I had my interview on March 27th. The alumnus was focusing a lot on my weaknesses, what challenges I faced, the times when I failed. Following were the questions that she asked. - How long have you been working in your company? - What is it that you do in your day to day job? What do you like about your job? What do you hate about your job? - Tell me about a time in your life when you thought you failed. How did you deal with it? - Tell me something which you really want to improve about yourself? - If you had to do it all over again, what would you want to choose as a career path? - What is your long term dream? What do you aim to become? - If you get into the program, what do you think will be a challenge? - What is that you will are scared of, about the MBA? Overall, I believe I did it well. Hoping for the best! Fingers crossed.

It lasted around 15 minutes and was completely conversational Tell me about your current job profile At that time they didn't receive my TOEFL scores, so asked about that whether I have sent them or not Why Katz Why Consulting Why Mckinsey Which other schools you have applied to Do you have any questions for us No behavioural questions. If you have any other queries you can ping me on [email protected]

PGP-EEO (R2) -Interviewed by two Professors, both belonging to Finance. Greetings were exchanged, Questions:- Prof1:- 1.Professional Profile 2. What do you do as an IVR Flow Developer 3. What is IVR 4. Guesstimate on Tech Consulting Prof2:- 1. Why Tech Consulting 2. How did you go about setting up the basketball team at Osmania, any challenges you faced Later a very interesting and long discussion around mental health,TEDxOsmaniaU, etc. All in all, the interview was not a stress interview and was very comfortable. The interviewers paid attention,never interrupted and were very kind. I was able to answer the questions thrown my way due to the fabulous support and insights I received from Preppie and ISBMantra. They really helped me address the chinks in my application and helped understand how to portray my strengths. The various resources that were provided were relevant, diverse and were extremely helpful.

PGP(EEO)-Round 2 -2 Professors, both belonging to Finance. -Duration, around 30 minutes. Questions:- Prof-1 1.Professional Profile 2.What do you do as an IVR Flow Developer. (My role) 3.What happens in an IVR. 4.Guesstimate on Tech Consulting. Prof-2 1.Why Tech Consulting. 2.Question about setting up the basketball team at Osmania, a few follow up questions on that. A very nice and interesting discussion on mental health,foreign exchange,TEDx etc. The interview was not a stress interview, and was very comfortable. I was never interrupted, and the interviewers were very attentive and kind. I was well prepared to answer the questions I did, largely due to all the help and insights I recieved from Preppie and ISBMantra. They are the real deal and have amazing resources. They helped address all the chinks I had in my application and helped me understand how to portray my strengths.

My interview was very rushed. It was with Jessica. She is an amazing adcom member but I guess there were a lot of applications this year. 1.Why did you decide to pursue an MBA? 2. Why do you want to work in that industry? 3. Tell me about a time that you were overwhelmed with work? How did you handle it? Follow-up: What did you learn from that experience? 4. How will you handle a person in your team who was not pulling in his/her weight? 5. Any questions for me?

After rescheduling thrice (the school portal was down for a few days), I managed to get an interview with Ms Vivian Tran. These are the questions I can recall (not necessarily in order): Questions on resume. ( I had some gaps in my cv). Why Sauder? Why now? What roles/industries are you looking at in the short/long term? Why those? Would you be willing to work in cities apart from Vancouver? (This was a segue from my previous answer. The companies I mentioned were Vancouver based) What other schools did you apply to? Where are they located? (Not sure why that last part was relevant) What qualities were you looking for in a school when you decided on which ones to apply to? Questions about my low GPA. (My GRE scores were good so the difference must have raised eyebrows. I was working throughout my degree and struggling with a bunch of personal issues so this was easy to explain. My academic performance before and after was always above average.) What qualities would your friends use to describe you? Which of those is least truthful? ( I countered by saying I wouldn't have mentioned any that were untrue but could choose one I'd most likely compromise on if forced to) Is there anything on the academic front that you think might be a challenge during the MBA? (I mentioned probability/permutations. As an ex navigational officer with a degree in nautical science, math doesn't faze me but some subjects are new given my background. I quickly followed up my mentioning some extra courses I took on Coursera/Udemy) What would you say is your biggest weakness? (Mention how you are addressing it) What is the most important piece of advice you ever got? What do you hope to learn from your cohort? What do you bring to the table? How would you contribute to the school network after the MBA? What do you do to take care of your mental health? (Thank the pandemic for this one) Anything you'd like the adcom to know but isn't mentioned in your CV? Any questions for me? (I had a few) Vivian was lovely to talk to and I enjoyed our conversation. The 60 minutes went by in a blur. It helped that I'd seen her before in webinars hosted by the school. She did take a LOT of notes while we spoke. That's either a good thing or very bad. I suppose time will tell. General advice: Come prepared. Know the finer details of the program and in particular why they speak to YOU specifically. Specifics are important. I would recommend going for a couple of mock interviews if possible. I recorded myself answering the most common questions and went through those videos ruthlessly. You are a human being with strengths and weaknesses. They know this. You are expected to know the same. Show them that you see where you need to improve and demonstrate what you've done/are doing to address your faults. Above all, relax, this isn't an inquisition. That fact that you scored an interview shows that they are interested. All you need to do is give them further evidence of your intent and fit. Good luck. EDIT: Well, I have to admit this rejection came as a bit of a shock. I wish there was a way of eliciting some feedback from the school. At the very least it would help in deciding if reapplying makes sense. In any event, hope the debrief helps someone.

