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Learn what truly sets the UC Riverside MBA apart and how it helps in your professional growth
20 May 2021, 01:29
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Latest LBS interview questions compilation for 2021 intake
The detailed interview debriefs can found at this link lbs-202/interview_debrief.html
LBS Full-time MBA Interview questions
Interviewed for the full-time MBA program with LBS with an alumni interviewer. Overall the interview lasted about 75 minutes. The interviewer upfront told me the format of the interview and left a good amount of time 15-20 minutes in the end for questions.
I would say questions were overall standard -- we talked through my background, each of my roles and I was asked to go into detail on a few specific projects. The interviewer wanted to understand my leadership style and how I deal with challenges and team environments and asked several questions on personality related to that. Further, they really want to understand career goals and why LBS will be the right program for you, asking specifically Why LBS and what other activities you would plan to get involved in during your time in the program.
Midway through, we had the case project. This is a short business-related question, that is more meant to get a sense of your critical thinking and communication. I was given 5 minutes to prepare the case and then 5 minutes to present. I think if you've worked in consulting or interviewed for consulting this won't be too difficult. However, if you have not, I would recommend preparing a bit on how to structure the case, as that is much more important than the actual answer.
After the case, we jumped back into the interview with a few more questions on my career goals/interests. It was clear that the interviewer had seen my application beforehand including my career goals and resume, and we talked about it in some detail.
As mentioned, at the end it was left open for questions. I had about 6 questions I asked about the interviewer's experience at LBS which were talked through in detail.
Overall, the interview is fairly standard, most of the questions are ones you can expect, and the interviewer has the chance to ask to follow up on motivations and things like that. The case, which takes about 10-15 minutes in total (preparation, instructions, and presentation) means that the interview is a bit longer than other MBA interviews, going as long as 2 hours for some people. But know your story, know about the school and know why the MBA program will help you get to where you want to be, and I'm sure you will be fine.
Location and time: At the interviewer’s office and lasted about 2 hours ( 1.30 hours for the questions and case from the interviewer’s side and the rest for my questions)
The interview: It was quite like a conversation; The interviewer told me that he was in my shoes before, so he tried to make me relax before he started the interview by allowing me to ask questions about his job and past experience.
The question: Here are the list of the questions I can remember.
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Follow up question about my favourite achievements.
3. Which courses or classes would I lead the study group if I got into the LBS?
4. Tell me about your international working experience and between European and Asian with whom do you prefer to work?
5. How to deal with people who do not contribute to your team?
5. Three weaknesses and strengths
6. Any treats for my business?
7. Some questions about my interests in my application documents. (About AI)
The case: the interviewer picked the question that is related to my background and my post MBA career. I really appreciated what he did. But I was asked not to share the question with anyone. I would say that the school wants to test how you logically deliver your answer.
The video assessment: Everyone gets 2 questions. The first question will always be informed in advance but the second will be random. Mine was the question about the study group. For the best delivery, you should know your speaking speed and then prepare the answer with an appropriate word count according to your speed.
My two cents: For both the interview and the video assessment, you should prepare answers to as many as expected questions in advance and then practice them as much as you could. More importantly, if possible, your answers should be applied to more than one question because it will save a lot of your time of preparation, for example, the answer to the question “ Tell me about your rewarding experience” may also be the answer of the question “ Tell me about the time you contribute to the team” Lastly, as far as I can tell, you should be relaxed, confident, energetic, and positive during the interview.
By the way, I’m sorry about my English. This is my first time posting. I hope my debrief could be helpful.
Time and location: Saturday morning at the office of the interviewer.
Interviewer background: pretty similar to mine; both from a family business background with entrepreneurial ventures of our own.
I will agree with other debriefs here in saying that the interview was conversational, but honestly - it was exceptionally so. If the interviewer weren't taking notes, I would probably not have realized that the interview had started. Anyway, I will try to reproduce it in order, as it happened:
1. Started by asking me to tell him something, not on my resume. Some questions followed from my answer.
2. How did you go about starting your business?
3. What do you like about LBS? I think this question led to a general goals question.
4. Do you have any experience working in a diverse environment? (he explained that LBS is a place that values diversity)
5. Any occasion when you faced a conflict in your business?
6. How did you build your team at your company? I think this led to another question on the kind of leader I'd like to be.
7. A lot of questions on my resume. He had obviously spent time reading through my application and asked some incisive questions. These questions formed the bulk of the interview.
8. Some behavioural questions: what would you do if you had a million dollars? If you had the chance to spend a day with any person, who would it be?
