Courtesy of Juggler
I’m really happy to say that “My Wharton interview went off very well!”
My interviewer was a really expressive person with a lot of smiles to offer, which made me comfortable instantly. She took a full 3 minutes (don’t ask me how I know the exact number…) to peruse my resume completely and she said “Crystal Clear”. A small “yippie” to myself and a polite “thank you” and a smile to her. She started off with What is your current role in your organization. I gave her an idea what the product was and what I do, clearly separating the technical and non-technical aspects of my job. Then she asked me Why do I want an MBA?. I took the liberty of telling her that I would elaborate on my goals before I get there and did just that. I spoke about my goals, why those goals (which covered nearly 7 years of my life:-)) and how I think an MBA can get me there. Then came “Why now?”. Simple, honest answer followed. After that she switched topics by saying So we have spoken about your leadership at work and extracurriculars… Here again I took the liberty of telling her that my list of extracurriculars is not complete and elborated a little on the left out aspects. She wanted to know about 1 strength and 1 weakness. I gave her a true strength and a true weakness (I don’t care if it damages my prospects). Then I gave her a discourse on what I expect out of Wharton and what made me apply to Wharton.
That’s pretty much the list of questions as such. But I had the luxury of guiding the interview in whichever direction I wanted. So in the course of the conversation we spoke about Social consciousness, IT industry- who are the major players, Mumbai life (Although I’ve never lived there, I’ve been there enough number of times to know a lot about it and of course, I love Mumbai!), the disparities between the upper and lower economic segments of any city. We also touched upon topics like idealism, why Indians return to India from the US, the safety net in European countries etc. I don’t know how it happened, but our conversation was peppered throughout with such extremely interesting digressions. Finally I got to ask her some questions, for which she gave me very detailed, insightful answers.
She gave me feedback (which I did not ask for of course :D). The words “exciting”, “impressed” and “successful” were used! I thanked her, told her it was very nice talking to her and left. I ran out of the door and called my anxiously waiting mother to share my exultation. When I noticed the time I realized we had been speaking for 45 mins (15 mins more than the stipulated time). I’m sure the guy who was waiting for his turn must have cursed me :-).
I don’t know if this will convert to an admit, after all the interview is not the make or break in Wharton’s holistic process. I came out feeling completely satisfied and that is all that matters to me at the moment. I will not blame the interview if I don’t make it.