1. Tell me about yourself 2. What are you most proud of? (Some specific follow ups here) 3. Tell me a time you received an insight and how it changed the way you and the team progressed 4. What is a time you had to convince someone in a group? (Digging in with follow up questions around the events) 5. When have you failed? 6. When did you change the culture of a team? 7. Tell me about a time you have persuaded someone to give you resources (beyond the norm) 8. Why MBA? 9. Why GSB? 10. Questions for me.

I had my interview yesterday. It was with Steve and he really interacted in a very conversational way. Most of the time he talked and informed about Weatherhead or Cleveland and about cohort size and composition. Asked few questions too such as how you came to know about Weatherhead, how many schools you applied into, reasons for low GPA in undergrad and some very basic questions. Overall it way very insightful and he seems quite impressed by my profile particularly my professional career experience and my future goals.

I was interviewed by an Associate Fellow who had clearly read my application thoroughly and watched my (mortifying) Kira videos. She asked the usual questions, including: - why Oxford - why an MBA - talk me through your CV - why have you left a particular job - what is your leadership style (a follow up to something I'd said in the above question) She also asked for further details about my business plan and why now is the right time to launch such a business. This was more conversational. Questions which surprised me were: - from a list of traits (can't remember them all I'm afraid), which one do I embody the most and why? My background is in the non-profit sector so I chose "purpose". - which elective modules would be most helpful for your proposed business? After about 30 mins, I asked a few questions about how the pandemic had affected applications (answer: this year has been a bumper crop!), how teaching has changed, and what provision is there for students who don't come from a financial background. In summary, the interview was relatively relaxed, she was friendly and thoughtful, and I was more nervous than I needed to be.

Interview was with 1 Adcom member and 1 Campus faculty. 1. Tell me about yourself. 2. Why MBA? 3. Why MBA now? 4. How will you achieve the Product Manager role? (Since I had said that's my short term goal) 5. If you're asked to give a Ted talk in Sandbox, what will be your chosen topic (Spoke on this for 3-4 mins, mine was Competing in the Age of AI) Interview was super chill, and went like a casual conversation. They just need to know if you're confident on your choices and the decision for doing MBA.

I had an interview with a member of NUS's external communications team and an alumnus (former Student Council president). It was a 30-minute interview, packed with many questions. These are the ones I remember: 1. Give us a 60-second elevator pitch. 2. Tell us three organizations you want to work for after your MBA and why. 3. If you had a Zoom call line for an hour with any leader, who would you choose and what would you discuss with them? 4. Tell us the names of a couple of leaders you look up to who are not from your country. 5. I had provided the reference of one of their current students in my application. So, they asked the following questions on that - 5.1. How did you approach the student and what networking strategy did you use? 5.2. If there was only one seat available for the FT MBA program and we had to choose between the current student and you, who would you choose and why? 5.3. What will the current student say about you if I were to call them right now? 6. What are your two weaknesses and one strength? 7. How did you spend your time during the lockdown? 8. I have a master's degree from another country, so they asked me why I chose that particular college? 9. I also spent three years working in the other country. On that they asked me one contribution I made to the country and one challenge I faced there. 9. They saw I had some experience with Cloud on my CV, so they asked me a bit about that. 10. What is the most important leadership skill in your opinion and why? 11. In your essays and CV, what's the weakest line/section and why? 12. Give us one reason why we should NOT take you into the program.

