Tepper (CMU) Hub

"I had my interview with Ryan Astor. The interview lasted exactly for 30mins. He had my resume and took brief notes on paper at times. The interview began with a brief introduction of the interviewer. Ryan used to be a Tepper adcom member but is currently only working part-time. The questions asked were: 1. Tell me about yourself. 2. Tell me a bit about your work with Australian offices since I see that mentioned in your resume. 3. Why do you want to do an MBA considering you are doing great in your technical field? 5. Why Tepper? 6. What are your strengths when it comes to leadership? What are the points of improvement? 7. Have you ever been to the US? How does your family feel about you moving to the US? 8. What do you do apart from work? Any community services you are involved in? 9. How are you preparing yourself for the MBA journey in the meanwhile? 10. Any questions for me? It was a friendly conversation overall."

"Interview with Jackson Otto. She was really friendly and very engaged throughout the discussion We started with a casual talk about her experience in the city I am living at. Questions in the interview: - Walk me through your resume - What's your short-term goal after MBA? - TMAT you helped your team or your company - TMAT you encountered a challenge. What was it and how did you get past that? - How do you learn and improve yourself professionally? - What do you do outside of work? - (Because I have a pretty globalized profile) Share a little bit about your experiences with diversity. - Why Tepper? - Any questions for me? Overall, I enjoyed the interview and I was able to connect with her personally. Regardless of the result, I got something out of the conversation."

"Had a 30 min interview with Paige Davies. It was a behavioral interview and the tone was conversational. 20-25 min for the interview and the last 5 min for Q&A. 1. What is your work week like? 2. Why MBA now? 3. Short Term Goals 4. Plan B - Goals 5. TMAT when you have to use your skills to help grow another colleague in the team. 6. TMAT when you led a project at work and your leadership was not up to the mark. 7. Tell me about your leadership style. 8. TMAT when you have to work on a project at work with knowledge gaps? How did you fill those knowledge gaps? 9. Why Tepper? 10. What do you like to do during your free time? I asked a few questions and then ended the interview."

"The interview started off with an introduction by the interviewer and she mentioned that she only has my resume with her. The overall tone of the interview was conversational and was ended in 20 minutes. The last 10 minutes were set aside for me to ask questions. Almost all my questions were situational questions. 1. You recently got promoted. Tell me about your recent project. 2. What do you want to do post MBA? 3. TMAT when you had to compromise on a project. 4. TMAT when your team was against you and you hand to convince them. 5. TMAT when the client had some expectations and you couldn't meet them. 6. TMAT when you worked with a diverse set of people and learned something. 7. How do you fill the gaps when you are given a project? 8. Questions Hope this helps."

"My zoom interview was with Jackie Otto. Same as other Tepper interview debrief in the past year, she started by Saying this is a blind interview and that she only has my resume in hand. The tone was very conversational. There are no awkward follow up questions asked. My questions were (although I cannot remember exactly how she phrased them) 1. Tell me about yourself 2. What's you goal after MBA 3. Plan B 4. TMAT when you solve big problems or achieve great result 5. TMAT when you face a difficult situation 6. What method do you use to learn new professional skills 7. TMAT when a person/colleague influenced your work/life. 8. TMAT when you have international experience 9. Why Tepper Hope this helps."

"My interview was with John Ivy. It went for about 25 minutes. Key questions asked were: 1. What does a typical week looks like for you? 2. How you work with limited information? 3. When others came to take help from you on something you are good at or non-work skill? 4. Helped a poorly performing employee? 5. Goals - Plan A & Plan B 6. Why Tepper? Hope this helps"

"My interview was on 26th Feb with Tiffany Jackson. She is an AdCom member. It started off by she introducing herself briefly and then informing that it will be a blind interview. The interview was overall very conversational and ended in 20 mins. She kept 10 minutes for my questions. The questions I was asked were : 1. What is your typical work week like. 2. Immediate plans post MBA 3. Plan B 4. Why Tepper 5. TMAT when you made an effort to increase diversity in your workplace. 6. TMAT when you did not have enough information to make a decision. 7. TMAT when you had to compromise on a project. 8. TMAT when you mentored someone. Then she asked if I have any questions. I asked her a few questions and we were done."

"Interviewer - John Ivy Duration - 22 mins John was firing the list of questions available with him on record with paying much attention to my response. It was difficult to build a conversation with him. Some of the questions discussed are as under: 1. Tell me about your current role 2. Why Tepper 3. Short Term Goals 4. Plan-B 5. Situation - Convince somebody to change 6. Situation - Made changes to the team 7. Situation - Deal with confidential information 8. Tell about engagement in professional clubs outside the organization Hope this helps.... All the Best!"

