I received my interwiers’ details nearly a week after the pre-selction mail. Both were pretty young (mid-30s) and were in impressive positions. One was a VP at a VC company and the other was a Marketing Director of a technology company.
My first interview was with the VP of a VC company and it was at his office. The interview was scheduled for 3 PM. I arrived 10 minutes ahead of schedule and his secretary showed me to a meeting room. And here things started going downhill. He made me wait till 3.30 PM before he came in. I kept my cool and generally was going through my application and more mocking.
My interviewer was very familiar with my company and was probing me heavily on their strategy. In general, he was abrupt, brusque and at times seemed disdainful, but I plugged away. I refused to get flustered and kept correcting him if he made some wrong assumptions. There were many questions on the the decisions my company had taken, their future course of actions (for the curious ones, no, I didn’t reveal any trade secrets), etc. In between, he drilled me about my work and how it tied into the overall strategy of the company and why I was chosen by management to do certain things, etc.
In the middle of the interview he walked away for another 20 minutes to attend to another meeting. He also attended to 2 phone calls while I was talking. I found this to be a bit unusual considering all I had read about the chilled-out interviews that INSEAD alumni conduct.
I came out of the interview feeling a bit dazed not knowing what had just happened. I guess it was good in the end. So never think its over until its over. And never back down from who you really are.
To read the full interview, please go to OutOfMyJeans
Cheers (Result: Accepted)
