Hi Alex,

I have some questions regarding the CV submission for a 2-yr MBA program. Applying to Stern and Johnson for the Nov 15,17 deadline.
1. What is the typical length of the CV? Where shud the content start from, high school or professional career?
2. What is the admissions committee looking for when they have a look at the CV in terms of quality and depth?
3. Do I state my role, responsibilities in every project I have done so far, OR do I only state the projects that I am proud of?
4. Currently my CV is about 4 pages, I actually don't want to trim any of the subject matter. Although, I can make it much simpler, and take out some of the technical jargon. What do you suggest?
5. I come from an environmental construction consultancy background. So there would be a lot of words that are could be a jargon for the admis. committee, do I write an index for these words or what? Or just make the whole CV as simple as I can?

Your advice is awaited. CV is one of the most key elements of an application, I'm surprised that there aren't many posts on this topic.

One page. It's a one-page business card. The longer your resume is, the less likely someone is going read it. It's not an exhaustive blow-by-blow account of everything you've done - just the highlights from college onwards.

Most people spend around 30 seconds to 2 minutes going over a resume. That's it. Just because it's longer and verbose doesn't mean they will spend more time to read it - they will simply skim it or even worse, completely ignore it.

Also the resume has to be accessible. Jargon doesn't really help you. If you Stephen Hawking can explain String Theory in layman's terms, anyone can explain their job without resorting to jargon.

Put it this way. If you feel that you need 4 pages to explain your history, why stop at 4? Why not just expand it to 8, or 10 pages or more?

Again, think of your resume like a one-page business card.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com