Exhuastive List of Interview Questions & Analyses

Question

We have curated a list of the common interview questions asked by MBA interviewers. You may see a little bit of overlap, but the idea is that you are aware of the different types of questions that can get asked on the same topic. It will be impossible to prepare all of these answers, but we recommend that you pick out 6-10 of your biggest stories and draw connections with the questions given below so that you are not fumbling for answers during the actual interview.

INTRODUCTION:  
• Walk me through your resume
• Please introduce yourself
• Tell me about yourself
• Specific job-related questions/ day-to-day responsibilities in your current role?
• Goals - Short term, long term, Plan B.
• Why are these your goals?
• Why MBA?
• Why MBA Now?

B-SCHOOL RELATED 
• Why our b-school?
• How will you differentiate yourself at our b-school?
• What resources will you take advantage of at our b-school?
• What do you hope to gain out of the MBA experience outside of the classroom?
• How will you contribute at our b-school?
• Which other schools have you applied to? If you get multiple admits, how would you make a decision as to which school to attend?

BEHAVIORAL:
Achievement/Leadership:  
• Tell me about a time led a project. What do you think is the contributing factor to your success?
• Tell me about a time you found a problem and solved it.
• Tell me about a time where you faced obstacles in achieving your objectives.
• Describe a difficult situation you had to deal with at work, and how you tackled it.
• What was your proudest professional/personal accomplishment.
• Describe your most memorable professional experience till date.
• Tell me a time that you identified something that no one else had identified.
• Tell me about a time where you took on a leadership role that was outside of your scope.
• Tell me about a time you failed? How did you react?
• Tell me about a time when you led a transformational change in an organization?

Team situations: 
• Tell me about a time you led a team. What went right or wrong?
• Tell me about a time where you had to convince a team on an unpopular opinion.
• Tell me about a time when you were on a team where others didn’t agree with you initially, but you influenced them to follow you (similar to previous one).
• How have you actively promoted diversity in the workplace?
• Tell me about a time where you had to deal with a challenging team member.
• How have you motivated people on a team?
• How did you change someone because of your mentorship?

ENTREPRENEURIAL OR FAMILY BUSINESS BACKGROUND: 
• (Follow up to goals) Why not start up right now? Why do the MBA?
• Tell me more about your startup, why did you start it, where does it stand now (and other follow up questions)?
• Will you continue your entrepreneurial pursuit while in school? What resources do you plan to use while at our business school?
• Who will take care of your business while you are studying at business school? 
• Are there any specific professional challenges working with family?
• Why do you not want to go back to your family business after the MBA?

SELF AWARENESS: 
• What is your leadership style?
• How would others you have led describe your leadership style? Would you agree (similar to previous one)?
• If I had to ask a direct supervisor or a colleague about you, what are 3 things they would say to describe you?
• What do you think your legacy at will be? What will you be remembered by?
• How would the people you work with describe you in three/ four adjectives?
• What are your biggest professional achievements and failures?
• How did you cope with negative feedback?
• One piece of constructive feedback from your manager and how you’ve addressed it.
• Tell me about a time you did not agree with feedback from your supervisor.
• What are some areas as a leader you would consider improvement areas?
• What are some things the people you work with would say are areas you need to improve on?
• Is there any part of being a leader you struggle with?
• What would your biggest champion say about you (your strengths)?
• What would your biggest critic say about you (your weaknesses)?

RE-APPLICANT: 
• What has changed since the last time you applied?

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: 
• What do you do outside work?
• What do you do for fun?
• Describe your community service experiences?
• What is your motivation behind your extracurricular activities?
• What is your biggest accomplishment outside your profession?

OTHER QUESTIONS: 
• A few industry-specific questions and your opinion on current news topics?
• Who is a leader you admire and why?
• What do you think makes a good manager?

LASTLY, 
• Any questions for me?