- 2 Alums: Senior Consultant (Co’10) & Entrepreneur (Co’18) - Duration: 1 hour 10 mins (interview started 30 mins after scheduled time) Questions: 1. Let’s dive into your current experience - what does your current organisation do and what is your role? 2. Did you interact with farmers? What challenges did they face? 3. In light of the farm act, how is your organisation’s intervention going to help farmers? 4. How are farmers incentivised to take your help as opposed to approaching Mandis? 5. What learnings or strengths have you brought from your previous job that helps you with your current role? 6. Why did you transition from your previous organisation to your current one? Was it your choice? 7. What did you do at your previous job? 8. Your previous organisation has acquired an e-commerce platform - what are your thoughts on that? 9. Where do you think your previous organisation is headed wrt to the new verticals that have come up? 10. What kind of data crunching did you do in your sales role? 11. Did you manage a team? How many people? 12. Given that you worked with distributors from different regions, how did you measure the performance of your team? 13. What steps did you take to understand the different regions you worked in? 14. Case: if you had to launch a new product (eg:water) in Mumbai and Chhattisgarh, what parameters would you use to measure the consumer type in both regions? (Delved deeper into this case) 15. Given you’ve had this kind of experience, why do you want an MBA? Why not continue in your current for a few more years? What is your short-term goal? 16. What do you hope to take away from ISB and contribute to ISB? - I mentioned ELP and the follow up question was: you’ve had far more valuable experience than the ELP can offer so why MBA? 17. Specifically Net Impact and Marketing clubs - what do you hope to contribute and leverage? (I mentioned these two clubs) 18. Going back to your work experience, what challenges and learnings did you have in your first job? 19. What do you think is the pro and con of technology in education? (Question related to the sector of my first job - Education/non-profit) 20. Are you still associated with your first organisation as a volunteer? 21. Are you currently volunteering with any organisation? 22. Where did you grow up? How has that shaped you? 23. What are your interests? How have your interests changed you? 24. You said you’ve lived in Mumbai for the past 15 years - what changes have you seen in this city over this time? Are these changes good or bad according to you? 25. What questions do you have for us? The tone was largely conversational, I was asked a lot of questions around my current and previous work experience. One alum continuously interjected while the other one asked the main questions. I did not expect to work on a case but that happened during the interview and I took it as a learning opportunity. Overall, I was able to provide some answer for every question and I didn’t blank out or get flustered. I was a little thrown off by the case but I asked clarifying questions to get a handle on it. The case was specific to the regions I had handled in my previous role. The energy of the interview was positive from start to finish.

3 Alums (2002, 2004, 2017) The interview was very interactive and a fun experience. Questions: - Tell us about yourself - I had mentioned about my love for fashion, so a woman from the panel asked how am I planning to inculcate in my career. - Why ISB and why now? - Why can't I just continue with my job and maybe my company will sponsor my education further and reach where I want to? - Quite a few questions on my long term goal, how is that going to make a difference. - What role does relationships play in a woman's life? - What are the challenges faced by women in our society? - My current role and how does it make an impact on the bigger picture. - Two negative experiences. - What is the different quality that I bring to the table. - Asked about a automation tool which I made at my work - What do I think consultants do? The interview ended with, do you have any questions for us. I am not sure how did the interview go but I certainly enjoyed it. I took a mock interview from Preppie which really really helped.

Interview Time: 12 PM Panel Members: 2 Alums (CO'13) + 1(Video Off) Q: Tell me about yourself. Q: How did I help my previous firm grow (picked up from my essay) Q:3 Follow up questions on the answers I had given to understand the details of it Q: How did I bring a degrowing category in growth in my current job (picked up from essay) Q: Follow up question with the answer I gave; To consider them as my management and pitch in the changes which I suggested Q: Difference between UAE retail market and Indian Retail market (based on my work experience) Q: How would MBA help me in my short term goal which I had stated in my essay Q : Follow up questions with how would I not able to learn those things while working in my current role also Q: Plan B if it does not work out for the short term goal I am striving for Q: Any questions for us? Q: Before ending Do you play any instrument or sing (picked up from my hobby) The interview went on for about 30 mins. The interview was conversational. They were keen to know about projects undertaken and my role and how will an MBA help me achieving those goal, it was not stressful at all. I think it went well. I had my answers ready to their questions and they were asking a few follow ups. I had taken help from Strategy4GMAT for mocks and they helped me understand the prospective of the interviewer and how to structure my answers to make them impactful, took 3 mocks from them and each one had different questions and it helped me quite a lot as I already had answered the questions asked in the actual interview and with the feedback in mocks was able to make them a lot better. Fingers Crossed

