How to Answer “Walk Me Through Your Resume” in Your MBA Interview

Every interview starts with an introductory question. Most likely, your interviewer will ask you “Tell me about yourself“. Sometimes, they may get down to business with “Walk me through your resume”. Here’s why interviewers ask you this and how you should respond so you can crack your dream.

Why Do MBA Interviewers Ask “Walk Me Through Your Resume”?

You probably filled out multiple essay questions about your strengths & weaknesses, and long-term and short-term goals as part of your application. So why are the interviewers asking you this question again?

The MBA candidate selection process involves multiple individuals in the school admissions committee. Aside from the people who grade your essays, nobody else actually reads the entirety of your application. As an interviewer, I usually get the candidate’s application documents on interview day. So I can only glance through the application before the candidate enters the room. By starting with this question, I help you bring your resume to life.

It allows me to gauge how you relate your list of skills, experiences, and achievements with your motivation to do the MBA. It lets you connect all the elements of your resume and your application essays to form a coherent narrative.

How is “Walk me through your resume” different from “Tell me about yourself”? Not by very much, actually. I ask “Tell me about yourself” to understand your career in the context of your goals and what you intend to take away from the MBA should you join.

By asking “Walk me through your resume”, I expect you to give me a structured answer about your professional background, why you got into the jobs you did, what qualifications you gained, and highlight experiences that make you shine.

I typically advise my candidates to be prepared to answer both. But you’ll be asked only one or the other, not both.

How to Answer “Walk Me Through Your Resume” in the MBA Admissions Interview?

Just like the answer to “Tell me about yourself”, a good resume walkthrough is:

• Relatable: Be wary of jargon. Your interviewers might not know company or industry-specific jargon. And constant interruptions to expand or clarify terms will ruin the interview.
• Concise: Give out just enough basic information to the interviewers so that they can dive deeper if they want to. I once had a candidate talk about his career for 15 minutes out of a 30-minute interview. He did not make it to the next round.
• Structured: Choose a straightforward structure that prevents you from meandering or over-explaining while providing enough detail to spark follow-up questions and deeper discussion. I recommend the Am-Do-Want formula.

The Formula

Am: Start with a quick background that covers how you got into this line of work, a few lines about your education, and relevant certifications or academic qualifications that caused major career advancement or change. Acknowledge gaps in your resume and highlight what you did on your break – self-improvement, maternity, and entrepreneurship, are all good answers.

Do: This is where you explain your current role and key accomplishments in a way that highlights your value to your MBA batchmates and alumni.

Want: Tie your current skills, achievements, and qualifications with the long-term and short-term goals you’ve written about in your essays. Take care to connect your experience and goals. If you’re a product manager and want to move into consulting, you should have a good reason why a consulting firm should hire you after the MBA.

Incorrect Answer

Some candidates memorise and recite their resumes. This is a mistake. People talk in stories, not bullet points. Here’s what a bad answer looks like:

“I started my career as an associate engineer with Ford Motor Company. In this role, I worked in quality assurance, line management and industrial design. I did a project in 2016 where I had to find the root cause of a 30% higher downtime in the Trim, Chassis and Final line. I did a time and data study and found three stations performing redundant operations due to wrongly supplied schematics. After fixing the error, our downtime was reduced by 30 minutes per shift. I won the APAC Emerging Talent Award for this. I was promoted in March 2017 to the position of Engineer. Then, I got an offer from Caterpillar for a senior engineer role. Here, I did. . .”

This answer will make a nice after-lunch lullaby for your interviewers.

Correct Answer

Let’s use the Am-Do-Want framework to create a coherent, 3 to 5-minute narrative for this engineer-MBA.

“I have a background in mechanical engineering. My father runs a chain of motorbike rentals in Chennai. From a young age, I was not only interested in the business of running a vehicle rental business, but also the internal workings of the bikes themselves. Dad constantly pushed me to get the technical education he never received. So I enrolled in the mechanical engineering bachelor’s program at VIT University where I graduated with honors in 2015.

I was the top pick for the Ford Motor Company’s Graduate Engineering Trainee program. I quickly took a shine to investigating delays, breakage, and underperformance of any kind on the vehicle assembly lines at the Maraimalainagar plant. During my first year there, I solved a paintwork defect that was causing $3000 in rework every month.

The head of the plant took me under his wing, exposing me to various shops and problem statements. By the end of 2018, this hands-on experience gave me a head start over my fellow trainees in understanding the bigger picture of plant operations.

