre-decided criteria. Below, we list down the parameters on which Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania asks the recommenders to judge the candidate on a quantitative scale:

1. Analytical skills
2. Verbal skills
3. Self-discipline
4. Initiative
5. Integrity
6. Creativity
7. Maturity
8. Teamwork
9. Managerial potential
10. Leadership potential
11. Ability to operate effectively in cultural environment other than his/her own.

Clearly, this provides a clear framework for the application as well, for these are the parameters that the school is looking at, to arrive at the admissions decision. Hence, these form the focus areas to be addressed through the various parts of your application. To understand the relative importance of the various parts, look at Table 7.2. It shows the resources used by the admissions committees to judge the parameter and subparameters (as listed from the recommendation form, all of which fall in one of these three categories) and their order of importance during the process of evaluation. Clearly, Resource 1 is more important than Resource 2 and so on. However, one needs to understand that while these resources can always be used in an additive format to strengthen your case, sometimes when one of the resources is weak, others can be used to overcome that point and show positive traits of your personality or work experience in such a manner that the overall impression created is that of a strong applicant. We will consider each of these parts, further on in this chapter.

 

The Evidence Considered for Admissions

The following is a comprehensive list of documents that a typical admissions committee uses to evaluate a candidate’s suitability for admission to the school.

1. Undergraduate/graduate degree records (official transcripts)
2. GMAT scores
3. TOEFL scores
4. Essays (on given topics)
5. Recommendations
6. Résumé (one-page format)
7. Application form
8. Application fee (paid through credit card)
9. Proof of funds to cover the cost of tuition and living expenses for one year
10. Work experience (a minimum of two years required for most schools, but not a necessity)
11. Evidence of completion of a certificate course to establish proficiency in a second language (such as for INSEAD)

The above list has several add-ons that might be required at a later stage through the admission process since a background check is a common phenomenon with most of the top schools these days.

1. Salary slips to help verify the income stated in the application
2. Letter to announce salary raise/perks/bonus
3. Appointment letter/resignation letter
4. Contact details of recommenders
5. Certificates to establish extracurricular achievements
6. Letters of commendation or proof to establish posts held in college
7. Copies of publications in journals/magazines
8. Reports of research work/thesis work
9. Certificate of completion of non-graded courses
10. Evidence in support of any other activities mentioned in the application

Not all of the above are required in most cases. However, to be on the safe side, we suggest that you keep all of the above handy. The above list is comprehensive for most purposes and any other documents requested by a school will only fall in the category of exceptions.

The Graduate/Undergraduate Degree Records

Your undergraduate and/or graduate degree records (judged through official transcripts) are considered to be a reliable indicator of your intellectual ability, analytical skills and diligence. These records would always be important. However, as your work experience increases in scope and time, these become secondary to the quality and nature of professional experience. In most cases, and typically until the applicant crosses the threshold of about six years of full-time work, these records carry a lot of weight with the admissions staff. They tend to consider the following things when looking at your records:

1. The reputation of the school
2. The type of courses (more weightage to courses in mathematics, economics, communication skills)
3. Course load
4. Grades received and their distribution over the years of education

It is easy to see that this type of classification is very natural and comes easy to the admissions staff. Over the years, they become used to seeing a lot of applications from people with similar backgrounds, particularly international students and hence the staff is well trained to look out for specifics. So it is not necessary to complete an engineering course in an IIT, but it helps if you do because it shows intellectual aptitude since the admissions statistics are well publicized. For that matter, the University of Delhi and the University of Mumbai and a few other colleges are equally well known in the corridors of Oxford and Cambridge as well as Harvard. It works in a self-selecting manner and so, if you come from a lesser known institution, then you need to work harder to distinguish yourself from the crowd, with stellar performances in grades as well as interests.

The type of courses taken signify an analytical bent of mind if more of these are related to mathematics, economics, statistics and so on. Since an MBA is a degree which involves a fair bit of analytics, it becomes more difficult for those with a background in English literature or history and they need to take additional courses to establish a comfort level with the required courses in the curriculum. Again, a good performance in courses relating to your major signifies your interest to excel in the field of your choice, and if the same is achieved while maintaining a heavy course load, it also shows your ability to handle pressure and perform in demanding situations. Finally, it is important to show a progression towards top grades, if you started at the lower end of your class, or to show a steady performance with top grades throughout to establish the fact that you have the ability to compete and achieve and can focus on your goals and work with determination towards success.

What if you do not have a great academic record? Realistically speaking, it is still in your hands to make that difference. You should enroll in programmes which offer you the chance to earn another degree while working or take a few courses in specific subjects like calculus, economics, accounting or other subjects of relevance to an MBA programme. You have a chance to get good grades, work hard on a few projects, produce publications or simply learn something new and useful while at the same time, clearly indicating to the admissions staff, through this alternative transcript that you are capable of achieving great success and are able to work hard. You will project greater confidence as well as indicate to them that you are really interested in the MBA programme at their institute by establishing your commitment through this extra effort. You will, however, need to be organized while doing this and send all details of such programmes or courses to the admissions staff, to help them in evaluating your application.

