MSc in Management Admissions Interview

1

00:00:02.610 --> 00:00:13.769

Eric Simard - Ivey: Okay, I think we're going well, welcome everyone, my name is Eric smart and i'm the director of operations and msc admissions here at Ivy Business School i'm joined by my colleague, Catherine Ireland from the career management team.

 

2

00:00:14.280 --> 00:00:29.430

Eric Simard - Ivey: Who, and today we will both be talking about our interview for the msc and management in all of the stream, so this will apply to all streams of the msc program but basically how to get prepared what it's about why we're here and so thanks so much Catherine for joining me today.

 

3

00:00:30.060 --> 00:00:32.220

Catherine (she/her): Oh, thank you for having me Eric i'm really excited to be here.

 

4

00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:41.910

Eric Simard - Ivey: Thank you um maybe we can talk a little bit about the structure of the interview, what is the you know how does it look, how does it feel, how do students, you know participate.

 

5

00:00:42.540 --> 00:00:51.150

Catherine (she/her): Okay yeah for sure, so the structure of the interview is will be started off with a brief introduction as to who The interviewer is.

 

6

00:00:51.810 --> 00:01:00.840

Catherine (she/her): I do conduct those interviews, as well as the rest of my advising team So anyone who works with an msc students on the career management team will be somebody who.

 

7

00:01:01.860 --> 00:01:06.060

Catherine (she/her): who holds this interview the the.

 

8

00:01:07.950 --> 00:01:17.550

Catherine (she/her): The questions will be mostly behavioral based questions so we'll have seven to 10 questions kind of looking to understand your competencies and your skills and your experiences.

 

9

00:01:18.240 --> 00:01:28.560

Catherine (she/her): there'll be a little bit of of getting to know you as a student so understanding, you know why did you want to come to Ivy, why are you interested in the msc program and the particular stream that you're applying to.

 

10

00:01:29.070 --> 00:01:39.180

Catherine (she/her): There will it'll be about 30 minutes kind of start to finish, and usually we don't take questions at the end and often it's because Eric is the holder.

 

11

00:01:39.210 --> 00:01:51.270

Catherine (she/her): Of all those those answers so often we don't have the answers that students are looking for if there's something very specific we're happy to answer it, otherwise we give you eric's email to answer those questions later on.

 

12

00:01:52.350 --> 00:01:58.440

Eric Simard - Ivey: that's good, and I do get those questions from students, so please don't hesitate to reach out after your interview if you've got questions.

 

13

00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:09.870

Eric Simard - Ivey: It maybe Catherine, you can talk a little bit about why we, we have an admissions interview what what does that add to the applicant profile, why is it conducted maybe some thoughts on that.

 

14

00:02:10.410 --> 00:02:21.480

Catherine (she/her): yeah for sure so um, as I mentioned, myself and our advising team are the ones who conduct those interviews and we have a really good grasp on the msc student body we work really closely with them.

 

15

00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:27.900

Catherine (she/her): As they as they recruit as they get prepared for recruiting and throughout their time at Ivy so.

 

16

00:02:28.410 --> 00:02:37.770

Catherine (she/her): it's really an opportunity for us to get to know students beyond that paper application, if you will, so you do answer a lot of the questions and some of the direction that you.

 

17

00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:49.260

Catherine (she/her): Probably go in the paper application, but this is beyond it allows you to provide a little bit more color a little bit more of the story behind some of your experiences and to maybe share some of the.

 

18

00:02:50.130 --> 00:02:54.240

Catherine (she/her): The skills that you have that may not have been captured on that application so.

 

19

00:02:54.450 --> 00:03:06.210

Catherine (she/her): we're looking for specifics around the competencies that we're really interested in so leadership adaptability relationship management and openness to learning and that's tends to be where our questions sort of land.

 

20

00:03:07.140 --> 00:03:07.950

Eric Simard - Ivey: Great Thank you.

 

21

00:03:08.460 --> 00:03:10.230

Eric Simard - Ivey: i'm not sure students prepare.

 

22

00:03:11.160 --> 00:03:12.720

Catherine (she/her): Ah it's a million dollar question.

