Four Things Interviewers Look For When They Interview You

When you go into an interview as part of your Graduate School Admissions process, you have one precious chance to make a good and lasting impression on alumni interviewers and admissions officers. Once that chance is gone, you can never get it back.

It isn’t necessarily obvious to current applicants what interviewers look for when they interview a prospect. Students have been focused on grades and tests for so long that they often forget that they’re dealing with human beings who like to be treated with respect and get a firm handshake. In order to help the current pool of applicants, I’m going outline four of the most important things that interviewers look for when they interview you.

1. Good Eye Contact

Forget your GREs and GPA for a minute. When you walk in the door and meet your interviewer for the first time, you need to greet them with good, strong eye contact. Eye contact indicates confidence and maturity in a prospective student, and is especially important when dealing with western interviewers.

If you look at your feet too much, or shift your eyes around all over the place when you meet with your interviewer, they will feel uncomfortable speaking with you. You want to give your interviewer every chance possible to feel comfortable and positive in your presence, so be sure to go in with excellent eye contact.

2. A Firm Hand Shake

One of the worst things in the world is a bad handshake. The “wet fish-handshake” as I like to call it, where you feel like you’re gripping an uncooked fish when you shake someone’s hand.

Just like eye contact, a strong handshake communicates confidence to the person interviewing you. Pump your hand 2 – 3 times, make sure your hand isn’t sweaty, and be firm but don’t crush your interviewers hand.

3. Interviewers Want to Feel Like You’ll Fit In

Interviewers need to feel like you would be a good fit for their community, and the best way to accomplish this is to get the interviewer talking about their community. Ask questions about the traditions and values of the school. By asking questions about the traditions and values of the school, you will give the interviewer a strong impression that you really want to understand what their community is all about. When they say something like “diversity is so important in our community” you are then free to echo their words and emphasize how important a value diversity is in your own personal life.

4. Sincerity

Interviewers have to meet with many potential candidates. So many candidates that their head starts to swim. The vast majority of students they interview are insincere. They don’t really want to be at the school they are interviewing for, and so the interviewer feels that their time is being wasted. Even if the school you’re interviewing for isn’t your top choice, you should always let your interviewer know that you are excited about the prospect of attending their school in the specific city in which it is located. Be prepared to talk about some of the advantages that the location has to offer, and about one of the values of the school which you genuinely respect.

If you can help an interviewer to see that you are a confident and mature young person by using good eye contact and good handshakes, and show them that you are genuinely interested in their school, they will walk away from an interview with you feeling confident you will fit in well in their community.

If you are in the process of applying for Graduate Schools or MBA Programs and would like help thinking about how to ace your interview, I’ll be offering a course called Interview Mastery which you can contact me, David, for details on at transcendadmissions@gmail.com.

Five Critical Steps in Asking for an Excellent LOR

When you apply to an MBA program, you need the support of everyone around you. You need the support of your colleagues and ideally, you should have the support of a manager or previous supervisor .

As such, the Letter of Recommendation, or LOR, is one of the most crucial aspects of your MBA application. Like we have written about before, not all LORs are created equal. Today, we are covering five steps which will help you get an excellent LOR.

1. Ask Early

You think you’re busy? You might be right, but the person writing your LOR for you is busy, too. In fact, there’s an excellent chance that the person writing your LOR for you is busier than you are.

As a matter of respect, ask the person writing your LOR for you as early as possible in the game if they’d be willing to write an LOR for you. Ask them well before the application is even available online, just to confirm that they’re willing to write your LOR.

The worst, and most disrespectful thing you can do when requesting an LOR is to wait until the very last minute and put pressure on the person writing the letter for you to finish it quickly. Respect that they have other priorities so that they can write an excellent letter for you.

2. Give the Writer Everything The Need

No matter how well the person writing your LOR knows you, you absolutely need to give them everything they need to write an excellent LOR for you in written form. This means you should give them a small package of all of the information that they need about your academic and professional careers. This could include your University transcript, your CV, and an outline for each letter of recommendation question reminding them of your key attributes and accomplishments at work.

You never want the person writing your LOR to have to waste time coming back to you for information you should have given them the first time around. Help them to help you by ensuring they have everything they need.

3. Ask for an “excellent” LOR

It’s important to be very specific when you ask for your LOR. Sometimes a person will agree to write an LOR for you, but wouldn’t necessarily agree to write an excellent LOR for you. You should ask them a question like “Are you available to write me an excellent LOR?” Even though it sounds a little bit awkward, it’s important to make sure the person you ask can meet your expectations so you aren’t disappointed down the road.

4. Offer to Help Write the LOR

Use this strategy with caution. When the person you are asking to write an LOR is extremely busy, it is sometimes helpful to volunteer to help write the LOR for them, and then have them review & sign off on it. If you are dealing with a major CEO or a serial entrepreneur, or the most distinguished professor of business at National Taiwan University, you might consider this strategy.

5. Write a Thank You Note & Follow Up

After the person you’ve asked has written your LOR, it is important to write them a thank you note. This is just common sense and good manners, but many people fail to execute this step. A handwritten thank you note is an extremely warm gesture which will make your LOR writer feel genuinely appreciated. Be sure to let anyone who wrote an LOR for you know whether you made it into a school or not to keep them updated on your progress.

