Ep 29 | Mastering the MBA Resume

In this episode of the mbaMission Podcast, Harold Simansky and Gavriella Semaya discuss the critical role of resumes in the MBA application process. They emphasize the importance of crafting a distinctive resume that highlights accomplishments over responsibilities, the significance of formatting, and how personal interests can add value. The conversation also touches on common pitfalls in resume writing and the interplay between resumes and application essays, providing listeners with actionable insights to enhance their application materials.

Takeaways

• Don't underestimate the importance of the resume.
• A one-page resume is ideal for most applicants.
• Focus on accomplishments rather than just responsibilities.
• Selected Transaction Experience can effectively showcase your best work.
• Make your resume easy to read and understand.
• Avoid creative flourishes in your resume format.
• Personal interests should reveal something distinctive about you.
• Do not copy and paste your resume into the application.
• Highlight real proactive initiatives in your experiences.
• Be mindful of common resume pitfalls to avoid.

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Transcript

Harold Simansky (00:10)
Hi everyone, this is Harold Simansky with the mbaMission Podcast. I'm here today with my colleague, Gavriella Semaya. Hi, Gavriella. How are you?

Gavriella Semaya (00:19)
I'm doing well, how are you?

Harold Simansky (00:20)
Good, good, good. Gavi is a managing director here at our firm and also someone I rely on very heavily when it comes time to look at essays, when it comes time to looking at applications, and also when it comes time to looking at resumes. So Gavi, we're here today to talk about resumes and I'm gonna set this up by most of my clients say to me, we don't have to worry about my resume, here you go. And at that point I say the fun begins. So Gavi, what's your own approach to resumes and what do you consider a good resume?

Gavriella Semaya (00:48)
I'm glad you sort of started there because that's actually one of the first things that I always like to say is, you know, don't underestimate the importance of the resume. I think it's something that people think is sort of a throwaway part of the application, but it's really not. It's the roadmap to your whole profile. And it's often one of the first things, if not the first thing that, you know, the admissions committees see depending on, you know, how their platform is organized.

So it's something I do like to spend a fair amount of time on. It's also, when you think about bang for your buck, that's one thing that is not going to change from school to school. So it's worth putting the effort in to sort of really, I think of it like maximizing in terms of maximizing what you can get out of this limited format, you know, one page for the most part document.

Harold Simansky (01:35)
Yeah, in fact, Gavi, I'm gonna sort of interrupt you right at the beginning in the sense of one page. I just wanna highlight it, underline it, whatever it is. We've all had those experiences where someone who's been out of school, maybe not even out of school, they give us a five page resume. And it's like, okay, let's start rethinking the whole thing. So softball question here, how important is it to have a one page resume?

Gavriella Semaya (01:49)
Yes.

rule of thumb is one page for every 10 years, right? And so that's usually for most people applying to business school, you know, that's not a hard bar to meet, right? You likely have not had that much experience. I think the other thing to think about is when you're going that far back, at some point it's less relevant. They're not that interested in what you did in high school. you know, you're likely a very different person now. So I think bracketing it in terms of college and

beyond is sort of an important framework.

Harold Simansky (02:32)
Not to time stamp this particular podcast too much, but tonight I'm going to my high school reunion and let us hope that I'm a different person from high school. I guess that will be, exactly right. Exactly, that will be confirmed tonight. if I, absolutely, that's part of the next podcast. But I just want to.

Gavriella Semaya (02:40)
look at that.

If you're not, then that raises different questions. This is a whole other conversation.

Well, let us know how goes on the next podcast.

Harold Simansky (02:58)
amplified that in the sense of I certainly have people who say to me, they've done some very unique things as high school students. Would I ever consider having them on? And honestly, in the bottom of our resume, if someone was an Eagle Scout, I sort of sneak it on there because it's sort of cool. Or if they had an experience that was really life changing, that manifested in so many different ways, then sure, maybe we'll talk about it. But it's a pretty high bar to have something before.

Gavriella Semaya (03:04)
This is considered.

Thank you.

