I had my interview with a Kellogg alumnus off-campus around January 2007. The interview was more like a conversation than an interview, and the alumnus was very down to earth, friendly and personable. The interview lasted for TWO hours, so the alumnus and I were able to connect well. Few things:
1) I prepared for the standard questions mentioned here on the wiki. The interviewer did not go beyond the standard questions to initiate conversation, but he did ask follow up questions based upon the answers I gave. Make sure you have answers prepared for the “walk me through your resume” question, leadership example, teamwork success and failure, career goals, your contributions to the Kellogg community, why MBA, why MBA now and why Kellogg. Then just be yourself when answering the follow up questions.
2) I did a lot of research on Kellogg, its extracurricular offerings and my career goals, and I wanted to make a strong effort to showcase that research when I was asked the career goals, Kellogg community contributions, Why MBA and Why Kellogg questions. My interviewer noted after the interview how focused my career goals were and how well my research was in showcasing what Kellogg offered academically and extracurricularly to help me acheive my career goals. I think is behooves anyone to fully research Kellogg’s academic and extracurricular offerings in relation to your career and personal interests and explain them well to the interviewer.
3) After the interview, the alumnus and I spent 30 minutes talking about his experiences at Kellogg and how these experiences have shaped his life post-graduation. He mentioned the number one thing about Kellogg is the depth of personal relationships he was able to form with his classmates. Of all the alums from other top B-schools that I talked with in the application process, none really focused on the personal relationships formed in B-schools. I thought this was telling of Kellogg’s student-focused culture and got a sense that Kellogg’s interview is somewhat of a “plane ride” test to get a feel of the personality of the applicant.
Overall, I felt I had a great interview.
