Take it From Me…TMI

I am sometimes befuddled when I ask what I think is an innocuous question in a one on one with a candidate and receive a frighteningly long, personal answer. “Too much information” has become so commonly utilized in recent years, it has been deemed worthy of an acronym. So let’s talk about the famed TMI.

As admissions advisers at the UST MBA program, we care a great deal about our candidates. We work here because we believe that St. Thomas offers its MBA students an exceptional education that can make them better people and better professionals so that they can go change the world. My primary function, then, is to recruit and accept outstanding students who will make excellent teammates and sought-after professionals. It is difficult for me to assess a person’s professional and academic qualifications when they drone on about a string of previous relationships, substantial financial woes, or the drama in their current place of employment.

How would you feel about recruiting someone who can’t pay their electric bill because their coworker/ex-boyfriend took all their money and went to Hawaii for a 2 month vacation? OK, I made that one up, but I’m not exaggerating by much…

Take it from me, it is advisable to keep the content of your answers in interviews to professional topics, showing yourself socially savvy and academically capable enough to manage teamwork in a top-notch MBA program.