My interview was scheduled for 6 PM at the interviewer’s office. Although the interview was scheduled for an hour, it lasted almost 2 hours. Not a negative sign, though, as the interview was somehow conversational.
My interviewer was not from a different industry, but he had after school the kind of experience I´m looking for (financial background with operational experience).
The best advice I received before the interview was that despite specific questions being made, I should leave my main messages clear.
Questions:
- What qualities make a leader a good leader?
- What do you need to work on in order to become a better business leader?
- Describe a typical day in the office.
- How much time do you spend on meetings? How do you overcome multiple responsibilities (i.e. manage to analyze issues while having to meet with clients/ peers/ supervisors/ subordinates)?
- Please describe your leadership style?
- How would your friends describe you?
- Since I went to Canada for an exchange program during undergrad he asked about what it is like to live and study there and how I managed to mingle with locals and other international students there
- Questions on key trends in my industry
- Questions on my current employer’s strategy and what I would change at my organization.
- Questions on the team role essay and what I did to make that team successful.
- Questions on how I deal with a difficult person on my team
- Questions on multicultural experiences (the one on my essay plus other ones)
- Why an MBA? Why in this moment?
- Why LBS specifically?
- What other schools you applied to? Why? Why LBS over the other schools?
- Question on how I deal with stress and what I do for fun
- Post-MBA role and long term goals, and motivations for this path.
Presentation: I got a general affairs topic and had 5 minutes to prepare. I thought it was a difficult topic (clearly, not a right or wrong question), but I think I did ok. The interviewer told me that even though he didn´t agree with me, the aspect being evaluated was how I structured an argument and was able to convey my ideas.
At the end I had the chance to ask the interviewer questions on his experience at LBS. He told me about the excellent time he had at LBS, both inside and outside of the classroom. He also emphasized on how an LBS MBA degree can open doors on a global basis.
