Intern
Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 23
Given Kudos: 1
Location: United States
Concentration: Strategy, General Management
GPA: 3.9
Re: Sloan (MIT) Class of 2016 Calling all applicants
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04 Mar 2014, 15:09
I had my on-campus interview today and I agree with j0yd1v1s10n in that I was glad I prepared for this one. I've been fortunate with receiving interview invites this year, so I've seen the whole spectrum of styles from very laid back to very structured. I thought it would be useful to give my experience, however, because it was a little different from j0y's.
For a little context, I have an M.S. from MIT and my interviewer said he was going to structure our meeting a little differently than he normally would. I'm not exactly sure what was different, but he did spend much of the first half asking about my thought processes as I moved from an M.S. to working and now to an MBA. In the second half, he really only asked two behavioral-type questions: describe a time your opinion was rejected; tell me about a personal goal you set for yourself, outside of school/work. These were two questions I actually hadn't considered before, hence my relief for preparing.
Now, the main reason I'm explaining this is because, to j0y's last point, you should be prepared to think on your feet. I'm actually not one to focus on frameworks like STAR, because I find that I if I try to fit my stories too much, I stumble and wonder which letter I'm on (we'll see how much that helped/hurt me). What really caught me kind of off-guard was the way my interviewer asked questions. In general, they were not very direct and there were a couple of times where I actually had to clarify the question he was posing. He wasn't a bad interviewer by any means, he just had a very unique style, so it definitely helps to be flexible in your interpretations. If you've had other interviews, be prepared to face the same questions but maybe asked in a different manner.
That being said, I found my brief experience with Sloan to be atypical from what I experienced when I studied at MIT. If you just come and go for an interview like I did, you might not enjoy the visit, so definitely try to have lunch with students or something. The people at MIT (including Sloan) are amazing, friendly, and very down-to-earth. When I arrived at the check-in room, it was a little awkward and intimidating - not at all what the school is really like - so don't judge the book by it's cover if that was also your experience!