I am a Round 1 applicant for the January ’09 class at INSEAD and I had one of my interviews yesterday (15-April). I found out that there were not too many alumni in my area, so my interviewer actually conducts interviews fairly frequently.
We had 60 minutes, so we cut to the chase pretty quickly with a “tell me about yourself” kind of introduction, specifically asking about when I graduated University (to get an idea of my age, perhaps). I had sent my interviewer a copy of my whole INSEAD application, so he commented that he actually had read about one of the anecdotes that I had mentioned. I also brought a resume/CV with me, but it wasn’t necessary and he didn’t look at it.
One of the questions I felt that I didn’t answer very well was “do you want to work for a small or a large company”. I know I want to work for a small to medium sized firm, but I don’t want to close the door on a large fortune 500 company such as the one that I work for now. I felt I certainly could have articulated this better and not made unnecessary assumptions.
Fortunately, my interviewer worked in the same industry as me, and I’m sure our interview could have lasted a long time if we started talking shop, but it’s probably better that it didn’t.
A few other questions I got:
- What books are you reading now?
- What do you do for fun?
- How do your friends describe you?
- How do your employers describe you, in reviews for example?
- Have you applied to any other schools? (In order to determine if I was just applying for a “vacation in France”)
- What role would you play in a group/team setting?
My questions included ones about the BOS and Professor Kim, as well as the experience of re-joining school after a long absence. My interview overall, went okay, but hopefully I can do better for my second one!
