Kaplan Higher Education Admissions Representative Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Mar 2010 in Thornton, CO (took a day)

I very recently had an interview for an Admissions Representative position at Kaplan College in Thornton, CO. It was an extremely fast process after applying last week and getting a call the next day to come in for an interview. I was told ahead of time it would be a group interview and they said that is how they always do interviews for reps. When I arrived at the interview there were about 14 other applicants in the age range mostly of 20's to 30's. It was not a typical interview that I have ever experienced before. It was presented by 3 people from the company in a powerpoint presentation style and lasted 2 hours. They talked about the mission of the company, the history, the job duties, what they expect, salary/bonus information, etc. It was not really an interview and more of an information session about the company. They did not give any of us an opportunity to ask questions and did not ask us questions either. The ONLY interaction between the interviewers and interviewees was at the very end. They collected our resumes and had everyone stand up one by one to talk in front of the group. They said to talk for a couple minutes about ourselves, why we should be hired, and something to remember us by. Everyone did this and the interview was over. I do not feel they truly could get a clear picture of who we were and why we would be a good fit for their company from this. Honestly it was a waste of 2 hours of my time. For potential candidates, my advice is they seem to want people who are very assertive, will do anything to reach their quotas, and be a sales person first and foremost. It wasn't what I thought it would be. Yes the position should be about sales by enrolling students, but it seems to be more of a numbers game then about promoting education. The job pays very well for entry level in the $40,000 range to start, so if it is worth it to you then do anything you can to get noticed. My perception of the work culture as I said was very sales oriented, but something seemed off. I feel like there has to be a catch or they were doing the interview to go through the motions and might have already had the jobs lined up. The reason I say this is because I received a "thanks but no thanks" email 20 MINUTES after I left stating they were pursuing other candidates. They didn't even pretend to be consider me by such a fast rejection, and I am sure many others got the same email when I did. I guess I should be glad to know either way, but I almost would have preferred not getting a response after what they did. If that is how they treat potential employees, I don't even want to think about how they treat you once you join their company. Good luck to anyone else who has an interview with Kaplan and hopefully you won't have an interaction like mine.