Quote:
2) People like Sandy who have second-hand experience across applicants and interviewers might be able to tell if Shanghai interview questions are tougher/more random/more unexpected. Or if out of two candidates that seem relatively well-matched, one had a tougher time in Shanghai.
Shanghai interviews last year (and maybe year before) were with Eileen Chang, a well respected and senior HBS adcom member, reports on her are mostly postive in terms of being fair, welcoming etc. with some few folks saying that is only one micron deep, so watch out. . . .some typical responses below fr. kids who interviewed with her in years past both in Shanghai and campus and other cities. I've included some of her typical questions to give you an idea of the Chang experience. BTW, Chang + Dee=BFF.
Duh, if you get an HBS interview, you might think about signing up for a mock interview w. me, there is only SO MUCH anyone can do to prepare you for an interview, but I got a pretty good idea of the process, having done now about 700-1,000 mock interviews. Recently ~100 a year,
https://hbsguru.com/prices.html#4 Hi Sanford,
I had Eileen Chang in Shanghai as predicted. Questions below
So . . .tell me about your job
What companies in [your country] should your classmates know about? (seemed to be wanting now and future type answer)
What has working in [another country] been like? What do you think of [your company] in [other country]? How is it different?
People have an impression that [your country] is all about x and y What else is happening there that i should know about? What kind of clients do you serve?
What is one word that best describes you? Why?
How specifically would you go about developing the practice area within [your company] that you are keen to do post MBA?
What is your perspective on China/Chinese economy?
What is the one thing outside of work that is most important to you?
What else would you like to talk about?
She was very nice and it was very conversational. She was definitely not poker faced - almost warm at times and she seemed to release her prepared questions quite a lot. She mentioned her name twice in the interview (which struck me as slightly unusual and may have been a cue that she wanted me to remember it).
My biggest tip for future international interviewees with her is to focus on interesting businesses/business models and why they are relevant. She seemed genuinely interested in this and quite focussed on how this could be of benefit to the class.
Once again thanks for your help and I will keep you posted on how I go!
Dear Sandy,
So I had the interview with Eileen in Shanghai.
She's very very nice indeed, with a lot more smiles than Dee (lol).It took around 35 mins, and after the interview we discussed sth about Shanghai and our traveling plan.
And the questions are really really similar to the mock one you did with me (yay!).
and I believe I didn't get lost when answering the questions. I tried to keep them shorter!
Hub-City Interview / Harvard Center Shanghai / Eileen Chang
The Harvard Center Shanghai is located in the HSBC tower 5th floor. At the tower reception one gets an entry card to take the elevator to the 5th floor. After exiting the elevator, signs lead the way to the "Waiting area". When I arrived there 20 minutes before my appointment, the whole place was empty. After finding a secretary in another part of the building, I was told to just wait at the assigned area, so I took a seat and read through the Harvard business review which was lying there.
Exactly on time, Eileen Chang welcomed me to the Harvard Center Shanghai and led me to a meeting room with a big table for ~10 persons. Our places at the table were already assigned, opposite to each other. She had my CV and a blank sheet in front of her. On my side there was a HBS pen, which she told me is a present to the applicants. She then told me about the procedure, i.e. that she read my application, that I should use examples/stories not mentioned in my essays, that the interview will last 30 minutes, that she will interrupt me and that I should not be confused about that, and that I will receive my admission decision on December 14th.
In general the questions were very much related to my work with many follow up questions, therefore I also include my answers below (in short). [I can't remember clearly in which order some of the questions were asked, but the script below should resemble the interview.]
The interview was exactly 30 minutes. The atmosphere was very friendly. In the end, her paper was half full with key words from my answers. During the interview she secretly yawned a few times, but was in general very encouraging by keeping eye-contact and nodding from time to time.
Hi Sandy,
Just finished my interview with Chang. I think it went OK. The chemistry is just so-so at the begining when we talked about my jobs, but significantly gets better when she asked about anything else we should know to complete the picture of who you are and then I told her about x and y. The later part of the interview is very relaxed and she repeated twice like "it's really a pleasure talking to you..." I'm very surprised she asked "if there anything we didn't talk about but you want to cover" . . .One thing I could do better is after talking about my childhood expereince, ...I should have behaved more calm down.
Here are the questions
1. Give me an update about my work
2. Explain my role into more details
3. What suggestions I would give to people/company who want to do business in China
4. Talk about the strategy about my firm, how do I think whether my company could catch up with main competitor in 5 years
5. Where do I see myself in 5 years
6. What makes me unique in all X applicants
7. What I can contribute to HBS
8. Anything else I want to talk about
9. What do I do most well and what should I improve
10. What concerned you about attending HBS
I just had the interview with Eileen. It's very hard to tell how it went because she's so professional. She smiled a lot and it was easy to relax.
======She then talked about the standard process of decision and notice and
said that I can email during the process if any questions (she talked
about this for twice in the end and I did not know why)Just had my hbs interview with Eileen (did not mention her last name).
Went ok - got some points across well, others ok I think. Not many
icebreakers at the beginning and generally questions were very specific
to my application - however relaxed atmosphere and time went by very
quickly.
Eileen Chang
The interview went well, mostly the types of things we talked about and I think I did well!
Most of the rest was very specific to me, so we talked about where I am living, why, my travel with my job, how that impacts me, family, and some follow up questions on above like, explain, talk a bit more etc.
It was calm and nice interview, very professional, and a bit short even- seemed we covered everything quickly.