Interview with UAL MA in Innovation Management Program current student

I'd like to thank Daisuke Wakamiya for participating in an interview so that anyone interested in grad school, and in particular interested in innovation management, can learn more about his experiences in this unique educational program. Below are his responses to my questions about the MA in Innovation Management Program at UAL (University of the Arts London) as well as his life in this vibrant city.

1. Why did you choose this unique program?

First of all, multidisciplinary and multicultural talents gather and collide here, producing something new. I have noticed collaboration amongst people of different professions/nationalities is key for innovation. That is why this course was ideal for me. In addition, I’m convinced the composition of the program, featuring a personal project after team explorations, would help me focus my interest and philosophy. Different from my prior working experience, this MA Innovation Management Programme is focusing on exploring new perspective and ideas, rather than making physical products. Since I have worked as a hardware engineer for 10 years, I already have a lot of experiences of making things. That is why the course was ideal for me to learn a more creative way of thinking, similar to what artists and designers do. At the same time, I wanted to be the one to invent the products and services on site rather than making decisions. This attitude made me choose design school rather than business school. On top of that, London is the ideal location for me because the city is not only famous for being a melting pot of races contributing to the diversity, but it is also a travel hub - you can fly to most European cities within a few hours.

2. Please walk us through a typical weekday as a student in this program.

This program relies enormously on independent learning - we basically don’t have lectures every weekday. Besides, scheduling is one of the team project tasks, and as such each team builds up their own schedule. Bearing that in mind, what follows is a typical schedule.

From 10 to 10:30 on Monday, we initiated a student led meeting where we share our skills and knowledge with each other. For example, we had a coaching session from a course mate. As most of us have some professional background, it is a really useful opportunity to learn about each other. After that we have a lecture involved in the project. Almost all lectures are interactive and often include some workshops. Then students spend time on each team project in the afternoon. As most of the outputs of the team projects are team presentations, brainstorming can be the main part of the discussion. In the evening, I take part in a seminar the university organizes from time to time. The topics range widely from managing stress to reflective thinking, which is also useful for students.

3. Is there a course or experience that you particularly recommend?

In this course, the professor offers some philosophical frameworks to find innovation opportunities. One project involved “discourse”. In this project, we as a team researched a given theme. Discourse is simply defined how people speak and write a topic and is also a methodology to analyse a topic from the past to present and develop a future scenario. Through the project we have noticed how our minds and perspectives are biased. One insight we have gained from this is the attitude to keep a naïve mind during research. As such, the MA Innovation Management Program encourages us to learn not only design thinking methodology but also different perspectives to allow us to critically analyze a theme. I highly recommended this. 

4. Have you enjoyed the team projects? What have you learned from working with your peers?

Definitely yes! Actually, most of the projects in the 1st year are team projects. As the members are randomly divided into groups, I have tagged with different member in each project. I enjoy getting inspired by teammates from different countries and different professions. There is collision, collaboration and cooperation. What I have learned most is the importance of adaptability. To be honest, I’m still struggling with the language barrier like catching up to fast-paced discussions with native English speakers. So I had to come up with some survival skills such as asking for a recap, setting aside time for my speech in the beginning and using rough sketching to better relate ideas. These practices have worked. Besides, some of my colleagues told me that distilling information through sketching is one of my strengths. Pushing the boundaries with peers can be a tough experience, but it will make you grow.

5. How’s life in London? What kinds of things are you doing?

It’s a once in a lifetime experience, to say the least. Although I continue to be busy with group work and reading assignments on weekdays, I often hang out around the city, and get immersed in British culture such as old buildings, museums (most are free), crawling pubs and restaurants, going for picnics at parks and other such activities. Watching World Cup games at local pubs with a pint of pale ale was really fun. Since craft beer has been getting popular here, most of the pubs have more than 10 taps (type of beer), inviting you into the deep brewery world. As for food, there are lots of great restaurants, but they can be a bit pricey. Gastropubs are an alternative, where you can have modern British dishes and beer with traditional atmosphere and at a decent price. On holidays, I go for short trips to neighboring cities such as Barcelona, Paris and Helsinki. 

6. After receiving an acceptance to the programme and before actually arriving in London, I imagine that you did quite a bit of preparation. Reflecting on that period of time is there anything you wish you had done more/less of?

If you are a normal Japanese person like me, I recommend that you improve your English conversation skills, especially listening comprehension skills. I got a 7.0 on IELTS, but I couldn’t catch what local people said at all when I arrived, and it is still difficult after one year. Except a fast pace in conversations, and as well the British/London accent might not be one you are familiar with. It feels like the difference between Queen and London accents is as much as the difference between Standard Japanese and the Osaka dialect.

Thanks Daisuke for your time! 

