Interviews
Published: December 18, 2013
INSEAD MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
I benefited from reading about interview experiences on this blog so I thought I’d contribute. As usual, with INSEAD, I was given the contacts of two alumni interviewers based in my country – one local, one foreigner. Both interviewers were fairly senior and were from my industry (banking/finance). They responded fairly quickly to my email to arrange an interview (within 1-3 days). I sent them copies of my CV and my application. It may be cultural (I’m from Asia and both interviewers are Asian), but the interviewers were polite (but not overly friendly) and to the point. Interviews lasted about
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Published: December 18, 2013
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / Off-Campus Hub
My interview took place in a quiet hotel area – I met the assistant dean of admissions at the Hilton in midtown New York. It was a blind interview, and she had my resume. She was prepared with a full sheet of questions, and she wrote down almost everything I was saying. The interview took about 30 minutes, as there were about 15 questions. What surprised me was that there were a lot of questions about times I had failed/times I had to overcome obstacles. I was more prepared to speak about my accomplishments so this took me by a
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Published: December 18, 2013
Cornell / Johnson MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
I arrived at the company twenty minutes before the set time and I was the fifth person to be interviewed. The person who interviewed me was a HR manager, a really nice man. I did not feel nervous at all, just very relaxed. Type of interview was blind. The HR manager asked about seven questions as below: 1. Introduce yourself. 2. Why are you leaving your job? 3. Why do you want this job? 4. Why should we hire you? 5. What is your greatest strength? 6. How do you handle stress and pressure?
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Published: December 18, 2013
London Business School MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
My interview was on-campus with an admissions fellow. It was 45 minutes long and blind – the interview was conversational The questions were fair and while they were not unexpected, it didn’t feel like the interviewer was simply going through a list. The interviewer had reviewed my resume and made a few notes beforehand. Below are the questions I collected from the interview: 1) Why did you choose your undergraduate major? 2) Tell me how you work as part of a team 3) What’s your long-term career goals? 4) Why do you feel you need an MBA
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Published: December 17, 2013
London Business School MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Chicago
My interviewer had read my entire application, and was very prepared to ask some targeted questions. I knew that ahead of time thanks to the Clear Admit LBS interview guide, so thankfully I was prepared. The interview hit all of the main talking points (Why MBA/LBS/Me/Now etc). Once we built a rapport, the conversation was very enjoyable. I got the sense that they want to know if the applicant would be likeable as a classmate. They have your stats for the intelligence portion. The interview seems to round out the behavioral side of things. Be ready to state the case,
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Published: December 17, 2013
Stanford GSB MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
I arrived on campus a half an hour before my interview begin. It was part of a full day of interviews, organized by the department of admissions, and lasted about 30 minutes. Hope these questions help you for your interview. 1.Can you explain what you do in your daily work? 2.What would your co-workers say is your leadership style? 3. How do you show leadership at work? 4. Mention a project where you have been a leader? 5.How do you work with people from different cultures? 6. What do your co-workers say is your
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Published: December 17, 2013
Kellogg MBA Admissions Interview Questions: R1 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
After Kellogg mailed me the contact details for my interviewer, I wrote her an email asking for a convenient time during the coming two weeks. She replied with a range of dates and suggested Starbucks as the meeting place! I mailed her a copy of my resume and took some copies to the interview. She mailed me saying that she would be in casual clothes and I should feel comfortable being in casual clothes too! That email just took all my anxiety away and I felt excited to meet her! I still showed up in formal clothing and we joked
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Published: December 17, 2013
UCLA / Anderson MBA Admissions Interview Questions: R1 / Adcom / On-Campus
My interview was conducted by an adcom member on a Saturday. I arrived about an hour early and roamed around the campus a bit. On entering the admissions office, I was asked to sit in the adjoining conference room. There were about 6 other candidates there waiting to be interviewed. Everyone looked pretty nervous and we casually chatted about everyone’s backgrounds. The admissions committee members periodically came in the room and called out their assigned candidate. My interviewer was very friendly and made the atmosphere very casual. She told me she had only been through my resume and would be
