Witt/Kieffer Interview Preparation

Students listening to alum presentations

On September 27^th and 28^th, second and third-year MHA and MPH in Policy students attended a career seminar, Creating a Career Road Map for 21^st Century Health Management Leaders, provided jointly by the HMP department and Witt-Kieffer, an executive search firm devoted to healthcare, life sciences, higher education, and not-for-profit industries.

During the first day, Jim Nelson, Managing Principal, Sullivan Cotter and Associates, Inc., presented on compensation trends and explained how compensation discussion should be handled early in one’s career. Next, students asked questions to an alum panel about what it takes to succeed in fellowships and first employment. To end the day, students were presented with tips for succeeding in phone interviews and the broke up into groups with alum. In these groups, the alumni conducted mock phone interviews with the students, giving them an idea of what to expect for upcoming fellowship phone interviews. Alum and fellow students then gave feedback on each interview so they knew what to improve on.

David Olson, '86 and Justin Dedecker, '13

The second day began with an alum panel during which students were allowed to ask alumni about work-life balance and balancing personal and career goals. Later, students were presented with tips for succeeding at in-person interviews. Students and alumni then broke into new groups and conducted mock in-person interviews. The alumni and fellow students again gave feedback so students could improve interviewing skills before fellowship interviews.

“The workshop prepared me well for the fellowship process and for my career in general; I found the advice from alumni during the mock interviews to be especially helpful,” said Brittany Fett, 2^nd year MHA student.

The department would like to thank Karen Otto and James U King, III, both Senior Vice Presidents at Witt Kieffer, for taking the time to be involved in the seminar. We would also like to thank Jim Nelson, Mark Brown ’05, Justin Brueck, ’10, Aaron DeBoer, ’03, Desiree Einsweiler, ’07, Molly Flynn, ’06, Ian Montgomery, ’79, Annie Obrecht, ’09, David Olson, ’86, Jeff Peterson, ’84, Rebecca Schwertfeger, and Jana Wessels.