EMBAC Membership

We are trying to formalize how we track years of management experience for our EMBA applicants. Although leadership experience is a part of our discussions with prospective students and a factor in admission decisions, currently it's not really quantified or tracked anywhere in our system. I'd like to know how other schools are tracking this, and what definitions you're using to identify which jobs should count toward it.

How do you collect and track this data at your school? And how do you define what counts as "management experience"?

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Liz McLemore
Program Manager
University of Houston
Houston TX United States
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Liz,

Interested to hear more from others.  Our process is self-reported, and decisions on veracity are allocated to our admissions officer at the time of admissions.  We have two fields in the application. One asks for years of work experience denominated in months, and the other asks for years of management in months.  The former is easier to verify using the resume. Complications may include those with a long work history who have chosen to not list many jobs or those with gaps in their resume.  Years of managerial experience are far harder to verify.  Some candidates use indirect managerial experience, such as overseeing others as part of a project lead. Some use managing part-time or contract workers.  In our assessment, we try to look at having direct line experience as measured in the organizational chart, with the decision rights on hiring and firing as well as annual performance reviews.  Again, I am interested in hearing what others do, as our process is very dependent on the candidate's self-reporting.  Including, if you deem that the candidate has stretched their managerial assessment beyond what you can assess, do you use that in the decision process?  Do you first give them the opportunity to explain?

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George Andrews
Associate Dean
Rice University
Houston TX United States
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Original Message:
Sent: 10/09/24 12:50 PM
From: Liz McLemore
Subject: Years of Management Experience

We are trying to formalize how we track years of management experience for our EMBA applicants. Although leadership experience is a part of our discussions with prospective students and a factor in admission decisions, currently it's not really quantified or tracked anywhere in our system. I'd like to know how other schools are tracking this, and what definitions you're using to identify which jobs should count toward it.

How do you collect and track this data at your school? And how do you define what counts as "management experience"?

------------------------------
Liz McLemore
Program Manager
University of Houston
Houston TX United States
------------------------------

Hi Liz,

Candidates self-report management experience on their application for admission, alongside years of full-time, professional work experience. We categorize it under our requirements as, "people, project, or product management experience." We can verify through their resume and via certain questions in the admission interview. I found that more often, people underplay their managerial experience, especially as individual contributors or in more matrixed organizations and when we get to the interview they have more management experience than they've often expressed in their application materials.

Robyn Wick

Director - EMBA Program & Academic Initiatives

MBA & MS Programs Office

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

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Robyn Wick
Director, Executive MBA & Academic Initiatives
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis MN United States
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Original Message:
Sent: 10/09/24 12:50 PM
From: Liz McLemore
Subject: Years of Management Experience

We are trying to formalize how we track years of management experience for our EMBA applicants. Although leadership experience is a part of our discussions with prospective students and a factor in admission decisions, currently it's not really quantified or tracked anywhere in our system. I'd like to know how other schools are tracking this, and what definitions you're using to identify which jobs should count toward it.

How do you collect and track this data at your school? And how do you define what counts as "management experience"?

------------------------------
Liz McLemore
Program Manager
University of Houston
Houston TX United States
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Hi Liz,

Sorry for the delayed response.

I agree with Robyn Wick that many candidates tend to underreport their leadership and management experience. We've been working on providing a clearer outline of how we define leadership and management experience.

We consider seven key areas of responsibility:

1. Direct reports

2. Indirect reports

3. Cross-functional team leadership

4. Resource management (e.g., budget, P&L, assets)

5. Direct responsibility for product management

6. Project management

7. Program management

Applicants are asked to self-report the number of months they've held leadership or management responsibilities. We then assess and verify this information during the application review process.

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Randell Hernandez
Director of Admissions, EMBA
University of Washington
Seattle WA United States
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Original Message:
Sent: 10/09/24 12:50 PM
From: Liz McLemore
Subject: Years of Management Experience

We are trying to formalize how we track years of management experience for our EMBA applicants. Although leadership experience is a part of our discussions with prospective students and a factor in admission decisions, currently it's not really quantified or tracked anywhere in our system. I'd like to know how other schools are tracking this, and what definitions you're using to identify which jobs should count toward it.

How do you collect and track this data at your school? And how do you define what counts as "management experience"?

------------------------------
Liz McLemore
Program Manager
University of Houston
Houston TX United States
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