This interview took place in a coffee shop towards the end of the day, and was the same day as my first interview. I had deliberately scheduled both interviews as late as possible during the interview period to maximise my preparation time. (I was fortunate that there was an information session for my city during the period so I could use it as a reason to postpone the interviews, as otherwise both interviewers would have been happy to interview me with only a few days notice.)
I felt the first interview went very well and felt confident I would perform in the second interview. My interviewer arrived early (about the same time I did). The first question he asked me was: “Why INSEAD.” My response was: “Many reasons…” and he interrupted to ask: “Yeah, like what?”. The tone of the interview was much more abrupt and direct than the first interview. Again, this interviewer used to work in consulting (my post-MBA goal). When we discussed my post-MBA goals in detail (incl. geographical region), he floored me by insisting that the companies I was interested in working for had no offices/presence in the regions I wanted to work in. While I knew this to be false (having done my research), I did concede that perhaps I may have been mistaken. However, after my interview, I sent him an email thanking him for his time, as well as pointing out which specific offices existed in my preferred region for work.
This interviewer asked me only a handful of questions – Why INSEAD, which campus and why, describe a time you failed, post-MBA goals. He then asked me to ask him questions, which surprised me because he had asked me so few. I was particularly concerned as he didn’t allow me to put forward a lot of the material I had prepared to standard questions and I was worried he was the type to make up his mind in 10min whether I was a good candidate or not. However, I spent 40min probing him with questions (although I could have handled it better in hindsight by linking it with some of my answers).
The interview went for just over an hour. The experience was incredibly draining as I felt he was very combative – the opposite of what I have read about on various forums. I was convinced that I had performed poorly, although after the admission decision (admitted), he gave me feedback that I had managed fine and he was being deliberately difficult. It was also interesting that I felt very confident going into this interview, while he thought I appeared extremely nervous – probably as a result of how aggressive his questioning was. I am very pleased with the result, but believe that he could have come to the same decision without being so aggressive.
