First interview: My interviewer is a senior associate / project manager at a large well-known consulting company. He went to undergrad in Europe, and was extremely nice and personable. The interview itself was very relaxed, and I barely felt like I was interviewing. It was very much a discussion to get to know each other, as he did not really ask any probing or behavioral questions – he simply wanted to get to know me, and see how I would fit in at INSEAD. He even said, himeselt, that the interview was more of a “sanity check” as opposed to a real interview. The interview went for a little over an hour. Major questions asked:
- Tell me about yourself – here he wanted to get to know me and my background a bit. He wanted to know the basics of my education thus far, and about my work experiences
- Tell me about your career progression to-date – he was very interested in getting to know the nuances of my company structure, and since I also work in consulting, it was fairly similar to his own experience and we were able to chat about it for a while. I was able to show my quick progression at my company in just a few years, and I think this is ultimately what he wanted to know
- Tell me about your international experience(s) – both work and personal
- What are your career goals after INSEAD
- Where else did you apply? How would you prioritize your decision if admitted to two or more?
Those were the main four questions he asked, but beyond that I spent some time talking about why INSEAD/why now and how I thought INSEAD specifically matched my interests the most. In the end, I felt like the interview went really well – he was very nice to talk to, and was very candid about his experiences at INSEAD. He definitely made me even more excited about potentially attending.
Second interview: My second interview was also fairly relaxed, and more of a discussion. I was very surprised again that both interviewers seemed to really want to get to know me and learn about my key experiences, as opposed to asking behavioral questions etc. He was working in international finance, and though our careers and goals were different, we were able to connect on the international angle. The questions asked were basically:
- Walk me through your resume, your main professional experiences and how you got there
- Why business school, why INSEAD, why now?
- What are your career goals post-graduation?
- What is your plan if you do not get into INSEAD?
- What is your plan if you do not land the post-grad job that you want?
- Where else are you applying?
- Where are your peers that started in the same class with you at your consulting firm?
Again, I felt both interviews went pretty well, and both interviewers were genuinely interesting to talk to. They really just wanted to get to know me, and see whether I would fit in at INSEAD. My advice is to just stay true to yourself, be yourself, and get to know your interviewer. Treat it as more of a conversation than an interview, and really express to them why you want to attend INSEAD.
