Kellogg Interview

Question

So, I got an invitation to an alumni interview on Mon, 23.
The alumnus is a CFO with a well-known company here. He's only two years older than me. I guess, he's what you may call a prodigy.

I have instantly sent him an email and called him at work. The secretary told me that he's on business trip till Monday. Monday came yesterday, I have called him three times, he was always busy, and at the third call the secretary told me that he asked for my phone numbers. Which I gave.

Now I'm sitting and waiting for his call. I realize how busy he must be, but the waiting is just killing me. I do not want to look overly persistant, but I guess if today he doesn't call, tomorrow I will call him again.

rhyme · Answer

Was this a R1 app? It is right? Don't you get to Dec 2 to complete your interview for Kellogg?

You might want to ease up a little. Give the guy a few days to get back to you and if you don't hear back then call back.

helg · Answer

yep. R1 that's what I've been telling myself to do - ease up, give the guy some space... yeah,yeah,yeah... but honestly, rhyme, you just want to get rid of competition with that kind of advice, don't you? :lol:

what the heck did I go and buy the bloody suit for if not for the interview?!?! AAARGH!

rhyme · Answer

You just don't want to come off as overbearing. What I'd suggest is giving him two days, if he doesn't call you back, try one more time. If he still doesn't call you back, contact Kellogg, tell them you've had some difficulty getting a hold of your interviewer and ask them politely how to proceed. Don't specifically ask for a new interviewer, but rather just express your interest in Kellogg, your interest in completing the interview, that you intend to continue to make contact and then just ask what the procedure would be if you continue to be unable to make contact. 

I believe my Kellogg interview email said that if I didn't hear back from my interviewer within two weeks, I should contact them.

helg · Answer

yes, mine also had the two weeks mentioned thanks for your advice, that's exactly the thing I needed to hear

*** Patience is a virtue, always suspected this.

pelihu · Answer

(From Swingers)

Mike: So two days?

Trent: Yeah, I guess you could call it that, two days.

Sue: Definitely, two days is like industry standard.

Trent: You know I used to wait two days to call anybody, but now it's like everyone in town waits two days. So I think three days is kind of money. What do you think?

Sue: Yeah, but two's enough not to look anxious.

Trent: But I think three days is kind of money. You know because you...

Mike: Yeah, but you know what, mabey I'll wait 3 weeks. How's that? And tell her I was cleaning out my wallet and I just happened to run into her number.

Charles: Then ask her where you met her.

Mike: Yeah, I'll ask her where I met her. I don't remember. What does she look like? And then I'll asked if we ****. Is that... would that be... T, would that be the money?

Trent: You know what. Ha ha ha Mike, laugh all you want but if you call too soon you might scare off a nice baby who's ready to party.

Mike: Well how long are you guys gonna wait to call your babies?

Trent, Sue: Six days.

helg · Answer

YAY!!!
The interview is today, 9 pm.
Gosh, am i nervous.

pelihu · Answer

You really should have waited six days. :rotate

helg · Answer

I didn't call him! He contacted me! :punk

helg · Answer

So, I did my K interview yesterday.

It was arranged on a very short notice (I learned about the appointment on yesterdayâ€™s morning), and I went there without any major preparation.

I have very mixed feelings about the interview. It was held in a hotel lobby (very relaxed atmosphere), but was quite formal. We mostly talked about my resume that I sent to the interviewer in advance but he did not bother to read it. Luckily, I brought a copy with me and he spent a couple of minutes scanning through it and then started to ask questions.
The questions were:
- why do I need MBA;
- why do I feel I cannot gain necessary knowledge/make the planned career change without MBA;
- what are my biggest achievements to date;
- what did I do in school;
- what did I do in the university;
- what are my extracurricular big achievements (I failed this one miserably

);
- what are my short/long term goals;
- why consulting;
- what do I like/dislike about my job;
- what is the culture of my company;
- what other schools did I apply to;
The question â€œWhy K?â€

); - what are my short/long term goals; - why consulting; - what do I like/dislike about my job; - what is the culture of my company; - what other schools did I apply to; The question â€œWhy K?â€

pelihu · Answer

Great report. It must be hard to predict what an alumni interview will be like. If you interview with an adcom, or a student recently trained by an adcom, you'll probably get fairly consistent interview themes. The thing about alumni interviews is that you might get someone from an industry that is used to hard interviews, or you might just get a hardass.

