Job interview - Any advice appreciated

what_no_pies · Post by **what_no_pies** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 11:54 pm

I've been invited to the next stage of the application process for the position of Business Development Manager for a University. Job spec says...

'to work with academic colleagues to increase enterprise activity in line with the University's strategic plan for knowledge exchange. (This my include: professional development courses, one off consultancies and contract and/or collaborative research such as knowledge transfer partnerships.) To identify and develop opportunities for student internships and placements.'

Does anybody have any relevant experience within an educational institution or do you know any likely end users? Perhaps your company seeks training locally, the kind of thing an established university could provide? Do you know about the placemnet/internship process and how that's typically put into practice? Any other ideas on how a University could monetise their operation through knowledge exchange and/or partnerships/relationships with local businesses?

I have to put together a 10 minute presentation on this then have an interview panel grill me. Has anybody applied for work within universities and suggest the type of interview process they typically follow?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If it be your will · Post by **If it be your will** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:46 am

ClaretDiver · Post by **ClaretDiver** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:29 am

what_no_pies wrote:I've been invited to the next stage of the application process for the position of Business Development Manager for a University. Job spec says...

'to work with academic colleagues to increase enterprise activity in line with the University's strategic plan for knowledge exchange. (This my include: professional development courses, one off consultancies and contract and/or collaborative research such as knowledge transfer partnerships.) To identify and develop opportunities for student internships and placements.'

Does anybody have any relevant experience within an educational institution or do you know any likely end users? Perhaps your company seeks training locally, the kind of thing an established university could provide? Do you know about the placemnet/internship process and how that's typically put into practice? Any other ideas on how a University could monetise their operation through knowledge exchange and/or partnerships/relationships with local businesses?

I have to put together a 10 minute presentation on this then have an interview panel grill me. Has anybody applied for work within universities and suggest the type of interview process they typically follow?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Having worked in Business Development for many years I think that this job description is very broad and not at all what I would consider. If I was to read between the lines I think your main role will be to reach out to businesses in order to get them to agree to take 'work experience' students.

I am not sure of your age/background but I think you will also be working closely with Uni students so maybe take that into account.

I'm not really sure how a Uni could monetise this as it does read like work experience and can't work out how you would get a business to pay the Uni for it??

Just my two penneth worth!

pushpinpussy · Post by **pushpinpussy** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 7:02 am

The best advice I can give you is that if you need to come on a football message board and ask about job interview advice then you are not ready for that job. For a start the majority of people on this board are either depressed, unemployed or at school and don't have a clue but i do wish you the best of luck.

claretblue · Post by **claretblue** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 7:10 am

'...either depressed, unemployed or at school and don't have a clue...'

you know me so well!

good luck with the interview process w_n_p!

- be confident!

deanothedino · Post by **deanothedino** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 7:47 am

The way I believe it normally works is business needs knowledge to improve a process/develop a process/apply new methods, they partner with a university who can provide a graduate to work in the business for 12-18 months who can lead the improvement project. The graduate will carry out a number of research projects in support of the project which is partly funded by the business and partly by grant. The end result should be that the graduate has successfully completed the project and the business has gained significant knowledge, maybe at the forefront of research in their field and they've gained it at an attractive cost.

Placements/internships are the same as any other placement/internship just that the university has arranged to be able to offer them to their students. In the case of placements they may be part of a sandwich degree that offers a year in industry.

Google knowledge transfer partnerships and you'll probably be able to find out exactly what it entails rather than the rough understanding of some bloke on a football forum, good luck!

Paul Waine · Post by **Paul Waine** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 8:36 am

what_no_pies wrote:I've been invited to the next stage of the application process for the position of Business Development Manager for a University. Job spec says...

'to work with academic colleagues to increase enterprise activity in line with the University's strategic plan for knowledge exchange. (This my include: professional development courses, one off consultancies and contract and/or collaborative research such as knowledge transfer partnerships.) To identify and develop opportunities for student internships and placements.'

Does anybody have any relevant experience within an educational institution or do you know any likely end users? Perhaps your company seeks training locally, the kind of thing an established university could provide? Do you know about the placemnet/internship process and how that's typically put into practice? Any other ideas on how a University could monetise their operation through knowledge exchange and/or partnerships/relationships with local businesses?

I have to put together a 10 minute presentation on this then have an interview panel grill me. Has anybody applied for work within universities and suggest the type of interview process they typically follow?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi W_N_Pies, so you've got thru at least one stage - so you must have the right career experience "on paper."

