Hello everyone,
I just finished my first interview and after a lot of thoughts I decided to share it with you because I believe that it was a really peculiar interview.
Description: Don’t be stressed after reading this because it’s really not a typical INSEAD interview (I have talked with more than 10 INSEAD Alums and read the 32 blogs on this website), but it’s just to tell you that you have to be prepared for anything.
A week after sending the e-mail to the alum, I still didn’t get a response. I didn’t want to be too pushy but I found that a week was more than enough to reply. I decided to call him. His secretary answers and tells me that he will call me back in 30 minutes. He never did! The next day I receive an e-mail telling me that the interview is on the 11th of November at 10:00 am.
On the 11th at 09:15, while I was on my way to his office, I received an e-mail telling me that the interview had been postponed to 5:00pm, (not even a call! Thank god I had a blackberry). Anyhow, at 4:45pm I arrived to his office and the receptionist asked me to wait in a small meeting room. 5, 5:10, 5:20, 5:30 nothing! At 5h45, his secretary comes to pick me up. After I arrived to his office, he told me that he had a very long day (no apologies for the rescheduling or for the 45 minutes delay)! Trying to be nice, I told him that if he wanted I was flexible and that we could postpone the interview for another day. His answer: “no, it’ll even be worse”. This is where I realized that I was really lucky! ;). His next question was, “where are you essays why don’t I have them?”. I answered: “I was requested by the admission coordinator to send you the profile but if you want I can send the essays afterwards. However, I realized that the profile isn’t easy to read so I brought my CV for you” and I handed him the weapon to be used against me. He spent around a minute reading my CV. His first question was: “what is HEC-RAS and why did you use it for?” (it’s a software for hydrological modeling that I used during my one and only engineering experience – a 2 month internship)… it continued for an hour. He decorticated my CV piece by piece. I was definitely able to respond to all his questions. However, I wasn’t expecting this. Because he had the CV in his hands, he was leading the discussion towards what he wanted to know (which is totally fair but not a good way to sell yourself). This is why I advised lesson 3 above. If I hadn’t given him the CV, his first question would have most probably been “tell me about yourself” and I would’ve been able to sell myself as I wanted to (focusing on the things I know would be interesting for him) and the interview would’ve definitely gone in another directions…
Out of the 12 interviews I have done in my life, it was the most challenging. However, I am happy because I was able to manage this unexpected stress interview and to remain confident.
Good luck for all those who have an interview! (Believe me you need it)
