My interviewer was humble, friendly and relaxed. The interview lasted exactly 45 minutes. I was rather surprised that I got asked questions only for the first 15 minutes or so.
I did some alumni interviewing for my undergraduate school and could sense that the interview approach for the two institutions was rather similar. In brief – as an interviewer you are provided with a list of guiding questions that are there to help you get supporting information about the applicant. By asking the questions you try to get as much information as possible to write a coherent report on what makes the applicant unique. So when answering the questions as an applicant, don’t think you are being judged only by the quality of your answers. What’s more important is how you make it easy for your interviewer to capture and write about who you really are. Provide ample examples, they are easy to remember and thus easy to write about in the report. Relax, avoid second-guessing and be yourself.
I was asked pretty much the standard questions, those that I remember were:
- Why Stanford/MBA/now?
- Talk about a time you encountered a problem you had to overcome
- When I mentioned something from my CV, he would look through it and ask follow-up questions focusing on the “why”
- Is there anything you’ve done merely out of passion?
After writing a full page of notes, he stopped and gave me an opportunity to ask question. I did some research on his career background just to know where to start. He told me about his experience and how Stanford MBA helped him succeed in his current leadership position. The whole interview was very inspiring and enjoyable. I was admitted in R1.
