I am submitting my Resume along with materials to complete my applications -Top 15 schools. But, I have a question regarding how to present a past promotion--here is the story:

5 years ago, I worked for a small real estate investment company and the last 4 weeks of my tenure, I was asked to be a team leader of risk analysis of our portfolio by our RVP. During this time our RVP was battling cancer and passed away before the paperwork was finalized, however, I was "playing the role" for 2 months prior to his death. After he passed away our offices consolidated and I took a job else where, where I worked for the last five years.
Now, I am tempted to type "team leader" on my resume, but unsure if I should? If it would be unethical, even though I did run our risk assessment team for those last 2 months. Do adcomms do background checks of titles of previous jobs? Thanks.

Job titles aren't important because junior to mid-level jobs have job titles that mean different things to different companies and industries that they are essentially meaningless. Ask ten people what the job title "team leader" means in terms of responsibilities, and you'll get ten different answers.

It's about your responsibilities, achievements and compensation (as a sanity check - if you make yourself sound like a CEO or even a department head but you're getting paid like $50K, you either have a Napoleonic complex, you're lying, or you are the worst negotiator on the planet because you're horribly underpaid relative to what you "claim" to be your responsibilities). Of course there's cost of living differences to factor in, but adcoms know this too.

In short, you can fudge your job title all you want, but it's not really going to make a difference -- because there's only so much you can really "spin" when it comes to that stuff anyhow.

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