Download our Interview book :  The Most Definitive Guide for MBA Interview Preparation 
 Prepare for your interview with us .  click here

MBADecoder · Answer

Walk Me Through Your Profile/Resume 
 
 What do they want to find out? 
This is invariably the first question in the interview. They have already read your resume, so they know what you have one in your career. Here they are wanting to know why you have made your choices. Who is the person behind this resume? what is her thought process? Why she does what she does.

Preparing your response: 
Firstly, even though it may come across that way, make no mistake. It is not an ice breaker question. There is a definite intent behind this question as mentioned above. Also, this being the first question, and we know, first impressions can last a long time, it is extremely important that you respond well, keeping it short and sweet, 2 to 2.5 minutes, at the most. You should have rehearsed this question as many times as possible. Responding this well will make you feel confident while getting into the interview whereas fumbling on this one will start you on a slippery slope.

With that let's dive into the details. 
• Don't repeat things which are already on your resume
•   Focus on the transitions.   Explain the choices you made when you changed jobs or took a new responsibility or changed your role within the same organization. What were your motivations? For example, "While working on the various projects during my rotational program I really enjoyed working on short-duration projects which provided a steep learning curve, a new situation to deal with and an opportunity to work with new people. This got me to pursue a job in consulting".
•   Leave hooks:   This is the art of being smart. In between your response, subtly emphasize on aspects which are your strong points, where you would like the interviewer to ask a counter-question and dig deeper. For instance, if you say something like. "...it's interesting how what started as a water cooler conversation developed into a revenue-generating product for the company." Essentially you are planting the seeds of curiosity and creating an opportunity for yourself to talk about your accomplishments.
• It's good to follow a   chronological order   in responding to this question. Depending on your comfort, you can start with your education through to your current job. Alternatively, you can start with your current role and go back right to your education in the reverse chronological order.
• Last point. This question is different from "Tell me something about yourself". In answering that one you have the liberty to get into your personal aspects: your family background, your interests and so on. Here, it's strictly business.

Download our Interview book :  The Most Definitive Guide for MBA Interview Preparation 
 Prepare for your interview with us .  click here

MBADecoder · Answer

HOW TO ANSWER WHY MBA? And WHY NOW?

What do they want to find out?
 They want to make sure that the real reason for you wanting to do an MBA is not that nothing else is working and you believe that an MBA is your key to success, your panacea to all problems in life.

They want to know if your decision is well thought out and if you know how an MBA will help in your career aspirations. Because if you don’t have this clarity, you will not make the best of your MBA experience. No one wants a confused, frustrated alumnus who believes that the investment was not worth their time and money.

Preparing your response: 
This an important question and would invariably be part of most MBA admission interviews. Ideally, it should be an easy preparation as you would have written your career goals essay in the application describing your short-term and long-term goals.

Here is how we suggest you answer this question: 
• Talk about your current professional situation
• Your aspiration, your short & long term career goals. Importantly, add the part about why this matters to you, in other words, why do you want to do this. Your career goals must be personalized to you, would have got shaped out of your experiences. They should not come across as wishful thinking.
• Why an MBA is necessary to bridge the skill gap to transition into your aspired career path
• Include the ‘Why now’ answer in your response. Typically, a plausible response is on the following lines…at this point doing more of the same will not help me get in the direction that I aspire to move into…but you can of course tailor it to your situation.

Download our Interview book :  The Most Definitive Guide for MBA Interview Preparation 
 Prepare for your interview with us .  click here

MBADecoder · Answer

Why our MBA program?

What do they want to find out? 
A couple of things:
• The sincerity with which you are applying to their program
• Are you a good fit?
We all know that 'Why do you want to join us' is almost invariably asked in a job interview. The employer wants to find out if you have done enough research about their company, have spoken to people who are in the similar role, have a good idea about what will do and what will you learn. It's the same thing here.

Preparing your response: 
The extent of your research tells the interviewer about your interest in the program. And while they will make their own judgment about the fit - which is important - if you can point out why you think there is a good fit between you and the school - it just makes their job easier. That's the way to crack this question. Make their job easier.

