Helllo all,
I just completed both of my interviews. I traveled to another city in India for them. One was confirmed beforehand. The second one postponed many times, mostly without notice, but finally managed to give me some time because I was in the city for a short time and only for the interviews and did not have much of a choice.
Both the interviews were at coffee shops.
The first interview was very thorough. I was asked a lot of questions like, why MBA, why INSEAD, what are my strengths and weaknesses, what do I think about the economy and the way it's headed, how would I contribute to INSEAD, if in a group what role would I play. I have not applied to any other B-School and the person was surprised to hear that and I replied that if I dont get through I will focus on other applications and I mentioned a few other schools. The interview lasted for about 1.5 hrs and it was very friendly and conversational and I got a good feedback as well.
The second interview - well I am not sure how it went. It wasn't that long so I felt as if I could have said so much more ... The style was again very friend;y and conversational, but this time there were very less questions. He got two calls in between and he took both of them. Then he constantly urged me to apply to other schools, i don't know if he was trying to throw me off, but I replied that if this doesn't work out then I will surely explore other schools.
He did not ask me or probe into the why MBA/why INSEAD question too much either - just kind of touched the topic and moved on. He inquired about any challenges that I faced during my career and spoke about my international exposure and that was about it. He did wish me luck but did not give any feedback or any sort of clue as to how he thought it went and I did not dare to press him for one.
I have sent a thank you note to both of them.
Now all I can do is wait my fingers/toes/everything else crossed!
Good luck to all others who are waiting for decisions or interviews....