There is a Burnley fan who had "career development/student advisor" role for one of the "Russell group" unis. He retired last year. I don't know if he comes on UTC (but, why wouldn't he)? It may not be the exact same role as the one you are applying for.... He may be able to give you some insights/tips etc.

Suggest you amend your subject title so that it is more specific to the job you are applying for.

Good luck.

TheFamilyCat · Post by **TheFamilyCat** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 8:55 am

deanothedino wrote:The way I believe it normally works is business needs knowledge to improve a process/develop a process/apply new methods, they partner with a university who can provide a graduate to work in the business for 12-18 months who can lead the improvement project. The graduate will carry out a number of research projects in support of the project which is partly funded by the business and partly by grant. The end result should be that the graduate has successfully completed the project and the business has gained significant knowledge, maybe at the forefront of research in their field and they've gained it at an attractive cost.

Placements/internships are the same as any other placement/internship just that the university has arranged to be able to offer them to their students. In the case of placements they may be part of a sandwich degree that offers a year in industry.

Google knowledge transfer partnerships and you'll probably be able to find out exactly what it entails rather than the rough understanding of some bloke on a football forum, good luck!

This is a higher level of education than I work in (I work in FE) but there is a massive focus in all education now on employment outcomes. As dtd has said above, it is likely the role will involve working with employers to create opportunities for internships and graduate positions.

If you have no experience of working in education previously, i would recommend brushing up on current priorities etc. As I said, HE isn't my area but this looks like the equivalent of Ofsted for universities and you may find some useful information and be able to show that you are at least aware of the areas the uni will be focusing on.

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/home" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good luck!

Hendrickxz · Post by **Hendrickxz** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:38 am

Assuming you are a geezer, remember to zip yout fly up before yo

u go in!

SammyBoy · Post by **SammyBoy** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:44 am

As a rule of thumb I always read 'Business Development' as 'Sales' so from what I can gather from the convoluted job description I'd assume you'll be tasked with making money for the Uni. So maybe figure out some ways to do that?

ClaretEngineer · Post by **ClaretEngineer** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:51 am

Why don't people use plain English any more. There's nothing less impressive than waffling on with the aid of a thesaurus!

That's as much as i can offer on that front. As long as your CV and experience matches the majority of the job spec, then the only thing left is you. Its as much about the person as the CV.

Foulthrow · Post by **Foulthrow** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:58 am

It sounds to me like you would need to secure some form of employment for graduates - even if this is work placements. It is probably because the uni needs to up their stats on employment rates after leaving - i.e. they want to be able to say 97% of all of our graduates were in work 12 months after finishing their degree.

It's crap obviously. But they are trying to con undergrads that they'll get a job after leaving uni. They won't of course. But they will have a mountain of debt.

If I was taking my guess further I would also assume that this position is at somewhere like 'The University Centre at Blackburn College (affiliated with a proper uni, honest) or the University of Bolton or some such.

Unfortunately, it would seem that unis have to now follow the trend set in education - as long as you get the right stats nothing else matters. And there are many ways that you can 'get' these stats. This is why my six year old comes home miserable from school everyday. All he does is maths and English. All day. Every day.

Lee72 · Post by **Lee72** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 11:00 am

I've worked at a university for the last 20 years and been on a number of interview panels - mainly for admin and IT jobs. Reading the spec you've put there are two things they will want to judge from the interview, one side of it only you'll be able to convey- i.e. how well you'll be able to deal with the local businesses etc.

The other side, and the main thing for me to have a chance with the job will be to give your understanding of the university and how you can deal with academics - this is often very different to dealing with the real world. You need to have a really good grasp of the current situation – what is the universities current strategic plan for KE? What does the university do now, what type of businesses do they deal with., what type of courses/students are involved – e.g. undergraduates, postgraduates? Universities tend to favour people who already work in HE as they can hit the ground running- so if you can prove you understand the university business then you’ll at least make it a level playing field with any HE candidates.

You mention collaborative research, research can be massive for a university and impact the league tables etc. – without seeing the job advert itself I can’t say whether going into this would be important, it certainly would be at my university.

