Selections Interview with Bob Bonner, Director, MBA Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania by Carlotta Mast

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Selections: How closely do you work with admissions staff in deciding what kind of candidates will fit your school best?
Bonner: It is a delicate balance. We try to keep our admissions processes and our career services processes separate in many ways. We let admissions know where there is demand and where there isn’t, but we don’t look at candidates to say, “Great, this person looks like he’ll be able to find a job more easily than this person.” We don’t want to do that, so we do keep those separate.

Where we do come in is, the admissions group has a committee that is composed of folks from career management and other departments across the school. When they are looking at difficult cases that they want further input on, this committee looks at those. Most of the departments are represented on those committees.

We do work with admissions as a team, but we do feel like it is important to have those other checks. Like at an investment bank, where the research side is separate from the banking side. We think it is important not to skew the decisions.

However, we communicate back about what is happening in the marketplace. But the goal of our admissions office is to find the best leaders and the most talented applicants. Because there are a lot of people who when you look at them on paper you might say, “They may have a tough time in their career pursuits.” But they don’t. They are active and very successful. And there are other people who on paper you would think would have an easy time but don’t. That is part of our value. The school should not over prescribe or try to predict what they think someone will be able to do, because it depends on the individual.

Selections: Are you concerned about your ability to place incoming candidates, and do you ever think about having a bigger role in deciding who gets into your school?
Bonner: I think you will find career services professionals at different schools who do want to have a larger say in who gets into the school. Where we are. . . we have such a wonderful applicant pool that we work with whoever comes in through the door. We do give feedback on the employment market, and if there are any difficult situations or cases or if there are students who have had great success, we talk about that with admissions so they know that. When you make admissions, just like when you hire somebody, you don’t know how they will perform. They look at the career side of things as well as how someone performs academically. Looking at all of those factors, I know admissions continually evaluates how the admits have done over the years. So, no, I don’t have any strong desire to have a big impact on that. We’re here as a resource to help [admissions professionals] if they have any questions, but we feel strongly that they do a great job. We don’t want to make their decisions for them. They are very competent.

Selections: What kind of people do you find easiest to place?
Bonner: A student who has worked for different companies and in different industries and even in different functions within a company. Any kind of diversity of career experience that they bring to the table really helps them to better evaluate the options in front of them. So we find that students with some kind of diversity of experience, whatever it may be—that is really valuable. The more exposure that somebody has to different career paths, the sounder their decision will be when they come here. So we enjoy working with those students.

Selections: What are recruiters looking for in an intern and a new hire? Have you observed any recent changes in what they are looking for?
Bonner: We haven’t seen any dramatic shifts in terms of skills they are looking for. In this economy, I think they are able to be more selective in who they are looking for. So they will see a number of applicants who can do the job. They fit all of the skill requirements. So then a big part of it will come down to chemistry. Is this someone [the recruiters] want to spend 12 or 14 hours a day with? That is a big factor. We’re not seeing any big shifts in skills. Despite the dot-com bust, they still love people with an understanding of technology: information technology, biotechnology, the life sciences. Any of those backgrounds are very valuable, as are management, finance, and marketing.

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