Questions:
- Walk me through your resume.
- Why MBA?
- Why now?
- Why Kellogg?
- Tell me about your passion(s) outside of the professional or education realms (e.g., extracurricular pursuit).
- What was your single greatest professional accomplishment?
- What do you do for fun?
- Tell me about a time when your communication with a colleague was a catalyst to achieve a team goal.
- What are the 3 most important attributes of a successful leader? How do you rate yourself in each of these attributes?
- Who do you admire as a leader?
- What is the most challenging part of your job (current or previous)?
- What was a weakness in your application?
- What will be your unique contribution to Kellogg? (i.e., what will you give to other students?)
The interview was conducted at her office. Casual dress, so I was free to wear whatever. I arrived 10 minutes early and we started exactly on time.
From the outset, she was welcoming, affable and conversational, setting a friendly but focused tone. She clearly laid out the game plan at the start (her background, then her questions for me, then my questions for her). She said the interview would probably take 1 hour, but it ended up lasting 1 hour and 45 minutes.
I thought the interview went extremely well. She was a great enabler, an active listener with easy-to-read facial expressions and responsive body language. This was very useful, as it let me know when I was dragging and when I was flying. Her questions gave me the opportunity to relay all of my best professional and personal stories (even some that I didn’t expect would come up in conversation).
Since my experience with the first two-thirds of the interview was so positive, I was very confident and comfortable tackling questions that I didn’t anticipate and hadn’t specifically prepared.
When the table turned and she was answering my questions, she was very candid about her Kellogg experience. Having spoken at length with a mix of students and alums, I had a sense of Kellogg’s primary advantages and disadvantages, but my interviewer enlightened me with additional highlights and drawbacks.
