MBA - Interview tips and experiences

Hi GMAT Clubbers

This thread is intended to have useful tips and guides for MBA Interviews and Interview experiences of GMAT club members. Lets keep aside interview discussion from this thread and consolidate the interview related info and guides spilled across our forum.

Interview Tips/Guides

• Excellent interview tips from Rhyme
• Best Interview guidelines
• Dressing guidelines for MBA Interviews
• Discussion of Adcom feedback on Candidates interview performance/behavior
• Comprehensive collection MBA interview questions
• GMAT Club groups for mock interview preactice
• Amazing blog on how fit matters both to candidate and to the school
• What to bring to the BSchool interview
• Interview discussion for candidates with no work experience
• Businessweek's MBA mock interview videos
• A database of actual interview experiences (including questions) from a comprehensive list of school
• Good interview tips, questions and answers MBA interview blog spot by Vince
• Interview videos from top schools - save 10% with ZoomInterviews (discount coupon GMATclub10)

Interview experience
International Schools

• Bigoyal's Interview experience - Indian School of Business - India
• LBS Interview by beks
• LBS Inteview by BSD_Lover

US Schools

• HBS Inteview by Shadowsjc

All, please feel free to add the information you have and share your interview experience in the forum. I will add the link to those useful infos and keep updating this post.

Hope we will make this thread as one stop shop for all MBA interview insights

Thank you! Great collection that will definitely help with interview prep.

Another good resource is Accepted.com's interview feedback:
http://www.accepted.com/mba/InterviewFeedback.aspx
It's a database of actual interview experiences (including questions) from a comprehensive list of schools.

thanks - added to the master list

HBS MOCK INTERVIEWS
I DO A LOT OF THEM
I CAN HELP YOU (I CAN ALSO HELP WITH STANFORD AND WHARTON)

I did about 80 mock interviews for HBS in Round One this year. Over the past 10 years, I have probably done over 600 HBS mock interviews. My knowledge of how to prepare you for an HBS mock interview is based on those experiences.

I know typical HBS questions, including questions often asked of investment bankers, private equity, venture capital and hedge fund associates, and questions asked to those employed in non-profits, the military, manufacturing, and technology.
I know how to help you formulate your core story in ways which can be applied to many questions.
I can predict trouble areas in your application and help you come up with talking points to deal with them.
I can sense what your particular needs are in terms of presentation, for example, if you don't get to the point soon enough (a possibly fatal habit) or if you appear too aggressive or too arrogant or confident in the wrong way for often thin-skinned (and just plain thin) HBS interviewers (some of whom are predisposed not to like bankers).
I can help you create a back story for your goals which creates a solid platform for Why MBA, Why HBS?
I can help you prepare a strong answer to the question "Why should we take you?" This questions is often asked in several forms:
"What can YOU contribute to case method discussion based on background and experience?"
"How will your classmates remember you?"
"How have you grown as a leader?"
I can calm you down, although that will not be the first thing that happens.
I can help you formulate answers to 'ice-breaker' questions such as:
"I already know you from your application, just tell me what you think the three defining moments in your life are?"
"Pretend I have not read your application and I just met you. Tell me who you are, what you've done, and where you want to be 15 years?"
I can help prepare you to face such recently popular questions as:
"What is one thing that is not immediately apparent about you to others?"
"How would your friends describe you?"
"How has the financial crisis impacted you, your friends, your industry and your goals?"
THE PROCESS:THE MOCK INTERVIEW IS DONE BY PHONE.
If you want a mock HBS interview, send me an email, telling me when your interview is, what time zone you are in, what days and times are good for you, and attaching a resume. I will reply back w. dates and times, etc. Then you send me a pdf of your application. Mock interviews take about 60-70 minutes. The price is $300.00 dollars USD. You pay me when we speak and do the interview.

PART OF OUR CONTINUING SERIES: WHAT HAPPENS AT HBS INTERVIEWS. OUR INTERVIEW PREP IS BASED ON HUNDREDS OF REPORTS LIKE THIS INTER-WEAVED WITH OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE FULL APP AND THE OUTCOME AND THE FULL ANSWERS GIVEN, BOTH IN PREP AND AT THE INTERVIEW. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS, POST OR LET ME KNOW. FOR INTERVIEW PREP. SEE OUT WEBSITE, hint, look at avatar.



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Interviewer: Pam Ralston (Alstron? Not 100% sure).

Overall: The questions were pretty standard, often the same as what we went over,
Questions:
1. Tell me about your past, present and future.

2. Tell me more about your career goal, what made you decide to pursue it?

3. What barriers will you face in switching careers? How do you plan to address them?

4. What is your plan B if it doesn't work out?

5. If I called up your supervisor, what would he say are your strengths and weaknesses? Key Answers: Similar to what I prepped.
6. What risks is HBS taking if we admit you?