One other thing, these days given the fortune that students pay, stress the importance and benefits you’d deliver from the student perspective. They are ultimately now the seen as the customer and things like delivering student satisfaction is hugely important. Sound excited about the role and the benefits you could deliver for the university and the students involved.

happyclaret17 · Post by **happyclaret17** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:41 pm

pushpinpussy wrote:The best advice I can give you is that if you need to come on a football message board and ask about job interview advice then you are not ready for that job. For a start the majority of people on this board are either depressed, unemployed or at school and don't have a clue but i do wish you the best of luck.

when reading this reply you really need to check out the username.....if you take advice from this guy then good luck....never ever seen a positive post from him.....negativity bad in EVERY SITUATION....whatever you decide then be positive....your panel won't expect you to know all the answers but will want to know that you are competent to figure things out....be confident but not cocky and you will give yourself the best chance....good luck.

dibraidio · Post by **dibraidio** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:58 pm

As Lee72 said it sounds like you need to swot up on their Strategic plan for knowledge exchange.

Working at a major IT company we actively seek this sort of interaction with Universities to provide us with new recruits and work placements and in return colleagues are invited to teach certain classes at universities. I have no idea about research because we don't do any but I could imagine someone in a role like this must be in contact with our HR department who send out regular "calls" for subjects for work placements and ask for people to represent us at student recruitment fairs and at other themed University events such as Women in Technology.

strayclaret · Post by **strayclaret** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:44 pm

In my early twenties, working in the NHS, I went for a job on promotion to Huddersfield, I did quite well in the “technical stuff” then we went to the personal stuff, more relaxed then, the next question was I see you like football, the Treasurer who asked the question, said I am a season ticket holder at Uddersfield, I replied “well their a load of crap” as you can imagine the interview came to an abrupt end.
Many years later I went for a lot bigger job,having learnt my lesson and moved a further 5 times, I didn’t get the job because I was told I was “too revolutionary” and wouldn’t fit into their plans.
The moral of the stories are, having interviewed
hundreds of people is, just be yourself if that is possible and show you know the subject, if you don’t,
the interviewers will catch you out

strayclaret · Post by **strayclaret** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:35 pm

PS I was advised to sit down in
30 years later,by a DOH representative in London as
an agitator and what did I know-what I talking about as I was a Yorkshire man supporting Burnley.
What did he know he was as knobender

yTib · Post by **yTib** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:37 pm

get insanely drunk just before you go in.

vomit.

then spend the rest of the interview on the phone to a prostitute.

Middle-agedClaret · Post by **Middle-agedClaret** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:58 pm

...just because it worked for you, yTib...

Funkydrummer · Post by **Funkydrummer** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:58 pm

pushpinpussy wrote:The best advice I can give you is that if you need to come on a football message board and ask about job interview advice then you are not ready for that job. For a start the majority of people on this board are either depressed, unemployed or at school and don't have a clue but i do wish you the best of luck.

Don't judge other people by your own standards.

I don't really know why, but I found this response very offensive.

Stalbansclaret · Post by **Stalbansclaret** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:59 pm

Sound advice in that post from yTib .

However if they ask you, as seems to be the vogue. "competency-based" questions starting with "Give me an example of when you...." or "Tell me about a time when.." then a good framework for answering them is to use STAR i.e.
SITUATION...describe the situation you faced
TASK ...describe what it was you set out to achieve in order to address this
ACTIONS ...describe what YOU specifically did
RESULT ...state what the outcome of this was

Make examples up if necessary !!

Holmeclaret · Post by **Holmeclaret** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 11:15 pm

Thank God for that. I thought that SD was the original poster....

what_no_pies · Post by **what_no_pies** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 11:31 pm

Really appreciate all the helpful responses so far - there's some great advice and encouragement in there which will definitely inform my approach.

Every job I had I've gone into without any relevant industry experience and excelled. I wouldn't have got the latest of those jobs if I hadn't utilized the kindness of strangers (including this board - it really never ceases yo amaze me how helpful we can be collectively).

Thanks everyone - even pushpinpussy who raised the biggest smile of all. You might well be right and I wrong but I'm prepared to chance that everybody else above helping out is far more powerful than following your advice of not bothering to ask.

atlantalad · Post by **atlantalad** » Tue Oct 24, 2017 12:21 am

Some sound advice by Deanothedino and Lee72. What I would add is try and establish any specialist research activities/ centres within the university. You then have a better appreciation of potential areas for generating business interest i.e. knowledge transfer to businesses who are likely to benefit from the specialisms of knowledge/technology of the centres.