Thank you.

think so. mean, look, there's exceptions to every rule, but I think it's definitely something that I would ask myself repeatedly, how relevant is this to the applicant's story? How significant was it? How transformative was it? How distinctive is it either? Like, even being an Eagle Scout, there are lots of Eagle Scouts. And so, you know, depending on how significant of a role it played in your arc, you know, it may or may not be worth...

Because the other thing I always think of too is that part of the resume is, you know, they're evaluating for your judgment too of what you decide to include and leave off. I think that's an important factor. It's not just kind of an exercise in, you know, repeating what's already in the rest of the application, right?

Harold Simansky (04:08)
So as you think about a distinctive resume, and like you just said, so many resumes are going to look alike. this professional section, education, everyone to college, maybe a few activities here and there. So when you think about a distinctive resume, what are you thinking about? What do you see?

Gavriella Semaya (04:23)
So there are some career paths in which it's more formulaic, right? And there's sort of, to some extent, there's no way around that. And that can be a benefit in some ways because the admissions committees know what they're looking for. They understand what the typical first year analysts at Goldman Sachs does. But I think we say this a lot, right, at MBA admission. It's this idea of accomplishments and not responsibilities. So I try to have with every bullet point this lens of what was the impact.

that you achieve the results, right? Whether it's on your team, the client, the company, the project. You know, I think a lot of people want to include, and this makes sense for professional resume, but it's not the same as an MBA resume. And that's another thing I try to like level set with my clients is this is different. They don't really care if you're, you know, have great facility with Tableau or Power BI or, you know, the engineering programming languages that you know, it's not relevant in this context.

So I think more in terms of accomplishments and I ask myself with every bullet point, am I making that clear? Is there this structure of here's what I did and here are the results and why does it matter? In that sense.

Harold Simansky (05:28)
Our colleague Jessica will frequently say when she sees a resume with a lot of computer programs on it, software, other skills, it's, it's business schools figure you have the tools you need to do your job. Now, right. Yeah. Now tell business schools why you're good at your job. And I think that's a lot of resume is. Yeah.

Gavriella Semaya (05:34)
you

it.

Yeah, 100%. If you aren't great with Excel macros, it's kind of neither here nor there. They're going to assume that you're decent at it, and if not, you'll catch up. That's not the thing that's going to convince them that you deserve a spot in this class. So that's kind of impact. And then I think progression, too, is another way to look at it, is have you kind of grown in your roles? Initiative is another one. Where have you taken initiative as opposed to kind of, I think of it like initiative versus table stakes.

Right? You're doing your job, as Jessica would say, and they expect that of you. So great that you've built the model and so on, but, you know, did you come up with a new model or did you, you know, did you persuade someone to invest in something or not invest in something? I think that's another thing that comes up too, is sometimes the decision not to do something is as, as noteworthy as the decision to do something. So looking at it from those angles as well.

Harold Simansky (06:40)
that makes sense. And listen, what we'll frequently see on investment bankers or sometimes PE candidates, something called Selected Transaction Experience. And I have to say that I very mixed feelings about it, including it or not including it. Just how do you approach them?

Gavriella Semaya (06:57)
I'm somewhat defaulted to it to be honest because I do think it's an effective way of cherry picking the best of the best. Depending on the client, they may have only worked on three projects, in which case it may seem lean. If you've been there for four years and you have three projects, so there may be a better way to kind of... But if the experience or the impact is specific to that context, it's kind of hard to extrapolate it from that and then make it this generic...

bullet point that doesn't really apply to your job overall. So for me, it's always a question of, do I include any bullet points prior to the selected transactions or selected projects that have that kind of overarching, here's what I do or here's my role? And then you kind of have the examples beneath it. Again, there's no hard and fast rule. I find it an easier way to distill that key information and kind of really highlight the best of the best, but.

It's definitely selective and I think that's the key word, right?

Harold Simansky (07:53)
Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right,

Gavriella Semaya (08:19)
you

Harold Simansky (08:23)
And I recognize being a consultant myself, I know how hard it is. At the end of the day, you are only working on, even the best of you, are working on one tiny piece of the project. So how does one either make yourself distinctive there or what sort of things do you want?

