I scheduled a breakfast meeting with a GSB alumnus this past Friday. Being that I had to drive 2 hours to get to the interview location, my interviewer might have been more flexible that usual when it comes to the meeting duration. It lasted for a little more than an hour and I was the one who did most of the talk. I did get 10 minutes or so to ask about his experience.
- Walk me through your resume. As I chose to start from my upbringing, he immediately asked how it affected as a person. The interviewer did interrupt a couple of other times to follow up on points I mentioned in passing.
- Why now? He said it is of particular importance given that I seem to really enjoy my current job (investment management)
- Why Stanford?
- Tell me about a time when you led a team
- Tell me about a time when you overstepped an authority
- Tell me about a time when you failed to reach your goals
Those are the bulk of his questions, though there were a few more that I can’t recall at the moment. A general theme is that were customized to my life stories.
My questions for the interviewer were focused on his experience, his expectations before matriculating at GSB and whether they were met/exceed/re-shaped. His answers were particularly helpful as we shared a few things in common (growing up in foreign country, dabbles in entrepreneurship etc.). Needless to say I am a lot more excited about the possibility of matriculating at GSB than I were a couple of days ago.