Please remember that you will need to submit your transcripts (along with a description of the grading or marking system) in English to the admissions office of your choice schools. If your college does not provide records in English then you would need to get an English translation of the same, officially certified by the head of the college and submit it, along with the transcript request form, to the admission office for consideration with your application. Also, do not forget to include a note explaining the grading system followed by your college or university and the marks obtained by the topper of your class. It might so happen that the admissions office may try to convert your GPA to the US standard of 4.0 system and a direct conversion may lead to a GPA of 3.0 in your case, which is very average performance in their system, based on a forced curve of grading, while you might be the topper of your batch and the real conversion should be closer to 4.0. This is a very common error and needs to be clearly explained along with your relative position or rank in your class and your total class size, such as second rank in a class of 60 students is an outstanding performance. Do mention the standing of your college, if it is a well-regarded and recognized institution in your country, along with certain facts and figures, which will help the admissions committee to appreciate the quality of education, as imparted by the institution to you, and for future students from the same institute.

You are considered an international applicant if at the time of your application you are neither a US citizen nor a permanent resident of the US for the US B-schools. Similar criteria apply for other countries. Applicants must have completed the equivalent of a US bachelor’s degree to be eligible for admission to the US MBA programmes and it is the same for European B-schools in most cases. However, you should always check with specific schools for exceptions. Only those applicants who have completed degree programmes representing a minimum of 16 years of schooling with at least 12 years at the elementary and secondary levels are eligible for admission.

The following list gives country-specific information about the level of study expected of applicants:

• Australia/New Zealand/South Africa: Bachelor’s honours degree or bachelor’s degree where standard of completion is four or more years of full-time study.
• Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka: 16-year bachelor’s or master’s degree requiring a minimum of four years of university study or a three-year Bachelor’s in Commerce plus membership in the Institute of Chartered Accountancy. For applicants who already have a B.Com., B.A. or B.Sc., completion of one year of a two-year master’s programme is not sufficient. Applicants must have completed the entire two-year programme.
• Canada: Three-year bachelor’s degree from Quebec; four-year bachelor’s degree from all other provinces.
• Commonwealth of Independent States: Diploma of specialist in relevant field of study requiring five years at an institute or university.
• Denmark: Candidatus, requiring four years of university study, or Academingenior.
• France or French-patterned education: Degree or Diplôme requiring four years of post-baccalauréate study from a university or a grand école.
• Germany: University Diplom, Magister Artium or Staatsexamen. Graduates of Fachhochschulen and Berufakademien will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. An Abitur is required. The Vordiplom by itself is not sufficient.
• Hungary: Oklevel (diploma) earned after four to five years of study.
• Indonesia: Sarjana (five years) or SI, awarded after four years of university study.
• Mexico, Spain, Central and South America: Completion of all courses and thesis or professional exams required for the title or degree of Licenciado/Licenciatura or Bacharel.
• The Netherlands: Doctorandus (Drs), Ingenieur (Ir) or Meester (Mr).
• People’s Republic of China: Minimum qualification is a bachelor’s degree, representing four years of university study. Official academic records must include a graduation certificate in Chinese, with a literal English translation.
• The Philippines: Five-year bachelor’s degree or four-year bachelor’s degree plus one year of graduate work.
• Poland: Magister, Dyplom, Inzynier.
• Switzerland: Licence, Diplôme or Diplom; four to five years of university study.
• The United Kingdom and the schools following the British pattern of education: Honours programme in bachelor’s degree.

Applicants must submit official records from every academic institution attended after secondary school, including short-term study or academic exchange programmes which have a duration of one year or more (two semesters or three semesters depending on the system followed at the host university), even if no actual credit was received. Official records are original documents issued by the institution that have the original stamp or embossed seal of the institution attended and the signature of the authorized official. Photocopies of documents are acceptable only if they have been certified by the institution, or the embassy/consulate, or educational advising centre. Submit the original document and ask the institution, embassy or consulate to photocopy the document and stamp each page verifying its authenticity. Ask the official to provide you with a sealed envelope containing the verified copy of the original. The signature and title of the university, embassy or consular officer must appear across the back of the sealed envelope. Documents notarized by a notary public are usually not acceptable.

The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT)

The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is used by business schools across the world as an important criterion in their admissions process. It is usually taken as a computer-based test (CBT) and is administered by the Educational Testing Services (ETS) on behalf of the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC). GMAT tests your ability to think logically, your quantitative skills through multiple-choice questions and your ability to write persuasive arguments and present them well through the essays. Further information about the exam as well as instructions to book an online appointment can be obtained from the official Web site of GMAC–www.mba.org, which deals with the test and the application process.

GMAT has a well-defined format. The test begins with two essays, each of half-hour duration. The essay topics are arranged in two categories—‘analysis of an argument’ and ‘analysis of an issue’. Analysis of an argument requires you to analyse the evidence presented by the author and hence argue in favour or against, basing your judgment solely on the facts stated in the argument. Analysis of an issue requires you to discuss your personal viewpoint, based on your knowledge and experience, on the stated topic which is largely drawn from relevant current issues. Next come the multiple-choice questions, in an adaptive format, which adjust according to your performance. If you are able to answer all the initial questions correctly, then you score higher compared to the case when you get a few of those wrong and the computer adjusts to a lower level of performance. It is very important to perform well in the initial part of the test, while you may breeze through the last few questions, without a significant impact on your overall score.

