The following Stanford MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant.
I met with my alumni interviewer at a public place – the environment was relaxed and casual. I emailed my interviewer my résumé beforehand per Stanford’s instructions. I also printed out a copy – which was much appreciated by my interviewer.
My interviewer was an older alum – that’s probably why I had a non-standard behavioral interview. I didn’t get asked many questions such as “tell me about a time when you led a team/had a conflict/etc.”
Instead, I got asked:
1. Many questions about my family, which immigrated to the US.
2. Two questions around my transition from college to first work experience.
3. Specific questions about my current work (overlap between my two companies, my job description, etc).
4. Tell me about your proudest achievement at work (4-5 follow up questions around who/why/how).
5. Many questions about my entrepreneurial idea – what was my business model (many follow up questions – who were my customers, what are my obstacles, etc – I felt like I was pitching to a VC).
6. Why MBA? Why now?
I am still waiting for my decision for Round 2. The interview was relaxed – I didn’t feel like there was a structure of my interviewers’ questions – which threw me off a little bit. I practiced a lot beforehand on various behavioral questions – which came in a handy a few times but not much. Looking back, I would have been a little more relaxed and a little bit more myself. I think candidates probably roll their eyes when others tell them to “just be yourself” when interviewing, but I think that definitely applies for Stanford interviews.
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