By Elizabeth LaScala, PhD
My graduate and professional admission clients increasingly report being offered a Kira interview this cycle. Here are a few things you need to know about this relatively “new kid” on the higher education admission block, what it actually does, and one function you might love… or hate.
Kira Talent Interview Prep
As with any interview process, the best way to ace a Kira Talent Interview is to do your research, dedicate serious time to self-reflection, and practice, practice, practice.
- Research what kind of questions and scenarios you might be asked, which will vary depending on your degree path and the institution to which you are applying.
- Self-reflection takes dedicated time to prepare your responses. Remember, schools already have a sense of your accomplishments from other parts of your application. You should use those details and personal stories to showcase your values and especially how those values align with the school’s—their mission statement is a good starting point.
- Practice by recording yourself responding fully and then carve down to the time constraint. Ask yourself: What does my response say about me? Did I address any underlying ethical issues? Was I personable? Likeability matters in live and Kira interviews.
What is Kira?
Kira, short for Kira Talent, has been around since 2012. However, it’s only popped up on my radar in recent years, likely due to the relatively small number of qualified applicants I personally work with each cycle. Kira’s noteworthy goal has been to help schools streamline admissions with an eye towards better identifying suitable candidates through a more equitable process. Kira is used by hundreds of higher education programs worldwide, from medicine and dentistry to business and law. While many programs in the healthcare professions use Kira as a screening tool to reduce the volume of applicants before moving on to ‘live’ interviews, its usage by business schools seems to be dictated by the individual business school’s established admission process.
Kira bills itself as “the world’s only holistic admissions solution for higher education”. I’m quick to argue when words like “only” are thrown around, but evaluating this claim to fame is a very good way of understanding what Kira is and what it isn’t. It is a “solution” – not a new type of test, like the Casper (which evaluates situational judgement), or a new format like the MMI (multiple short interview scenarios and questions, often focused on ethical issues). It is a solution designed for “holistic” admissions, allowing candidates and admission committee members to achieve complex, school-specific processes in as streamlined a way as possible. In short, Kira is essentially a platform, one that is customizable to fit the needs and institutional priorities of the school.
Why would a school use Kira?
The Kira website provides dozens of case studies that explain how they helped a specific school streamline their admission process and/or make it more equitable and/or efficient.
One way medical schools have used Kira is for transitioning their MMI formats from in-person to online. Can you imagine Zoom handling multiple interviewers with applicants being passed virtually from interviewer to interviewer in the right order? But Kira makes it sound easy. Schools named in the case studies who use Kira for MMIs include Oregon Health and Science University’s School of Medicine, the Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University, and University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine. If it’s as easy as they claim it is, I would expect more schools to follow in their footsteps.
Another way that medical schools (and other schools) have used Kira is for its “asynchronous interview” capabilities. This adds another layer to the virtual interview experience. Instead of being interviewed live, you are asked a question via a pre-recorded video, given some time to prepare your response, and then prompted to deliver your answer by video. What my clients have described to me sounds like a shortened MMI with no real person on the other side but still a very real recording of your live response.
You might love this new approach to interviewing or hate it. My more introverted clients seem to prefer this format, as the social pressure is removed from the interview equation. In contrast, my more extroverted clients generally complain about feeling less engaged, missing the energy of the other person in the virtual room to keep them thinking and responding at their best.
Regardless of preference, there is a sound enough logic behind this kind of interview. First off, interviews are hard to compare. With Kira, the interviewer is delivering the material the same way every time. And with recorded responses, it’s possible to create an unbiased rubric to score interviews more equitably. I can’t say with certainty that Kira eliminates bias, but they do make the reduction of bias possible.
What does this mean for you, the applicant?
If you have a virtual MMI with a school that uses the Kira platform, then hopefully it will all go as smoothly. If you have an asynchronous interview using Kira, reviewers should be able to compare your response with others more accurately. The best news is that there is nothing that I’ve read or heard that indicates a dramatic shift might be necessary for interview preparation. As always, you will need to understand the interview type (traditional, MMI, and now asynchronous video) and length (traditional interview might be 30-45 minutes, MMI might be 5-8 minutes each, and asynchronous video might be 2-5 minutes each). Whatever the format, you should research what questions/scenarios are most likely, prepare appropriate responses, and practice delivering your answers within the allotted time.
Kira Talent Interview Prep
As with any interview process, the best way to ace a Kira Talent Interview is to do your research, dedicate serious time to self-reflection, and practice, practice, practice.
- Research what kind of questions and scenarios you might be asked, which will vary depending on your degree path and the institution to which you are applying.
- Self-reflection takes dedicated time to prepare your responses. Remember, schools already have a sense of your accomplishments from other parts of your application. You should use those details and personal stories to showcase your values and especially how those values align with the school’s—their mission statement is a good starting point.
- Practice by recording yourself responding fully and then carve down to the time constraint. Ask yourself: What does my response say about me? Did I address any underlying ethical issues? Was I personable? Likeability matters in live and Kira interviews.