The multiple-choice questions are divided into two parts of 75 minutes each and these parts have subparts dealing with specific topics. These are:

1. Quantitative ability (37 questions)
   1. Problem solving—problems of algebra, arithmetic and geometry.
   2. Data sufficiency—problems dealing with your ability to analyse data.
2. Verbal ability (41 questions)
   1. Reading comprehension—questions to be answered based on passages. Analyses your ability to read, comprehend and analyse information with an eye for logic and detail.
   2. Critical reasoning—problems testing your ability to evaluate information and use logic to arrive at conclusions.
   3. Sentence correction—tests your English language abilities by the way you select grammatically correct sentences from various options.

There is an optional five-minute break after the essay-writing section and again after the quantitative section of the test. This break is used to refresh, calm down and prepare for the next section, by students.

The Scores and Their Analysis The GMAT scores range from 200 to 800. Two-thirds of test-takers score between 400 and 600 with an average of 500. The verbal and quantitative scores range from 0 to 60. Scores below 9 and above 44 for the verbal section or below 7 and above 50 for the quantitative section are rare. The score is then converted to a percentile score, which reflects your relative performance, i.e., the number of people who scored below you in that section as well as the overall test, which is the correct measure to be obtained from such a test.

The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) score is an average of the ratings received from the ‘analysis of an issue’ and the ‘analysis of an argument’ sections. Each response is given two independent ratings and the scores are averaged to arrive at the overall score. These average scores can range from 0 to 6 in half point intervals. The average grade received is approximately 3.5 in the case of Indian and international applicants (based on feedback from test-takers). Writing scores are computed separately from the scores for the multiple-choice sections of the test and have no effect on the verbal, quantitative or total scores.

Unofficial scores from the verbal and quantitative multiple-choice sections, along with the total score, are available to the test-taker immediately after he/she completes the test. Official GMAT score reports, which include the AWA score, are mailed to the test-taker and his/her designated score report recipients (schools) approximately two weeks after the test. Official GMAT score results are kept on file for 20 years. Most schools accept scores no older than five years. However, score reports for tests taken up to 20 years ago are still available for reporting.

Why Do Schools Use the GMAT? There are two main reasons why schools use the GMAT exam.

1. The GMAT is a reliable and valid measure of basic verbal and quantitative skills that have been found to be important in the study of management at the graduate level. In repeated research studies, GMAT scores have been found to be a good predictor of academic success in the first year of an MBA or other graduate management programmes.
2. Unlike academic performance or grade point averages (GPAs), which vary in meaning according to the grading standards of each school, GMAT scores are based on the same standard for all test-takers. Therefore, applicants can be directly compared on GMAT scores but not on GPAs.

The top schools usually have GMAT score averages in the range of 680–720. The quality of students at these schools further proves the efficacy of using the GMAT as a measure of academic abilities, with them being the top 5 to 10 per cent scorers among the people taking the test. However, the average score represents a wider range and hence, a score of 620 does not automatically lead to a rejection of your application. GMAT, after all, is only one of the several measures used to evaluate your application. However, our advice to the highly competitive pool of international applicants is to try and get the highest possible score (above 700 if possible, in consideration of several personal and professional constraints), even if it means retaking the exam, because it reflects your commitment to excellence and your perseverance on the path to achieving the same. It also helps to offset the variation caused among the pool of applicants with similar background, where the average score might be higher than the overall average for the programme.

An important point to keep in mind is the breakup of this total score in the verbal and quantitative sections. While it is important to score high, it is equally important to score above the 80th percentile in both sections, which is sometimes used as a cutoff by schools. A well-balanced score helps to offset any bias. It is generally assumed by most of the Indian applicants that a high quantitative score is better, which is nowhere close to the reality. Again, the AWA score is used differently by various schools. Generally, a score of 4.5 and above is considered good. However, schools can base their decisions (with a clear view of the school culture and type of students they seek) on one or the other essay, its content and the score or in some cases neither and the decision is based solely on the overall score. Whatever the method is, it pays to score well on the GMAT.

How to Register for the GMAT The test-taker must first select a GMAT test centre location. Most test centres are in permanent locations and offer the computer-adaptive GMAT throughout the year. Some test centres are mobile (temporary) and offer the computer-adaptive GMAT on a very limited schedule. In some countries, supplementary test centres offer a paper-based version of the test once or twice a year. Each test centre operates on its own schedule and can accommodate varying numbers of test-takers. Test-takers choose the most convenient location for them by viewing the test centre list for the United States, the US territories, Puerto Rico, and Canada or the ‘international test centre locations’ list for all other countries either online or in the GMAT Information Bulletin (the latest version can be easily downloaded from www.GMAC.com). The list provides the street address and telephone number of each test centre.

Once they have decided where to take the test, test-takers then need to schedule a GMAT test appointment using one of the three methods—online, by phone, or by mail. They can find out what times are available at their chosen test centre by using the ‘check seat availability’ feature on www.mba.com in the GMAT section of the site (www.mba.com/mba/takethegmat). If a test-taker has a documented disability and requires special testing accommodations, he/she must follow the registration procedures as described in the article ‘Test-takers with Disabilities’ in the GMAT section of www.mba.com or in the GMAT Information Bulletin.

