Critical Thinking Night Sets Tone for Undergrads

Incoming undergraduates at Smith got a taste of what’s looming in job and internship interviews during Critical Thinking Night, a new Welcome Week workshop added to meet employer demand.

“Your business savvy and ability to think on your feet will be tested,” Smith senior Lindsay Weilminster ’15 told the freshmen who packed into Frank Auditorium during back-to-back sessions on Sept. 8, 2014.

An intern and soon-to-be employee of Deloitte Consulting, Weilminster shared real-life examples of interview questions students have faced. “These questions can seem daunting,” Weilminster told the freshmen. “But if you begin to challenge yourself now to analyze these kinds of scenarios at a high level, this becomes doable.”

The idea for Critical Thinking Night came from Rebecca Ratner, Smith marketing professor and assistant dean for academic affairs, after she attended a 2013 conference with marketing executives and heard leaders discuss the lack of critical thinking skills among today’s business undergraduates.

Ratner saw an opportunity to differentiate Smith and immediately began designing the workshop with input from Smith upperclassmen, deans and corporate partners.

“Recruiters tell me tell me they can find plenty of job candidates with knowledge of business terms,” Ratner says. “But they need people who can think critically.” /GM/

Test Yourself

Questions or tasks that Smith undergraduates have faced in recent interviews:

• Describe the financial collapse leading to the economic recession. How would you have reacted as Fed chairperson? What would you have done to rejuvenate the financial markets in 2009?
• Pitch to our Board of Directors an impactful teambuilding event on a $50 budget.
• Propose a fitness club strategy for collecting and leveraging data about member activity via wearable technology that is minimally intrusive to the subjects and gym operations.