John Couke

john.couke@gmail.com

Tips on Organizing a Strong Resume

One point worth keeping in mind about your resume is the amount of time the reader will spend on the document - typically 1-3 minutes. Given this, layout and readability are both extremely important. A good resume starts in the presentation: how the document is organized and designed, as well as the content you choose to include, and how that is presented. Here are a few things to consider when judging the effectiveness of your own resume.

1. The document must be easy to look at.  For example, if the font is too small, the margins are tiny, and everything is crammed together, your reader will get a bad first impression.  This is especially important because the person reading your resume will likely only give it a minute or two, in total.  So it is vitally important to avoid having a bad impression.  Here is a small checklist to keep in mind:

a) Use a typical font, such as Times New Roman 10.5 or 11.

b) Use margins of between 10mm to 15mm all the way around, for instance using 10mm for the top and bottom, and then 15mm for the left and right sides. This will ensure your document has some white space in the margins and is centered properly on the page.

c) Ensure the paper setting is correct: for documents going to the US or Canada, use "letter-sized", and for outside the US, use "A4". Here is a page on betweenborders.com that explains the difference.  Even though many schools these days have computerized their application reading process, it is still worthwhile to be aware of the difference. 

d) Decide on line settings that will make your bullet points readable, and avoid crunching lines together in order to fit too much onto one page.  If you are using Microsoft Word, under "home" go to "line spacing options". Set it at "exactly" and at a setting between 12pt, 13pt or 14pt.  In addition, after each bullet point have a small margin, in order to ensure each bullet is separated nicely.  Experiment with these settings until you have arrived at the setting that makes your resume look best: not too packed together, and with a small bit of space between each bullet point.

2. Keep it to 1 page (see my previous post on why this is best) by selecting what to focus on rather than including everything you've ever done! When deciding, ask yourself what skills you possess that are most relevant to your future - either skills that demonstrate your ability to succeed at graduate school, or skills that are relevant to your future goals. What skills that you possess will an admissions officer or future employer value? Highlight your relevant skills in the bullet points of your resume. 

3. Avoid too much personal information (marital status, age, number of children, height, weight etc) unless requested. Such information can be distracting because it is not what your reader will be expecting when they review your document - so be sure to manage their expectations effectively.

4. Avoid long lists of adjectives like "dedicated team player" and other such fluff. These are not valuable additions to a resume, and are better included elsewhere. For instance for a job applicant, your personal description of characteristics relevant to the job to which you are applying could be in the cover letter.  And for grad school applicants, such concepts are hopefully to be found in your recommendation letters.

5. Include a short list of personal activities in the additional section. In terms of what to choose, this is the criteria I consider: 

a) The activity should demonstrate something appealing about you.

b) You can show a strong time commitment to the activity.

c) The content should be recent.

d) The content is strategic.  

If the activity fits all three criteria, then certainly include it.  For instance if you have been a starting member of a community basketball team for the past 1.5 years and you play twice a month, this is worthy of inclusion. You can highlight team and/or leadership experience, and also you have shown dedication to the activity.  It is easy to see how an activity that does not meet all three criteria would not be worth including: a 2-hour volunteer experience in 1994 that was never repeated is probably not worth fitting on your page, especially if you have more recent and significant experiences.

In terms of point d), some activities people do regularly are just not worth including in the resume, even if they fit a) b) and c). Many people read hundreds of books, or watch hundreds of movies, for instance.  However interesting such activities are, they should not typically be included in your resume, because they don't say anything interesting about you.

6. Make sure each individual bullet point, no matter what section it is in, is clear, impressive and impactful.

7. Have someone whose opinion you trust read your resume and give you feedback on it. It can be difficult to assess the effectiveness of your own work.

Steps 2, 6, and 7 will likely require assistance, so do consult with a professional to ensure your resume is working as effectively as possible. Finally, be sure to read carefully the instructions provided by the school you are applying to, or the recruiter or company to whom you will send your resume.  There may be additional instructions, including the number of lines to use, or other sections that may be requested such as international experience or situation-specific information.  Show that you may taken the time to understand their specifications and reflect them the version of your resume you send to them.

John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com

1-page vs 2-page resumes

Your resume is an important document that requires constant attention and updating, even if you are not looking for a job or applying to grad school.  How long should this document be? Look around on the internet and you'll see people advocating for a 2-page resume, especially if you have a lot of working experience or a lot of academic accomplishments like written publications. Others swear that the only good resume is a 1-page version, where you limit and focus the content on just that which is most relevant to its audience.  Which is right?

My short answer is that the 1-page resume is the only document which should be used in your job or school application (except for those positions that very explicitly ask for a detailed and complete curriculum vitae, usually involving lengthy detail on academic accomplishments).  But that doesn't mean there is no use for a longer version.

I recommend regularly maintaining and adding to a 2-4 page resume, that is inclusive, and documents all of your positions and accomplishments. When you decide to apply for a job, or grad school, or anything else that requires a resume for that matter, then you can take this long resume and cut it down to a final 1 page version that is highly presentable because it shows a focused and strategic version of you.  For the purposes of this article, let's call the long list of accomplishments the "master" resume, and the 1 page version the "finished" resume. There are several benefits to be had from such a system.