Gavriella Semaya (08:37)
think, you know, again, I think of where have you contributed, you know, distinct value, where have you actually led, even if it's a slice of the project, you where have you kind of led or taken the initiative there? I also think, and this is maybe a personal opinion, but I don't think people read resumes and assume that when you say, did something, you did it in a vacuum. I think everyone sort of understands that it wasn't you alone in a room, you know, completing this project, right? Presumably there were other people doing, playing different supportive roles.

I do think it can seem like a stretch if you're saying, you know, I managed the merger, you know, between billion dollar companies, or led the transaction or whatever else. But I do think, you know, you don't necessarily, and I encourage, discourage my clients, I should say, from saying we all the time, we did this. Like at some point, this is about what you did, you know, not, you know, it's one of those things where people start bullet points with collaborated with or partnered with, and that's valuable, but you also want to highlight what your role in that collaboration.

So there's to some extent, you there's a line, you know, you don't want to cross where it strains credulity of, know, you were a first year analyst, what are the odds that you were in the right place, you know, with the CEO here, but at the same time, you still want to highlight your contributions.

Harold Simansky (09:44)
That's right.

Right, right, definitely, definitely. I always tell my clients to keep that spotlight on yourself. Just keep on, and I fully recognize there's a tension here. I fully recognize that, but still, that's why you gotta find it. You gotta find it in the essays. You gotta find it in the resume. With regard to other aspects of the resume, how does one approach activities, particularly as part of your job that may not be your, whatever, say your normal job requirements or just other things you have going on in your life?

Gavriella Semaya (09:55)
Yeah.

So I usually break it out into a separate section, whether that's leadership, community, depending on the nature of the activities. I try to highlight it as something else because when I think about the sort of mirror or the parallel within the application itself, there is a separate section for extracurricular activities. And so I wanted to kind of parallel that. And so to your point, and this happens a lot with clients who maybe don't have a ton of outside of work activities, but

I encourage them to think about what are you doing it to be on the scope of your job description, what you were hired for? Are you mentoring? Are you recruiting? Are you on a committee of any kind at work? Those things, rather than lumping it in with the, professional section, I want to call them out as distinct to show that it's not part of your job. In general, I try again to think about, you know, impact versus for passive membership. I think it's, anyone can join a club and say that they're a member of.

Harold Simansky (10:54)
Yes.

and next.

Yes.

Gavriella Semaya (11:14)
But ideally, you're highlighting the couple of things where you really played an active role and presumably driven some kind of impact that wouldn't have happened if you weren't there or part of it.

Harold Simansky (11:26)
No, that makes sense then. So let's roll it even farther down the resume in the sense of, I always emphasize to people, it is very rare that you don't have your professional experiences up top. Professional experiences followed by education. For MIT, they require it the other way. Yeah, for whatever reason. So at this point is professional experience, then academic experience, and that activity section there as well. But how do you then think about it as terms of the education section?

Gavriella Semaya (11:30)
the center.

Yeah.

Yes, MIT is the one exception for some reason.

Harold Simansky (11:56)
People are busy during college. Do you put everything together? Internships, where does that play in here? Is that appropriate?

Gavriella Semaya (12:01)
try to, for me personally, and again, everyone has different ways of doing this. So it's not that there's a singular fashion, but to me, I think about, you the first person reading your application is spending maybe 25 minutes on the whole thing, right? The initial reader, the person who's going through thousands of these, you know, they spend more on it as they go farther along, but they're maybe spending a couple of minutes reading this. has to be legible. And so to me, the more you can kind of make it easy to understand, I have clients all the time who want to do, you know, unique formats or switch things.

Harold Simansky (12:21)
Yep, right.

What I write here?

Gavriella Semaya (12:30)
I had a client who wanted to put his job title above the company. And as I was reading it, my brain just sort of fritzed out because I had to rethink, wait, this doesn't make sense. I'm expecting it in a certain way. And to that point within the education section, I try to break out, you know, honors, activities, things like that might include if you're on a sports team or you're a member of a club or a fraternity, whatever it might be.

