This interview took place in central London with an alumnus who is working in an internet/new media company in a senior program manager role, she also let me know that this is the 3rd organization she is working for since passing out of McCombs.
Before setting up an alumni interview, the interviewee is supposed to look up the possible interviewers in her location from the alumni interviewer register, which would be made available to the candidate once she scores an interview invite. Unfortunately, I found out that there are only 2 interviewers available for UK, and only one of them was in London. I contacted her and she said that she’d be traveling soon to US so we better arrange this quick. So the setup was slightly rushed. The candidate has to send her cv to the interviewer beforehand, but please note that the cv is the only information the interviewer receives about the candidate. My interviewer invited me to a members-only shared work-space (kind of like we-work, but this one only takes female members..guests are allowed though) place located in a busy area (Fitzrovia) in London.
We sat down in one of the tables (soothing music was being played in the background..interesting), and I poured ourselves two glasses of water.
She explained me what the drill was briefly. For alumni interview, apparently Texas adcom sends a document to the interviewer containing the questions that are to be asked. The follow up questions..and some additional questions are the interviewer’s own. First few questions were pretty standard and usual stuff, including walk me through your resume, why MBA, why MBA now, why Texas MBA (make a strong case for this using their course structure, linking your post MBA goal with Austin, Houston and Dallas’ corporate industries etc), your strengths, weaknesses etc. Once these standard questions are out of the way, the behavioral questions are asked. Some of these questions are carefully phrased, but really these questions are versions of What’s your greatest career achievement? a regret or a failure? where you have exhibited leadership? etc. Because these questions are carefully crafted, you’d have to think on your feet and convert the question asked to a story you have prepared before hand. Some curve ball questions would also be fielded, just take your time, relax and try your best to address these (I was asked what was that one instance where my actions were detrimental to the whole team, and how did I reconcile that). Lol.
While I was answering, the interviewer was furiously scribbling notes. And I could help but notice that she was writing down behavioral aspects of it as well, for instance, the questions I replied after a slight pause (such as the curveball ones), she wrote down “Slow response”. Must be an instruction from adcom. But that’s okay. And one more thing, go the extra mile to prove that this, in fact, really is your top choice. Especially in Alumni interviews.
At the end of all of that, the interviewer asked if I had any questions, I asked a couple of them. In response, she talked about her life at Austin, why she chose that school and gave me some advice on participating in the right student clubs. Overall the interview was fairly easygoing and had a conversational vibe to it. In fact, she asked me what I do in my free time, and I said I do like to travel. And then we started a whole new conversation for a couple of minutes about places to visit/ experiences to have in Europe and it turned out that both of us really liked one particular flamenco show in Barcelona. So the interview ended in a warm and fuzzy note (this is very very important). She walked me to the door and that was the end of it. Fingers crossed!
Clear Admit Resources
Preparing for your UT Austin / McCombs MBA admissions interview? Check out Clear Admit’s other resources:
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- Clear Admit UT Austin / McCombs Interview Guide: Strategic tips for approaching UT Austin / McCombs’ interview questions, and more.
- Interview Archive: More firsthand accounts from UT Austin / McCombs MBA applicants themselves
- Understanding the MBA Admissions Interview: Blind vs. Non-blind Interviews
- Podcast Episode 23: 5 Most Common MBA Interview Questions You Need to Ace
