Just got back from my cross-country trip which produced only about 36 hours on the ground in Boston--long enough to go out in Southie on Sunday night, go to two classes, lunch, and my interview yesterday, then out in the North End last night before catching a 6am flight this morning.
I interviewed with an AdCom member late in the afternoon--I was the last interview slot for the day so I thought she might be a little lenient with the 30 minute rule, but she stuck right to it. Things went by pretty quickly. Here's what I remember her asking me about (in no particular order):
How was your trip? Did you have time for a tour or class visit? What did you think?
How did you know you wanted to be a Marine?
What about your experiences made you want to get out of the Marine Corps? When did you know you wanted to get out?
What made you decide to go after an MBA?
What's your career vision?
What are the best and worst things about your current job?
How is this job different from your previous ones?
Did you pursue it or were you assigned to it?
How and why did you choose your undergrad school and major?
What do you do for fun?
What's the best concert you've ever been to? (Since I mentioned live music as a hobby.)
What sources do you use for news?
What's the most interesting article you've read lately? Did you agree with it? (Note--I mentioned a pretty obscure Atlantic Monthly article about why a lot of our good military officers are getting out and she had read it too. Moral of the story--don't try to BS these people, because they are very well-read and know almost everything.)
What's the last book you read? (Fortunately I just finished a good one on Saturday, so I was able to talk in depth about it.)
So as you can see, it was pretty straightforward and I didn't get any curveball questions. The unofficial Harbus interview guide was good prep...other than that just know your story and be able to talk about what you've learned from your experiences and what you want to do.
We didn't have any time for questions and she was pretty emphatic in stating that all decisions would be released around mid-day on March 29. I didn't get a business card from her but I got a generic AdCom email address from the receptionist on the way out--apparently you can send a thank-you message to that address with the interviewer's name in the subject line and he/she will get it.
28 Feb 2011, 10:35
