I interviewed with an alum on March 3rd, 2008, at his office. The interview differed from the standard conversational interview I had at other schools. The interview started off with the interviewer actually turning over my resume and stating that he wanted to get a sense of the “big picture” as it relates to me and my desire for an MBA. He then proceeded to ask me, “What are three of the most important decisions you have made that have brought you to where you are today?”. Realizing that this was not a typical interview question, he told me to take some time before formulating a response. I took about 10 seconds and responded. He followed up with a question to each response. I noticed early on in the interview that he was concerned with the rationale of certain decisions, statements, etc., so I made sure after the second or third question to fully explain why I did something. He noticed the change in my responses and actually smiled about it (later he told me that he liked how I adjust my responses to his type of questioning). My response to the first question set the direction of the interview. Below are the lists of questions I remember him asking me.
Questions:
- What are three of the most important decisions you have made that have brought you to where you are today?
- Two-Part Question: I see you have an undergraduate business degree, why then an MBA? Why don’t you stay in your current employment and develop business skills through a business development rotational program or other training?
- What other b-schools have you applied to? Why did you choose these schools?
- What would be your weaknesses as perceived by the Wharton Admissions Committee? (toughest question)
- What has been your most substantial professional accomplishment?
- Describe a situation where you were part of a group that failed. What did you learn from it?
- What do you do outside of work? What do you care about? If I bumped into you after work, where would it be and why?
- What do you see yourself doing in 10 years and why?
The interviewer asked a lot of deep personality questions which kind of surprised me. He seemed less interested in my career goals and more interested in my decision making and in who I am. At first he asked a lot of follow-up questions which drove at my thought process on certain matters. He barely jotted down anything which seemed odd since we talked for a long time. The toughest question I got was the weaknesses question. I actually rehearsed my response to the question with a current Wharton student, but the interviewer actually didn’t agree with most of my response. He said more than once that what I perceived to be a weakness was not actually an obvious weakness or at least not a weakness that the Wharton Admissions office would readily identify. After two go-at-its to that question I finally gave him one weakness he agreed on. I did though defend the prior weaknesses I gave him and mentioned how the weakness could come to bear in a team setting. For example I mentioned that one of my general weaknesses is what my lack of professional exposure to a lot of qualitative assignments, particularly work outside of finance/accounting, and projects dealing with business operations and strategy. He didn’t think that was a weakness that Wharton Admissions could spot but I defended the statement which I believe mitigated the concern he had over the response.
The interview last about an hour and half. My interviewer appeared to really enjoy talking to me. At the end of the interview he told me that he has a tendency to argue (I guess he does that a lot in his sales job) and not to read too much into it. Overall I did not get a positive feeling of the interview but I think he will at least remember me because I was very convincing in my responses and explained everything to the T. My advice would be to make sure you rehearse the weaknesses in your application question and be confident. I can not emphasize that enough. Other people I have spoken to who had interviews at Wharton told me the interviewer asked them at least one off-the wall question and their responses may not have been perfect but at least they articulated their explanation and did not hesitate in their responses.
