TORONTO, May 16, 2007 -- The Schulich School of Business at York University is the first school in Canada to utilize a new web-based software tool that helps prepare students for critical job interviews.
Known as "InterviewStream", the software tool allows students to video -record themselves answering industry- and skill-specific interview questions. Students are able to select from hundreds of questions testing their communications, analytical and leadership skills. Their answers are video-recorded via a webcam, which can be done from the comfort of their own home or from a kiosk at Schulich.
By analyzing everything from the content of answers to body language and speech patterns, a student can hone key points and polish a final presentation. The software can even track the number of times unnecessary words or phrases are used.
According to Alyson Gampel, Manager at the Schulich Career Development Centre (CDC), InterviewStream offers a large number of potential uses. Not only can students evaluate their own interviewing skills, they can also easily e-mail a link of their interview to CDC career counsellors or to alumni mentors who can then provide critical feedback. InterviewStream also meets the unique needs of a growing number of Schulich’s MBA students who pursue work oversees. For them, coordinating live interviews poses problems. But with InterviewStream, they are now able to e-mail their interview video to potential employers and even answer interview questions in a foreign language.
Toronto-based Business News Network Television (BNN) recently acknowledged the Schulich School’s pioneering role as the first university in Canada to offer its business students and alumni the opportunity to video-record their practice mock interviews via webcam. BNN profiled InterviewStream on its Workopolis TV program using Schulich MBA students Fernando Silva and Ana Carolina Frota. The two demonstrated how they use the InterviewStream tool and discussed how it has helped them improve their interviewing skills. Schulich MBA Program Director Ashwin Joshi and the CDC Executive Director Joseph Palumbo also discussed the benefits of InterviewStream for students.
To view the BNN segment scroll down to the "full shows" section and click the link for May 2, 2007.
Schulich’s Career Development Centre has purchased the rights to InterviewStream, enabling the School’s students and alumni to use it free of charge. Users are able to access InterviewStream via the School’s 24/7 Online Student & Alumni Career Portal.
About Schulich
Known as Canada’s Global Business School™, the Schulich School of Business in Toronto is ranked number one in Canada by the Forbes, The Economist (EIU) and the World Resources and Aspen Institutes, and is ranked as one of the top ten schools in the world outside the US by BusinessWeek, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal. Schulich is ranked 13th in the world in The Wall Street Journal’s “Top International Schools” ranking, 9th in BusinessWeek’s top international schools ranking, 3rd in the world among non-US schools with two-year MBA programs in the Forbes ranking, 30th in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the business research and intelligence arm of The Economist magazine, and 49th in the world by the Financial Times of London (30th in the world in the three-year average category). Schulich is also ranked 3rd in the world in the field of corporate social responsibility in the Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking conducted by the World Resources Institute and the Aspen Institute.
Global, innovative and diverse, Schulich offers business programs year-round at two Toronto campuses — its new state-of-the-art complex on York University’s main campus and its downtown Miles S. Nadal Management Centre located in the heart of the city’s financial district. The School also operates satellite centres in Beijing and Shanghai, China; Mumbai, India; Seoul, South Korea; and Moscow, Russia. Schulich offers undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate business degrees that lead to careers in the private, public and nonprofit sectors, and has over 20,000 alumni working in more than 80 countries. Schulich pioneered Canada’s first International MBA (IMBA) and International BBA (iBBA) degrees, as well as North America’s first ever cross-border executive MBA degree, the Joint Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA. The Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC) provides executive development programs annually to 16,000 executives in Canada and abroad, and is ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit as one of the world’s leading providers of open enrolment and custom executive education programming.
Contact: Elayne Shapiro at (416) 736-5546.
