Toronto, ON (February 11, 2014) - Kira Talent is excited to deepen their relationship with Ivey Business School (Ivey) by providing a video interview screening platform to not only the undergraduate HBA level but also the PhD and MSc programs.
Each year Ivey receives thousands of applicants to its undergraduate program, and in-person interviews are not feasible for the admissions team. The Kira Talent platform allows the admissions team to send pre-recorded video questions to their applicants and receive responses asynchronously. As the calibre of students continues to increase, paper and written applications do not provide the full picture of an applicant’s candidacy.
“Kira Talent’s platform was very easy to get set up and provided the admissions team better insights into our candidates than we would get with traditional applications.” says Amy Bryson, Director of HBA Recruiting & Admissions.
Kira Talent has revolutionized academic admissions by creating a medium very familiar to applicants and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Kira Talent’s web-based and mobile platform has interviewed applicants from over 80 countries and all age groups. Some candidate feedback from Ivey’s applicants include:
- “The video gave me a much better way to communicate my excitement and potential for the program than I could with paper.”
- “I found the platform really easy to use and very straight-forward. It made the application a lot more fun.”
Since 2012, Kira Talent has grown into a leader in academic admissions and serves North America’s premier institutions. Emilie Cushman, Kira Talent CEO & Co-Founder says, “We’ve seen first-hand how video is an amazing tool for academic institutions to assess their candidates. With a greater number of international applicants and increasingly high-calibre students, schools need to try something different, and video provides that difference for schools.”
For over 90 years, Ivey has been a leader in management education. In the past, Ivey’s admissions process considered undergraduate marks, extracurricular involvement, a series of essay questions, and references. With the addition of the video interview questions, Ivey will get a much more candid perspective of the applicant. “We pride ourselves on how well-rounded our students are,” says HBA Faculty Director Mary Heisz, “Kira Talent’s screening solution provides us an opportunity to engage prospective students from around the world.”
Emilie Cushman, Kira Talent CEO and Co-founder, commented “We are excited about renewing our partnership with Ivey and are proud to play an important role in helping the university streamline and improve their admissions process.” As universities seek to attract top students from around the globe, traditional methods of application offer limited perspectives into a candidate’s qualifications and experiences.
About Kira Talent
Kira Talent is an award-winning online interviewing platform that allows managers and recruiters to record video questions and embed them in their online application process via any connected device. After candidates open the application they view the questions and record their video responses. These short videos are sent back to employers who can rate, share, and compare the incoming pool of candidates within the company.
Kira Talent is a Toronto-based technology start-up and was named the Most Outstanding Venture within 2012 cohort of The Next 36: Canada’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative and has since gone on to raise over $2MM in venture and angel funding led by Relay Ventures and other leading angel investors. Co-founders Emilie Cushman and Konrad Listwan-Ciesielski are leading examples of young Canadian entrepreneurs and have been some of Canada’s youngest entrepreneurs to receive venture funding.
About the Ivey Business School
The Ivey Business School at Western University is Canada’s leading provider of relevant, innovative and comprehensive business education. Drawing on extensive research and business experience, Ivey faculty provide the best classroom experience, equipping graduates with the skills and capabilities they need to tackle the leadership challenges in today’s complex business world. Ivey offers world-renowned undergraduate and graduate degree programs as well as Executive Development at campuses in London (Ontario), Toronto and Hong Kong.
Press Contact
Emilie Cushman
CEO & Co-Founder
Email: emilie@kiratalent.com
Phone: +1 (647) 390-7434
Website: www.kiratalent.com