My interview was also held in the alumn’s office in NYC and lasted for 30 minutes with questions and another 30 minutes with lunch and some casual discussion/questions
- Thanks for coming, sorry for the delay
- How are you? How’s work?
- So you’re ready for B-school, Wharton is a great place, I had a wonderful experience and I highly recommend it.
- Give me a few minutes to glance over your resume (note: definitely go to the interview with a resume just in case)
- Why don’t you walk me through your resume, starting anywhere you’d like.
- Why an MBA, why now?
- What are your career goals?
- How has your current job and previous experience helped you prepare for your long/short term career goals?
- Why Wharton?
- What do you do outside work?
- Apart from community service what else do you enjoy doing?
- How many countries have you traveled to/lived in? (this is probably more specific to my international background)
- Do you have any questions for me?
We then had lunch which the alum ordered to his office (very nice) and from there the discussion was very casual and related to the current situation in financial markets, venture capital/P.E. (he works in P.E.), his experience at his firm, some great classes to take at Wharton, travel opportunities at Wharton, my commute to work etc etc.
I’ll only urge you to be yourself, ask questions about your interviewer to put them at ease and show some interest in the person in front of you, ask questions about their experience at Wharton to get them talking and hopefully share some laughs etc. Know your resume well, your story and why Wharton versus any other school. Also ask some meaningful questions, I went with about 5-10 specific questions relating to his pre-mba and post-mba experience. My interviewer was awesome and only confirmed why I was interested in Wharton in the first place. We plan to keep in touch and he offered to connect me with some of his classmates who had similar career interests. Overall a very positive experience.