 

23

00:03:12.750 --> 00:03:27.630

Catherine (she/her): So um we do have this fantastic msc admissions team that was prepared and interview prep guide so first and foremost that's a great place to start a lot of your answers are sort of within that interview prep guide.

 

24

00:03:29.010 --> 00:03:35.880

Catherine (she/her): In addition to that, I would say, from our perspective is go through your experiences, think about some of the skills that you've acquired.

 

25

00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:43.560

Catherine (she/her): Over multitude of your experiences and think about how that might apply to a typical behavioral based question.

 

26

00:03:43.980 --> 00:03:49.800

Catherine (she/her): Much around those competencies that I mentioned earlier, so what's of time that you were a leader, and can you get into those details.

 

27

00:03:50.490 --> 00:04:03.210

Catherine (she/her): That sort of answer those questions one little maybe something to Google for you, but a competency grid is a really good thing to help prepare and it's something that we encourage our students, as they prepare for recruiting for.

 

28

00:04:03.870 --> 00:04:11.610

Catherine (she/her): Their full time career heading out of Ivy is to take a look at a competency grid and it's something that it'll it'll help you reflect on your experiences going forward.

 

29

00:04:12.090 --> 00:04:13.410

Eric Simard - Ivey: That sounds really helpful.

 

30

00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:19.650

Eric Simard - Ivey: Maybe you could talk a little bit about some of the common mistakes that we see in our candidates, as they move through the interview process.

 

31

00:04:20.220 --> 00:04:31.080

Catherine (she/her): yeah I definitely can so um I think the first and foremost, the biggest mistake students make is they're overly nervous and and there and it's okay to be nervous.

 

32

00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:41.310

Catherine (she/her): We do try and get you out of that a little bit, but the more you can be yourself, the more successful you're going to be, we want to get to know you as an individual.

 

33

00:04:41.730 --> 00:04:48.540

Catherine (she/her): and often that takes you just taking a breath just relax a bit and answering questions that are authentically you.

 

34

00:04:48.870 --> 00:04:56.640

Catherine (she/her): So that's a that's a big component, I would say that overrides sort of everything else, as far as a common mistake i'm more specifically.

 

35

00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:09.300

Catherine (she/her): Lack of a structured response, so what that looks like is often you'll hear car or star i'm sure you've you've heard that so competency action result as to how to answer a question again that's a quick Google search to.

 

36

00:05:10.440 --> 00:05:17.640

Catherine (she/her): But really spending the time in those spaces and making sure that you're hitting on all three all three of those.

 

37

00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:29.310

Catherine (she/her): And last is missing the why why really being able to nail down, you know why are you choosing Ivy, why are you choosing msc program and why are you choosing that particular stream.

 

38

00:05:29.640 --> 00:05:38.610

Catherine (she/her): And we're not looking for you to have your whole life mapped out but we really are looking for you to understand why this is the next logical step in your journey.

 

39

00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:46.290

Eric Simard - Ivey: that's really good, thank you, given that the msc is a pre experience program and many of our students apply to Ivy.

 

40

00:05:46.590 --> 00:05:53.880

Eric Simard - Ivey: With you know limited experience right they come directly in some cases they come directly from their undergraduate program into the msc.

 

41

00:05:54.270 --> 00:06:05.880

Eric Simard - Ivey: And they've got some limited experiences from their past what what are some of the things that they can draw from and what's okay what's off side what's online, you know inside in terms of I guess how they answer and what they pull from.

 

42

00:06:06.330 --> 00:06:15.930

Catherine (she/her): yeah there's a good question, so I always remind students, that there are no extra credits in the interview for a business related response often students will say.

 

43

00:06:16.200 --> 00:06:22.260

Catherine (she/her): Well, I haven't really worked in a real business or in a corporate job or anything like that and there's no advantage to having.

 

44

00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:28.590

Catherine (she/her): That response to any of our question so every experience really can be valuable um.

 

45

00:06:28.890 --> 00:06:37.740

Catherine (she/her): You know, if you think about clubs, if you can go to any group work that you may have done throughout your undergrad experience, of course, an internship or work related response works.

