For LBS, The interview was with an alumnus, with about 12 years of post-MBA experience. The interview began smoothly, despite some nervousness; on account of it being by my first ever interview experience. The interviewer asked with a traditional “tell me more about yourself”. While it was a non-blind interview and he had my application documents and essay printed with him, it did not really look like he had gone through it in detail.
What really helped was that while I ensured I answered to the point, I tried to leave some open ends for him to pick up on. For e.g., I mentioned about at work I was working in a very atypical project, that also shaped my post-MBA goals. He readily picked up and asked me more about my project, and my post MBA goals (something I was hoping he did).
The interview essentially had 4 broad parts: Personal questions, probing my post MBA goals, an Impromptu presentation on a topic chosen from a list supplied by admissions team, and an on the spot data distribution guesstimation (“What is the average number of legs on a dogs in this world?”). While the questions were as expected and went all right, I got the topic as “how would you integrate AI research into society, to prevent a backlash like what happened with GM crops?”. This is no right answer but what they really look for it seems is how you structure your thoughts, the approach and its coherence and your overall communication skills. The guesstimation was also pretty much to test similar traits along with comfort with data. The overall interview went on for over 2 hours but the last 20-25 minutes was more of him answering my questions as well as us exchanging notes on to-dos before he heads back home (he was travelling from London for work and this interview). It does get kind of gruelling nonetheless so ensure that you ready yourself for it mentally.
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