By 2019, I had a solid grasp of industrial engineering and plant operations. I saw an opening for my current role as a technical project manager at Ford’s joint venture partner, Mahindra Motors. My boss and I had a frank discussion about my career progression at the plant, and he agreed that I should gain some experience in heading larger projects off the plant floor.

Transitioning into this role was a big step in broadening my expertise beyond day-to-day plant operations. At Mahindra Motors, I took on cross-functional projects that required coordination between design, manufacturing, and supply chain teams. Leading these initiatives not only strengthened my project management skills but also gave me firsthand experience in aligning technical execution with business objectives.

This shift laid the foundation for my ability to drive large-scale programs with measurable impact.

Moving forward, I want to take on leadership of larger project portfolios as a program manager. I would also like to transition out of the core manufacturing space to the fleet management space with Uber, Ola, or Grab where they’re considering in-house manufacturing and leasing to expand their operations. I can contribute my technical expertise and project management skills. And I can dabble in the complexities of fleet management technology in return.

An ISB MBA will equip me with the strategic, financial, and leadership skills needed to drive large-scale programs in fleet management. It will deepen my understanding of business operations, market dynamics, and data-driven decision-making—critical for managing in-house manufacturing and leasing models at companies like Uber, Ola, or Grab.“

How Should You Explain Resume Gaps?

If you’ve performed many roles over the years, summarizing your career path can feel challenging. Here’s what I suggest to my candidates to effectively explain a diverse job history:

1. Present Yourself as a Generalist: Having a broad range of experience can be an asset. When introducing yourself, frame your background as a testament to your versatility, which many employers find valuable.
2. Spotlight a Key Skill: Identify at least one core strength you’ve honed across your positions. It could be more than one if applicable. Even if the jobs differed, link your experiences by focusing on these common threads.
3. Make Your Career Transitions Sound Intentional: It’s crucial to explain your job changes in a logical, forward-thinking way. Emphasize how each shift was part of a broader career plan.
   • Same company, new role: “Transitioned into [new role] to expand my skill set and gain experience in [new domain].”
   • Same role, new company: “Joined [company] to solve new challenges in [field], leveraging my expertise in [skillset].”
   • Different industry: “Moved into [industry] to explore its growth opportunities, applying my background in [previous role/skill].”
4. Own Unexplained Job Changes: If your job transitions don’t seem to follow a clear, logical path, it’s okay to acknowledge them honestly. If you were laid off, for example, explain it clearly—layoffs are more common than you might think and are not typically seen negatively.
5. Handle Performance Issues Diplomatically: Avoid going into details about PIPs (Performance Improvement Plans) unless necessary. It’s better to reframe these situations as voluntary separations or layoffs, especially if they don’t serve your narrative positively.
6. Reaffirm Your Commitment to Growth: End your explanation by emphasizing that your career moves are all part of a larger plan to grow and achieve your long-term goals. This reassures interviewers that you are deliberate about your path forward.

How Should You Practice “Walk Me Through Your Resume”?

Okay, so you have an interview coming up in two days. You know who the interviewers are. You’ve researched their backgrounds and highlighted the skills and achievements in your resume that would resonate with them. You have an answer that follows the Am-Do-Want framework. Here’s how you practice your answer.

1. Find a Partner: Interviews are conversations, not monologues. Practice with someone who can provide facial, verbal, and critical feedback on your delivery. Ask them what stood out, what sparked curiosity, and what felt dull or unnecessary.
2. Avoid Memorization: Treat your answer as a fluid conversation, not a scripted recital. Jot down key points in the Am-Do-Want structure, but don’t memorise every word. This way, if your interviewer interrupts, you won’t lose your flow.
3. Don’t Overstuff Your Answer: Work experience is seldom neat and linear. You might have a few disconnected side projects that might have been interesting and impactful but don’t contribute to your broader career narrative. Mentioning these will make your answers unfocused, so avoid them unless the interviewers ask you a separate question about them.

Key Takeaways

Don’t bore your interviewers at the start of the interview. Your job might be the most exciting thing you’ve ever done, but data dumping turns listeners off immediately. Instead, provide enough detail to evoke curiosity and let them follow up with questions.

Use the Am-Do-Want format to structure your answer, connecting your jobs and achievements into a coherent narrative about growth and progress.

And most importantly, commit to your answer no matter how imperfect it may be. A long answer delivered confidently beats a good answer delivered doubtfully.