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Published: December 16, 2013
Cornell / Johnson MBA Admissions Interview Questions: R1 / Adcom / On-Campus
I arrived on campus a couple of hours before my interview to meet with a current student who I had met during my school visit. I would highly recommend going to the campus early. It helps you relax and the energy in the Atrium gears you up to do your best (All I was thinking was- I sooo want to come here next year!) My interview was conducted by a member of the ad-com and the atmosphere was very friendly. She told me that she only had my resume and notes from the member who had reviewed my application. She
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Published: December 16, 2013
Duke / Fuqua MBA Admissions Interview Questions: ED / Alumnus / Off-Campus
I had to fly to another city, so the usual – the flight was late, made it to the interviewers office just in time. Realized I forgot to get a copy of my resume. Unfortunately the interviewer also forgot to get it, so he had to go back to his office to grab the resume. Started off with casual small talk about my city (which is the party capital of the country) spoke a bit about the nightlife, restaurants, etc. 1) Tell me about your Company. Some specific Company related questions … then even more specific questions. 2) Tell me about
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Published: December 16, 2013
Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / Off-Campus Hub
The atmosphere was very neutral, a kind of perfect façade of pleasant interest that gives you little or no clue as to how you are doing, in terms of whether your answers are genius or utter rubbish. I was interviewed by one interviewer, who had a copy of my CV with her and took copious notes during the interview. She mentioned that she was familiar with my file and that I should use examples that were not already in my application. To start with, there was a bit of light conversation about whether I had found it hard to get
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Published: December 9, 2013
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / Off-Campus Hub
I arrived 15 minutes before the scheduled time and had a chat with other participants of the group discussions. We were 5 in total, all males. Then, we were invited to another room by the adcom representative. After we took our seats she gave a guideline on the discussion format. She took notes and kept time. Each one of the participants made a brief introduction of his idea. Next, we selected one common idea and elaborated on it. Quite quickly we came up with a constructive idea and added some solid layer of details. Then, one of the guys made
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Published: December 9, 2013
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus
I had the interview in a coffee shop near the area where alumnus lives. The atmosphere was very relaxed and casual. The alumnus had graduated this year and had up to date knowledge about the school curriculum and activities. The interview started from the typical “walk me through your resume” questions. (I sent him my resume two days before the interview). Then, he asked me to elaborate on some of the experiences that I described. The next parts were “why do you need Booth” and “why Booth needs you”. He also asked to describe in detail my short- and long-term goals.
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Published: December 9, 2013
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Second-year student / On-campus
My interview was on-campus with a second-year student (Admissions Fellow). It was 45 minutes long and blind, although the interviewer had reviewed my resume and made a few notes beforehand. The questions were pretty consistent with what other applicants have reported on this and other sites: 1) Why did you choose your undergraduate major? 2) How did you decide to work in the field you’re working in (different from what I studied)? 3) What made you move from Role X to Y (when I changed jobs)? 4) What are your long-term career goals? 5) Why do
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Published: December 9, 2013
Georgetown / McDonough MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / Off-Campus
I met the assistant dean of admissions at the Hilton in midtown New York. Though the hotel was crowded, we had a quiet area. It was a blind interview, but she had my resume. She was prepared with a full sheet (front and back) of questions, and she wrote down almost everything I was saying. The interview took a full 30 minutes, as there were about 15 questions. What surprised me was that there were a lot of questions about times I had failed/times I had to overcome obstacles. I was more prepared to speak about my accomplishments so this
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Published: December 9, 2013
Duke / Fuqua MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / 2nd Year / On-Campus
It was a resume-based interview, with the interviewer having no exposure to the other portions of my application. In addition to my resume, the interviewer had a sheet of questions with spaces to write answers/notes, and continued to make reference to the need to follow the sheet (my experience was more conversational than most of the other interviewees reported during subsequent discussion) Thus, the questions asked were: -What is your story? -What do you want to do, and why do you need an MBA to do it? -Why does that MBA need to be from Fuqua? -What will you contribute
