I had my interview with the alumnus in a hotel lounge, which lasted for 1 hour.
The interview was pretty conversational, and most questions were very typical. I handed out my printed resume to her as she didn’t bring one though she said she has one on her PC which she used during the interview. She listened to my answers very carefully, and asked some follow-up questions about my thoughts and learnings regarding my accomplishment, while keeping typing on her PC to make notes.
We went into the questions directly after her brief introduction. Some questions that I still remember:
– Why MBA now? (this was the opening question. I was surprised that she didn’t ask me to introduce myself or walk her through the resume)
– Follow-up question: You seem to be qualified to land on the position in your short-term goal without an MBA, why do you insist on an MBA experience?
– Why did you choose to work abroad, what culture conflicts and learnings did you have in this experience, what stereotypes did you break in this experience?
– Failure story (how would you do if you had a chance to do it again?)
– Biggest accomplishment
– Outside of work, what passions do you have?
– Any other school you are applying? (why not US schools)
– What interactions did you have with INSEAD alumni or current students?
– What questions do you have for me?
The alumnus challenged my real reason for MBA, as she is from the industry of my post-MBA goal, and she thinks that it’s possible for me to switch my job from consulting to that industry directly. She also raised some questions regarding my failure story to test whether it was a failure because of me and how much I learned from that experience.
Generally, I think it went fine, not stressful at all. I look forward to my second interview with INSEAD.
Good luck to you all.
Clear Admit Resources
Preparing for your INSEAD admissions interview? Check out Clear Admit’s other resources:
- Clear Admit INSEAD Interview Guide: Strategic tips for approaching INSEAD’s interview questions, and more.
- Interview Archive: More firsthand accounts from INSEAD MBA applicants themselves
- Understanding the MBA Admissions Interview: At INSEAD, Two Interviews are Better than One
- Podcast Episode 23: 5 Most Common MBA Interview Questions You Need to Ace