"Interview was only 30 minutes. First half was all behavioral "tell me about a time when..." type questions. Second half started with "why Tepper?" and my goals, got really conversational here and I would say if you demonstrate you've done your research you will do well. I brought up a lot of things I like about the school that I had learned talking with students and the adcom was very excited to discuss those things with me. It's my top choice right now and I feel like it went really well, definitely the most casual of any interviews I've done once we moved past the behavioral part"

"I applied for the Part Time Online MBA at Tepper. Interview was on Zoom with John Ivy. It started right on time. It was a blind interview. He had only read my resume and had not seen my application. He was very pleasant and started right off the bat. Q1. What does a typical work week look like? Q2. What are your short term goals post MBA? Q3. What is your Plan B? (This was an application question too) Q4. Tell me about a time others have come to you for help at work? Q5. Tell me a time when you have helped a poorly performing colleague. Q6. Tell me about a time when you did not have enough information about something and what did you do about it? Q7. Why Tepper? This was a 30-minute interview. But we were done in 17 minutes. There were no follow up questions to any of my answers. He invited questions and I asked him about a particular track. I also asked him for feedback about the interview. It was positive. He said I answered concisely and he did not feel the need to ask follow-up questions 'which is a good thing' (his words). Keeping my fingers crossed."

"Interviewed with Ben Webb via Zoom A Blind interview. Interviewer didn't know my GMAT Score, Essays etc. Just had my resume. He did tell me about the same. Not in the below order... 1) Why MBA, Why now? 2) Tell me when you worked in a diverse environment 3) Tell me when you mentored someone 4) Tell me when you motivated someone 5) Do you plan to go back to your startups? 6) Do you plan on scaling both your startups or phase out one? 7) Why Tepper? 8) Do you have any questions for me? I had attended the interviewer's MBA Fair and he seemed to remember my name. A friendly interview. And it went well."

"Interviewed with Jackie Otto via Zoom call. It was a blind interview where the interviewer had not gone through my application but did have my resume with her during the interview. The interview booking portal had some issues and kept switching my booking between 1:00AM and 1:00PM throughout the day and the interview link did not work when the time came. Fortunately, I made the interviewer aware of this issue beforehand and she handled the situation very well although we lost about 4 of 30 minutes scheduled. The interview was a typical behavioral interview and some of the interviewer's questions were 1. Tell me about yourself. 2. Why Tepper (her questioned was phrased in such a way that I needed to answer why MBA and why Tepper). 3. Post MBA career plans. 4. Plan B. 5. Time when you mentored someone. 6. Time when you explored diversity. 7. Time when you had to adapt. 8. Time when you worked with a difficult person, task or situation. There were a few follow up questions here and there but overall it was a very calm, friendly and informal interview and at the end I felt the 4 minutes lost initially could have contributed to a more rich conversation. Overall it was a very satisfying experience and I hope it works for the best and I also hope anyone who reads this debrief can benefit from it. Good luck!"

"I had my interview with Colleen Poulsen on 19th Feb. I wanted to pick the on-campus option, but due to work deadlines, I had to pick skype. The interview got off to a bad start as the technology didn't work and I lost the first 10 minutes of the 30 mins interview. Eventually, I got a call on my cell and the interview became a phone call. Pro tip: For online video, it's better to have your cell nearby as if technology fails, at least there is a backup. I kept my phone on silent and missed her call, thus losing another 2 mins. Anyway, once the interview started, I tried to stay calm and just answered whatever questions she asked. Below are the questions she asked: 1. Walk me through your profile. 2. What are your short term goals? 3. Why tepper? 4. Tell me about a time when you worked in a multicultural environment 5. Successful as a leader. 6. Failed as a leader 7. What would you like the admissions team to know? I think there were a couple of more questions which I am forgetting right now. Overall, I tried to treat it as a conversation and asked her about her experience throughout. Since she is from Pittsburg, I asked her about the city and her experience in the admissions. Although I felt rushed with my answers, I think I was able to get most of my stories across. Good luck to anyone reading this!"