Harold Simansky (12:36)
Yes.

Yep. Yep.

Gavriella Semaya (12:56)
And then if there's relevant internships, I would include them. If there's a study abroad, I would include it. How you organize it varies sometimes depending on the amount of space, but I think for me, I want those visual cues of activities and then I can skin that line and my mind understands that that's what this is about. So for me, it's kind of like those signposts throughout the resume, I think that helps.

Harold Simansky (13:17)
that makes sense. And in fact, you just have me start thinking about some of the resumes I've seen, certainly the first cuts, people's pictures on them, of, text all the way in the left-hand column. And then it's, wow, that's a lot of stuff to be looking at in one fell swoop. And sometimes not quite sure what to make of all of it, but also.

Gavriella Semaya (13:19)
it.

Yeah. Yes.

Yeah.

And it's sort of counterintuitive because we're always thinking about be distinctive, be distinctive. This is one place where the format of your resume does not need to be distinctive. The more easily legible it is, the more it conforms to that standard, the more the substance comes through. You don't want your reader being distracted by things in unusual places and photos and banners and all kinds of icons. I love the icons or the headers.

Harold Simansky (14:02)
Yes, yes, Yes.

Gavriella Semaya (14:03)
that you sometimes get like the one or you know the one line tagline of you know self-starter

Harold Simansky (14:07)
Right, right, right. It's like, yeah, it's like if you go online, you can find something like, it's a company that does it one page, really beautiful resumes. you look at, know, Mark Zuckerberg's resume and it pops up and it is just, I guess the whole guy's career is on one page and it's sort of like a beautiful thing to see. At the same point, it's like, I know that's not right for me. Not true.

Gavriella Semaya (14:19)
Mmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, it's the same way that you might do so. If you're a designer, you might do something that's a little bit more graphically interesting or visually interesting when you're applying for a graphic design job. But that's not what you're doing here. So this is the one place where I say, let's avoid the flourishes. This is not the place to get creative.

Harold Simansky (14:45)
That's right.

Right. And it's also not the place to put on in a big summary up top. I think we see that a lot. I think we see that a lot. it's the old, you're telling me what you're about to tell me. You're telling me just what the resume itself is supposed to explain.

Gavriella Semaya (15:03)
Yeah

Right, it's show don't tell, let them read the bullets and have that speak for themselves. You don't need a summary of the summary. Your resume is supposed to be the summary of your career. Yeah. So that's always one of the first things too that I say that, well, that'll give you back a lot of space too, because space constraints are always such a concern for everyone.

Harold Simansky (15:13)
That's right. That's right. That's exactly.

Yes.

Yeah, in Space Constraints, we're really talking about a font. I like Times New Roman and

Gavriella Semaya (15:31)
Yeah, I know. think everyone, it's funny if you ask different people, they will have certain preferences for fonts, but this is another place where I sort of say you don't need to be original here. They're not evaluating your font selection. Stick to something easily legible, familiar, Times New Roman. You know, some people will use like Garamond or things like that, Calibri. I'm okay with those in general, but Times New Roman is sort of the fail safe. Can't go wrong with that. And so don't overthink it.

Harold Simansky (15:42)
No, no, Yep.

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Yes, yes, yes. 10. That's right. Exactly. Right. Right. And 10 point. I always tell my clients, no smaller than 10 point. So I think that's it.

Gavriella Semaya (16:00)
There's plenty of other things to just stress about and overthink. This is not it.

Yes, and I think the fact that you'll see that in some schools, know, handful of schools have very particular prescriptions for how they want things done, 10 point, you single space, etc. Obviously follow that if there are those guide points, but I think, yeah, you don't want to go, you don't want them sitting there, you know, their eyes just glazing over as they're struggling to make sense of it.

Harold Simansky (16:26)
Yeah. Yeah. And let's talk about sort of the end of the resume. When I always tell my clients, please, please, please don't put an end of resume. Rant a marathon, likes to travel, and is a foodie. It's like, you give me any 20 something, know, 90 % of them are foodies, have traveled, and more likely than not, depending on where it is, you may have even run a

Gavriella Semaya (16:45)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Harold Simansky (16:55)
or half marathon or done something. But what does it mean to be, how do you think about that really bottom three, four lines?