 

46

00:06:38.040 --> 00:06:49.890

Catherine (she/her): Any sports teams things of that nature volunteer work they all can prove to be really valuable and you can draw on all those experiences, I would say over the years of doing these interviews.

 

47

00:06:50.610 --> 00:07:03.030

Catherine (she/her): Someone has been able to draw on any of those experiences and give a really strong response based on their skill and their experience and like I said it doesn't have to be business related or even work related that's great.

 

48

00:07:03.750 --> 00:07:11.070

Eric Simard - Ivey: um maybe you could talk a little bit about what types of strategies students can use to avoid generalizations within their responses.

 

49

00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:19.320

Catherine (she/her): yeah and maybe I should have mentioned this in the common mistake, so one of the things that we do get from students a lot is.

 

50

00:07:20.520 --> 00:07:34.830

Catherine (she/her): Using we in our in the response, so what that looks like is you know tell me about a time that you did X and students are more apt to use the word we, and although we understand there's often teamwork component.

 

51

00:07:35.340 --> 00:07:42.600

Catherine (she/her): or a group work or things like that we're really looking to understand you your group can be very successful and there, there is certainly a result to that.

 

52

00:07:42.780 --> 00:07:52.980

Catherine (she/her): But we want to understand your role within that group, so the generalization that students typically land on is using the word we a little too much and not enough in the eye.

 

53

00:07:53.190 --> 00:08:04.200

Catherine (she/her): So, if you think about, as I mentioned earlier, the the structure so that context action result is really spending some time in the action and what you did in that specific example.

 

54

00:08:05.400 --> 00:08:15.720

Catherine (she/her): um The other thing I would add to is, if you think about responding to a question we estimate in around two minutes should be I mean give or take for sure.

 

55

00:08:16.440 --> 00:08:32.790

Catherine (she/her): But two minutes should be a normal response time, so if in you know you're practicing your answers to or you give an answer and it's only in that 32nd range chances are you've really generalized quite a bit and you might want to add some depth around the action.

 

56

00:08:35.010 --> 00:08:38.190

Eric Simard - Ivey: I know we haven't talked about this question in advance, but i'm going to throw a curveball.

 

57

00:08:39.330 --> 00:08:44.490

Eric Simard - Ivey: Maybe you can talk a little bit about if if a student feeling that the interviewers probing right.

 

58

00:08:44.520 --> 00:08:49.800

Eric Simard - Ivey: or asking additional follow up questions, what should that prompt them to do or think about.

 

59

00:08:50.580 --> 00:09:00.120

Catherine (she/her): yeah it's a good question, and that is something that we do quite often often, it was because there is a miss somewhere in the response and it's not that.

 

60

00:09:00.660 --> 00:09:06.000

Catherine (she/her): it's not that it's a mess and you're going to lose points sort of idea but it's a mess in that.

 

61

00:09:06.270 --> 00:09:14.160

Catherine (she/her): You just haven't expanded and you haven't given us the depth that we're looking for in that response so it's an opportunity for you to come back to that question.

 

62

00:09:14.400 --> 00:09:25.290

Catherine (she/her): And dig in on the area that the person is asking, so a good example would be like, I said that that teamwork one right if you give me this great response about how your group did all this work and.

 

63

00:09:25.650 --> 00:09:37.920

Catherine (she/her): You won first prize and I, my probing question might be okay so tell me specifically what you did within that that team, and that would be a probing that i'd look for you to add a little bit more depth as to your role.

 

64

00:09:38.610 --> 00:09:49.890

Eric Simard - Ivey: that's really great you know I I think this has been really helpful I know it's a fairly short podcast today, but I really want to thank you for your time, Catherine, and I think that our students are going to find this really helpful, so thank you very much.

 

65

00:09:50.160 --> 00:09:56.100

Catherine (she/her): yeah I hope so, best of luck to everyone out there, that is jumping into the interview look forward to chatting with you.

 

66

00:09:57.060 --> 00:09:57.510

Eric Simard - Ivey: Take care.