"I had an on-campus interview with Colleen Paulson on 30th Jan'20 and it lasted about 25 mins. She was extremely attentive and welcoming and she made the interview feel more like a casual conversation. The questions that I was asked were on the lines of: 1. Walk me through your profile. 2. What are your goals? 3. What are your alternate goals? 4. Why do you want to be at Tepper? 5. Tell me about a time when you made a decision that faced resistance in your team. 6. Tell me about a time when you had to make a compromise. What did you do about it? 7. Tell me about a time when your peers knew more than you did. How did you cope up with it? 8. What do you want the admissions team to know about you? 9. Do you have any questions for me? I hope this helps! Good luck guys! :)"

"I had a video interview with admissions director. It lasted for around 30mins. I was asked following questions: 1. what does a typical day at work look like for you? 2. short term goal. 3. plan B. 4. Why Tepper? 5. tell me about a time when you had to adapt. 6. tell me about a time when your team members were against your decision. 7. how did you abridge the knowledge gap during the starting of your career? 8. what 3 things will set you apart from your peers? 9. what clubs are you interested in? 10. tell me about an accomplishment outside work which you are proud of."

"Just had my interview yesterday. This is what they asked me: walk me through resume Why Tepper Why mba now Goal after graduation Plan B Time you helped someone on a project wit’s a skill you’re good at Time you were less successful as a leader Time you reached out to learn a culture better How’d you learn your role at your company What do you do for fun? Any questions? Hope that helps"

"I had my interview with Mr John Ivy, and I must say irrespective of the outcome, it was an enjoyable experience. Most of the questions were behavioral in nature and focused beyond the generic ones that would require brief outline about myself. It would be great to know your work in and out, and have the ability to explain it to a layman. Also, the interview lasted about 30 mins."

"I was interviewed by Akin Obiri, Director of Admissions. It was a blind interview which lasted exactly 28 minutes. 1. Describe your typical workday or week 2. What is your career goal? 3. What is your backup if short term goals don’t work? 4. Why do you think Tepper is a good fit for you? 5. Tell me a time when you worked with people from a different cultural background 6. Tell me a time when you had to make a difficult decision and had to take the team's buy-in 7. What are you proud of outside of work 8. Any questions for me For those who opted for Skype Interview, you have to click on the Connect Button after the interview starts. Otherwise, you are just a black screen for your interviewer. All the best"

"I was interviewed by Emily, Associate Director of Admission. It was a blind interview which lasted exactly 30 minutes. 1. Why MBA and how does it tie to your short term goals? 2. Why Tepper? 3. What is your backup if short term goals doesn’t work? 4. Tell me a time when you had to work with someone from different cultural background 5. Tell me a time when you had to listen to an opposite perspective and agree to it 6. Tell me a time when you had an unpopular opinion and how did you convince the group 7. Tell me a time when you had to work in a cross-collaborative team environment 8. Tell me a time when you didn’t have data for your project and how did you manage 9. What are you proud of outside of work Be prepared for behavioural questions! Good luck!"

"I was interviewed by Tiffany Jackson, a very gentle person. Started exactly when the screen timer went off. However, as I was way too much excited, I forgot to click the Connect button on the top right corner of the screen. So for the first few seconds I was basically saying Hi to her with no response from her side. Eventually, we connected and it started with her brief intro. Then she said it would be a blind interview since she had only my resume. During the interview she kept noting my responses. Following were the questions: (TMA- Tell me about) 1. TMA your typical day at work? - to this I briefly described my work and her response was somewhat like "Must say that this gave me a lot more insight about your work than your resume." A very important feedback. 2. Why MBA? Short term, long term goals. Plan B. ( Blunder alert - mentioned a different position than the one in the essays in case of short term goal ) 3. Why Tepper? 4. TMA how you had to interact with a different team and how it went. Lessons learnt. 5. TMA a time when your leadership initiative failed. 6. TMA a time when you had to convince your team to do something they didn't favor and it a. succeeded b. failed lessons learnt. 7. TMA an accomplishment you're proud of apart from that at work. - described about how I successfully managed arrangements for my sister's marriage. She told me that she too was planning for one. 8. Diversity experience. 9. TMA a feedback you got at work and how did you take it. Questions for the interviewer: 1. She had told me about the wedding planning earlier so I asked about it to have a casual conversation, which went quite well. 2. I had seen from their admission committee page that she is from Pittsburgh itself and has completed most of her education from the place. I told her the same and asked her the top things about the place and whether I should be prepared for something as an outsider. 3. How does the coming class look like? 4. Any feedback for me? Overall a very friendly conversation. However, the final decision depends on a lot of parameters, hence I will accept and understand whatever it holds. All the best folks! Hope I could help."