Change in the GMAT Administration from 1 January 2006 The board of directors of Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) recently announced that the investment priorities, strategic direction, and capabilities of ETS were no longer consistent with GMAC’s goals for the future of the GMAT programme. Since 1 January 2006, ACT has been developing the GMAT and Pearson VUE has been delivering the exam. GMAC has no current plans to change the format of the exam or the types of questions it contains. The GMAT exam continues to assess verbal skills with reading comprehension, sentence correction, and critical-reasoning questions; quantitative skills with problem-solving and data-sufficiency questions; and analytical writing abilities with two essays.

Since January 2006, the GMAC has been offering the GMAT only in the computer-adaptive format. No more paper-based tests are given. However, ETS still continues to provide customer service for all the GMAT exams.

GMAT Preparation As with any well-known test preparation, you have two options to prepare for the GMAT. You can either join a preparatory course which offers classes and mock tests to help you prepare well or you can choose the self-study route. In India, such classes are offered in all major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and others, where these centres offer classroom coaching for GMAT preparation. These courses are frequently advertised in the local newspapers and are easily accessible. However, based on the experience of a number of students, most of these courses do not deliver on the promise of either good instructors or well-developed material and students often end up wasting both time and money with such courses. However, these are advantageous and recommended for those students who are not at ease with using computers and have no prior exposure to such tests. Also, people who are working and are not able to find time and motivation to prepare by themselves benefit immensely by joining such classes, as they develop a regular practice schedule, which is very important for getting the speed and accuracy in answering the questions.

Our recommendation goes with the self-study route. There are several preparatory books available on the subject in the market, and study guides and mock tests are available on the Internet. The applicant should purchase at least two to three different books, such as those by The Princeton Review, Kaplan, along with The Official Guide for GMAT Review which is published by GMAC. These books usually come with a CD-ROM which contains a few practice tests based on the pattern of the actual test. GMAC also gives out Powerprep software CD-ROM to all applicants who register for the GMAT, which is based on a few actual tests administered in the past to test-takers. The student needs to develop a regular schedule and prepare well for a period of 6–8 weeks, which is usually sufficient to master the format, the test-taking strategy and the concepts. One should develop a study pattern which caters to specific needs, like giving more time to the quantitative section if mathematics has been an area of concern from past experience, so that the weaker areas can be adequately developed before the actual test is taken. Also, one can plan to study alone or in group, depending upon their comfort level and their ability to contribute to the study environment. It is advisable to first review the written material and then use the CD-ROM-based tests to evaluate the level of preparation. More tests can be taken by registering on various Web sites, which offer online test preparation courses for GMAT, such as The Princeton Review. Taking the Powerprep test would, in general, give you a fairly good idea of your level of preparation and performance in these tests closely matches your performance on the day of actual test, says the experience of a lot of test-takers.

You have the option of cancelling your scores at the GMAT centre, once you finish all three sections, if you believe that you have not done well in the test. You can take the GMAT any number of times, depending on your financial resources and the time available, towards improving your scores. It is advisable to prepare well and take the test, but if, for some reasons, you do not score well, then it is better to retake the test and improve your score, as it has a positive impact on your application. However, it should not become the sole aim of the applicant, as GMAT is only one of the factors and if the other parts of application are developed well, with adequate time and focus, then average performance in the test can be overcome, as has been proven time and again in the range of GMAT scores published by various schools. Please do keep in mind that the schools you apply to will receive scores from all your attempts to take the exam. Most schools only consider the top score(s), but if you have taken the test more than two or three times, it might have a negative impact on your overall impression coming through the application materials, and it might be beneficial to address this point in one of your application essays.

Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)

The ability to understand rapid, idiomatic English is essential for international candidates applying to an MBA programme, especially in the US schools and in some European schools such as the London Business School. The TOEFL is required of all non-native English speakers, to show their proficiency in English language, since it is the medium of instruction for the duration of the course, in most universities. The test is easy when compared to GMAT but it serves to highlight your language skills, which are very important to your performance at B-school. It is advised that you take language training in your country with a short-term course, if you are not completely comfortable with the test pattern or the level of questions. The TOEFL may be waived if you earned an undergraduate or master’s degree in an English-speaking country or from an institution in which English is the language of instruction; applicants must provide evidence to support a waiver request, which must be made directly to the admissions office and the approval should be taken before submitting the application. Your TOEFL test date and score must be recorded on your application. If your test score is more than two years old (from date of exam to the date of receipt of application), you will need to retake the test. In most cases, your application is considered incomplete and cannot be evaluated until your TOEFL score has been received by the university.

The TOEFL is administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS) and offered throughout the year at test centres worldwide. Only official TOEFL score reports sent directly from ETS are accepted. For TOEFL paper-based tests, a minimum score of 600 is usually required, with minimum subscores of 60 in each category. For computerized tests, the minimum score taken is usually 250, with minimum subscores of 25 in each category. It is highly recommended that you take the exam as early as possible but no later than the dates listed according to your application cycle. The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at institutional sites such as colleges and universities, and at testing centres operated by Prometric, a division of Thomson Learning. The computer-based TOEFL test has four sections:

1. Listening measures the ability to understand spoken English.
2. Structure measures the ability to recognize standard written English.
3. Reading measures the ability to understand short passages that are similar in topic and style to academic texts.
4. Writing measures the ability to write in English on an assigned topic.

For more information on the TOEFL and to register for the test, please contact ETS by phone at (609) 771–7100, (609) 771–7760 or (510) 653–5400, or visit their web site at www.toefl.org.