Gavriella Semaya (17:01)
The I get a lot actually is A, do I need the interests at all? And I think it's valuable to have. It's not the most important thing. If you have to cut something to put something more valuable, then I suppose that would be the first thing to go. But generally speaking, I try to have it there. to your point, it should be something that tells admissions something about you that they can distinguish from somebody else. And so if it's travel, have you visited all of the continents? Or have you specifically gone to all of the, I'm making this up, francophone speaking countries?

Harold Simansky (17:13)
Yeah. Yeah.

Gavriella Semaya (17:30)
You know, is there something that's a particular focal point or reason behind it that says something about you? If you're running a marathon, running one is great. If you are, you know, run all of the major marathons, then that's a different story. If you're a foodie, is there a particular cuisine that you're interested in? Do you do food tours? Do you like, is it you make a new recipe every week? Like, is there something here that is more noteworthy and that says something about you beyond I like to eat and I like to go places, which are sort of.

Harold Simansky (17:30)
Right, right,

Right. That's right. And also, yeah, I sometimes take it as almost that first line of self-awareness. And I tell my clients who put some of these things on, I said, listen, I once had a client who went to 108 countries. I did not know there were 108 countries in the world. I had no idea. Turns out there's about 215. It's like, so that's the first thing. And then I also had a classmate of mine who was an Ironman triathlete. So it is terrific you went on the marathon. And if you explain to me why that's been important to you, that's great.

Gavriella Semaya (18:01)
you

Yeah, cool.

Mm-hmm.

Harold Simansky (18:29)
But that in and of itself isn't really enough to become interesting, I think, when all's said and done. And interesting means different things to different people. Tell me who your favorite author is. Maybe that's interesting.

Gavriella Semaya (18:35)
Mm-hmm.

self-awareness run, I'll ask my clients, well, what do you want admissions to know about you by telling them this? Okay, if you're an Ironman triathlete, that takes an incredible amount of dedication, consistency, mental resilience, physical resilience, all of those things, right? That's very good. Is it, you know, if you have a particular interest in a type of cuisine, is it a cultural appreciation kind of element that you're trying to showcase here? But I mean, like,

you like to work out, I'm glad you care about fitness. I always tell them, it's not to diminish that. It's not that these aren't important parts of your life. It's that what does this say about you that makes someone on the admissions committee want to admit you to business school? And so that's kind of the...

Harold Simansky (19:16)
Right, exactly.

Definitely. Definitely. that's where it is. I think that's where we always are in this process, which is it's not a question of diminishing anyone at all. So many people have these wonderful experiences, not just saying, listen, this may not be quite the differentiator you thought it was.

Harold Simansky (19:41)
Gavi, how do you think about the bottom of the resume, the last few lines?

Gavriella Semaya (19:46)
that's where you might include some of your personal interests, but I think again it's important to have that lens of sort of what are we trying to share with the admissions committee that would make them want to let us into business school and what about this is distinctive. So I think it's very easy and if you ask you know as you were saying earlier any 20-something what they enjoy doing I'm sure there's some element of physical activity there's probably travel there's probably food they like going to new restaurants they like spending time with their friends.

Harold Simansky (20:13)
Yes, yeah.

Gavriella Semaya (20:14)
But those things don't really reveal anything to the admissions committee about you that is relevant to business school. And so I try to think about what is distinctive here that you might share. If you're a triathlete, that's different than a casual interest in running. Not to diminish that, it's great that you like to that, and it's certainly healthy, and I would encourage you to keep doing that. But does it have a place? Does it justify that limited space?

Harold Simansky (20:31)
Right. Right, right, right, right, absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. No, that makes sense. It's still, is it meaningful or is it a differentiator? And I think we spoke about earlier, it's really hard to differentiate yourself. The reality is, and I joked about it before, is I had a client who once went to 108 countries. So the notion that you like travel, it's like, wow, you got a pretty high bar before that becomes really something you can grow about. But Gavi, early in our conversation, you made note of the fact that in the application itself, there's going to be opportunities to answer these very questions.

