January 2009. Went on for a full 90 minutes (no joke) at a Starbucks near both of our offices. He had already read my resume because you’re supposed to send it in advance of the meeting. I was assigned a specific alumni interviewer in my area who I contacted and scheduled the meeting with.
He introduced himself, told me about his background
- Then he asked me to tell him about my background/resume – why industry/why geography for current job.
- How does an MBA fit in with your plans and why now? I told him why Stanford but he didn’t specifically ask.
- He asked what kind of VC I wanted to pursue after business school (no great answer for that one since I haven’t decided)
- What is your leadership style? Give me an example of how you’ve led that way.
- When have you led peers and how?
- What is a piece of valuable feedback you have received?
- When have things not gone well in a peer-to-peer experience?
- If you were resource-unconstrained, what cause would you pursue most vigorously? (because I have a lot of service in my background I think and he said it was a question that he had gotten)
- What is my company’s strategy? How have they done well? What challenges do they face now?
- What qualities do I look for in a job opportunity or educational setting?
- Tell me about a time you had to make a trade-off between two equally attractive opportunities.
- Plenty of time for me to ask him questions
I was shocked by how structured the interview was. He was a pretty young guy who had graduated just a few years prior and really seemed to have thought of all the questions he wanted to ask. He had a pad out the entire time and took copious notes. (Or maybe he was reading from a list of Stanford GSB suggested questions!) Despite the fact that he had a clear (and lengthy agenda), we lapsed into conversation a lot. Many of his questions naturally turned into back-and-forth discussion or gave me an opportunity to ask his thoughts. He spent a lot of time talking about his experiences before, during and after Stanford. Very enjoyable for a 1.5 hour interview!
