9/01 – Applied
9/22 – Received Interview Invite via email. Submitted interview request form, matched with an alumni, and scheduled a virtual interview.
9/26 – Zoom interview, resume-based only. The alumni interviewer (~10 years out of CBS) submitted feedback immediately after the interview. I think they were filling out the feedback form as we spoke.
10/5 – Accepted!
List of Interview Questions —
– Tell me about yourself / work experience / background.
– Why MBA?
– Career goals – immediately after and long term.
– Backup plan?
Commentary —
The interview was pretty straightforward. We spent 20 mins on the above interview questions, and I spent 10 minutes to ask questions (How was your experience? Are you in touch with your classmates? Career advice? Specific questions related to our industries / specific to the interviewer and what I’d Googled about them beforehand).
After the interview and before acceptance, I didn’t know how well I sold my career goals, so I was overthinking. My interviewer was from a completely different industry and asked about why I couldn’t do what I wanted to without the MBA. I’m already in my desired post-MBA industry but looking to do the MBA to excel/advance in specific roles, so I explained that the MBA would help me do that by citing specific CBS offerings… and then when asked about backup plan, I explained I could stay in my current role and learn and grow from there but I’m looking for the MBA to do the internships in-semester and during the summer to pivot a bit functionally… but because our industries and functions are so different, I don’t know how much I sold the “advancement” story… I felt like a “pivot” would have been easier to have explain because it’s just a “I literally need the MBA to get this job”
Later, when I got the admissions call, the AdCom member asked me how it went and I was like “oh, it was good – we were from different industries so I hope I explained my career goals well.” And then they said “[The alum’s] feedback was nothing but positive,” and that I was accepted so hey! all’s well that ends well.
I was glad the interview was short and sweet, nothing too surprising.
My advice to future interviewees —
My only recommendation for prepping would be making sure you can explicitly state a backup plan (if MBA doesn’t work out), but emphasize that CBS is your #1 choice. Also, have a couple solid reasons why you can’t achieve your goals without the MBA.