Gavriella Semaya (20:45)
in any way.

Harold Simansky (21:09)
Yeah, so how do you think about those? How much overlap is there? Do you approach each section differently? I'd love to just get your thoughts.

Gavriella Semaya (21:17)
do tend to work on them differently and refer back ultimately, but most often I'm not even looking at them side by side. think one, there's bound to be some overlap, right? If you're talking about a key project or the things that you do at work, when you're asked for your role and responsibilities or job description in the body of the application, there's going to be some overlap. But I also think about the differentiation between, on the resume we're highlighting impact, accomplishments, et cetera. I they really are asking you for what you do day to day.

So this is a different descriptor. This is where you would talk about building certain models, working with key stakeholders, working on project, multiple work streams, cetera, staffing, whatever it might be. So there, think it's more, it is truly more descriptive than more impact focused.

Harold Simansky (22:06)
that makes sense. And I'll tell you, if we really have questions about not just sort of the application itself in terms of, you know, what are your responsibilities and that sort of thing, but sometimes we start going down the road with clients in terms of even the smallest questions, even sort of the check-off boxes, even some relating to ethnicity. I mean, is it going to look bad if they check Asian American, for example? Yeah.

Gavriella Semaya (22:09)
Yeah.

Harold Simansky (22:34)
And that's, and how do you, when a client asks you that question, what do you say, what sort of story do you tell?

Gavriella Semaya (22:40)
You know, now that you're mentioning this, I'm realizing that I really do need to put together an FAQ page for exactly those questions because I do find myself repeating them, you know, over and over again. And I understand the question, you you want to make sure that you're leaving no stone unturned. And the last thing you want to feel like is, if I'd only done something differently, if I'd checked that box, you know, maybe the outcome would be different. I think, you know, they're looking at the application holistically. One single factor is unlikely to be, you know, the deciding factor between admission and not admission.

Harold Simansky (22:45)
Yeah. Yes.

Gavriella Semaya (23:10)
When it comes to things like checking boxes around race or ethnicity, I the school story, I repeat the school story, which is that in theory, these are firewalls, right? Supposedly it's for the school's data collection purposes so that they can then report on class makeup and that they can keep track of their own stats, but it's not supposed to be a factor in additions. How true that is, I don't know. I can't say for sure, but more than likely, even if you don't check that box.

it's gonna come out in your essays or somewhere else in the application if it's remotely central to who you are. So I always say answer that honestly. You can't really game that. just, I know you try. think it is what you are who you are. I think that's not worth trying to strategize.

Harold Simansky (23:45)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's right. I think that's right. That's sort of, yeah, yeah. Right, right. No, I think that's right. Yeah. That's definitely in line with sort of my overall philosophy about application philosophy of life in the sense of like, don't make easy hard. the sense of like, there's a checkup box that's asking you something, just check it off, right? Not everything has to be game. Not everything has to be considered too clever.

Gavriella Semaya (24:06)
Right.

Yeah.

Harold Simansky (24:15)
by any means. So, okay, so you're filling out the application, you're filling out the resume. Can one compensate for the other? Are there things that you feel like you should definitely include in the resume because you've not been able to include it in the application? You know what I mean? Is there, I guess the better question is, is there interplay between the two?

Gavriella Semaya (24:32)
Is there anything you'd to I do think there is. I think it's worth being mindful. I mean, the first thing I say is do not copy and paste your resume and put it into the application. That is level one of not to do.

But again, there's likely to be overlap. You're discussing the same job that you've held. I think if something is so central that you feel like you're worried that it wasn't included on your resume or in the body of the application, then that's a bigger question to me, is if this was really that important, then why isn't it a bigger part of your story? I do think of the whole application like a puzzle. And I think about, if we don't talk about this in the essays, but we still want you to get credit for it.

let's make sure it is a bullet point, a standalone bullet point on your resume, or let's make sure we call it out when we're writing about key accomplishment or key challenge, things like that. you know, I think, I try to think of it as a puzzle, but you know, it's usually more these ancillary components. I find one of the hardest problems is when you have a client who's got this sort of like endless list of thousands and thousands of things that they've done and I don't understand how they have more than 24 hours in a day.

