Lack of leadership experience
Hi everyone,
how important is it to have leadership experience on your resume?
I don't really have anything - partly because I didn't really care about it when i started college (wasn't that ambitious back then...) and partly because I did other things such as part-time work to get some money or a semester in Asia. I guess that was not particularly smart and it's my own fault, but it's too late now for me to get anything relevant while still in school.
For the record: I'm European, my school is not bad (I guess something like no. 5-10 in Europe) and grades are good. I also had an ok internship last summer (Big4 M&A), but my other work experience is not really relevant.
It definitely helps. Shows that you can be a team player and take charge when needed. Could certainly be a deal breaker if the competition is especially fierce
Depends for what organization/club. I would say 95% of college clubs are a joke and people don't do anything. If you're the president of the vegetarian club, no one is going to care.
Just start your own group. Problem solved.
If your resume is already getting you 1st round interviews then it doesn't matter too much. However, you still need to have a story about a time you were a leader / your leadership style for the behavioral questions.
If you aren't getting 1st round interviews, adding some leadership experience will definitely help. You can always get involved with something outside of school (volunteer with kids).
Leadership experience definitely helps. Not having any signals that you're not ambitious and that you lack social skills, but it's not hard to get leadership experience you can put on your resume. If you stop and think about it, you probably already have a few things you can classify as "leadership experience". Also, you don't have to have the "President" title in a campus group to have leadership experience. Get involved with some groups and see if they need a Treasurer, VP of Recruiting, etc. You can create a new position if you have to. If all else fails, you can always start your own group and call yourself President and Supreme Dictator.
Are you seeking a leadership position? If you are seeking a position where you would be leading a team, it is important that you have successfully led teams at work before or show that you are ready to do so in short order. If not, it doesn't matter. The only leadership positions I have cared about when hiring are those that are work related. President of the finance club (or whatever) in college is irrelevant to me. It's not like that teaches you how to manage people in a work environment. It's fluff and everyone knows it.
Thanks for your responses, very helpful.
I have been involved with some non-profit organization organizing a congress. I volunteered there for about 5 months (inviting speakers etc.) and was paid the other 3 months. There was no real "leadership" involved in the sense of leading others, but I guess being something like director of marketing for a student club does not involve this either.
How should I put this resume, considering that I was paid for 3 months (as I certainly dont want to lie or anything)? Putting it as work experience seems useless (at least I wouldn't care if I were a recruiter).
Thanks a lot!
It probably doesn't matter much either way, unless it is highly memorable. The only example I ever remember where extracurricular activities or leadership in these activities caught my interest as an interviewer was when a kid got Mark Cuban to speak at his finance club event. He pressed on Cuban's assistant about dates he would be in town during a Maverick's game and befriended her. It worked. The bad news, the kid had one of the most impressive resumes coming out of college that we would have easily hired him anyway. This just reinforced how badass of a candidate he was.
Bottom line: leadership experiences in school or lack thereof have never influenced my decision to hire someone one way or the other and I have interviewed hundreds of college students and have hired dozens. It doesn't matter either way because the skill doesn't really transfer to the job.
how much do leadership positions matter, if I have solid work experience for IBD SA recruiting? (Originally Posted: 11/19/2013)
Hi everyone. I just had a question for IBD SA Recruiting how much does leadership experience matter if I have solid work experience (PWM internship, f100 CO-OP, and no-name Boutique ER internship). I did one of the internship during the school year and am doing the co-op, so I most likely will only have one leadership position (in my schools investment club). How much would this hurt me in recruiting?
It matters because you might get asked about them. But at least you have 1 that you can talk about so it should be alright. Also, it's about the quality - what you actually contributed - not quantity.
Not a big deal as long as you have relevant finance experience you can talk intelligently about.
How important is undergrad leadership experience? (Originally Posted: 03/23/2013)
Just wondering how much are undergraduate activity leadership experience weighted by business school admissions? I imagine they are fairly important if you are a young applicant and you discuss it in your essay/interview (e.g. HBS 2+2). If you don't on plan on attending bschool until 3-4 years after graduation - how much does having a lot / fewer leadership experience during undergrad matter? About to graduate soon and curious.
Thanks in advance.
It matters a lot, even if you are 5 years out of undergrad, to be honest. They want you to show patterns of leadership early -- and college is the perfect time to show leadership by being involved in activities outside of the classroom. They want to see people who are curious, who get involved, and who make things happen. Undergraduate is a good time to learn about being a part of something bigger.
Many great candidates to business school (and successful ones too) are heavier in undergrad extra curricular activities than later on, mostly because they are working hard and don't have as much time to do a lot of extra stuff.
Given that you are about to graduate soon, there's not much you can do now anyway to beef up your undergraduate leadership experience, so you'll have to look for other ways to show that you have an ability to make things happen in the community or on in some kind of club or sports team.
Betsy,
I understand your point about showing leadership traits early on, but is it not the case that some students do not have the luxury of being able to be involved in activities during college because they have to work to support themselves.
I am in college right now, but I will be applying to B-School in a few years and this worries me. I have constantly taken 6 classes per semester (heavy course load) and have a very high GPA, and I have worked throughout college to support myself. But this means that I have ZERO extra curricular activities to list from college.
Does it mean that my B School chances are ruined?
Not having a lot of "leadership activities". Will that have a lot of negative effects on my internship application? (Originally Posted: 10/26/2015)
I am a Wesleyan University student, and because of various reasons, I did not have a lot of "leadership" activities after coming to college. I participated in several societies, such as finance society, accounting society, etc. Will that have many negative effects on my application of the internship of summer 2016? Will that make me inferior to many competitors?
No.
Yes
Can you explain how?
Whether or not it makes you inferior in recruiting isn't your biggest problem. Not having leadership experience for "one reason or another" makes you inferior in life. The life and social skills that make a person gravitate toward leadership positions are the same life and social skills that get a person ahead in their careers.
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