Not your grandfather’s B-School application process

Viadeo (www.viadeo.com) is among the world leaders in professional social networking with over 35 million members all over the globe. Viadeo’s positioning is unique in that they cultivate a multi-local, multi-brand approach to business and networking, reflecting the way people do business locally. This approach specifically implies a strong presence in emerging countries, particularly BRIC nations. Viadeo’s members are highly engaged professionals on the network, contributing to more than 150,000 new connections a day - 95% of those connection requests are made within the same country and reinforce the idea that a local approach is essential to efficiently reach and target professionals. Viadeo partners with some of the most recognized names in executive education all over the world and offers a highly efficient platform for interaction for prospects, current students and alumni of different programs, as well as a highly effective communications tool for program directors.

How professional social networks like Viadeo are changing the way people further their education and their careers. Social media technologies provide businesses and business professionals with a means to engage and develop relationships in an efficient and credible manner. Professional social networks (PSNs), like Viadeo, recognise the need to offer professionals an environment that goes beyond career management; an environment that facilitates business development, expertise exchange, and trusted relationships. This new type of relationship, between businesses and professionals, is replicated in the application process for executive education programs: activities such as searching for information, assessing schools and programs, and engaging with students and alumni have now been drastically simplified thanks to PSNs. Viadeo offers prospective students the tools to optimise their education search, as well as foster academic and professional relationships before, during, and after their studies.

The application

Some things never change and, social networks or not, due diligence has always been essential when choosing a learning institution: finding the best fit for your professional needs, understanding the reputation of different schools, and learning the specifics of each program are all tasks that were mandatory long before the dawn of the digital age. What has changed is that applicants can now rely on a set of digital tools to organize their entire application process under a single dashboard. Typical candidates for executive education programs should first gather all the relevant data for their application, including their CV, but also information on the type of program they are considering, such as course types (EMBAs or other specialisations), location (at home or abroad), or the type of attendance (full-time, part-time, distance learning). At this point, the future applicant can proceed to create an online profile on PSNs, such as Viadeo, and start searching for schools that match his established criteria.

Thus begins a dual relationship, both passive and active, between prospective student and institution: passive, because the student’s profile is available for program directors to view; active, because the applicant can start searching for the right program thanks to advanced digital tools, as well as engage with other students, alumni, or business professionals on their way to building a reciprocal exchange. In the past, there was no universal arena for candidates to display their profile and their expectations, where program directors could browse, pick and choose the best potential candidates; instead, school representatives were left to wait for applications in the mail or to search widely for prospects among Fortune 500 companies with the hope of striking gold once in a while. But while the passive relationship available on PSNs today mostly benefits program directors, the active relationship is where potential applicants become really empowered. A few years back, the standard information-gathering process would have included purchasing guides or sending requests for brochures by mail. Getting feedback from students currently enrolled, alumni, or business professionals was an arduous task. Today, the tools available to potential students on PSNs provide them with a unique dashboard to carry out their investigation: displaying and comparing competing programs, exchanging with currently enrolled participants and with alumni at the click of a mouse, and communicating directly with program directors (an exclusive feature of Viadeo’s). These tools allow prospects to fine-tune their search process with important information or services, such as application appraisals, profiles of current students and alumni, and accreditations. Through instant messages, forums, blogs and online communities, prospects are newly empowered with unlimited and transparent access to the core of different graduate programs and in a better position than ever before to make an informed and enlightened decision.

Hitting the school bench

When prospects become students, an entirely new set of challenges face them: keeping in touch with their previous or current professional environment, staying abreast of business opportunities, exchanging with their fellow students while not in session. The benefits reaped by prospects during their search on Viadeo or other PSNs already represent a quantum leap from a few years back. Now, as newly enrolled students, they can continue to use these robust networks to engage efficiently with different players in this new world that they have started to build. By continuing to use a professional social network regularly, new students accomplish several tasks at once: they automatically update their online curriculum, enter a new dimension of opportunity and reputation, and increase the size of their network.

Let us imagine a situation in which a supply chain professional enrolls in an EMBA program in the USA. Over the span of this course, students will meet other fellow students, program directors, lecturers, and experts, not just in the USA, but wherever things are happening in the realm of supply chain (and business) management. How does one develop lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with so many different players from so many different places? Thanks to PSNs like Viadeo, everybody can now be in the same virtual space and exchange frequently and effortlessly. This type of program alternates between short periods of residency in target countries and corporations with time spent at one’s day job. While they are at their job, students can still be highly engaged in their program thanks to today’s highly efficient professional social networks.

What next?

A new life awaits recent graduates of executive education programs: spikes in salaries and perks, new business opportunities, newfound visibility and respectability. From that moment on, the role that they play on PSNs changes as well: from searchers and gatherers, they become providers. When they first used Viadeo or another similar network, one of the main assets at their disposal was access to alumni, their acumen and advice. Now, they have become the voice of wisdom, consulted for their experience and able to help future students make informed choices. They become ambassadors of their EMBA program, figureheads of their industry, and serious references for prospects at a loss for help and information.

But the most important benefit of such PSNs to graduates is, of course, the new opportunities to do business. The beauty of cultivating one’s profile on a PSN is that the transition from prospective student to actual attendance, and then back to the business world, is a seamless one. All the experience gathered during the program is automatically included in one’s profile through the successive addition of new contacts, both academic and professional, and through the history of exchanges (messages on forums, blogs, community boards). The newly-educated professional is now identifiable by potential business partners or recruiters as a highly-qualified individual whose market value has risen. This is reflected through very practical means on Viadeo: the appearance of the program’s logo on one’s profile (along with AACSB, Equis or AMBA accreditations), search engine optimization through the new degree, and improved visibility thanks to the increased number of contacts.
Professional social networks have revolutionised the way we do business on the Internet. Now this revolution is holistic and includes the educational steps necessary to stay ahead in the highly competitive, constantly evolving corporate world. Never has it been easier for executives and business professionals from all over the world to get and stay in touch, and keep up with current trends. It is clear that the businessman or woman who grasps the power of these communication platforms and use them to their full capabilities will not only push their career forward but also push business as a whole to a new level.