Artificial Intelligence creeps into the world of MBA Career Advisers

By Aashi Sehrawat

Technology is changing how business school grads get a job. Start-ups are pitching their administrations to grounds vocations divisions — and many were established by MBA alumni.

One popular example is Vmock, a CV feedback company which is based on machine learning, predictive analytics and Artificial Intelligence techniques. It helps MBA students to write their resumes more effectively. Its algorithm compares students' CVs with those created  by thousands of successful job hunters. Each is awarded a percentile score for its perceived effectiveness and suggestions of possible improvements, such as rephrasing bullet points and grammatical corrections. Vmock identifies core competencies reflected in their profiles, and helps them optimize their skills. The company was founded by Chicago-based Salil and Kiran Pande in 2009. They met after Salil graduated from the city's Booth School of Business and Kiran was about to start at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.

More than 100 higher education institutions, including 17 of the top 20 business schools on the FT MBA ranking list, pay an annual subscription for Vmock’s software, starting at $19.95 per student user. First analysis of the CV is free of cost and more than 1 million CVs have been uploaded.Their first plan was to enable students to test interview techniques with a virtual reality interview service, but they pivoted to CV feedback after talking to business school careers advisers. The product is one of several online services used by London Business School’s career department.

Another management based system developed by LA-based start-up, 12Twenty helps the school's careers team track MBA hiring activity and provides students with data on salaries and interview processes for the companies they hope will hire them.

TransparentCareer provides personalised salary and career data for MBA students and professionals to find and evaluate opportunities. It was founded by Kevin Marvinac and Mitch Kirby. They met as MBA students at Booth School of Business. The company claims to be the largest source of MBA pay and culture data, used by nearly half of all MBA students in the US. Like Vmock, TransparentCareer was born out of a frustration the founders felt as MBA students themselves. “Our biggest pain point was that we couldn’t get precise details about salary levels from companies,” Mr Marvinac explains.