Once again, the five things steps in asking for an excellent LOR are to 1) ask as early as possible, 2) to give the writer all of your personal information in written form, 3) to ask specifically for an excellent LOR, 4) to offer to help write the LOR if the person is extraordinarily busy, and 5) the most important step: write a thank you note and follow up with the person who wrote an LOR for you.

I have helped many students set a successful strategy for their MBA applications. If you have any additional questions about LORs, or about the other stages in applying for MBA & Graduate programs abroad, get in touch with me, David, at transcendadmissions@gmail.com.

Four Important Points for a Truly Outstanding Letter of Recommendation (LOR)

Not all Letters of Recommendation (LORs) are created equal.

Admissions officers have read enough of them by this point to understand when a recommender is and is not being genuine in their LOR. Many professors and managers just write an LOR because they didn’t want to say “no” when an applicant asked them to, and that is certainly not the feeling you want to come across in your own LOR.

If you are approaching your professors or managers to write LORs to include in your MBA or MS application, there are a few points you need to keep in mind about what makes for a truly outstanding LOR. If you can help your recommender include the four points outlined below in your LOR, you can send it in feeling safe.

1. Your LOR Should be Personal (For You)

Your recommender needs to include your name, and as many relevant details about your life, motivations, and passions as possible in your LOR. Managers and professors often have templates for LORs which they plug a student’s name into in order to save themselves time. This is fine, but they need to be sure to include details on your most outstanding qualities and achievements that prove that you are a capable graduate student and professional. The more personal an LOR is, the more an admissions officer can see that your recommender cares to take the time to write a good LOR, and the application will be more persuasive as a whole.

2. Your LOR Should be Personal (For the MBA or MS Program)

Whoever is writing your LOR needs to insert the name of the school, and the MBA program into their LOR. (Of course).

But it needs to get even more personalized for the school. When a recommender states that you are a good fit for an MBA program, and can give at least two good reasons why that program is also a good fit for you, it shows that the recommender has gone above and beyond their normal template, increasing the value of their recommendation. Ask your professor to mention specific clubs, organizations, or well known societies at the school in order to persuade the admissions officers that your professor genuinely knows what they’re talking about. Or ask your manager to mention specific projects you have worked on or other ways that you have made an impact on the organization you work for.

3. Your LOR Should Give Context by Ranking You

Admissions officers love it when your recommender can be extremely specific about how you compare to the other students they have encountered. Although your class rank, GPA, and test scores give admissions officers a great measure of your academic abilities, your recommender’s evaluation adds another layer of depth to your application.

A statement as simple as “Terry is easily within the top 3% of students I have ever encountered at National Cheng Chi University, and I believe he will rise to the top echelons of the student body at ________ University” goes a long way towards increasing your credibility, and giving admissions officers an additional dimension of comparison to consider while making their decision.

4. Your LOR Should Communicate Your Values

I write all the time about how important it is to convey your values and passions in your MBA application. Admissions officers get bored of reading bland essays and LORs over and over again, and want a story to understand about you as a person. Your professor’s LOR should help you to tell your story by touching on how you spend your time volunteering or doing creative things relevant to an MBA program outside of school. And your manager’s LOR should mention how you affected the team environment and make an impact during and after working hours. When your application tells the story of who you are through the eyes of multiple people, it makes you stand out from the crowd. It makes your story memorable, and “sticky” in the mind of admissions officers.

So the four points once again are that your LOR should 1) be personal for both you and 2) the MBA/MS program to which you are applying. 3) Your LOR should give admissions staff context by ranking you from your recommender’s perspective, and 4) your LOR should tell the story of your values.

If you would like help understanding additional ways in which you can optimize your LORs, and your MBA/MS application as a whole, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at transcendadmissions@gmail.com.

Three reasons why extracurricular and volunteer activities important.

I’ve written in the past about how important it is for admissions officers to get a sense ofyou as a person. A whole person, different than just grades, GPA, GMAT and numbers on a sheet. Recently I wrote about how it’s important that admissions officers understand your values, your character, your motivations, and your achievements.

Today, I’m going to tell you three reasons why extracurricular and volunteer activities are important for your MBA application.

1. You Have to Make Time for Extracurriculars & Volunteering

Admissions officers understand that students are busier now than they’ve ever been before. They understand that insanely competitive MBA application seasons like we saw in 2011 have driven many students to spend more time studying, preparing for tests, and honing their writing skills to ace their essays than they ever have in the past.

Given that applicants are spending more time preparing for their MBA applications than ever before, admissions officers are curious to see how well a candidiate managed their time as a student and now as a professional. Being an MBA candidate means that you will be working extremely hard to advance in your career, while trying to prepare for GMAT while still having a personal life. If you aren’t able to make the time you need to lead a well balanced life before you even start your MBA program, how are you going to handle a whole new load of responsibilities while maintaining a lifestyle which will contribute value to the world?