Also, many SME's are unaware of potential sources of grant funding for KTP's, proof of concept, etc so you can do some homework to see what may be available from local govt or national funding bodies to help SME's in funding research or knowledge transfer from universities. From experience SME's tend to make their contribution to grants in the form of their man-hours/ machine time/ material supply, etc rather than hard cash.
If there are KTP's on offer this is normally a two-way gain-gain. The KTP researcher has opportunity to sus out the funding company and the company a potential employee. If KTP's are of a technical nature then a further advantage is businesses would normally have access to research facilities in the university - often specialist equipment. Business development does not usually get involved with placement of students on sandwich courses.

There has been a rise in universities funding short term internships of students over summer vacations but I think this is mainly funded from internal, residual, grant monies held by research programme PI's. The PI's normally sus out the best/ capable students during the academic year.

Organising and running short ( < one day) industry focused events on specialist topics is a good way to put your wares in the shop window so to speak. Universities have a poor reputation when it comes to disseminating their key research strengths/ expertise to industry - some exception - graphene at Manchester Uni.

NRC · Post by **NRC** » Tue Oct 24, 2017 12:40 am

put it all in a PowerPoint and ask for a screen and projector.

Saxoman · Post by **Saxoman** » Tue Oct 24, 2017 12:44 am

what_no_pies wrote:I've been invited to the next stage of the application process for the position of Business Development Manager for a University. Job spec says...

'to work with academic colleagues to increase enterprise activity in line with the University's strategic plan for knowledge exchange. (This my include: professional development courses, one off consultancies and contract and/or collaborative research such as knowledge transfer partnerships.) To identify and develop opportunities for student internships and placements.'

Does anybody have any relevant experience within an educational institution or do you know any likely end users? Perhaps your company seeks training locally, the kind of thing an established university could provide? Do you know about the placemnet/internship process and how that's typically put into practice? Any other ideas on how a University could monetise their operation through knowledge exchange and/or partnerships/relationships with local businesses?

I have to put together a 10 minute presentation on this then have an interview panel grill me. Has anybody applied for work within universities and suggest the type of interview process they typically follow?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Omg, I would sh*t myself having to go through that..

If it be your will · Post by **If it be your will** » Tue Oct 24, 2017 2:58 am

Foulthrow · Post by **Foulthrow** » Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:10 pm

If it be your will wrote:I presume you, too, have read this essay then, Foulthrow?

https://libcom.org/library/phenomenon-b ... id-graeber" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ha. No! I hadn't read that. But, hard to disagree.

Herts Clarets · Post by **Herts Clarets** » Tue Oct 24, 2017 4:10 pm

Stalbansclaret wrote:Sound advice in that post from yTib .

However if they ask you, as seems to be the vogue. "competency-based" questions starting with "Give me an example of when you...." or "Tell me about a time when.." then a good framework for answering them is to use STAR i.e.
SITUATION...describe the situation you faced
TASK ...describe what it was you set out to achieve in order to address this
ACTIONS ...describe what YOU specifically did
RESULT ...state what the outcome of this was

Make examples up if necessary !!

I have recruited many Supervisors and lower managerial level people in the transport and logistics field. I use this form of questioning and have you found it to be very successful. It weeds out the bullshitters and through supplementary questions what part they played in a particular experience or project. I had one guy claiming to have introduced bar code scanning to DHL. In reality it was brought in by senior management and he was the end user. STAR is the ideal way to respond to this form of interviewing.

Westyorkclaret · Post by **Westyorkclaret** » Tue Oct 24, 2017 5:57 pm

Do you go under the name of Sean ?

If you do and the interview is in the Stanley park area there are a few buzzwords you can use, e.g.

Framework
The group
Learning
Work in progress
Dive

basil6345789 · Post by **basil6345789** » Tue Oct 24, 2017 6:34 pm

Arrive ten minutes early. If it's a panel then look and listen to each of them evenly. Never interupt, stopping when they do so. Don't take them on - they know best.To impress them tell them that you are fully conversant with Roger's Profanasaurus. Don't admit to being a footy man unless it's ladies footy. Pretend to be bisexual.

SammyBoy · Post by **SammyBoy** » Wed Oct 25, 2017 10:52 am

Herts Clarets wrote:It weeds out the bullshitters

In a sense it does, the first time I was confronted with competency based questions they caught me off guard and the interview went terribly. Anybody with a brain though will learn from this and I've bullshitted my way into plenty of jobs via STAR answers to competency questions. If I can't think of anything impressive I've done as an example I usually just take something a friend or acquaintance has done and say I did it. One of my favourites was when I told the recruiters for a retail graduate scheme I'd organised a charity beer and cider festival at Uni, when it was actually a good mate of mine and I handed out a few flyers for about 40 minutes.

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