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Hideto
How long did you guys take to hear back from your interviewers after the initial outreach?

Haven't heard back from both interviewers after 3 days so just wanted to get an idea on the wait time the rest of you faced. Weekends are looming so perhaps the best time to follow up with an email / call would be Monday I guess?

Cheers!

One of my interviewers has not responded for ~5 working days, so I informed the Admissions Officer, who was very assuring and helpful.

My interviewer then responded the next working day and turns out he missed my email because he was traveling for work.

Thank you for your reply!

Tomorrow would be the 6th day that my interviewer did not reply. I am going to send a follow up email soon and also try to call! If no response i will get back to the AO. Thanks again for sharing your experience!

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I completed my first interview today and it was much more chill than I expected. I got the feeling that my interview was really just a final check to see that I was a good fit for the program. Good luck to everyone else for their upcoming interviews!

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Hi all, I just had my interview a few minutes ago. Alum has a similar background to mine. Aside from the usual Qs (tell me about yourself/why MBA/why INSEAD/where else did you apply and what's your preference), he focused on asking Qs about my long-term goals.

I think it went well, hoping for the best!

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Hi everyone,

I just had my first interview. Alumni from 2006 batch, with a background different from mine.

The interview was in the Alumni work office and lasted 90 minutes. The conversation was a bit on the tough side on the beginning, with the interviewer challenging my answers constantly, so preparation was key. Besides the usual questions (why MBA, why INSEAD, which other schools, CV questions), I was asked about my leadership style, how would my colleagues describe me, what is my plan without an MBA, which would be the bigger challenge in pursuing my career goals post-MBA, which was my favorite project at work or university, how do I deal with different negotiation styles....

Overall, it felt closer to a job interview than a relaxed conversation. However, when it came to the part where I was asking questions, the vibe became much more relaxed and we actually laughed a lot. I actually confirmed that there is no indication from the school regarding the good cop/bad cop attitude, it's just the interviewer style. I guess it makes sense that they try to grill us a bit, just to check if we can handle hot water ;)

As long as you were authentic in everything you mentioned in your application and your CV, you'll be just fine :)

I'll come back after my second interview to give you feedback.

Best of luck to all of us!
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Hi everyone,

I had my first interview last week. Alumni from 2006 batch, with a background different from mine.

The interview was in the Alumni work office and lasted 90 minutes. The conversation was a bit on the tough side on the beginning, with the interviewer challenging my answers constantly, so preparation was key. Besides the usual questions (why MBA, why INSEAD, which other schools, CV questions), I was asked about my leadership style, how would my colleagues describe me, what is my plan without an MBA, which would be the bigger challenge in pursuing my career goals post-MBA, which was my favorite project at work or university, how do I deal with different negotiation styles....

Overall, it felt closer to a job interview than a relaxed conversation. However, when it came to the part where I was asking questions, the vibe became much more relaxed and we actually laughed a lot. I actually confirmed that there is no indication from the school regarding the good cop/bad cop attitude, it's just the interviewer style. I guess it makes sense that they try to grill us a bit, just to check if we can handle hot water ;)

As long as you were authentic in everything you mentioned in your application and your CV, you'll be just fine :)

I'll come back after my second interview to give you feedback.

Best of luck to all of us!

Great to hear from the three of you! Very happy to hear that it went well for you all and the advice given will definitely prove to be useful to the rest of the R2 interviewees. Both of my meetings are in end Dec/early Jan as the interviewers are busy or away on business so your input has been really helpful. Cheers all!

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Happy holidays everyone! :cool:

For candidates who have finished their interviews, enjoy your well-earned break and relax as much as you can since results release is still one month away!

For candidates who still have to complete their interviews over the next few weeks (like me), definitely still try your best to enjoy Christmas and not stress over the interviews too much. You have got this! Cheers!
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Hi people, merry xmas to everyone!

I'm facing kind of an odd situation. One of my interviewers is acting very strange. We scheduled a first meeting and I got stood up. No answer to my mails or the phone. We eventually spoke and so we scheduled a second meeting. The second time the person called me 15min before the scheduled time to tell me that he was not going to show up. The best part was that I was already at the place =( didn't get mad or anything, I stayed polite and asked to reschedule for a third time.

