30 minute interview – pretty much on the dot, as expected. Interview was in his bare-bones clean office. I felt prepared and nothing was really out of the ordinary. He started with saying that if you walk out of here feeling very bad or very good about the interview, this is still just one piece of the application puzzle. He would be watching his watch a lot and taking a lot of notes (took about 2.5-3 pages for me).
For my interview:
- Why <X> college
- Challenges of going to <X> college
- What other options did I have a that point
- Why <Y> company
- I talked about the culture of the company, so the next couple of questions had to do with the culture. Why did I fit in, etc.
- How long I have been participating in a sport
- Why HBS? Why MBA?
- Most basic of questions, right? He thought my first answer was a bit generic, and wanted more. Which was okay.
- Explain my current job.
- Explain a project that I described as one of my 3 accomplishments (this one I may have expected as it was the least described project as I had to rip out a lot of the details). So a lot on this project (what was the problem – give numbers, what was the solution, what was my specific role, who was driving the project)
- Short term/long term goals.
- Again, he wanted more details, similar to the why MBA
He had a complete list of questions prepared that he needed to get through. We were running late at the end so we rushed through the last questions.
Finally, ended with “What else do you want HBS to know about you”
My impression was overall very good. There were a couple of things that I think I didn’t hit very well or I pushed a little and wish I hadn’t gone in that direction. Also, he may have been trying to test my responses once or twice. My final feeling is therefore neutral on the interview. I will just have to wait until Jan 21 to see the response.
Good Luck, everyone. Stay Calm!
