Had my interview this evening with an alumni at a coffee shop in my city. He called me 15 minutes beforehand to tell me he'd be running a little late. His late arrival allowed me to find seats in the bustling and loud coffee shop. Once he arrived he grabbed a coffee while I saved our seats. He then sat down and briefly introduced himself. I mentioned I had actually seen him speak at a local UCLA information session a few months back.
He then pulled out my resume and began criticizing the format and detail level of it. He suggested I look into condensing it and have someone look it over. This was a shock as I just had three trustworthy professionals look over my resume recently for critique before submitting it to business schools. I used the format presented in Richard Montauk's admissions guide. First page is my professional work exp and the back is high level education, internships, EC. I did my best to take his "advice" in stride and keep going.
His first question was "Why UCLA?" I responded authentically. Next was "Why an MBA" which I had down comfortably from other interviews. Then came the curveballs.
He presented a scenario where I had to understand the different aspects of a companies operations and how to assign responsibility. He wanted me to explain what the operations director's responsibility would be when implementing a new feature into a new BMW. He wanted me to tell him what kind of people with what specific backgrounds would I select for a team of 4 to launch this new product.
I stumbled through the scenarios clumsily. This being my third bschool interview I felt pretty comfortable and confident beforehand. The previous two went very pleasantly. I was caught off guard from the moment this interview started. He mentioned he does a lot of interviews at the prestigious company he works at so I got the feeling he typically grills people.
He asked me to bring up examples of conflict within a team. I told two professional stories and neither satisfied. He wanted a story where no comprise was reached. He wanted to know what I'd do in the hypothetical situation that a coworker wouldn't back down in a disagreement but I knew I was right. I said I'd try to improve my communication with said coworker to understand each other better. "What if that doesn't work?" I suppose I'd go to my manager to get his opinion and direction. "What if that doesn't work, what then?" I was stumped and said I've been fortunate to have only work in groups where our big issues have been eventually been worked out.
The final question was asking me to describe a weakness of mine. I cited numerous areas of business I lack experience in and am excited to learn about in bschool. He didn't like that answer and wanted a personality weakness. I said I can grow impatient when I am not challenged. He agreed that he is the same way.
He then asked if I had questions, I asked a few about his professional experience and his school experience.
Obviously I would not say my interview went well. Luck of the draw I guess. Oh well.