Video Screen Tests Come To Admissions

Niki da Silva leads the MBA recruitment and admissions team at the Rotman School of Management

On a recent day, da Silva spent an entire morning in a room, a camera pointed at her, recording the more than 100 questions, one by one. The result: this year’s crop of  Rotman candidates will see and hear her ask the two questions on their computer screen. “If you’re a potential student from Portugal, where we don’t recruit or interview on the ground, this would be their first interaction with us before a Skype interview,” she reasons. “We want them to see a person, a face that can be an introduction to the program.”

What about the possibility that an admissions person could be overly charmed by an attractive, articulate applicant who may be relatively empty? Da Silva says the fact that the entire admissions committee can go to the video tape makes a person’s mere appearance less impactful than when only one person saw the candidate. “By insuring that our whole admissions committee sees this and not just a candidate’s reviewer is the way to keep this as objective as possible,” she insists. “We are staying focused on someone’s presence and professionalism.”

As for Robert, he easily passed his screen test. While not a storyteller, the candidate went on to say that he was proud of the fact that he could get things done in an organization. “I’d like to be perceived as somebody who questions norms—not for the sake of it but someone who doesn’t take situations at face value,” he explained. “I ask why we are doing what we are doing and try to understand the real reason behind the work and the effort we’re putting in.”

The admissions committee at Rotman thought Robert, not his real name, showed himself to be a true professional on tape, though it had questions about other aspects of his application, including the fact that he was currently unemployed. So even his stellar on-tape performance didn’t completely sway the admissions staff.

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