When you’re an MBA student, placement season is never too far. And if you’re hoping to get into b-school soon, you bet that summer placements will knock on your doorstep in a jiffy. As they say, it’s never too late to prepare and be ready for these interviews, group discussions and tests. Everyone tells you to tailor your resume. But is that really enough? And how do you tailor your resume really? What are the things you need to remember? Besides, is there anything else you can do to grab eyeballs during that coveted internship or final placement interview? And let’s not forget, once you bag an internship, you must make sure to tick all the right boxes so that you can also make the right impression during your final presentation! In this article, we present tips to help you present a stellar resume during interviews.
There a few hygiene aspects that you must use as the building blocks of your resume in general:
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An Introduction or Objective note:
Populate this section with keywords that are relevant to your area of expertise or interest in a particular domain. Find out what these keywords can be, listed by domain, later in this article.
If you’re a fresher, this section talks about a significant highlight from your college (undergrad + b-school) career and how you brought impact to a particular problem. It needs to be short and simply touch upon why you should be hired compared to competition.
If you’re an experienced individual, you can simply talk about the latest project/ area of responsibility that you managed at your latest workplace, and how your contribution impacted the organisation.
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Areas of Exposure or Expertise
Building on the keywords from the introduction part, this section talks about the concepts and skills that you may know. If you’re a fresher, note down the concepts you’ve been learning at b-school, depending on the domain you wish to work in.
If you have prior work experience, list down skills and concepts that you’ve already worked on and would like to work on in the future.
Check out what can be listed as areas of expertise in this article later, listed by domain.
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Organisational Background
This is where you actually list down all your achievements based on prior work experience or college life.
If you’re a fresher, you’ll probably list down your achievements at undergraduate college and b-school. This is where you talk about any fests you’ve participated and won. You share details about heading committees and driving objectives like fundraising, getting sponsors, organising festivals or events. You need to state results in numbers if possible. For e.g.: You say, Saw 30,000 footfalls in the event I organised / Brought in 2 major sponsors to so and so event. You can also mention sports achievements and more. Basically, you want to share with the interviewer your ability to focus on a goal and achieve it.
If you’re an experienced professional, you probably have done this before b-school. But again, you must note down your work achievements as succinct, crisp, result-oriented highlights for each position you’ve held and each organisation you’ve worked at. For e.g, if you’re writing a resume for an HR role, you could mention something like: Achieved lowest offer declines with lowest terminations due to thorough background checks.
This is the next section that is a must while building your resume, especially if you’re a fresher. You need to mention details about your undergraduate degree, your 10th & 12th percentage. You can also mention academic achievements at these levels.
This section is largely similar for freshers and experienced professionals alike.
Did you volunteer for something? Excelled at sports, extempore, dancing, singing, painting debating or something else? This is the section where you mention it. You mention achievements that are off the beaten track in this section. This helps the recruiters get a snapshot of who you are, and probably helps you get recognised as multi dimensional person.
Here endeth the lesson. Don’t forget to add your email ID and contact number/s in the resume.
Another aspect of resume building is the design. Most b-schools have dedicated placement committees that give you a template in which to lay your resume. In this case, when all your resumes look alike, make sure to pick the right keywords, that show off your interest, dedication and aspiration towards a particular company/ domain.
Speaking of which, let’s check out what keywords and areas of expertise you can mention for each domain:
Building An HR Resume
Keywords you can use:
- People Management
- Employee Relations
- Manpower Management
- Recruitment
- Handling Employee Grievances
Areas of exposure you can mention based on concepts you know from b-school:
- HR Policy Execution
- Induction Programs
- Training & Development Best Practices
- Recruitment
- Payroll Management
- Employee Relations/ Welfare
- General Administration
- Performance Management
- Compensation & Benefits
- Organisational Development
- Team Management
- HR Analytics
Check out an in-depth analysis on roles and opportunities in the HR domain here.
Prepare thoroughly for an HR final placement interview using this course made by former HR students from IIMs.
Building A Finance + Consulting Resume:
Keywords you can use:
- Financial Accounting
- Corporate Finance
- Operations Management
- Strategy Formulation
- Investment Analysis
- Management Consulting
Areas of exposure you can mention based on concepts you know from b-school:
- Treasury & Finance Management
- Investment Management
- Financial Accounting
- Corporate Finance
- Strategic Decision Making
- Budget Planning & Forecasting
- Financial Markets
- Restructuring & Advisory
- Financial Consulting
- Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
- Revenue Cycle & Management
Check out an in-depth analysis on roles and opportunities in the Finance domain here.
Prepare thoroughly for a Finance final placement interview using this course made by former Finance students from IIMs.
Building An Operations + Supply Chain Resume:
Key words you can use:
- Warehouse Management
- Decision Making
- Optimising Resources
- Crisis Management
Areas of exposure you can mention based on concepts you know from b-school:
- Continuous Process Improvement
- Workforce Training
- Mentoring & Retention
- Freight/ Warehouse Management
- Reverse Logistics
- Project Lifecycle Management
- Quality & Safety Standards
- Vendor Relationships
- Change Management
- Supply Chain Optimisation
- Cost Avoidance
- Automated Data Processing
- Budget Management
Check out an in-depth analysis on roles and opportunities in the Operations & Supply Chain domain here.
Prepare thoroughly for an Operations final placement interview using this course made by former Supply Chain & Ops students.
Building A Marketing Resume:
Keywords you can use:
- Digital Marketing
- Key Account Management
- Media Planning
- Marketing Strategy
Areas of exposure you can mention based on concepts you know from b-school:
- Advertising Placement
- Product Promotion
- Segmentation - Targeting - Positioning (STP)
- P&L Responsibilities
- New Client Development
- Market Research & Competitive Analysis
- Product Packaging Design
- New Product Development & Launch
- Customer Loyalty Programs
Check out an in-depth analysis on roles and opportunities in the Marketing domain here.
Prepare thoroughly for a Marketing final placement interview using this course made by former Supply Chain & Ops students.
Best of luck for your placement interviews!