EDUCATION

• Why did you choose this university and this major?

• What was your undergraduate GPA? (If your university does not provide an official GPA, please kindly calculate your approximate GPA by using this handy tool ▸ http://gpa-calculator.net)

• How many hours per week did you spend on extracurricular activities during undergraduate university? 

• Were you a member of any varsity sports teams (playing against other universities at an official level)? 

• Were you a member of any intramural sports teams (called "circles" in Japan)? 

• Did you hold any other undergraduate leadership positions? (clubs, volunteering, seminar)

• Were you the first person in your family to graduate from university?

• Were you employed full-time while enrolled in undergraduate university?

ADDITIONAL

• What countries have you visited? 

• What languages do you speak? 

• What kinds of hobbies and activities have you done since graduating from university?

• How many hours a week on average do you spend in those activities?

• Do you hold any leadership positions outside of work?

RESUME GUIDELINES

My client recently sent me the Resume Format Guidelines he received from Kellogg's Career Management Center. I suggest you follow these helpful tips to make your resume clear and convincing to your future application readers and interviewers.

WHY A STANDARD FORMAT?

•The Kellogg format allows on-campus recruiters to focus on your resume’s content rather than stylistic differences

•We get consistently positive feedback from employers on our format

Employer testimonial:

•“The Kellogg format is ideal. It is a concise one-page snapshot of a Kellogg student’s previous achievements, which allows us to review resumes thoughtfully and efficiently.” -McKinsey and Company

RESUME FORMAT GUIDELINES

Length

• Resumes may be no longer than ONE PAGE (A4 or 8 ½ x 11)

Tables

• DO NOT use tables on your resume

• Tables cause difficulty both with the Kellogg resume database and company application websites.

Margins

• Margins can not be smaller than .7 inches on all sides

Tabs and Alignment

• Locations should be right-aligned

• Bullets should be left-aligned and should not spread to the right margin

Font

• Size: 10 or 11 point Times New Roman. Do not make your name larger than the rest of your resume

• Caps and Bold: The following should be in BOLD CAPS. Do not use bold in other places on your resume

• Your name

• Section Headings

• School Names

• Company Names

• Italics: Job titles should be in italics.

Publications may be italicized if appropriate

• Lines/Underline: There should be no lines or underlining on your resume, except if you are listing “selected transaction experience” in your experience section

EDUCATION SECTION

•Include the month and year you received your degree

OTHER DATA SECTION

•Capitalize the first letter of languages spoken if included

•You may want to include any certifications you have obtained

•Be specific in this section – do not just say “enjoy traveling and cooking” – instead say something like, “enjoy adventure travel” or “recently traveled to Ecuador and Indonesia” and “enjoy cooking Northern Italian cuisine”

Header

•Your header should contain three lines

•Your name

•All CAPS and Bold

•Your address

•Street, City, State, and Zip

•Your phone number and email address

•Use your Kellogg email address

•Include only one phone number

Footer

•Include the date of your most recent update in the lower right corner

•Recruiters may receive multiple versions of your resume – help them determine which one is most current.

•The date should be Month/Day/Year

Experience Section

• Dates should be flush with the left margin

• Company names should be in CAPS and bold

• Job titles should be in italics

• Specific dates for different positions within the same company should be listed after the job title — the dates in the left margin for that company should reflect your entire term of employment at that company

• Don’t include internships completed in undergrad as part of this section. They should be included under Education as one bullet

Objective Statements

•DO NOT include an objective on your resume

Use chronological format

•List education and business experience in REVERSE chronological order (most recent first)

•The “Education” section should be at the top of your resume

Dates

•Write out all years fully

•“2005-2009” – NOT “05-09”

•Do not include months

•Internship dates should be identified by season, e.g. “Summer 2009”

Locations

•Abbreviate all states for locations of employer and school, e.g. “IL” not “Illinois”

•Spell out names of foreign countries

•Spell out addresses

Numbers

•Write out number one through nine.

•Use numerals starting with 10

Personal Information

•Do not include personal information on your resume (e.g. marital status, children, etc)

IMPACT STATEMENTS

Your bullets should not read like a job description. They should feature skills, actions and results. Consider following this formula:

Strong Lead Action Verb + What You Did = Results

Quantify: “Designed and implemented new volunteer model in Tanzania, expanding volunteer base by 30%

•Increased (sales, profits, margins, value)

•Decreased (costs, inefficiencies, errors)

Scope: “Managed $82M divestiture of division with over $30M in revenue and 100 employees.”

