Creating a Résumé That Sells

WSJ posted a well thought summary of what should your resume have (and not have) if you are looking for a leadership position.

Excellent example of Dawn Jordan, a 39-year-old marketing professional from Laguna Beach, Calif. Ms. Jordan, also a blogger for WSJ.com's Laid Off & Looking blog, has been job hunting since her position as an operations vice president at Bank of America Corp. was eliminated in October 2008.

Creating a Résumé That Sells

Schools with MS in Finance Program Sorted by Lenght (US Only)

School name	Country	Name of programme	Prior work experience required	Intakes per year	Enrolment months	Study mode	Length of programme - full-time (months)	Employed at 3 months - full-time programme (%)	Numbers enrolled 2008/9 - full-time
Purdue University: Krannert	US	Master of Science degree in Finance	No	1	July	F / T	10	n/a	25
Tulane University: Freeman	US	Master of Finance	No	1	July	F / T	10	92	73
University of Florida: Hough	US	Master of Science in Finance	No	1	July	Both	10	79	23
Washington University: Olin	US	Master of Science in Finance	Preferred	1	Aug	Both	10 or 17	87	37
Temple University: Fox	US	MS in Financial Engineering	Preferred	1	Sep	Both	11	n/a	12
Brandeis University	US	Master of Science in Finance	Yes	3	Aug, Jan, May	Both	12	n/a	11
UCLA: Anderson	US	Master of Financial Engineering	Preferred	1	Jan	F / T	12	n/a	39
George Washington University	US	The Master of Science in Finance Program	Preferred	1	Sep	Both	12	100	43
University of California at Berkeley: Haas	US	Master's in Financial Engineering	Preferred	1	Mar	F / T	12	97	64
Boston College: Carroll (GMAT Needed)	US	Master of Science in Finance	Preferred	2	Jan, Sep	Both	12	82	41
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	US	Master of Science in Finance	Preferred	1	June	F / T	12	71	101
Villanova School of Business	US	Master of Science in Finance	No	1	May	F / T	12	63	22
Illinois Institute of Technology: Stuart	US	Master of Science in Finance	Yes	3	Jan, May, Aug	Both	12-16	n/a	110
Drexel University: LeBow	US	Master of Science in Finance	Preferred	3	Sep, Jan, Mar	Both	12-24	72	18
Saint Joseph's University	US	Master of Science in Financial Services	No	3	Sep, Jan, May	Both	15	100	8
Claremont Graduate University	US	Financial Engineering Program	Preferred	1	Aug	Both	16	72	18
Temple University: Fox	US	MS in Finance	Preferred	2	Sep, Jan	Both	18	n/a	22
Louisiana State University: Ourso	US	Master of Science in Finance	No	2	Jan, Aug	Both	18	100	14
DePaul University: Kellstadt	US	Master of Science in Finance	Preferred	4	Sep, Jan, Apr, July	Both	21	n/a	24
University of Houston: Bauer	US	Masters of Science in Finance	Preferred	2	Jan, Aug	Both	24	n/a	n/a
Georgia State University: Robinson	US	Master of Science in Finance	Preferred	3	Aug, Jan, June	Both	24	90	15
University of Utah: Eccles	US	Master of Science in Finance	No	1	Aug	Both	9	87	18
Vanderbilt University: Owen	US	Masters in Finance	No	1	Aug	F / T	9	64	28
Case Western Reserve University: Weatherhead	US	Master of Science in Management - Finance	No	2	June, Aug	Both	9-15	n/a	26

GRE Scores and Schools

Free GRE admissions resources:

1. Testmagic forum
2. University Research: http://www.edulix.com/infobank/login.php
3. Programs and profile of people getting into your choice of university:
http://www.edulix.com/infobank/login.php
4. US News graduate ranking for science
5. Financial Times (FT) ranking for 1 year finance programs

Which MBA?

After months of struggle with a trivial question, Part Time or Full Time MBA, I have decided to utilize some of my learning from prior posts. But, let me first analyze what the real deal is. The points below are things I understood by talking to many full time and part time current students and alums.

Further, I am thinking from the standpoint of a guy who is 30, with minimal business background at best, not an executive already and needs MBA to learn finance, strategy and running a sizable organization. This may not be relevant for an executive, who just need a degree to climb the ladder.

Why Full Time MBA?
After talking to many current part time students, some common pain points expressed were:

• No time for a detailed study of subjects - Each subject requires atleast five hours and up to 10 hrs of reading outside the three hour class. If you are taking 2 subjects per quarter then you are already engaged for two evenings for classes. Rest of the three evenings are insufficient to complete outside classroom reading/learning.
• No time for club and social activities - Well, most of the people have work related things going on in the evening. Tough to schedule group meetings / dinners / socials etc.
• Fatigue - Initial enthusiasm is soon (within 3 quarters) overshadowed by fatigue. With slight lack of enthusiasm playing people tend to miss events, avoid group meetings. After all, a minimum of 12 Hrs workday schedule is fixed. Surprisingly, everybody mentioned family commitments as well. I did not think that would be a concern as (most of the) partners understand. But, who knows how things shape-up.
• Implement B-School Lessons- I can't say alot on this, but, most of the Indian IT guys are working as some sort of programmer or team leader. There is hardly any opportunity to contribute to business side of your org. If you are in consulting, it makes your life further difficult as company is billing you for a project. So, you may not be the most appropriate guy to participate in corporate strategy development or marketing. Remember, your day is already stretched, its not going to be easy to find extra time to contribute to any organization wide initiatives or start your own business. But, this is all very personal and your org. dependent.
• Recruitment - probably the most important aspect for most of us. People said that recruitment events are mostly during the day, when you are in office. So, most of the part timers can't attend. Huge advantage for full timers. With so much going on in life, its tough to maintain contact and network with industry guys.
• Credibility and Network - FT definitely has more credibility. But, I am certain now that it is very slightly more, of not equal. You have a lot more time to network, write to people, meet with them etc.
• Super fun and not Burden-  FT is fun as well - many many events, traveling, interaction points, a lot of alcohol etc. After all ya all will be together for two years FULL TIME.