7. How did you prepare for your interview?

8. How did you choose your recommenders?



9. What question were you expecting that we did not cover?

HBS INTERVIEW INTELLIGENCE, PART OF OUR CONTINUING SERIES OF POSTS DURNG ROUND 2 INTERVIEW SEASON.

Taieb has reputation for giving push back to IB and PE types, as below. If you get him as interviewer, be sure to play "It's not about the money" to the max, of course, in a convincing way. If anyone has any questions or suggestions on how to deal with any Q below, just post



Philliepe Taieb

1) Tell me about general themes in your development since college:
2) What surprised you at IB:
3) What surprised you at PE shop:
4) Since I spoke about communication skills that I witnessed at IB, he asked whether I saw Partners persuading clients with bad advice so they could generate fees:
5) Went on whole routines about how HBS Class is an Orchestra and everyone plays a different instrument (which he admitted he didn't quite believe in)...Asked me what distinguishes me--
He challenged me on the last point saying that he works part time in the career office and that most students come in with ambitious goals and then change their goals within 2 months of coming to HBS.
6) Asked me what areas I was trying to improve on:
7) Asked me how I saw myself as a contrarian:
8) Anything else you would like to add:

HBS interview: what to expect
I have my HBS interview on Monday. Do you have any last minute tips for what to expect?



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Is an HBS interview a make-or-break interview? How do they view it? Does the adcom generally know which of the candidates that have been invited for interview that they want? Or do they make their final decision based on the interview?

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It can be a break exp. but not a make exp, if you screw it up, and blather, or cannot explain yourself, or piss off the interviewer: YOU WILL BE DINGED.

Of the 1800 kids they interview that happens in maybe 180 cases (10 percent). OF those 180, maybe 80 actually know it was a disaster, and walk out REALLY BUMMED, no fooling. Like a kid who wrote me, in response to my wondering about initial report, if this person was just having normal second thoughts, “I cannot tell you how bad it was…………..” That convinced me. THAT KID WAS DINGED. (Phone call w.kid, and details of back and forth really did it). Of the 100 kids of the 180 SCREW UPS who DO NOT KNOW they screwed up, it will be a matter of irritating the interviewer, w. a pattern of evasions, jargon, sports talk, bravado, tin ear replies, and interviewer is not the type (and most are not) who overtly expressly dislike but rather just silenty says, “Keep it up, it’s your funeral……………….” That report gets written up as answers were evasive, arrogant, not aware of audience, etc.etc.

Of the remaining 700 kids who get dinged anyway and are not part of the above 180–their interviews were mostly non-events, but after interview they lost out to better candidates in their silo, however defined, see DeeDee’s explanation of this above.

What interview does not do, IN MOST CASES, is get you in, e.g. turns a marginal app. (by interviewed app. standards) into AN ACCEPT, altho who knows, I imagine if you are borderline, and some guy very similar to you has ok inter. and you have boffo interview, well, maybe you will get in, but that dont happen as much as you might predict.

What to expect: interiewer will be courteous but not empathetic, or gushy, or even warm; inter. may take lots of notes, which can be disconcerting, you will walk out saying, “that was an anti-climax, I did fine, but I did not get a chance to unroll my super leadership answers, or boffo stuff I researched about treks, or my great OTHER failure not in my app…..it was just a chat, and pleasant, with only one substantive team question at the end, s what gives??” WHat gives in most cases is you did fine, and your admit will be determined by rest of app.

Thanks for adding the MBA Interview Feedback Database to your list of resources. Your readers may also be interested in Accepted's free MBA Interview Prep Mini-Course.

Best,
Linda Abraham

This is a wonderful list folks - should be of great use to the applicant pool.

I'd like to add another resource. http://www.clearadmit.com/wiki

The Clear Admit Wiki is a great source for interview questions - with literally hundreds of first-hand, field reports from MBA applicants to top-tier programs. Like any wiki, the site is 100% user-generated and very timely. The site also includes a "current state" page with details on distribution of interview invites and admissions decisions.

Enjoy,

Graham Richmond, Clear Admit

Great interview questions.Thanks for sharing

This thread is great. I am planning to give my GMAT in next month and then look forward for tips and suggestions for application and interview. Keep posting.

Pawan

Btw, I forgot to put this in my previous post. This is the interview experience of one of my close friends who has given his GMAT couple of months back, scored 720, applied couple of international schools of US, India and Singapore.

Here goes his interview experience of Rice University. Apologies for the informal format but it's like he is -

Interview expereince of Rice University : http://www.pawanverma.com/2010/02/09/mb ... ames-bond/

Regards,
Pawan

Hi,

Thanks very much for this comment. It help me to think about my ideals.

Apart from that, this link below may be useful: Interview tips
Tks again and pls keep posting.