Here is the interview process for London Business School:
This is my experience for Rd1 for class of 2008 (Fall 2006 entry) Scheduling Interview:
Once you receive an invite to interview from the admissions team, you will get an email from your local country/region representative with an alumnus name and email for you to contact the person. In my case, after exchanging a few emails, we decided on time and place to meet.
Interview Duration: Mine lasted an hour and half. I have heard interviews lasting between 1 hour and 2 hours. So it’s most likely the longest business school interview you will have.
Interview Style: I was wearing a suit since I thought the interview will be formal but it turned out to be much more casual (at least in appearance) and if I were wearing business casual, I would have been fine. So check with your interviewer. If you have doubts, just go in a suit. Interview Questions:
The interview is split into three parts and the alumnus has copy of your application and essays. a) Interview Questions: The interview questions where similar to other b-schools questions (why MBA, why LBS) but there is a big focus on teamwork, leadership and conflict type questions. It felt very much like a job interview and it was guaging my ability to be in leadership roles as well as my ability to work in teams effectively.
Some questions probed my thinking on some business issues related to my work and company. One example, I was asked what areas I thought my company was weak in and how would I improve it.
My advice here is to prepare as you would for a job interview and re-read your entire application as the interviewer will know every detail of your application. b) Case study: Don’t freak out! Its a simple case study and is designed to gauge how well you can articulate your thoughts. The interviewer gave me a simple case about an issue (think GMAT’s analysis of an issue) and you are supposed to present your thoughts in a 2-5 minutes verbal presentation. You can jot down notes and such but the issue is very simple. My strategy was to come up with three points to discuss for and against the issue. c) Q&A: About 15 minutes talking and answering some of my questions about LBS and his experience at LBS.
Overall, a very pleasent experience and the 1hr+ format allowed me to share other experiences and activities/interests not necessarily reflected in the application. LBS Round 1 Interview for MBA 2008 Class (Accepted)- London
I interviewed in London with a recent alum. Alumni details were sent by the adcom and he was expecting a call for me. I think LBS places a lot more emphasis on the interview than most US Schools and its almost a make or break thing. From what it seems LBS had sent my interviewer a detailed list of questions and my full application. He had done his homework well and read my application throughly. He also placed the 4 page question database on the table and I noticed that he had highlighted in green the questions he had decided to ask me. We started with general introductions and a bit of personal background and he then moved on to questions:
General questions:
- Describe your career progress along with learnings and failures.
- What have been your biggest achievements.
- What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses.
- Describe occassions when you exhibited leadership at work.
- How do you deal in an international team environment.
- What are your career goals and Why LBS?
- What distinguishes LBS from other schools you have applied to? (LBS asks for names of other schools in their application and hence this question)
Industry Specific questions:I think one of the key difference between my interview for US schools and LBS was that my interviewer also had few questions on the industry I work in, general trends:
- What is the biggest opportunity and challenge facing your industry? (I mentioned globalization as both an opportunity and challenge)
- What would you change in the way your organization works?
- What are your learnings from your entrepreneurial venture?
- Why do you want to go back to your current industry?
Case Study:
It wasn’t really a case study. He had a list of 10-15 topics from school and he selected one and asked me to express my thoughts on it. I was given 3 minutes for preparation and 5 minutes for presentation. I made a few points in support of the topic (one can decide to argue against it as well) with examples and just recited them to him in about 3 minutes. It was fairly simple, I think you should definitely take a stand rather than just expressing both sides of the topic.
Lastly, he opened the floor for any questions to him. Overall I think it was about an hour. At times intense but fun.