Seems like everything is going wrong with part time MBA. So, why go Part Time?

• Finances - Most of the people who are in this dilemma have 5+ years of experience and are near 30 years of age. It is a high time to get settled, start a family, have kids, take care of your parents, move out of an apartment and buy a decent house and what not! At this point imagine the cost of full time MBA - huge! Life is short, and there is so little time to fulfill all the responsibilities and lead a comfortable life. Taking the plunge of full time MBA at this point would mean shifting life events by minimum 4-5 years. 2 years of MBA and 2 Y of residual loan pay off before you can commence what you would have at the age of 29-30.
• Poor job scene for visa seekers - Well, its not a huge concern as such but with this economy and protective govt. policies, it has become a concern. If you wanna go to Mckinsey, BCG, Bain - fine, no visa issues there for full timers. But, if you plan to say start a new business, go into IB or corporate functions like strategy, finance etc. or industry jobs say in JnJ, its tough to get visa sponsorship. Again, very personal decision and also depends on how much time you have left on your H1B. BUT, the very fact that you can continue pursuing your GC and MBA parallel makes a huge difference. When you graduate out of a PT MBA program and your are a GC holder, you can easily crack one of those corporate and industry jobs.
• You can overcome everything I said about full time - The more your stretch yourself the better you become. No extra explanation needed, but, you have to be reeeaaaly... committed.

In the next post, i will apply lessons from Prof. Thaler (Chicago Booth) lecture on behavioral economics and decide on which way to go. After all, I am a consumer and need to decide what to buy.

Free MBA Application Resources

1. A collections of comments (in order) on essays from Stacy Blackman, Adam Markus, Clearadmit, veritas prep, accepted.com
2. Readability Check with http://www.online-utility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp
3. Improve your bschool essays with http://www.fightthebull.com/bullfighter.asp.
4. School Visits and Interview Sections on above mentioned websites
5. Gmatclub

Most Importantly, school's student body / alums. Contact them early and request them to review your crap...

Should you apply to ISB - Indian School of Business

Many Indian professionals, working in US, think of taking MBA at some point in their career. The first reaction of this thought is USD 120K! This is what a typical MBA from a top tier school in US will cost you. Still many of us break the ice and start looking into options. Of course there are benefits of MBA from a US school that can not be compared with other Asian top schools. But, lets look at it from a different perspective.

Choice of your school will largely depend on your goal of staying in US or India after MBA. Though route from US to India is way easier than reverse.

We should not underestimate India for its potential and growth. Investment banks are hiring people with fat packages! That is why I think ISB is an emerging institute with high return on investment. Think of spending just one year and $35,000 and end up in a $100K job in India. Isn't that a good trade? Not only that, but you still have options (though few) to head back to US. Now you are an MBA with no debt on your head.

But, remember that ISB will not fetch you a $150K job in US. Moreover, you will have to struggle as you were struggling before MBA to end up in a good front office job of your choice. Further, most of the states in US, where you may want to finally settle down, do not even know ISB. So, more struggle!

Lets take the other case now. If you do your MBA in US from a top tier school. Your debt at the end is around $100K. It Doesn't make sense to go back to India and join a $100K job in India at this time! You will keep paying your loans for life. So, you stay back for 5 years until you pay your debt. By that time you also secure a high profile position. Now, when you try to move back to India, you will probably have even higher profile and possibly equal, if not more, salary than what you would have had if you were an ISB grad. Sounds excellent, right? Wait...

You have assumed that you will get a chance to go back to India which was at your discretion initially when you decided to stay in US for MBA. Moreover, you are hoping that you will not have home and a car debt when you decide to leave for India after five years. Not only that, your kids may no longer want to go. But, these are all future risks and may not hold true. You can also mitigate them.

So, In my opinion, If you want to go back to India now then ISB is a good choice. But, if you want to and can stay in US for a while or forever, MBA from a US school is certainly a better choice. Again, the route from US to India is easier than reverse.

The comments above are strictly my opinion and you are the better judge of your needs.......

TOP MBA - Basis of Comparison

A lot of websites like business week, wall street journal, US news etc publish their ranking of business schools every year. However, no one actually publishes anything that exactly suits your specific needs. You will find ample text on how to choose a school and what matter while making a choice. But, what you don't get is a comparison of factors that matter to you.

All of us at the back of our mind know how to select the business school which best fit our needs. Even though we are computer savvy, most of us don't try to put it in a structured way. To analyze the strengths and focus areas of a business school is very necessary. But, how many of us actually try to enlist these in a way that suits our way of evaluation?

As an example, if you are a business man and your goal of MBA is to open up new ventures, then you are probably more interested in networking. But, again, it depends on what kind of network you are looking at. Automobile business? Consider Michigan university! Finance? May be Columbia or Wharton school. Remember, these are my thoughts. Similarly, when you read a standard ranking on a website there might be some assumptions made in the survey which may not apply to you. So, do not just follow them blindly. You would need a blend of inputs from various available resources configured in your way.

One of the easy solutions is to grab a computer and engage a standard utility/software like MS Word or excel to start putting points that matter to you most. Provide some standard headings to your baseline document. Using a standard questionnaire, note down what things are important to you. Then derive things that apply to you specifically. Start exploring the standard websites and their data. You know the rest of it....

Don't forget that the standard websites are invaluable sources of data to be channeled into a valuable information database.