My interviewer was very warm and friendly and made a concerted effort to make sure I was relaxed and comfortable. She had clearly read my application thoroughly and after some small talk, she told me she had prepared 3 questions that I should answer with new stories in the STAR format.
- Tell me about a time you led a team to a solution.
- Tell me about a time you had to sell an idea.
- Tell me about a time your idea was rejected.
She then allowed me to ask several questions about the program. We ran a little over 45 minutes.
I prepared for my interview by making 1 notecard for each of 5 good stories that were deep enough to answer a wide variety of questions and diverse enough to show characteristics of me that weren’t emphasized in my application. My notecards were in the STAR format that MIT recommends – 1 bullet for each point. Finally, I looked at this wiki to see the range of questions and thought through whether or not my stories addressed most of them. I also did a mock interview.
Her line of questioning as we explored each story was very logical and she did not throw any major curve balls. I felt that I was stumbling through #3 at times, but she helped me stay on track. I was admitted in R2.