To all those who are working on your applications, I know it gets frustrating at times but hang in there you will get through. I had applied to 3 schools got an interview call for 2 and was admitted in CBS, which was actually my top priority. Here is my interview experience with CBS: The Adcom manager sent me an interview invite good two weeks in advance. That gave me enough time to brush up on my preparation. My interview was conducted by the Program manager. I had a couple of mail interactions with both the Adcom manager as well as the program manager during the two weeks. In the hindsight, I guess that did help as the mail interaction set the tone for the interview. The interview was conducted on teams. It was more like an easy-going open conversation. We had a 30 mins slot but I guess we ended up chatting for around 45 mins. I got a sense that the interviewer had thoroughly read my application. So make sure you brush up on your application/essays and have your answers in sync with it. Questions during the interview (or topics we discussed on) 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Why CBS 3. Few questions on my application/ essays 4. Which other schools am i applying to 5. My financial preparedness for the MBA 6. Few other topics we discussed, but can't remember 🙈 Questions I asked: One on concentrations. I wanted to know if we can choose different courses from different concentrations, apparently, that's not possible. The second one was around the scholarship. Before interview preparation: I went through the CBS website and latest brochure carefully and noted down points that stood out for me. That partly became my answer for why CBS. I also spoke to 4 alums from CBS. I guess this was one of the most useful exercise in terms of school research. The alumni are extremely friendly and approachable. Please reach out to them in advance and they will provide you great insights and guidance. LinkedIn CBS page is the best place to find and get in touch with alums. During my interview, I referred to my conversation with alums in various context multiple times. I suppose that gave confidence to the interviewer that I have thoroughly researched the school which certainly worked in my favour :) Questions I had prepared for before interview: 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Walk me through your resume 3. Why MBA. Why now 4. Why CBS 5. Strengths, weakness, failure, proudest achievement 6. Leadership style 7. What do I want from MBA 8. Post MBA goals 9. Questions to ask 10. My contribution to the cohort 11. Denmark immigration policy In my previous interview with another school I wanted to be pitch-perfect so I tried to memories all my answers which went terribly wrong. What worked for me this time is I just outlined the key points in each answer and an example supporting the ans and allowed myself to answer extempo based on those points. I also practised answering out loud in front of the mirror, which helps. I guess that's about it. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any specific questions about the interview or the application. I will respond faster on LinkedIn (Radhey Kulkarni) All the best :) Regards, Radhey

Interviewer - Christina D (member of AdCom) Duration - Exactly 30 minutes. She mentioned that she had other interviews lined up. Very friendly interviewer and made me feel completely at ease. It was very conversational. 1. Could you tell me a bit about yourself? (walk me through your resume) 2. Why Simon? 3. Any international work experiences? personal or professional. What did you learn from it? 4. What is your leadership style? 5. About a time I failed Overall, no curveball questions.

Interviewed with adcom. She was very nice, much of the beginning was me talking about my resume (I have very unusual work experience). She asked about my post MBA goals, working on a team, and international experience. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Interview Date: March 13 Interview Time: 11 AM Panel Members: 4 Alum + 1 ISB Adcom(Video Off) Interview Type: Conversational Q1. Tell me about yourself Q2. Follow up question on my diverse roles and what work I did, impact. Q3. Follow up question on revenue recognition and a project experience on it since I was working as a Project Manager. Q4. Why do you want join ISB - why MBA? Q5. Why not pursue your post MBA goal within your current company since I have transitioned across roles? Q6. How would ISB enable you? Q7. Question from Essay - a life example that I mentioned Q8. Question on initiatives that I am running(I mentioned in my essay) Overall Interview experience was okay. *My panel didn't introduce themselves so I greeted them individually when they took turns questioning me* Sources used to prepare for Interview: Preppie(Mock)

Interviewed by Nirav Mehta (Senior Associate Director, MBA Admissions). I t was very conversational and yet a bit Kira like. I could tell he had a set of questions that he wanted to go through. Very standard MAB questions nothing out of the blue. Started with a casual conversation. Then he wanted me to run down my resume. My suggestion would be to summarize your experience from education to professional experiences. I walked him through my undergrad and then my job and why I joined that company. what I do at that company what I've accomplished and such. • Then he asked me the following questions. • What's your biggest achievement? • 3 Qualities do you see in a leader? One of mine was adaptability. (I know quite the cliche, but hey so are their questions!) So the next question was kind of transitioned accordingly. • Give me an example of when you had to adapt. Based on this answer he asked me several other questions specific to me, so I won't go in detail. • Short-term / long-term goals? • Why MBA? Why Marshall? (definitely do your research into their program, classes, resources. Their youtube channel has some great videos about Why Marshall) • If I had any questions? I asked a couple. It lasted about 30 or so minutes. I had some internet problems (obviously). He also said that they will probably respond with a result earlier than 3/31 (result date on their website). Don't know if that's a good thing.

Had a wonderful interview experience with a representative of UNC K-F (not Adcom, Alumni, or current student). Questions asked(paraphrased): a) Please go over the resume and background, you may take up to 3-4mins to cover all the points. b) How was your experience working in diverse cultures (had multiple international assignments), which one do you like and why? c) Do you like listening to podcasts? (This one was a bit strange as I had not mentioned podcasts anywhere in my application) d) If you were admitted to 2 schools, how would you pick one over the other? (I ended up telling why UNC at this stage which carried over to the next question) e) Why K-F? What values are important to you and why? f) If you had one superpower, what would it be? (Another strange question which caught me off-guard) g) Post-MBA goals? Immediate and long-term? What is your Plan-B? The interview took only around 15-16 minutes. I asked 2 questions which took another 2-3minutes. Total interview time was only ~20mins max.