My interviewer was an Alumnus in an international city. The guy holds an important position of an Investment Bank and the interview was in a meeting room at his office.
He arrived 20 min late to our appointment (I waited him in the meeting room). When he finally arrived he apologized for keeping me waiting and quickly started talking. We exchanged business cards and he presented himself briefly. He told me that he had been working and living in several continents (as I did) and explained about his different positions he has held. He was clearly a successful finance guy.
He had printed my resume. Then he told me to present myself and to walk through my resume. I started speaking about my education, work experience, the positions I held and projects I led, etc. I had prepared a lot the “walk your resume” questions so I did well, trying not to bore him but also trying to not forget anything important.
About my resume he only asked about my last job a couple of very specific questions, as his domain is related to mine somehow. He seemed like “testing” I really work where I say in my resume.
Then he jumped to typical question such as why I want to do an MBA and why now. Then why Booth is my best fit and so on, and why I plan to learn in case I’m accepted. I answered with totally sincerity and we started a great conversation about the school, about my career and many things about Chicago. He was very helpful and gave me advices.
He asked me what I like from the city where I’m living now, or why I don’t prefer to continue working where I work now instead of spending two years studying. He also asked me about my personal life and if my wife supports me in my decision to do an MBA and things like that. This triggered 10 minutes speaking about my family during MBA.
Then I started asking him questions. He told me how Chicago helped him in his career, what concentrations he chose, what he liked from the school, where he lived, etc. We also spoke about other schools. I told him I was interviewing in others, and he asked why I preferred Chicago.
At the end we spoke around 20 minutes about my career progression, about the school, campus, the best places to live during the MBA, about diversity, and so on.
I have to say that the conversation was formal but I enjoyed it a lot. It was very interesting speaking with him and I think he also enjoyed it. At the end he told me to keep in touch, wished me luck and told me he was very satisfied and that I fitted to Chicago.
I think the interviews of this kind you should do your best to sell yourself, the interviewer is not going to ask you the questions you want (I would have loved to tell him more about some stories but he didn’t ask anything that could have led me to speak about them), so try to use each of the questions to convey the ideas you want he remember about you. Once the interview is finished, ask yourself: Did I speak about leadership? Did I say I’m X, Y or Z? Did I speak about my stories A, B or C? Did I say an MBA from X School is the best option for me?