My meeting is today and I still do not know the address, on the phone the person said that he would send me an email with the details. I waited for a while and since I didn't receive anything I sent him an email asking for the address, no reply. Sent a text, same result. Tried calling, no answer.

Do you know if I can have my interviewer changed?

Thanks for your advise.
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motiv06
Hi people, merry xmas to everyone!

I'm facing kind of an odd situation. One of my interviewers is acting very strange. We scheduled a first meeting and I got stood up. No answer to my mails or the phone. We eventually spoke and so we scheduled a second meeting. The second time the person called me 15min before the scheduled time to tell me that he was not going to show up. The best part was that I was already at the place =( didn't get mad or anything, I stayed polite and asked to reschedule for a third time.

My meeting is today and I still do not know the address, on the phone the person said that he would send me an email with the details. I waited for a while and since I didn't receive anything I sent him an email asking for the address, no reply. Sent a text, same result. Tried calling, no answer.

Do you know if I can have my interviewer changed?

Thanks for your advise.

motiv06

I guess you should definitely report this behavior to the admission committee, not in a complaining manner though. Tell them that you were so excited to meet the interviewers and they didn't show up at least twice and you got concerned about it. Even if you end up interviewing with the same person, the admission committee should know this so that they can evaluate the interviewer's feedback in this context.

Let us know how it goes.
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motiv06
Hi people, merry xmas to everyone!

I'm facing kind of an odd situation. One of my interviewers is acting very strange. We scheduled a first meeting and I got stood up. No answer to my mails or the phone. We eventually spoke and so we scheduled a second meeting. The second time the person called me 15min before the scheduled time to tell me that he was not going to show up. The best part was that I was already at the place =( didn't get mad or anything, I stayed polite and asked to reschedule for a third time.

My meeting is today and I still do not know the address, on the phone the person said that he would send me an email with the details. I waited for a while and since I didn't receive anything I sent him an email asking for the address, no reply. Sent a text, same result. Tried calling, no answer.

Do you know if I can have my interviewer changed?

Thanks for your advise.

motiv06

I guess you should definitely report this behavior to the admission committee, not in a complaining manner though. Tell them that you were so excited to meet the interviewers and they didn't show up at least twice and you got concerned about it. Even if you end up interviewing with the same person, the admission committee should know this so that they can evaluate the interviewer's feedback in this context.

Let us know how it goes.

Very interesting experience. Reminds me of the daunting encounter I had during one of my interviews in R1. The interviewer disagreed with me to the point where he asked me to show my transcript to prove something I said. He challenged me all through the interview and gave me only pointed extremely crisp answers to my questions. But I believe what worked is my cool head. I just answered his challenges genuinely without getting tensed. He didn't respond to my thank you note either. Finally, having been given the admit, I think it was a deliberate stress test. So, my only advise to you is to just maintain your cool head, come what may. It will all work out in your favor!! I got an encouraging note from my interviewer after I told him about the admit.

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motiv06
Hi people, merry xmas to everyone!

I'm facing kind of an odd situation. One of my interviewers is acting very strange. We scheduled a first meeting and I got stood up. No answer to my mails or the phone. We eventually spoke and so we scheduled a second meeting. The second time the person called me 15min before the scheduled time to tell me that he was not going to show up. The best part was that I was already at the place =( didn't get mad or anything, I stayed polite and asked to reschedule for a third time.

My meeting is today and I still do not know the address, on the phone the person said that he would send me an email with the details. I waited for a while and since I didn't receive anything I sent him an email asking for the address, no reply. Sent a text, same result. Tried calling, no answer.

Do you know if I can have my interviewer changed?

Thanks for your advise.

motiv06

I guess you should definitely report this behavior to the admission committee, not in a complaining manner though. Tell them that you were so excited to meet the interviewers and they didn't show up at least twice and you got concerned about it. Even if you end up interviewing with the same person, the admission committee should know this so that they can evaluate the interviewer's feedback in this context.

Let us know how it goes.