You can address inquiries about the exam to:

TOEFL
Educational Testing Service
PO Box 6151 Princeton,
NJ 08541-6151 USA

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is an internationally owned and globally recognized direct English language assessment. IELTS is jointly managed by the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations, British Council and IDP: IELTS Australia. For more information on IELTS and to register for the test in your home region, please visit www.ielts.org. Candidates should register for the academic test. For IELTS, a minimum overall band score of 7.0 with no score lower than 7.0 in writing and speaking is usually required. An official score report should be sent directly to the concerned university before the deadline to submit your application materials.

The IELTS is designed to assess the language ability of candidates who need to study or work where English is used as the language of communication. IELTS tests are administered at accredited test centres throughout the world. There are currently more than 300 centres, in over 120 countries.

IELTS covers all the four language skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking, and is offered in two test formats—academic, and general training. All candidates take the same listening and speaking modules but they have to choose between academic or general training reading and writing modules. Academic is suitable for candidates planning to undertake higher education study or who are seeking professional registration. General training is suitable for candidates planning to undertake non-academic training or work experience, or for immigration purposes. IELTS is recognized by universities and employers in many countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. It is also recognized by professional bodies, immigration authorities and other government agencies.

Extracurricular Activities—The Other Side of You

As the name suggests, these activities are usually undertaken along with the regular academic work at the college or university, where you complete your undergraduate and/or graduate degrees. Involvement in these activities, at a level more than that of interest or hobby, clearly demonstrates an ability to pursue and excel in chosen fields, as well as early signs of leadership abilities in some cases. These become important, especially in the case of college seniors, who are sometimes admitted into the top business schools, bypassing the need for any work experience based on their performance in activities, which demonstrate their ability to take responsibility and deliver under pressure and against odds at times. Again, many of these activities, such as involvement in student clubs or organization of conferences help demonstrate the ability to lead and achieve, often indicating that the applicant has worked his/her way up the organizational ladder, such as in the role of club president and the achievements during the tenure.

It is important to keep in mind that more often than not, it is not activity itself that matters, but your level of involvement, your performance, the progression of your responsibility and any demonstrated leadership or teamwork instances that impact your application. Active involvement in university sports is one such area, considered to be a good training ground for development of team and leadership skills. However, organization of a successful blood donation camp may hold more weight depending on your level of involvement with the event.

If you were not actively involved in such activities, or the avenues were limited due to various factors such as geographical location, academic workload, then you may instead outline any similar activities of interest after your college education, such as during your job. It will clearly indicate your ability to use all opportunities presented to you towards the best-possible results and will strengthen the overall feel of your personality coming out from your application. Apart from substantiating your leadership or team-oriented abilities, these will also offer a more well-rounded view of your personality, rather than just the intellectual or analytical perspective.

Work Experience

This is probably the trickiest and the most significant part of the application in terms of bringing alive the calibre of the applicant. Unfortunately, the opportunities for applicants to bring out leadership traits and general management capabilities in developing countries like India are very limited. Our education system is more geared towards technical fields—even the top engineering schools like the IITs usually see students employed in tech or IT-oriented companies like Intel, Cisco or IBM. More recently, Indian companies like Wipro and Infosys are emerging as top employers. While these jobs are certainly well paying and are also perceived as the club of the ‘intellectually elite’ of the society, the flipside is that the applicant realizes too late that he/she has missed out on the overall requirements of a work experience suited to a general management position. There are little or no leadership opportunities until one reaches a significantly higher position in an IT organization by which time one has already spent about 6–8 years on the job. The dynamics of interaction between people is quite different and the environment of the workplace is informal (some call it ‘collegial’) in these outfits, which does not help in developing interpersonal skills required in a large general management organization such as GE or P&G. Finally, the deliverables are almost always technical in nature, related to development or administration or support to software applications and, hence, create a very one-dimensional view of success and personal development in an individual.

In contrast, the top undergraduate students in the US universities, let’s say the Ivy Leagues, are picked up by accounting firms, consultancies, investment banks, advertising outfits and the like. The wide range of opportunities virtually grants better exposure to management practices. Of course, this is not to say that no Indian job can be compared to a US one, or that Indians receive recognition and responsibility at a much later stage in their careers. There are quite a few MNCs (banks, audit firms, consumer goods companies) which consciously recruit younger graduates and impart rigorous management training programmes, soon after which the employee is placed in a position of significant responsibility, say, that of a marketing manager in a consumer products company.

However, there is no denying that a majority of people in their early 20s do end up in routine, analytical jobs, a variation of the same can be found in most of the developing countries, which are dependent on one or two booming sectors for employment opportunities. It would be wrong to term the situation as unfavourable. Instead, it opens many more doors for those who seek to break out from the clutter and make a mark for themselves. It is an opportunity in disguise, if understood early and used in the best manner, conducive to personal and professional growth.

We have discussed in detail the type of prospective students sought by B-schools. These schools are looking to create a class which has diversity—in nationality, professional experience, ethnicities and so on. The time-tested route to top business schools, that of completing undergraduation with good grades, joining a coveted accounting, consulting or banking firm and then applying with recommendations from the alumni of those schools, is fast losing its sparkle. Admissions officers have realized that to enhance learning, it is important to have a student body with varied backgrounds and experiences. This is the changing picture of the admissions process around the world and one needs to understand the requirements well, to be able to gain the maximum from the limited opportunities available.

