The interview took place in the office. I had sent the interviewer my entire application (it is possible to send just the first 6 pages, but I wasn’t able to split the pdf file) to review beforehand. The interview was organised via email and telephone.
I would advise researching your interviewer if possible (via sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook etc.) as it is quite rare that no information can be found. Also, it seems as though INSEAD tries to pair you with interviewers from a similar background to your chosen post-MBA path (although it may just be that a high number of consultants attend the school). This interviewer had spent many years working in consulting before moving to industry. I was quite fortunate as his industry and my current profession are tangentially linked so we were able to establish good rapport pretty early in the interview.
The interview itself was quite relaxed, I was very nervous but he put me at ease very quickly. The questions covered the usual suspects (why MBA, why INSEAD, etc.) and there was a fair bit of probing. For example, in a question about your post-MBA goals it’s pretty important to be able to highlight why you have those goals, and link them to how INSEAD is going to help you achieve them. The interviewer was very comfortable about probing me for further detail so it’s important to be well prepared.
The interviewer’s style was very conversational and I was pretty relaxed, which is great, but also potentially a pitfall as you may not be as sharp. Having said that, I felt confident in my preparation and my answers and there was nothing out of left-field. I was reassured by his responses to my answers, which were along the lines of: “yes that makes sense” and “I agree with your logic”. The interviewer also asked me where else I had applied (as well as how I had progressed) and I was fortunate enough to be in a position to let him know that I had already been accepted by one school, waitlisted by another and interviewing for 2 others. I think this also helped him decide how valuable I was as an applicant.
Towards the end of the interview, I had the opportunity to ask questions. Questions to the interviewer can be tricky, and I chose to focus on his experience of the school, linking it in with my own research. I was also able to highlight the fact that I was visiting the Singapore campus the week after my interview and I think this was met with favourably.
The interview lasted about 1.5hrs and I left feeling confident that I had performed well (and relatively comfortable that he would recommend me). I sent a follow-up email to thank him for the interview and he responded that he would be happy to answer any further questions. I received the admission decision a couple of weeks later (admitted) and let him know, whereupon he sent me a congratulatory email.