Very interesting experience. Reminds me of the daunting encounter I had during one of my interviews in R1. The interviewer disagreed with me to the point where he asked me to show my transcript to prove something I said. He challenged me all through the interview and gave me only pointed extremely crisp answers to my questions. But I believe what worked is my cool head. I just answered his challenges genuinely without getting tensed. He didn't respond to my thank you note either. Finally, having been given the admit, I think it was a deliberate stress test. So, my only advise to you is to just maintain your cool head, come what may. It will all work out in your favor!! I got an encouraging note from my interviewer after I told him about the admit.

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Hi tsdk

Did you talk to your AO about this? If so what did they say?

Cheers
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motiv06
Hi people, merry xmas to everyone!

I'm facing kind of an odd situation. One of my interviewers is acting very strange. We scheduled a first meeting and I got stood up. No answer to my mails or the phone. We eventually spoke and so we scheduled a second meeting. The second time the person called me 15min before the scheduled time to tell me that he was not going to show up. The best part was that I was already at the place =( didn't get mad or anything, I stayed polite and asked to reschedule for a third time.

My meeting is today and I still do not know the address, on the phone the person said that he would send me an email with the details. I waited for a while and since I didn't receive anything I sent him an email asking for the address, no reply. Sent a text, same result. Tried calling, no answer.

Do you know if I can have my interviewer changed?

Thanks for your advise.
motiv06 I would encourage you to send this exact same email to your AO. Minus the part about you not getting angry of course.
I can't guarantee that they would change the interviewer but that's really your only viable option. You need to expose their behavior to protect your interests.

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Omg I can't believe it, meeting got cancelled again for the third time. I will try to reschedule again and definitely have a talk with my AO.

Thank you all for your insights.

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Omg I can't believe it, meeting got cancelled again for the third time. I will try to reschedule again and definitely have a talk with my AO.

Thank you all for your insights.

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I don't actually think you should reschedule with them again. Clearly that is meaningless to her/him and it's just going to be a waste of your time. I would contact your AO immediately and ask for their recommendation on a course of action. I'm really sorry that you are being forced to put up with this crap. It is massively unprofessional to say the least.

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motiv06
Omg I can't believe it, meeting got cancelled again for the third time. I will try to reschedule again and definitely have a talk with my AO.

Thank you all for your insights.

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I don't actually think you should reschedule with them again. Clearly that is meaningless to her/him and it's just going to be a waste of your time. I would contact your AO immediately and ask for their recommendation on a course of action. I'm really sorry that you are being forced to put up with this crap. It is massively unprofessional to say the least.

https://mbaprepcoach.com

motiv06

I agree with what MBAPrepCoach said here. I don't think you should try to reschedule the interview. You should contact your AO, explain the situation and request for a change of interviewer. I personally don't feel alright interviewing with the person who clearly doesn't respect other's time.
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Well I sent an e-mail to my AO asking for a suggested course of action. I guess I'll get a reply on Monday with further instructions. Getting a bit worried though since we have until jan 11 to complete both interviews.

I'll keep you posted!

Cheers
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Hi all, to those working on their scholarship forms, were you able to put in all of your previous roles in the "Personal Profile" page? Seems the page is only saving the first entry, then throws an error when I try to put in a previous role in the second line... I've already sent an email to the IT helpdesk but haven't received any response yet.
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motiv06
Well I sent an e-mail to my AO asking for a suggested course of action. I guess I'll get a reply on Monday with further instructions. Getting a bit worried though since we have until jan 11 to complete both interviews.

I'll keep you posted!

Cheers

Hi motiv06,

It is extremely unfortunate that you have been allocated to such an unprofessional interviewer! Do keep us posted on what the AO says and I hope that you will be able to arrange for another interviewer. While my experience with INSEAD alumni has been stellar for the most part, it is important for us to identify poor representatives like this and highlight them to the Admissions Committee so that this will not occur again for future applicants.

Hope everything gets sorted out for you motiv06! Cheers!
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Hi all, to those working on their scholarship forms, were you able to put in all of your previous roles in the "Personal Profile" page? Seems the page is only saving the first entry, then throws an error when I try to put in a previous role in the second line... I've already sent an email to the IT helpdesk but haven't received any response yet.

I haven’t had that problem. Must be some glitch. It’s quite challenging to find something new to say in these scholarship essays after the already very in-depth application essays!

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