Benefit #1: You can keep everything, without having to show everything.

For many, it is hard to cut their 6th consecutive M&A deal from a resume, especially when they all seem to be so interesting!  But the reality is that this level of duplicity is rarely necessary in a finished resume.  So, keep the master resume as a comprehensive list, while the finished resume can be a more focused version that contains just those contents that are most relevant for the job or application.  This is a great way to fulfill both urges people feel when they make a resume: 1) they want it to reflect absolutely everything, and 2) they want to feel that it is focused to the individual reader. It is hard to accomplish both with just one document, so don't even try.

Benefit #2: Content which is cut from the final version doesn't disappear.

I used to keep just a 1-page resume, and so when I decided to add something, invariably something else had to be cut.  This is fine of course, but what if one of those cut accomplishments may have some level of value in a different, future situation? If all you are doing is continually refining and juggling the content in your 1-page resume, then once you cut something you may forget about it - and it may be useful later.

Benefit #3: The master resume can be easily adapted into a finished resume that is targeted for specific situations. 

I've mentioned here that the finished resume needs to focus the reader's attention on the details of your background that are most relevant for them. Given this, a finished resume for your application to the MIT Sloan MBA program (where, by the way, they require a resume that is not "more than one page in length (up to 50 lines)",  is not necessarily going to be the same resume you would submit for a job as a domestic sales manager at a fashion retailer. Your finished resume should instead be catered to fit each individual need to which it may be applied. 

Note that as you finalize resumes for different purposes, you are not only cutting the volume of material so that it fits 1 page, but you may also be tweaking the word choice within bullet points to highlight different skills that you may aim to highlight for different purposes.

But why is it so necessary to make all of these painful cuts in order to arrive at my finished 1-page resume? Wouldn't a 2 page version just be easier to make? Why do I have to carefully go over all of my accomplishments in order to find just those key ones that are most representative of my skill-set, and that are most relevant to the reader? In asking these questions, you are giving yourself the answers: you need to make all of these decisions and evaluations of your resume content, so that your reader doesn't have to.  Your 1-page resume is the movie trailer of (the relevant parts of) your life - it is short, to the point, and gets the viewer interested in wanting to learn more.  Can a two-page resume do this? In most cases it can, but a one-page resume does it better, because it foes it more succinctly. There is a reason why movie trailers are only 2 minutes on average. It is not because there is anything wrong with a 10-minute trailer. The reason is because 2 minutes is all that it takes to make you understand, and get you interested in the story being told.

Here's a quick summary of the benefits of having a 1 page resume:

1) A 1-page resume offers the strongest initial impact, and makes it easy for the reader to quickly scan your background and be impressed.

2) A 1-page resume has only the most highly relevant and impressive content, because you have taken the time to select which bullet points to include.

3) A 1-page resume doesn't require the reader to go back and forth between pages or have to hunt for what they are looking for. Everything is laid out clearly.

So, start working on your "master version" resume today, so that you are ready to make a finely-honed 1-page version of it when it's time for that next job opportunity or school application.


John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com

How to Approach a Statement of Purpose for Graduate School

Here are five key things you should keep in mind when preparing your Statement of Purpose for Graduate Programs.

1.  Don't Hedge with your Academic Objectives

It is not a good idea to state your academic objectives broadly and without focus just to ensure they are accepted by many schools. It is better instead to be as specific as possible when it comes to what you want to study.  Show that you are focused, and show as well that you have a plan to accomplish your academic goals using resources provided at the school you are applying to.

2. Know your Target Schools

If your study objective is completely inappropriate for a given program, you should know this before you apply. To this end, take the time to research programs. Do a deep dive into the courses they offer, as well as extra0-curricular or other activities. Also, do your best to talk with current and former students why may be able to help you find out if a given program can offer what you are looking for, at least based on their own experience of the program.  

3. Background Information: What is Relevant?

There is a lot of ways you could introduce yourself, your experiences, and the skill set and knowledge you have gained from those experiences.  But instead of giving everything in your statement of purpose, you should instead focus on only those parts of your background or current experience that is truly relevant to your academic and future goals. 

4. Always Be Specific

A clear, easy-to-read, and even easier to understand essay will be specific and full of detail.  Avoid words like "various" when describing experiences or takeaways.  When in doubt, offer more information rather than less. You can always cut redundant volume later on.

5. Edit, and Proofread

Your drafts will likely be well above the word count of the final essay you will submit. At some point you'll need to make tough decisions about what sentences or examples are entirely necessary. When it comes to English level, you do not need essays written to a native English speaker's level, most especially if you yourself are not a native speaker of English! But your essays should demonstrate the best possible English you can manage.  So proofread, or better get, ask someone else to review and critique the clarity of your writing.

John Couke

john.couke@gmail.com