As you would imagine, your response needs to go beyond the obvious- the school's rankings, the placement record and the location. We would suggest focusing on:
• Courses which are relevant to your career goals
• faculty whom you are excited to learn from
• Specific clubs which you would like to engage in based on your professional or personal interests. Show your passion
• Don't miss out on the community aspect. Highlight the cultural fit. Some schools care a lot more about this and it reflects in their positioning and communication. Emphasize accordingly.
• Mention something which is unique to the program. As an example, if you applying to LBS and interested in entrepreneurship, you would write about the fact that as a department they writes their own cases and bring these entrepreneurs in the class. You may also be excited about the opportunity to build your idea in the entrepreneurship summer school that LBS offers
• Mention about your conversations with alumni or current students which gave you these insights.

Download our Interview book:    The Most Definitive Guide for MBA Interview Preparation 
  Prepare for your interview with us.    click here

MBADecoder · Answer

Tell me about a time you failed

What do they want to find out? 
They want to know how you dealt with failure and importantly if you learnt from it. They are asking you to describe an incident. Again a question to check your humility and your self-awareness.

If you come across as a paper tiger (your application is very strong), a little more likely that you will get asked this question. Be prepared nonetheless.

Preparing your response: 
To err is human. We all have several failure stories personal and professional. Choosing the right one for this question is important. Would suggest the following considerations:
• Don't make up a story. A pseudo failure can be immediately recognized. And the moment the interviewer starts doubting your integrity, there ends your story. Nothing else matters then. And there is no need to make up a story as the emphasis of the question is less on the failure itself but on how you dealt with it and what you learnt from it.
• Select a recent story if possible, but nothing that happened so recently that you never got the time to work upon the failure. While there is nothing wrong with a failure when you were in high school but it indicates that since then you've probably not done anything even remotely challenging and that's why you never failed. 
• Select an example where you had a role to play and the failure mattered. A failure that no one cared about, no one was impacted by is not worth mentioning. Explain what your role was, do some self reflection- let the interviewer see that you are aware of your mistakes.
• That said,  do not  select a story where the failure had a catastrophic impact on your organization, as such impacts would get the interviewer worried about your capability.
• Lastly, do explain why you learned from the failure and how you were in control the next time you faced a similar situation.

Download our Interview book :  The Most Definitive Guide for MBA Interview Preparation 
 Prepare for your interview with us .  click here

MBADecoder · Answer

How will you contribute to our b-school?

You may have answered this question for one of your b-school applications already, so you may have some idea about how to answer this. If you don't its high time you figured this out. An MBA is a two-way learning street- you learn some (answered in Why MBA from our school) and you teach some (answered through this question). Both questions go hand in hand, and we advise you are thoroughly prepared to answer both for every program where you interview.

What do they want to find out? 
B-schools want to know what special/unique and relevant skills and experiences will you bring to the b-school. And, where are you willing to put these at use in their MBA programs?

MBA students learn not only from faculty but also from each other, that's why adcoms place so much importance on building diverse classes. Moreover, a lot of b-school activities are student-led, so it has to be the incoming class of students that takes the mantle every year (along with second-year MBAs) and organize events and activities that benefit the rest of the MBA Program, maybe the larger university also.

Preparing your response: 
• First and foremost, research the b-school thoroughly. Talking to students and alumni as part of your research is crucial at this stage as well. 
• Identify areas in the MBA program that interest you. How can you contribute there?
• Any activity requires team leaders and team-members, idea generators and idea implementers. So, don't feel constrained about how you can contribute. Just make a strong case and know what you are talking.
• Bluffing won't help much as the interviewer would likely be an adcom member, a student or an alum. They will know instantly if you put forward irrelevant/ fancy-sounding contributions that would not be feasible. 
• Lastly, sound enthusiastic.

Important:  This might seem an obvious question, however when we at  MBADecoder  take mock interview sessions we realize many applicants haven't researched their target program well enough and this reflects in the way they answer this question. Don't be this unprepared applicant.

Download our Interview book :  The Most Definitive Guide for MBA Interview Preparation 
 Prepare for your interview with us .  click here

bb · Answer

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