Extracurricular and volunteer activities showcase your time management skills, or lack thereof. In your application essays, consider how you can drive home the point that you are a masterful time manager who flourishes with multiple commitments and responsibilities to the admissions committee.

2. Extracurricular Activities are Proof of your Passions

How can you tell what someone is actually passionate about? You look at how they spend their time. Given that these activities show whether or not a person is good at managing their time, we next turn to think about what they spend their time on.

The thing is, it’s really easy to write a list of incredible sounding passions down on paper to impress a stranger. Writing down a list of passions to persuade an admissions officer that you are a valuable asset to their university is another matter altogether.

If Terry says that he’s passionate about entrepreneurship in his MBA application, but all of his extracurricular activities are playing basketball and entering into video game tournaments, an admissions officer will really have to wonder whether Terry is truly passionate about entrepreneurship. If, on the other hand, Terry had formed a Student Entrepreneurship Alliance Club during college and invited numerous inspiring entrepreneurs to come and speak at his club, an admissions officer would have a much easier time believing that Terry is passionate about entrepreneurship.

His extracurricular activities prove that he is passionate about entrepreneurship by showing that he spends his free time, however scarce it may be, educating himself and engaging with entrepreneurship.

3. Volunteer Activities Show Commitment to Social Justice

Along similar lines, volunteer activities are important to many schools. Diversity, social justice, and a spirit of giving back are all important points of any school’s identity, and brand. Schools use these values to sell themselves to potential students, and need to find a student body which matches up with those values. When you volunteer at the Red Cross, start a nonprofit organization, or tutor underprivileged children, it shows admissions officers that you care about giving back to your community, and that your values match up with the values of their school.

If Terry says that social justice is important to him in his MBA application, but spends all of his time surfing the internet, an admissions officer doesn’t have a reason to believe that social justice is important to him. If Terry had built a website which gives people an opportunity to donate money to a children’s charity, or to the fight to cure cancer, then admissions staff have proof that Terry cares about social justice.

Your volunteer & extracurricular activities show admissions staff your values better than a list or a essay ever could. They show a clear narrative story about the type of person you are, the things which matter to you, and are hard evidence of how you are likely to continue spending your time and contributing value to your community once you are admitted to your new MBA program. 

Interview Mastery Course

Interview Mastery Course:

Master Your Nerves - Ace Your Interview

Interview Mastery is a six hour course designed to give you real-world, practical knowledge which you will use to improve your chances for admission into your dream program.

Books are helpful for preparing for the GMAT, but to nail your MBA interview, you need to deeply understand the interview process, get inside the interviewer’s mind and learn what they want to hear - and you need real world practice in front of real people.

Schedule:

10/27 (Saturday):   14:30-17:30

11/03 (Saturday):   14:30-17:30

Class Size, Location & Pricing:

Size: limited to 12 students

Location: A2 GMAT (台北市大安區信義路四段6號13F-7).

Pricing: NTD3,500 per student

RSVP to David at: transcendadmissions@gmail.com

Instructors:

David Johnston (Graduate of Georgetown University Law Center; Founder of Transcend Admissions Consultants)

Austin Yoder (Graduate of Georgetown University; Georgetown alumni interviewer; public speaking guru)

Course Overview

Class One (14:30 – 16:00)  Understanding the MBA interview (David)

-          An explanation of the MBA interview process

-          Review the most important interview questions and discuss the purpose of the questions

-          Learn how to best structure your interview answers

-          In-depth discussion of how to approach the most important questions (“why MBA?”, “why career goals?”, “why our school?”, and questions about teamwork and leadership)

-          Analyze a sample written answer to a “Why MBA?” question

-          Learn strategies about how to ask the best questions that will get the interviewer to open up and talk

Class One (16:00 – 17:30)  Applying communication skills to the interview (Austin)

-          Discussing the structure of an interview

-          Introduction and examples of how to use effective body language

-          How to make a positive impression on the interviewer and get the interviewer to like you

-          Learn how to “break the ice” and convey a sense of humor in a professional setting

-          In the “hot seat:” Students give presentations, in-depth personalized feedback, optional video recording for self-criticism & improvement.

Class Two (14:30 – 16:00)  Getting Inside the Mind of an Interviewer (Austin)

-          Learn Adcom and alumni interviewers’ motivations and how they approach interviews

-          How to research and prepare for your interviewer so that you can form a strong connection with them

-          The “Tradition Trick” & other classic connection strategies

-          How to avoid embarrassment: what to do when you’re completely stuck

-          Examples of the best questions you can possibly ask your interviewer to connect with them

-          How to adapt a story to multiple questions and situations

-          Strategies and tricks to practice for your interview

Class Two (16:00 – 17:30)  Applying Your New Interview Skills (David & Austin)

-          In the “hot seat:” Students give presentations, in-depth personalized feedback, optional video recording for self-criticism & improvement.

-          Ask David and Austin interview questions to see how we respond under pressure, and adapt the same story to different scenarios; listen to our answers and ask follow-up questions

Listen to classmates stories demonstrating mastery of public speaking and interview communications skills from assignments designed to give you real-world, practical experience in the skills you need to nail your interview.