My interview was on Friday around 1PM. I live 5 hour drive from Chicago. My gf and I drove down that morning straight to Northwestern. We reached there around 11AM. I registered at the admission office which is on the second floor. I had some questions regarding information session later that day. We grabbed lunch downstairs and walked around the campus.
Around 12.30PM, I walked back to the admissions office. There were 4 other interview candidates waiting for their interviews as well. I chatted with them a bit. All of them had pretty impressive backgrounds.
My interviewer came around 12.55PM and asked me to follow her to one of the executive interview rooms. She was very friendly and tried to put me at ease right away. We chatted for a bit about how nice the weather was that day and how my drive to Evanston was and if I am staying the night or not.
She formally introduced herself with her position and everything. I gave a short introduction. She also gave some background information about how this was a blind interview and she hasn’t seen my application Part 1 yet. She also emphasized that the notes she would make would not be used until the last stage and I could repeat the stories in my essays as the admission committee doesn’t review the interview notes until they see my complete application.
Here are some questions I remember. Most of them should be in the order they were asked
1. Walk me through your resume.
A. I gave her a brief background and then started with my college to the current point
2. Why did you chose the undergraduate institute you chose
3. Why did you pursued a graduate degree
4. Why did I chose to work for my current company
5. Tell me more about your current role
6. What is your leadership style?
7. Give me an example of you leadership style
8. How do I work in teams at my current job?
9. How do I contribute to my team?
10. What do you do if someone in your team is not willing to follow through or there is a confrontation
11. My s/t and l/t goals?
12. How does Kellogg fit in to that picture and MMM program especially.
13. How have I displayed some of the traits required for my career goals?
14. What will I bring to Kellogg
15. If my manager has to give me a constructive feedback what would it be?
16. What are the top two weakest links on my application?
17. If I have any questions for her
I asked her why she chose to work for Kellogg and what does she really like about the Kellogg culture. I also asked her would it be possible that day to meet any MMM students.
Toward the end she asked me if I want them to know anything which she couldn’t ask. Here I talked about my extra-curricular and briefly mentioned what motivates me. I was really satisfied with this answer because I was able to put a really good final touch on my entire application.
I also wanted to end my interview on a really lighter note so I told her about the time when I played for a Pink Floyd cover band in India and how out first show sucked and how popular my band is now. I am glad I mentioned that because this really lightened the mood and added a personal touch.
I think the whole interview lasted for about 45 minutes.
Regardless of the outcome, I really enjoyed the interview and the conversation. I think she is going to remember me as a Pink Floyd fan and fusion rock-star who turned rocket scientist to design air-conditioners and will solve Indian food security problems in the future.