9. Some questions on my extra-curricular interests, which he seemed to like.
CASE STUDY: he chose a topic for me, relating to effective communication between a leader and his organization. This was a little generic and a bit tricky to speak about. I tried to speak with examples to overcome the generic nature of the question.
POST-INTERVIEW: What followed was a freewheeling conversation about life at LBS which lasted longer than the interview itself. Mostly talked about how the MBA can be a life-changing experience. We talked candidly about enjoying the LBS experience. He told me about his GBE experience and generally about what to do while at LBS. This is the part where you can try and ask questions too. I've read debriefs where the interviewer was eager to get done with the conversation, but mine was luckily happy to answer in detail. Probably learnt more from the interviewer than the alums I spoke to.
I would say that the overall purpose of the LBS interview is to gauge your fit with the school, gauge your interest in the programme, and confirm that the application matches the individual. My interviewer did not pose any inane questions on supposed strengths, weaknesses, etc., but I'd say, know them all the same. Most of all, be confident, friendly, and relaxed. Good luck.
This will be a hard one to write in an organized manner because this was a truly conversational interview. I will try to summarize what we touched upon:
1. Began with the interviewer telling me about herself
2. Asked me to give an overview of my resume, why I want an MBA and why LBS?
3. Asked me how I will manage at LBS, given that I will be moving to London with my family
4. Asked me about my partner and whether he would find it difficult to relocate
5. What other schools did I apply to and why? I was honest about this - let's see if that comes back to bite me
6. Case was fairly simple, she stepped out of the room for 5 minutes and when she came back in, she asked me to discuss what I think. I tried to be organized and coherent but I missed mentioning a key point and she asked me what I think of that aspect. So, that was kind of embarrassing. C'est la vie!
7. After the case, she let me ask her any questions. Even though I had a couple of questions prepared, I ended up asking a couple more based on what I heard about her experience at LBS.
She was taking notes throughout the process. Overall, this was my best interview experience. Yes, I didn't give a stellar performance, especially during the case, but I truly felt that she paid attention to every single thing I said. She was genuinely interested in my motivations and she followed up with questions on almost every statement I made. This did make it kind of difficult to have a structure to the interview, but I just made sure to inquire at the end if I answered all her questions to her satisfaction.
Conducted in alum's office.
The interview was very detailed which is why I felt I had a good idea at the end that it went well. At the same time, it was very conversational and my interviewer was very friendly.
Typical questions: tell me about yourself, why MBA, why now, why LBS, career goals
Behavioural questions, but very contextualized: pick one project you did and in that context tell me about your strengths and weaknesses; apart from that, other behavioural: tell me about a time when you contributed in a team, resolved a conflict, etc; leadership style
All behavioural went in-depth - so he asked me to follow up questions on my answers so you can't fake it till you make it.
One oddball question: Is there something in the world of business that you think is an issue/problem but people aren't talking about it much right now?
At the end there was a case question: the interviewer gave me the option to choose between 2 questions, gave me 5 minutes to think of an answer (he left the room for this), returned and ask me my answer and then asked me to elaborate on one of the points I had made. It was a business situation like this company wants to achieve XYZ goal, how should they do this? It's very easy if you have experience in consulting/another business background - you can't really prepare for this, just be structured and articulate - that's what they care about, there's no right or wrong answer. I'd also say be creative. I have heard some case questions be not really business cases but a current affairs question.
I'd say the LBS interview is unique in the sense that it is actually a pressure test - know current affairs, read about business problems, common topics (like ethics, corporate taxes, globalization, wage equality etc), brush up on consulting frameworks. On a similar note, I encourage all candidates to read about the program in detail and know everything even if you are not interested in some aspects, e.g., know which classes and professors you want to take, which GBE you want to do, clubs you want to join / start etc.
Video Questions:
This was super straightforward but I know some people get some oddball questions. They give you the first question in advance - why MBA, why now, why LBS
The second is random - mine was behavioural - tell me about a time when.....
Don't think you should stress about this component but again know current affairs, everything about the LBS program, practice some behavioural
It took a while to schedule my interview with the alumnus I was assigned to as she was a busy lady.
We finally managed to meet for an hour on a Saturday and the interview itself was quite informal and relaxed.
There were a set of questions that were provided to the interviewer by the school and she was expected to submit her notes against each of those questions. The questions themselves were to make sure that I myself have written my application and a sort of confirmation on the contents of my application essay and other information that I had included as part of the answers to the application questions. Some of the questions were:
- Why do you want to go to LBS? Why MIF and not MBA?
- Do you have a contingency plan if your plan A for the program doesn't work?
- Do you know of the clubs and student associations that you would like to be a part of? How will they benefit you?
- Do you know which subjects are taught? What electives will you likely choose?