Work experience is measured in terms of four parameters, namely, brand (the company you work for), length (number of years), nature (work profile, especially where you fit in the organization structure, along with your subordinates) and quality (your projects and active involvement in various functions beyond your defined role, your experiences and learning). These parameters are important in the same order with quality being the most important and brand being the least important factor under consideration. In an ideal condition, you would have all four measuring up to the best in the world. However, the quality of work as well as its nature is something that you can still influence, given a high level of enthusiasm and initiative to achieve success.

People in industries such as IT, sales, hospitality, can do a lot to improve the quality of work experience by being actively involved in other functions and taking initiative to lead or start programmes that involve other people in the organization, besides excelling in their current roles and over-delivering on their objectives. They need to try and bring to the fore their leadership skills as well as create situations where teamwork is paramount to the success of a project. The human angle to these two things necessitates extra effort and calls for leaving the comfort zone of your daily routine. You can discuss with the HR department and find more opportunities for carrying out such work in your companies. This extra effort goes a long way in ensuring that you develop respect for your abilities amongst your peers as well as get noticed by the top management for your initiative and skills. Who knows you may not even need an MBA after doing all this and more. Related to this is the nature of work experience. As you start taking more responsibility and getting involved in various projects, you can discuss with the HR department about a change in your work profile, which makes it more coherent with your interests. It might not always be possible, but the extra effort you put in to deliver your objectives as well as in helping others, does get noticed and appreciated by most companies. This only helps you to improve your work experience in an otherwise staid atmosphere. As you try and achieve more, you could look forward to even influence the brand, as you get noticed and might be able to move to a better-known company.

Length of work experience plays an important role when you need to showcase your work experience as the mainstay of your application. In cases where your undergraduate record is not great, a more than average number of years tends to shift the focus from your academic performance and puts the spotlight on your current role. However, the above-mentioned factors do need to be taken care of, so that the quality and nature of work match up to the required level of your choice schools. While there is no minimum required in the case of most business schools, two years of full-time work experience (40 hours per week in American parlance) is recommended. Top schools have gone on record saying that they would consider applications from college seniors but more often than not, such students are accepted and then asked to get the requisite experience for a few years, so that they can benefit from the programme. There is a difference between the outlook of the US schools and their European counterparts. The average number of years of work experience for the US schools tends to be about four while that for the European schools goes up to about seven, given the intensive nature of their programmes and the shorter duration. People with higher experience are usually recommended to attend an Executive programme; however it is not unheard of to find 40-year-old students in the classroom of a full-time MBA programme.

The benefits of getting a few years of professional experience are immense. Some of them are:

• You are able to appreciate the structure and working methods of a big organization.
• You are able to evaluate your fit within such a structure, by comparing your function while observing others to understand what it is that you like the most, and would want to pursue in future.
• You get an opportunity to understand human dynamics that operate within an organization and improve your interpersonal skills.
• You will get opportunities to work on real-life problems and will be actively involved in devising a solution for the same.
• You get ideas about what you could do in future through your interactions with others as well as get a chance to gauge your own potential.
• You are able to decide what courses to take in your MBA towards your intended major and are able to utilize the business school resources to the maximum.

Given below are the points that will get the attention of admissions officers towards your stellar work experience and will set you apart from others with a similar background.

• Growth in position and responsibility within the organization
• Consistent and successful delivery and over-delivery of the stated objectives of your work profile as shown through your appraisal reports
• Appreciation shown by the management through significant salary increase or performance bonus
• Projects or other opportunities which allowed you to demonstrate teamwork and interaction with other people
• Involvement in activities, where you managed other people and were appreciated for the same as well as delivered great results
• Range of experiences, each showcasing a different skill set such as your analytical skills, communication skills, managerial skills as well as establishing your superiority over others in some specific areas
• Your outperforming your peers and being appreciated for the same
• Your handling of crisis/crunch situations, above and beyond the ordinary
• Your relationship with your subordinates

The above points help you differentiate yourself from others and project the image of a confident achiever who shows great potential for future success. This naturally attracts the admissions staff of any school, who are looking for potential winners amongst the pool of applicants, to you. They will typically look at your recommendations to substantiate your claims and if your superior is genuinely impressed with your performance and your abilities, you have made your mark and gained your place.

If you have not had such opportunities, or have had a very routine kind of work experience then we suggest that you give yourself more time and build your profile as per the suggestions. It is usually better to spend extra time at work than to apply to and attend a lower-ranked school, as the trade-off will be too steep in the long run.

Community Service and Other Community Activities

So you are employed full time in a job or are a college student enrolled in a full-time course of study and are sincere and hard working and are fully committed to the task at hand. That is great and it reflects well on your abilities too. But if that is all you do, then it becomes difficult for the people in the admissions staff to differentiate you from those thousands of others, who also do the same, everyday. Business leaders are people who are actively involved with their communities and engage in activities which involve other people in many different ways. You need to show this aspect of your personality to those evaluating your application. They relate current involvement to future participation and your ability to give back to the community and are, thus, impressed with the breadth as well as the depth of your involvement. However, there is a catch. These are experienced people and will easily see through you, if you plan to engage in activities just for the sake of building your résumé. You should be able to show consistent behaviour overtime and other people should be able to support your claim in a convincing manner, if required. As with extracurricular activities, here too, the type of activity is less important than your position and level of responsibility.

