说明：本文首发于InVisor旧公众号。2019年初，我们更新后再次把它呈现给大家。时至今日，对申请ICBS的同学而言，这篇访谈仍然有非常强的参考价值。

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说明

2015年后，帝国理工商学院大幅采用Video Interview（视频录像）来选拔申请者。相对以往的一对一Skype面试，这种每题只有30秒时间准备，60秒回答的视频录像面试对不少同学而言难度更大，因为它对英文口语、时间把控和快速思考能力有更高的要求。

视频录像面试背后的逻辑是什么？帝国理工到底如何通过这种面试选拔申请者？随着近期面试邀请的陆续发放，作为申请者的你又该如何准备应战？

2016年11月22日下午3点，InVisor管理团队在收集了同学们的提问后，对帝国理工商学院（ICBS）现任招生官（ Senior Programme Manager）Abdus老师进行了面对面采访。Abdus老师从2008年开始在帝国商学院任职。他承担了商学院IEM和Management项目许多Kira视频录像的筛选工作。Abdus在InVisor Consulting中兼任G5大学申请咨询。

在帝国理工商学院的会议室内，我们记录下招生官的回答，所有内容均已获准公开。

Is the interview important?

“It’s very important. It’s basically the deciding factor for the college to accept the student. The Interview is where we find out if the student is actually the person who wrote the application essays. Sometimes what happens is the student gets other people to do the application, but these people can’t do the interview for them. If we find that the experience they talk about during the interview is not the right experience, or the student’s English is not as well spoken as it seemed on their application, then… (they will be rejected). The Interview is the “decision maker”.

Can you really tell who’s cheating?

“Sometimes it’s hard for us to select if they were trained really hard to pass the interview, or got consultations from some professionals, unless the applicants themselves feel too nervous and it turns out as if they have been cheating or something.” On a scale of 1% to 100%, how important is the interview in an application? How many students are invited to the interview each year?

“That kind of varies. I can’t put a percentage on that. Obviously, the first step of the application is to meet the minimum requirement, and that in itself is 100%. If you don’t meet one of the criteria, you’ll be rejected.

If you go through that process, then a brand new process starts, which is the application and the references. If you can’t get the references, again, you will be rejected.

And then you get the application itself. If the personal statement and essays are not great, you’ll be rejected. If your experiences and CV aren’t great, you’ll be rejected.

Technically, each of these has an equal percentage — 20% for the requirements, 20% for the references, 40% for the statements (personal statements & essays) and CV, and 20% for the interview. Each of them carries weight.

If you failed in one of them, say, you only got 10% for the references, you will need to make sure that you stand out from the statements or interview. If one outweighs the other, it’s fine. For example, if your personal statement isn’t great, but you have a very good career prospect, we will think about it, take you to the interview. If you come out great (in the interview), then you’re fine.

Let’s say we get 1000 applications this year. 200 to 300 will get stopped at the requirements, another 200-300 will get stopped at the applications and career prospects at that stage, and then the rest will go to the interview. And then, the interview will probably accept up to 50%. I can’t say exactly the percentage. So if you go through the interview stage, you have a better chance. (The percentages are based on the time when we were using Skype interview. We introduced video interview last year so we invited more students to the interview stage)”

"No. First it’s about the admission criteria, the second is having good CVs and statements; basically, this means your experience (at this stage). If you say you weren’t involved in any societies, clubs, activities or internships, then it doesn’t look good. It’s not like rejection straight away, but there’s a Career Marking/Points given to you. If you don’t score high on the Career Points, you will be rejected. "

Will you continue to use the video interview this year?

"What we learned from last’s years’ experience is that the video interview works well. I think we are going to carry it on this year."

Can I argue if I wasn’t invited to an interview?

"No. We do get that query quite a lot. It’s harsh but true. "

What are the interview questions like?

"One type of questions we ask is to find out whether the student is actually interested in the program. We look for answers showing that you have done your research. You can’t fake those arguments, because you can’t ask someone else (during the interview), and you can’t say like, I know Bill Gates came to the campus last year, it’s fantastic, etc. He didn’t come. So your research has to be realistic, and we will find out if you are lying.

I can’t give you a list of questions, I can’t share that. But I can give you some examples.

We will ask you questions like those about teamwork. If you are in a situation where one of the team members in your team isn’t participating, what would you do in that situation? Another example would be, what would you do in a situation where you have to confront a student for copying your answers. It’s basically to understand how you will react when you work with others, and skills like leadership skills (e.g. have you got an experience of leading a team).

Other questions we might ask is like, how would your best friend describe you. (That’s about personality). We also ask about your future, such as what is your short-term goal and how do you expect to get there.

Video questions are personalised to business school cohorts. Each program has its questions. For example, IEM students will have questions based on entrepreneurship, etc. Management students would have questions about consulting, stuff like that.

We have like two to three hundred questions across the business school. All of them have themes. Let’s say, we focus on teamwork, we focus on your knowledge about the program, your personality, your personal stories and character, your motivation in life… There are different things we focus on. But unfortunately, I can’t go through all of the questions. "

Will you ask professional questions?

"It depends. You will have to make sure that you are eligible for certain criteria, for example, you’ll have to have certain quantitative backgrounds or a certain level of English, if you don’t have them then you will be rejected. But we don’t expect a lot of professional skills as a part of the interview. Because once you are accepted, you’ll go through the basic professional modules. "

This question is about the application essays: from your perspective as an admission officer, what makes a great career planning statement?

"It’s hard to answer. Students write this thinking that they know what they are going to do in the future, but they can come to the program and change their mind.

What makes a good career planning is knowing roughly what you want to do in your life. You should have a clear short-term goal, but not necessarily a clear long-term goal — it’s good if you do, so that we can know what you are aiming towards.

But what looks good is when you have short-term career goal, you want to achieve that, and you can show what you have done so far to achieve it, such as internships, work experience in the field that interests you in the short term. If you know your long-term goal, that’s an even better career planning.

Even if you haven’t really done a lot to achieve your goal, you should be at least show your efforts and motivations. "

编后语：

除了目前在帝国理工商学院任职招生官，Abdus也是InVisor Consulting 咨询团队的一员，负责与InVisor管理团队制定文书修改策略，并为同学提供申请答疑和面试培训。如果你希望获得ICBS现任招生官提供的申请咨询、面试辅导和面经（InVisor独家提供），欢迎联系我们。