The following London Business School MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them!
If you are reading this report as you prepare for your LBS interview, firstly – congratulate yourself for making it this far – you deserve a pat on the back! Making it this far is no easy feat, and you should take a moment to reflect on your accomplishment. Now channel this positive energy & confidence into the next steps, i.e. cracking your interview.
I won’t deny, I was definitely nervous going into my interview – but in all honesty, it was nervous excitement. Glad of having made it this far, I was excited at the prospect of sharing my story with the LBS ad-com.
The interview was held on a rainy, cold London day, and I took half-a-day leave from work and left for the interview venue straight from work. Since I work in banking, I was any case dressed in a suit.
The interview was held in the interviewer’s office – in one of the meeting rooms. My interviewer (alumni who graduated in the past 5 years) came out to meet me at the lobby and led me into the meeting room. He seemed warm and friendly, and we made small-talk until we got into the meeting room.
He was quite structured during the interview, taking notes on his laptop and reading through a set of (ad-com) provided questions. He did explain this at the onset, and that he wouldn’t necessarily make eye-contact all the time as he was typing too – and said not to fret about it. I thought that greatly helped relax and ease the rapport, as it’s a bit nerve-wrecking to be talking whilst someone is furiously typing away. But the interviewer made an effort to put me at ease, and actually managed to have a long flowing conversation for more than an hour.
Usual questions around why MBA, why LBS, why London, walk me through the résumé, etc. We also spent considerable time on ‘behavioural’ questions – scenario based questions – both examples in my past experience as well as hypothetical situations.
After the first hour, we then moved onto the next stage – the impromptu case. I think the case was prepared and given to him by the adcom. Out of the 10 options, he asked me to go with option 5 (said he would change it if I was uncomfortable with the topic). I made a few clarifications on the question, and then he left me for couple of minutes to formulate my response. On his return, I presented for 3-4 minutes – again a dialogue instead of a monologue.
At the end of the case, he then took a few minutes to make notes and then formally said that was the end of the interview section. He closed his laptop and made himself available for any questions.
We spend another 15-20 minutes wherein I asked him about his background, specific experiences he had at LBS, including his exchange at an Ivy-league school in the US. He mentioned about LBS’s great diversity element as being a big differentiator; as well as the fact that success is so different for each of the students here, i.e. not everyone wants the same PE job or consulting job in New York – so therefore everyone is naturally more collaborative at LBS.
At the end, as I thanked him for his time, he mentioned that he liked chatting with me, and that he would be giving a strong positive review of the interview. Nice of him to disclose that, putting me once again at ease and boosting my confidence.
End to end, the experience was three hours long, and the interviewer was very impressive – he was extensive with his interview, and at the same time made great efforts to put me at ease and answer all of my questions.
Since the interview, I’ve been granted admission and am strongly considering accepting the offer. Hope this review helps you as you interview with LBS and other top-MBA schools. Good luck.
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