Community service activities such as involvement in non-profit organizations, participation in events such as blood donation and AIDS awareness, Rotary club or Lions club activities, showcase your ability to give back to the community. These forums also allow you to take on leadership roles or organize team-related activities and as with other activities, success or failure to deliver is measurable. Therefore, some people, who do not get significant opportunities in their work environment, can use these as a valuable tool to develop as well as exhibit these abilities in a public forum, where the skills can be appreciated. It also allows people to get references outside of their workplace, which is very useful, as it can be used to highlight a completely different aspect of your personality. Another advantage could be any position that you hold in a local non-profit organization, such as a trustee or a member of the board. It allows you to focus the application on your excellent leadership as well as managerial abilities, which enable you to do justice to your position outside of your work.

Not everyone has the opportunity to get involved in such activities, especially those in industries like banking, marketing and consulting. These people typically run 80-hour work weeks and would like to spend whatever little time is on their hands, with their families. For these people, the extracurricular activities and achievements during college education take precedence during the evaluation of their applications. Admissions officers are adept at judging the work profile and hence, the amount of time available with the person. In such cases, they use different criteria, but still are impressed by contributions to or involvement with charities. Finally, it depends on you and your capacity to handle these engagements, over and above the routine chores of life. However, if you are a couch potato and have time available in your hands, we advise you to go and get involved in some activity or the other to develop your personality as well as to add significant experience to your profile.

Besides community service, there are other activities such as interests and hobbies, which could range from active involvement in sports like squash or swimming to theatre, movies, dancing and the like. These activities can definitely substitute community service experience for not everyone is equally inclined to volunteer for flood relief camps. People do appreciate your choice and are ready to understand your point of view, if you care to explain and show a substitute activity, where you interact with other people on a social basis and probably are involved in organizing or helping out with some or the other activities such as a festival being organized by the local club. Your participation in a fund-raiser campaign will not only be appreciated by the particular charity but also by the business school for they will be able to see your skills and view you as a valuable resource, able to generate funds for them. The admissions staff will all the time be judging you as a significant contributor to the local community, on campus as well as the neighborhood, city, state and the country. Through your active involvement in such activities, you are able to show commitment and the promise of being an important part of their life for the times to come. They should see you as a person, who would bring a great amount of experience and active enthusiasm to share with other students, enriching their life and adding to the greater good. Hence, the time to start is now, if you already haven’t.

An Effective Résumé—All of ‘You’ in One Glance

You have built up a great profile with strong work experience, extracurricular activities and community involvement. To support these further, you have a great graduate and undergraduate academic record. But all this is futile if you do not present it in a manner which will leave an impression of yours on the admissions committee. In most cases, résumé would be the tool used to present these to the admissions committee, except for your academic record, where you would also submit a transcript (official or in a template provided by the school) along with your application. Some of the top schools do provide extra space in your application to mention important points related to your work experience and other activities, but not all of them do so. Again, more often than not, the essay question would focus on a specific area and would have a word limit, not allowing for additional information related to your experience in varied activities.

A résumé is a great tool if used in a proper manner. First and foremost, one should remember that information should be compressed such that it fits in on one side of a single page. Brevity is the key to presenting the information on a résumé. Please have a look at the sample attached at the end of this chapter. You can use a structured or an unstructured format, as per your comfort and convenience. Both are widely used and only differ in the visual layout. The idea is to present all the key information in a manner which keeps the reader interested and impressed. We suggest that the applicant take the help of current students at the university as well as people in the HR function in the target industry to get feedback on their résumé and its information content and improve it according to their suggestions. One should not shy away from asking for help in this matter, for each place has a different way of looking at information and it is always useful to be able to present yourself in a manner that the reader can relate to naturally.

A very important requirement is to present information in a non-ambiguous manner in your résumé. Having said that you can also use this to tie your different experiences such that they look as part of a coherent whole. You may have held five jobs in as many years. The idea is to present it in context of a long-term career plan, rather than arbitrary career moves, which will only happen, if enough thought has gone into preparing the document. This one sheet will form the basis of your admissions interviews and in some cases, will be used as your introduction to the course faculty, who could then call upon you to discuss something highlighted in your prior work experience. It helps to use simple language and to be truthful about your positions, level of responsibility and experience, as well as achievements. A large number of schools use the interview as a means to get an independent opinion and the interviewer is usually provided only with a résumé. It is crucial that the picture that the interviewer forms based on his/her interaction with you as well as based on the information presented in the résumé, matches with the opinions that the admissions staff has formed based on your application materials. This topic will be handled in greater detail in Chapter 11. So use the tools available in English language in the best manner in order to produce a résumé, which will impress your target audience.

Commonly Used Decision Criteria

The final decision of the admissions committee is contingent upon a lot of factors, some of which we have already discussed. It is definitely possible for a focussed individual to start early and work hard towards good academic records, outstanding GMAT score, extracurricular and community activities during and after college and finally, work in a recognized company and manage quality work experience in a less than average timeframe. Having all that and more, candidates are still not able to crack top business schools, year after year. The reason is usually that the presentation of their application fails to differentiate them from others.

