Your work experience and career goals are important parts of your application. Read on to discover how to tackle those sections of the application.
- By
- October 06, 2025
- Application Tips
MBA Application Tips: Work Experience and Resumes
In this blog we will go more in depth on the work experience and resume sections of the application. Please note that how you approach these sections may differ slightly from program to program. Your professional experience, career goals, and what you hope to get from your MBA may align more with the design and purpose of a particular program.
EMPLOYMENT SECTION
Accuracy
Be sure the information you enter in the Employment section matches the dates, job titles, etc. on your resume. Please complete all sections and questions to the best of your ability. Also, please leave the “End Date” blank when you enter your current employer to indicate that you are still with the company.
Compensation
We know salaries vary widely across industries, geographies, and amount of work experience. The numbers are not what’s important. Rather, salary progression can be one indicator of advancement in your career.
Job Description
Please describe your roles and responsibilities in a few sentences (bullet lists or paragraph formats are fine). Your resume will further expand on these points. We understand this may feel duplicative to your resume, but please do not leave it blank. These brief descriptions are helpful when reviewing your application as a whole.
Reason for leaving
This can typically be explained in a sentence or two. Knowing why you left can help the Admissions Committee better understand your motivations and the factors that influenced your next career move.
Financial support from your employer
The answer to this question has no bearing on our admissions decision. We ask because this provides us with important information about a company’s tuition reimbursement policies.
Resume
You are required to upload your resume into the online application. A one-page resume is preferred. If you have a longer work history, we understand if it needs to be two pages.
Resume tips:
- Spell check and review for grammatical errors.
- Make sure dates, titles, degrees, etc. match what you input into the Employment and Academics sections of the application.
- Avoid jargon and acronyms that people outside of your industry would not be aware of or can obscure meaning and comprehension.
MOTIVATIONS AND GOALS SECTION
This is an important part of your application as it helps us better understand why you are pursuing an MBA in the Full-Time, Evening, or Weekend MBA Program and why now is the right time in your professional journey. It also gives you the opportunity to share how the Booth MBA in particular fits into your short and long-term career goals.
Short-term goals
Career goals may range between what you hope to achieve while you’re in the MBA program to post-MBA plans depending on your program of choice. For instance, Full-Time applicants often mention their intended industry and desired role post-grad. Some give examples of internships they hope to secure and what region they’d ultimately like to land in. Meanwhile, Part-Time applicants may talk about a promotion they’d like to receive within their organization. Some give examples of new projects or responsibilities they’d like to take on while in the program. Others focus on developing as a leader within their organization. Goals vary from candidate to candidate, and we encourage you to be as specific as possible about your short-term goals.
Long-term, post-MBA goals
We know some applicants are pursuing an MBA to help refine their long-term career goals or switch career paths. You might not know specific companies or positions you are interested in, so you can talk generally about industries, functions, and/or the type of work you’d like to pursue post-MBA. We appreciate goals that are logical based on your work experience and that are attainable for those with an MBA. Finally, we look for your career goals to be aligned across all aspects of your application and interview.
The application process is an exercise on self-reflection and goal setting. We hope this blog helps as you prepare the career-related sections of your application. Always feel free to reach out to our Admissions team if you have any questions (Full-Time; Part-Time).
For more advice on the admissions process, check out our library of blogs on application tips here. As you go through the admissions process, we also encourage you to sign up to receive information regarding our upcoming events, latest application tips, recent student stories, and more.
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