•Define size (team, budget, business)

•Number impacted (people, businesses)

Qualify: “Presented final recommendation to CFO, recommendation ultimately implemented by client.” •Presented to (senior management, client)

•Delivered (on time, early, under budget) •Implemented recommendation

•A company first

•Adopted across business units

Action Verbs

accelerated developed made revived accomplished devised maintained saved achieved discovered managed scheduled acquired discharged marketed secured adapted distributed mediated selected addressed documented minimized served administered doubled mobilized set up advanced earned modernized settled allocated edited modified shaped analyzed eliminated monitored showed anticipated employed motivated simplified applied enforced negotiated sold appointed established obtained solved approved estimated operated sponsored arranged evaluated ordered staffed assisted examined organized standardized assigned exceeded originated started attained exercised overcame stimulated audited expanded overhauled streamlined augmented extended oversaw strengthened brought financed participated stretched broadened forecasted performed structured built formed pinpointed studied calculated formulated planned suggested centralized founded prepared summarized clarified fulfilled presented supervised collaborated generated prevented supported combined guided processed surpassed completed halved produced surveyed conceived handled programmed sustained concluded helped projected tailored condensed headed promoted taught conducted hired proposed terminated consolidated identified proved tested constructed implemented published traded consulted improved realized transacted contracted increased recommended transferred contributed influenced reconciled transformed controlled initiated recruited translated converted inspected reduced trimmed coordinated installed re-established tripled corrected instituted regulated uncovered created instructed reinforced undertook cut integrated reorganized unified decentralized interviewed reported used decreased introduced represented utilized defined invented researched verified delivered investigated reshaped widened demonstrated launched resolved withdrew designated liquidated restored won designed located reviewed worked determined revised wrote

Synonyms

• ability: aptitude, capability

• adopt: use, utilize, employ , apply, mobilize, exert , restore revive, specialize in

• assist: dispatch, expedite, cooperate, maintain,promote authority command, charter, domain, scope, field, control, jurisdiction, commission, province ,circle, in charge of

• authorize: entitle, delegate, empower , qualify, invest , endow

• business: undertaking , pursuit, venture, affair, concern, interest, matter, negotiations, transactions

• carry out: discharge, execute, pursue, fulfill, perform, practice, exercise, undertake, transact, assume, accomplish, achieve, attain company: concern, enterprise, establishment, institution, corporation, firm, organization

• continue: keep up, remain, resume, persevere, persist, adhere to

• cooperate: collaborate, contribute to, support

• develop: originate, create, derive, cause, effect, generate, bring about, result in, give rise to, design, devise, make, build, construct, synthesize, form, prepare, organize, sponsor, prompt

• earn: merit, exceed, excel, surpass, better, top, progress, advance

• effective: forceful, potent, valid, strong, vigorous, productive, influential, dynamic

• emphasis: stress, accentuate, feature

• implement: execute, enforce

• job: situation, position, post, status, footing, appointment, capacity, occupation, calling, profession, career

• manage: handle, deal with, represent, operate, oversee, designate, engineer, execute, supervise, conduct, engage in, regulate, check, direct, administer, take charge

• participate: share, collaborate, coordinate, synchronize, combine, pool, take part in, contribute

• point out: indicate, exhibit, display, reveal, demonstrate, show credit with, assign to

• promote: evaluate, raise

• responsible: liable, accountable, answerable, account for, plan, design, project, proposal, scheme, outline, map, model, program, result, obtain, secure, method, means, system, policy, procedure

Accepted.com

http://bit.ly/auhFe1

First, you need to know how far back in time to detail in this document. As a general rule, if you are applying to graduate school and have at least two years of work experience, your high school activities should not be included in your resume. However, there are exceptions to this rule. For example, if you won a prestigious national award in high school, you may certainly consider including this important recognition.

Other general rules for the resume:

• There should be no more than four bullet points beneath each position.

• Each bullet point should ideally be no more than two lines long.

• To ease the reader’s eye strain, the font should not be smaller than 10 pt.

• Margins should be as close to one inch all around as possible – no lower than 0.7 inches. 

Limit the number of bullet points describing your early entry-level roles and instead expand the space dedicated to those in which you made the most impact. For instance, if you were promoted from an entry-level programming position with your company, then you don’t even need to dedicate a separate line to describe that first role. Instead, you can simply impress the reader by describing the fast pace of promotion in a line of the job description, like this:

Team Lead, IT Consulting Company                    2007-Present

Twice promoted from Analyst (2007-2008) to Senior Analyst (2008) and then Team Lead in record 12 months, a full 4 times faster than the average rate of promotion.

What if one position has allowed you significant leadership opportunities and impact? Or what if you have been in your current role for several years? How can you detail all that you have accomplished in just four bullet points? The trick is to break that down into sections, like this for example:

Private Equity Associate, PE Firm                         2008-Present

Lines of job description here…

Leadership Accomplishments Include:

• First point

• Second point

• Third point

• Fourth point

Financial Impacts Include:

• First point

• Second point

• Third point

• Fourth point

Keep in mind that the majority – if not all – of those bullet points should include quantifiable impact that you had on the organization. Breaking up a bulk of text with numbers and section headings makes the entire document more compelling.

Finally, to ensure that your document is easy to read and keeps the admissions officer’s attention, you need to include ample white space. To add some white space above each position in Microsoft Word, highlight the title line of each row (hold the Ctrl button down as you click to keep them all highlighted), then click on Format, Paragraph, then in the Spacing Before box try at least 4 pt. (if you have more space left on the page at the end you can go to 6 pt.). Do the same Ctrl highlighting for the bullet points throughout the document and try 2 pt. or 3 pt. spacing before each of those lines.

Check out this pdf file (viewable in Adobe Reader) to see the difference this little formatting trick can make.

 Jennifer Bloom