Any IMD Applicants for 2011

Hi Ramanathanblue

Gee where do I start... IMD has such a long and intensive assessment day... overall I guess it went alright... although somehow I'm not feeling the most optimistic about it... ah well 7 business days or so to go

I interviewed in Singapore. There were 7 of us in my group, 3 from Pakistan, 3 from Japan and myself, the entire day was spent in the lounge of the Mandarin Oriental in Singapore... lovely view of Marina Bay while waiting for the interviews to take place.

We were met right on the dot at 8 by the adcom and briefed about the day and given the impromptu preso topic... it was pretty harsh for me as I had just touched down in Singapore at like 230am that same morning (curse the weather in HK for delaying the flight)... but somehow I cranked out a bunch of transparencies and a few notes... what strikes me about this is that 30mins is really all you get to prepare for the preso... and you deliver it after lunch... which gives you like 4-5 hrs where you cant really work on it.

Then came the interview, I was the last before lunch so I had a bit of a time constraint... just about 40-45 mins before we had to cut it short... the interview was very probing, in that she kept probing about my goals and what I wanted to do, not so much the standard 3 "Why" questions and none of that "take me thru your CV" as well... 1 of the interesting questions I got was "what are the first 5 words that come to mind when I mention IMD" and apparently another oddball one (that I didnt get but someone else got) went along the lines of "A man goes to a shoe shop every Saturday morning, what does he go there for?" - Talk about having to think on your feet fast!

Then we had lunch with the alumni... the spreads were way too big so I had to make sure I didnt OD on carbs... else it'd be a very tough afternoon.

After lunch was the presos... and timing was key, they really do stop you after 5 minutes, I think the whole group picked up on this very fast and after the 1st person was stopped at the 5 min mark, everyone else seemed to cut short their presos and finish within 4-5 mins. After that we were given additional information about the preso, then we had 30 mins to churn out a 2nd preso, but discussing it as a group this time, which gave us a taste of what was to come in the group discussions.

After that we had a few minutes break and jumped right into the case study, moderated by one of the adcoms, she basically guided the flow of the discussion and I sensed she was trying to make sure none of us really dominated the discussions. Then we were broken up into smaller groups to discuss different aspects of the case before presenting them to each other to sum up the case.

A few points about the whole process that stood out:
- IMD by far has the most helpful and friendly adcoms I've ever had to deal with. The way they treat you makes you feel like you matter which is a comforting touch
- Research your business case, from what I understand its based on a historical scenario, which means taking note of the economic / political situation of the time helps, also knowing the details of what happened also helps
- Dont dominate the discussion... easier said than done... also make sure you dont get involved in arguing with the group members, its a fine fine line between tactful and aggressive
- If the cross-section of the assessment day is anything to go by, the 90 who get accepted can really look forward to working with people from truely diverse backgrounds
- I cant stop about how nice the adcoms are. My goals post-mba are quite a stretch; at the end of the interview, my interviewer passed me the contact of a student from a few years back who had made exactly the same transition I was looking to make. IMO, that was very touching and just reinforced my view on how tight-knit the communtiy at IMD is

In closing, I'd say it was a very good experience, kinda like some other assessment days I've been for whilst still a student... but for argubly larger stakes.

Good luck to everyone else waiting for the results. And if anyone needs more info or just wants to speak about the process, I'd be more than willing to help.