In general, I got the feeling that the interviewer was expected to make sure that the candidate is genuine, knows enough details about the program to make an informed decision and has realistic expectations from the school and the program. The interviewer also shared her experience of the program and shared some advice on how to make the most of the program. We did not have more than an hour for the interaction and hence we could only manage to go through the set of standard questions set by the school for the interviewer.
In general, I would say that the interview would really depend on the alumnus who is chosen to interview you and knowing a bit about them before the interaction should help one prepare better for it.
The interviewer was quite friendly. He was a 2nd generation family business owner. The interview lasted for over 1 hour, 15 minutes.
This is how it went :
1. He made me feel comfortable and told me that it will be an informal interview but he will be taking notes for the school, so I shouldn't mind it. He had two copies of my resume and a blank sheet in which he was constantly jotting some points.
2. He started by introducing himself and told me about his background, career and gave a glimpse of his life LBS. He mentioned that he will chat more about it towards the end. From what I understood, LBS has a set procedure for interviews and the interview needs to follow it and capture specific feedback on those particular aspects.
3. Then, I introduced myself and he asked me to talk about my leadership style - pros and cons (since I mentioned leading teams).
4. Why MBA? Why LBS?
5. He asked me that since I have spent all of my professional life so far at Microsoft - how have I grown there as an individual?
6. Then, he asked me to talk about my career plan post-MBA and why that plan? I mentioned consulting and spoke about how it is in line with my skill set, experience and interest. Then, he asked me what my plan B is in the case is I don't grab a consulting job.
7. "Does it not bother you that consultants don't develop anything on their own and they are just advising others?"
8. "What is your long-term goal?"
9. "How will you handle a non-contributing team member in the LBS study group?"
10. "What will you contribute to the LBS community?"
11. "How do you handle conflict?"
12. "The first year at LBS is extremely hectic, how do you typically handle stress?"
13. “What are your hobbies?” When I told him I like to write, he mentioned that I should consider looking at the LBS newsletter group – It might interest me.
The interview was quite interactive throughout. He kept sharing his experiences and insights in between.
14. Then he gave me a topic for a case presentation. He had already selected one for me and he gave me 5 minutes to think of some strategies to help that client. I jotted down some points that I could immediately think through and spoke about them. He didn’t ask me any counter questions and seemed fairly convinced with my points.
15. The interview concluded with him giving me time to ask some questions and him sharing his experiences. I asked him for any advice that he would have for me to prepare myself for an MBA in the ten months than I have at hand. He told me that he wouldn’t recommend me to do any preparation, I should take life as it comes and not be too stressed out about the MBA. He then concluded by sharing some of his MBA highlights and how he grew from that experience.
Overall, it was a pleasant experience and I think it went well. Eagerly waiting for the results!
Originally scheduled with an alumn working in a sector I've never worked in, (and I've worked in most sectors during my consulting career). Unfortunately, my interviewer had to cancel last minute due to work commitments so I have reassigned an alumn working in another sector I wasn't too familiar with (not a "perfect fit" like some people seem to have experienced, but a really great person nonetheless). In fairness to LBS, they handled this reschedule well and rescheduled quickly.
The interview lasted about an hour, went through the "why LBS" questions, a few questions about why I would want to stay in the UK to study, how I will contribute to LBS life, what I was looking forward to the most. There were definitely some questions the interviewer had to ask but overall it was more like a coffee with a new work colleague vibe and felt more about personality fit than anything else. The interviewer claimed not to have read my application so I did a quick 5 min whistle-stop tour of my CV in the beginning.
A case study was quick and easy, not something you could prepare for other than basic presentation skills - making a number of points, highlighting pros and cons, rounding off your argument with an overall recommendation etc. Just common sense really.
Spent the last half hour asking my interviewer questions about their experience at LBS.
The interviewer was really friendly and LBS adcom did a great job of matching me with the right interviewer, who had a similar experience as I.
Started with introducing myself and why I took the decisions that I did. Was really invested in finding out why MBA and why LBS - so work hard on that.
Ask some questions to test my vision - like what problems do I see in the consumer tech industry 15 years down the line.
Overall pretty smooth, fingers crossed, hoping for the best
I received a proposal to join the 2020 class 2 weeks after the interview.
The interview had 3 parts, not in order. I am just trying to tell you broad topics covered in the interview
1. Discussion about the interviewer experience in LBS and his career.
2. My track record and personal achievements, also chat about why LBS and why London, why MFin and not the MBA. I mean you have to show that you really want this.
3. Kind of think he checked some stuff about me LBS asked him to.
Finally, we chat a little bit, he was super cool.
Expect to meet you all next year!
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