I was wondering, did he conduct the interview in English? You had your interview in Russia right?

helg · Answer

You are right about the specifics of alumni interview - you cannot predict. Actually, my interviewer was the first successful MBA person who was not passionate about an MBA or the K MBA, how's that? He interviewed me both in Russian and English. Clearly, he used the English part just to check my profeciency in English. When he was satisfied with it, he switched to Russian. I actually had more problems with Russian part, because I could not use all those nice English cliches taken from forums, essays, infosessions, that you can put in your interview here and there. There I had to invent my Russian MBA vocabulary

rhyme · Answer

Ah russian. I miss my russian friends. "Roman! Dura blet! Pass the salt!" 
No clue how to spell any of those words, but it was suca blet, dura blet, prostituta blet all the fricking time. You should have opened with that. I hear its polite.

Congrats on the interview completion. You are now thus 100% complete with Kellogg!

helg · Answer

if I have the honor of being admitted to any of the schools in the vicinity of Chicago I will surely pay you a visit and refresh your Russian

Yep, that's what I was thinking, driving my car back home yesterday's night - I did the best I could, now it's their call.

strider77 · Answer

I completed my interview last night. The guy had graduated in 2004 and seemed like a very nice sort. We exchanged a couple of emails before trying to decide on the venue... we finally decided on a local Panera bread (!) at 6.30 pm. I was a little worried about the location because of the possibility of distractions all around. 

I had sent him a soft copy of my resume and also took a couple of copies with me just in case. Reached the location with about 15 mins to spare and decided to wait outside - after all, I was sure he wouldn't miss a dude in his mid-late 20s, folder in hand and sweating bullets... jokes aside, I was reasonably confident - I had done my homework on the school and established a rough outline on what I wanted to project during the interview. I didn't rehearse any answers for the fear of sounding robotic, I wanted him to get an idea of my thought process and my reasoning. 

The interview itself started out with a review of my resume and went through the following questions.

- My career progress/job history and why I had chosen certain jobs I had. Asked for specific promotions or changes in job function/role.

- My most significant accomplishment to date and why I thought it was significant.

- If I could comment on my leadership style.

- What my experience at Kellogg (during my school visit) was. 
 -- I feel this is where my school visit helped immensely because I had made sure to remember the classes I visited and the professor's teaching them. Throwing out what I personally enjoyed about a class and what was discussed, in my opinion, struck a note with the interviewer.

- How I have changed from before I joined the workforce to now. What specifically have I learnt to do better.

- Why am I willing to interrupt my career now.

I think this was all that was asked. He was making notes all through the interview. I had some questions written down for him when he was done and we went through them for about 15 mins. 

The guy was very laid back and didn't make me feel like it was an inquisition. I am sure it boils down to the individual and I am certainly thankful for the kind of interviewer I had. The interview itself lasted about an hour and 10 mins. All in all, a very favorable experience.

vivek123 · Answer

Good coverage folks

I called the person who is supposed to interview me but the phone number was wrong, I mailed him thrice & waited for about 2 weeks for reply since I know that he exists...No response.... I contacted K back for alternate member & now waiting for their response. If I don't get response from K, I'm going to call them tomorrow. I just heard from one of my friends that he got a mail saying, "Your interview is waived due to high volume of applications"

helg · Answer

On arriving early... I actually arrived 1h20min earlier

(you never know with the moscow traffic and i did not want my new shoes getting dirty in the underground) and was driving in circles looking for a vacant parking lot when the guy called me and asked whether I could meet him any time earlier :wink:

Of course I could!!! :-D

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