This site was really useful for me while prepping for the HBS interview, so I wanted to share my experience:
5 mins after being sent the online link, all of the slots on the two or three latest interview days available were already completely booked – so if for whatever reason you need maximum time between the interview notification and interview date, make sure you have a fast connection and fast fingers.
I signed up for a class visit the day before my interview. I wasn’t ultimately asked about it, but I think it was helpful to see the case method in action anyways. I highly recommend doing a class visit beforehand, it will probably get you excited about attending HBS before your interview, if you happen to need the extra pep. Contrary to what others have said, I didn’t personally have a religious experience in the classroom. Probably the accounting material didn’t help. I was, however, impressed with how collaborative the discussion was, even with 90 students in the room all trying to be heard, and how truly diverse the perspectives were.
Overall, my interview was very pleasant. It was pretty cool to have someone who assesses candidates for a living and knows your application inside and out probe your head.
I arrived 15 minutes early, passed the time with some small talk with other candidates; they were very nice, and clearly a bit nervous like myself. It was good to keep my mind off being nervous by chatting with others. Then my interviewer came in and I was led to a small room with two people, one external guy conducting the interview, one adcom member sitting in assessing the other. Here’s how the convo went to the best of my memory:
- How was your trip in? (Small talk about flying a redeye in from CA)
- Recent experience traveling? (I took a year off from work) Learn anything useful?
- What do you plan to do before business school? (Talked in depth about a 6 month gig I was planning on doing)
- What do you think of the US Fed quantitative easing? (I’m interested in macroeconomic topics)
- Tell me about your hobbies? What’s the most interesting experience you had while doing xyz
- Anything else you wanted to discuss? (Surprised me, this came with at least 10 minutes left!)
- What do you think makes you unique? (This kind of surprised me too, seemed like filler).
At this point, he kind of just let me talk about my values, how I was raised, etc for a few minutes. Didn’t ask me if I had any questions. Then he walked me out and wished me good luck. No contact info, and I only knew his first name, so needed to ask the very nice receptionist for his name to send a thank you message.
I wouldn’t agonize after the interview. Personally I don’t think my interview went that well, but I was comforted by the thought that its just one data piece out of many that several people would weigh differently before coming up with a decision.
Good luck! And I’ll pass along the most helpful advice I was given: remember to SMILE!