You need to devote quality time working on your applications and developing each one of them to your satisfaction and to the best possible as per your abilities. Your essays should present strong examples and incidents should be handpicked for their impact and learning and from what you gained out of them, (to be discussed in Chapter 9). Also of note is your ability to write and communicate well within the word limits and the way you are able to argue certain points to your favour, bringing out strong personal qualities through these essays. Your recommendations should support your work experience and essays and should bring out the strengths in your personality, something that depends solely on your choice of recommenders and your relationship with them. Building a strong résumé has been discussed earlier. Interview plays a strong role in bringing more focus on aspects of your personality, which have been mentioned but could not be fully discussed, given the limitations of space, and are also used to double check their choice and confidence on a selection.

Everyone who wants to go to business school does not choose to go there for similar reasons. While you may be really dissatisfied with your current work profile and are looking at a career switch, it could be disastrous to let these emotions out in your application. It takes the focus away from your past achievements and credentials, and puts the spotlight on the reasons for dissatisfaction, since it is usually assumed that you perform well only when you are really enjoying your work. Hence, it is very important that you maintain a positive frame of mind while working on your application, and focus on developing strong arguments about your future (post-MBA) career goals. The idea is to clearly draw from your past experiences and base your long-term plans on your experiences and skills that you have learned, having reached a certain point in your career. Even if you want to switch, the way to present it in your story, should tie up well with your career growth till now and build on that, the underlying structure of future success. You may well change your plans and end up in a direction different from what you wrote and presented in your admissions application. Well, two years is a long time and as you gain more experience, your views change and the exposure opens up your mind to many more possibilities. Nobody is going to hold you guilty for having said something else earlier—like being a great marketer while you ended up being a consultant. What is important right now is to be able to foresee a career path, which builds on your strengths and to be able to convince yourself and the admissions committee that it makes sense, that you have thought it through and that you are willing to stand by it, against all odds. If you are focussed, you will choose a career path which you will follow for the long term, if you are not, then you will get into B-school, explore, learn and find your calling. Both ways, you win, for you have got a great education to help you in your career path.

Finally, you again need to consider the intrinsic fabric of the school. While you may have quality work experience and everything about your application may be outstanding, just the fact that you have only worked for three years makes you, in general, an unsuitable candidate to apply to IMD (Lausanne), which gives the maximum weight to higher work experience. Another school may place greater emphasis on your performance in GMAT and your undergraduate records (GPA). A third school might favour people with IT background for a technology-focussed MBA. A younger applicant with two years of work experience needs to have stronger GPA, GMAT and extracurricular records, compared to someone who has been working for six years in a leadership position. For the latter, the focus would be more on community involvement and quality of work experience. Admissions staff do not have a set criteria of cut-offs and each case is considered on the merits of information presented and the manner of presentation. The one single driving factor is to create a group, which is able to work well with each other as well as being diverse in experiences and cultures so that the learning experience can be maximized, in and out of classrooms. You may well be able to ride the diversity trump-card if you are intelligent and are able to showcase yourself as someone who brings a unique set of skills and abilities to the school. To name a few targeted groups, the US schools tend to be concerned about minorities and recently have been noticed for being more favourable towards developing Asian economies. European schools have always looked at creating a well-balanced class based on geographical diversity, while all schools around the world look at admitting more female students to achieve a balance in their class distribution. It cannot be said for sure how much advantage targeted groups have in the admissions process, but it has been noted in several discussions with admission directors of leadings B-schools that the process always looks at admitting the most competitive students from a common pool. Whatever the method, you are going to be there as long as you do the right things and do them to the best of your abilities.

Résumé Sample 1—Unstructured Format

Your Name
Address
Phone; E-mail

Work experience

Skills: Marketing, sales, C++, Java, etc.

Name of the current company

Brief description of the company’s interests

Your current position, location, period (from-to)

Achievements and lessons learnt (in brief)

Your previous position, location, period [from-to (if in the same company)]

Achievements and lessons learnt (in brief)

Name of the previous company

Brief description of the company’s interests

Your position, location, period (from-to)

Achievements and lessons learnt (in brief)

Your position, location, period (from-to)

Achievements and lessons learnt (in brief)

Education

Name of the institute, period of attendance (from-to)

Degree received/training programme attended

Any special projects, achievements

Name of the institute, period of attendance (from-to)

Degree received/training programme attended

Any special projects, achievements

Name of the institute, period of attendance (from-to)

Degree received/ training programme attended

Any special projects, achievements

 

 

Community service or other activities

• Volunteer
• Co-founder
• Board member

Extracurricular and other activities

• Activity coordinator
• Member
• Secretary

Résumé Sample 2—Structured Format

Name
Address
E-mail; Phone

 

Education
From–To	Name of the institute Degree received/training programme attended Any special projects, achievements
From–To	Name of the institute Degree received/training programme attended Any special projects, achievements
From–To	Name of the institute Degree received/training programme attended Any special projects, achievements
Experience
From–To	Name of the current company Brief description of the company’s interests
	Your current position, location Achievements and lessons learnt (in brief)
From–To	Your previous position, location Achievements and lessons learnt (in brief)
From–To	Name of previous company Brief description of the company’s interests
	Your position, location Achievements and lessons learnt (in brief)
From–To	Your previous position, Location Achievements and lessons learnt (in brief)
Community Service and Other Activities
From–To	Activity description
From–To	Activity description
Extracurricular Achievements, Awards and Activities
From–To	Activity description
From–To	Activity description
Other Details
Languages
Interests