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Published: December 8, 2013
Oxford / Saïd MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Sector Consultant / Skype
I want to write about my interview experience as I have benefited from reading other people’s experience. I had my interview over Skype and it lasted 30 minutes, with a sector consultant specialised in finance. Questions were all expected though communicating over Skype and not being able to sense the interviewer’s body language made me more nervous and affected some of my answers. I had no idea how it went afterwards and eventually received an offer. Interview Questions （not in exact order) – Why MBA, why now and what I am looking to gain from MBA – Consideration on
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Published: December 8, 2013
MIT / Sloan MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / Off-Campus Hub
My interview was held in the offices of MIT alumni and I was allotted 45 mins. I was the second interview of the day out of a total of 12 on the schedule. My interviewer was friendly, but professional. While I felt like I connected with him during the interview and we had an easy conversation, I could not read him at all and have no idea what he thought about my answers. The probing follow-up questions made me feel like I wasn’t answering his original questions the right way. The questions asked were: – Any updates to your
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Published: December 3, 2013
INSEAD MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus
INSEAD requires two interviews with alumni who live in your country of residence. I had to catch a short flight and managed to do both interviews in the same morning, last week. Here’s my report. The first interview was with a director of a large petrochemical company. The interview took place at his office and was quite informal. He was around 40, quite busy, but very open and friendly. English is not our first language, so we chatted a bit in Portuguese to break the ice and then we started the interview in English. He asked me to talk about
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Published: November 26, 2013
Tuck MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Second year student / On campus
The interview was held on campus, by a second year student and lasted about 45 minutes. The interviewer created a very friendly atmosphere and started by talking about her background and experiences. She basically listened and made a few remarks about life at Tuck. 1. Tell me about you (I added “why MBA” and “why now” at the end of my answer) 2. Why Tuck? 3. Tell me about your teamwork experience. 4. Tell me about a difficult situation you have been through and how you handled it. 5. What legacy would you like to
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Published: November 25, 2013
London Business School MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus
Overall: • Length: 1 hour (exactly) with 10 mins for questions, around 4 mins to prep for presentation and 2-3 mins to present • Alum was very friendly and easy to talk to • Alum had a list of questions LBS provided and he highlighted the ones he wanted to ask me about (there were probably 4 pages of questions and he asked me about 10-15) Questions: • Tell me about your background • Can you explain what you do in your daily work? • What would your co-workers say is your leadership style?
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Published: November 25, 2013
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Admissions event in Sao Paulo
The interview was held off-campus, in a company building owned by an alumnus, in Sao Paulo / Brazil. It was part of a full day of interviews organized by the department of admissions, and lasted about 50 minutes. My interviewer was an alumnus that graduated more than two years ago. He created a friendly atmosphere and conducted a very conversational interview. He began by providing me with some of his background and experiences. I was asked just a few basic questions, to which he added some comments and personal remarks. The questions asked were as follows: 1. Walk me me
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Published: November 25, 2013
Yale SOM MBA Admissions Interview Questions: R1 / Adcom / On-campus
My interviewer told me that the following questions were from a script he was supposed to follow: 1) How did you find and join your current employer? 2) Give an example of a time when you chose to be a team member and not a team leader. What lessons did you learn from that decision? 3) Explain how you deal with different types of people at work. 4) What is a quality that you admire in someone else that you wish you possessed yourself? 5) What do you plan to do after you earn your MBA and what steps have
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Published: November 21, 2013
Published: November 20, 2013
Stanford GSB MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus
Alumnus asked me to meet him at a hotel bar. I was on time but he was 45 mins late. The overall interview was very conversational. He did not take any notes and even declined to have a hard-copy of my resumé. He said he had already taken a look at it, and that would be enough for him. This is how it went – He introduced himself – Resume walkthrough – He talked about his own experience – Why an MBA ? He insisted a lot on this question – I asked about
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