December 2008.
30 minutes on the dot at one of their satellite interview locations in the US (e.g., Chicago, LA, Houston). It was clearly a borrowed office, no windows, quite drab, so we got down to business very quickly! Adcom introduced herself, gave a little context/what to expect, gave me a folder and pen, and then kicked off.
Questions:
- How do you find the time to do all you do?
- Explain your job/industry/job function like I was a 14-year-old?
- What do you like about your particular company as opposed to its peers?
- How would the people who know you best describe you?
- What are people surprised to learn about you?
- How did you become interested in [language of study]?
- What do you think are qualities of a good leader?
- An example of how I’ve leveraged those qualities in my own experience.
- What do you do with your free time?
- How do you want to impact HBS?
- What drives/motivates you?
- And then, is there anything you wanted to talk about but weren’t able to? (I answered the question with a subject I wanted to talk about, but was not given time to explore that area)
- No time for my questions.
I was surprised by how friendly my interviewer was, given things that I had heard about HBS’s interview – no “gotcha questions” (e.g., Name an entrepreneur you admire). She did take a lot of notes, but made eye contact and engaged (though I did most of the talking). She walked me out of the office at the end.