Harold Simansky (25:39)
Yes.

That's right, absolutely.

Gavriella Semaya (25:45)
And you know, I have to tell them you're not going to be able to spotlight every single one with the same brightness. It's just you have to be able to pick where you want to focus. And that's, again, it's much of a decision about what you're choosing to put forth.

Harold Simansky (25:49)
Yeah, that's fine. Yeah.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Yeah. And still listen, if everything's important, nothing is important. This notion here.

Gavriella Semaya (26:05)
Exactly. And I think that the recognition committees sometimes hold back on when they see that. sort of think, well, how are you involved in 40 different completely unrelated activities, interests, etc. At some point, something doesn't add up. And I think they would rather see real proactive initiative impact in a handful of things than 15 different things where it's not possible.

that you're really invested in all of them.

Harold Simansky (26:35)
Yeah. No, no, I think that I think that's right. mean, we used to going back to college days and as a joke, we used to create these resumes for each other. And it was absolutely, absolutely crazy in the sense of that. You see some things, you know,

Gavriella Semaya (26:45)
Bye.

I'm not going to say that you guys needed better things to do with your time, but...

Harold Simansky (26:52)
I know that that's just the beginning of it. It's like, you know, trekked around the world, spoke five languages, read the entire Western canon, whatever it might be. Which, of course, and obviously, they see a resume like that. I'm pretty quick to sort of start saying, OK, maybe let's tune this down a little bit. But what do you see some fatal flaws in resumes, things that you are immediately

Gavriella Semaya (26:55)
Thank you.

Right.

Yeah, exactly.

Harold Simansky (27:22)
or recognize immediately that we have a

Gavriella Semaya (27:26)
think on the one hand is sort of the things that are just disproportionate to the stage in your career. I think that's one, particularly when you're in these more standard roles. you're in an entrepreneurial environment, absolutely, you might be wearing multiple hats. You might be doing things that someone with only three or four years of experience wouldn't be doing at a much larger institution. context is important, but I think that's one.

I think the other, this is kind of more a common Plato flaws where I'm reading through this and it's just very generic. It's very sort of boilerplate and I don't really know what you're doing that is different from somebody else at a different company where it's almost interchangeable. You know, I think that's kind of another one. There's sort of two ends, opposite ends of the spectrum there in some ways.

Harold Simansky (28:14)
You know what is sometimes a red flag for me and I'm still not sure what to do with it is using years without months and Particularly if you're early in the career and I've done it both ways, honestly And if I've done it it's to hide things. It'd be perfectly honest with you

Gavriella Semaya (28:22)
Mmm.

Generally speaking, that's why, that's what comes to mind, right? Is that there's some sort of gap in there that you're obscuring. You know, I understand that adding the month is yet another sort of piece of clutter in some ways visually on the resume, but I think it's sort of standard. And again, this is not a place to get creative. I don't think that if you use years without months, you know, it's a deal breaker and that's it, you're automatically out.

But I do think that, and again it goes back to the application too though, they're going to ask you for month and year anyway. So, you know, it has to add up there.

Harold Simansky (29:01)
That's right.

Now, absolutely, absolutely terrific then. Well, Gavi, this was really, really helpful. I think a better sense of how to do resumes going forward. So now just a little bit of a commercial here. If you want to speak to Gavi if you want to speak to myself, by all means sign up for your free mbaMission call up by going to our website. Our website also has some great things. And if you want to find out even more about resumes, another option for you is OnTrack, which has a huge amount of material all around resumes.

Gavriella Semaya (29:13)
Thank you.

Harold Simansky (29:35)
Gavi, thank you very much for joining me today and look forward to doing it again.

Gavriella Semaya (29:38)
Yeah, talk to you soon.

Harold Simansky (29:40)
Bye now.