Tepper (CMU) Hub

"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."

"The interviewer could not see me and assumed that I was late to the interview. I had to clarify that I was around and the technical problems were keeping her from seeing me. So she called me on phone. That was very nice. This is one of the best interviews I had for my admissions and it was very conversational. While she did seem to have a list of questions she wanted to ask me, she really let the questions flow from my answers. We had about a 30-35 minute interaction. Here are some of the questions 1. How did you come to work for your current company? 2. Why are you doing an MBA? 3. What are your post MBA goals, connect the dots for me. 4. What is your plan B. Why? 5. Your designation doesn't seem to have changed. what do you do in your role, how has it grown over time? 6. TW you experienced a knowledge gap at work, when you did know enough to get work done and how did you handle it? 7. TW you were a resource for the company 8. TW you experienced a cultural shock. How did you deal with it. 9. TW you failed and what did you learn from it. 10. TW you had to compromise for the team's success. 11. What are your hobbies outside of work. 12. Any questions for me. She usually summarized my answers or added her insights on top of my answer which made me feel comfortable that she understood what I was saying."

"Had an interview today. It was impersonal and I was a nervous wreck :( TW- Time when Questions: 1. Medium term goal- post mba career goal 2. Back-up plan 3. Why Tepper? 4. TW you made an unpopular decision that created an impact. 5. TW you used an out of work experience at work 6. TW you experienced international/ intercultural diversity 7. TW you had difficulty working with someone and how did you deal with it? 8. Any questions for me? It lasted for 16 mins, so i'm not sure how they are going to percieve me. Keeping my fingers crossed."

"This was a blind interview. The interviewer was extremely personable and we really just chatted about my leadership experiences and she asked a few questions. Resume Review 1. Post MBA career goal 2. Back up plan 2. Time when I didn't get alone in a group 3. Time when i had to make an unpopular decision 4. Time when I had to make a decision without much information 6. What clubs or student interactions have I pursued 5. Why Tepper? I think there was one other question but I cannot remember. Again, it was a very laid back interview and I almost had fun talking. Good Luck everyone!"

"30 minutes interview - started with a brief about the process, followed by the questions from adcom followed by the questions I wanted to ask. 1. Post MBA career goal 2. Alternate goal 3. Time when you led something unpopular but it created an impact 4. Some learning from an out-of-work experience that you used at work-place 5. When you did something which had an adverse impact on some other team. What was the learning? 6. Experience of international-diversity. 7. Experience of working with someone you didn't get along with well. How did you manage? 8. Why Tepper? Interview was blind and not very conversational."

"30 minute interview with Adcom. Interviewer had not seen my application but had reviewed my resume and made notes/highlighted points of note. 1. Employment Gaps 2. Describe current role (what does your day look like) 3. Goal post graduation 4. Backup Plan 5. Why Tepper Behavioral 1. Time I had to compromise to achieve goal, what I did and what was outcome 2. Time I had to take an action I knew would be unpopular 3. Time my lack of knowledge or experience presented a difficulty, how I handled it 4. Time I used my industry expertise to help others avoid a mistake 5. Time I made an effort to understand someone from a different culture, impact it had on me Any questions for the interviewer. Atmosphere was extremely warm, friendly and I was made to feel at ease."

"A behavioral interview which lasted about 30 minutes. Some of the questions I can recollect are : 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Why MBA 3. Post MBA career goals. 4. Plan B if Plan A does not work out. 5. Why Tepper Tell me about : 6. An instance where your team was utilized by another team 7. a failure story (Don't remember the exact question, but I asked to talk about an instance when I failed) 8. Experience working with different cultures. What did you learn? 9. What do you do outside work? - I spoke about a meditation practice cultivated a year ago. It was blind interview where the interviewer had not seen the rest of my application."

"I received an interview invite two weeks ago and had my interview the following week. Here are the questions paraphrased (might be missing one or two): TMA = Tell me about 1. Why MBA? 2. Post-MBA plans/career goals. 3. Plan B if Post-MBA plans don’t work out. 4. Why Tepper? 5. TMA a time when you had to compromise for the team to succeed. 6. TMA a time when you did something that others in the team did not want to do. 7. TMA a time when you learned from people more senior than you? 8. TMA your experience working with a diverse team with different backgrounds from you. It was a video chat interview. I could see her, but, unfortunately, my webcam didn't work with CMU's online software, despite it working on Facetime/Photo Booth. So basically, to my interviewer, I was a black talking screen. Interview seemed ok overall, but it's hard to gauge."

"Hi all, I had my interview yesterday and it was a blind interview (interviewer only saw my resume and not the rest of my apps). It had 2 parts: goals/why MBA and behavioral questions. Part 1 - 1. Can you tell me more about your current role? 2. Why do you want an MBA now? 3. Post-MBA goal 4. Plan B if Plan A doesn't work out Part 2 - 1. Talk about a time where you had to compromise for the team's success 2. Talk about a time where your team was utilized by another team (or another team asked for your help) 3. Was there a time where you had to use your non-work skills at work for a project to be successful? 4. Talk about a time where you had less success as a team leader 5. As Tepper is a diverse, tight-knit community, was there a time where you actively reached out to know more about other people's culture? 6. Based on your research, why do you think Tepper is the school for you? Then around 5 mins for Qs to the interviewer"

"Hi all, I did my interview yesterday with Emily. Questions asked were: 1. Why MBA? 2. Long-term and short-term goal 3. Alternative plan 4. Why Tepper 5. A time when I worked on some projects and learnt something unexpected/ non-intended 6. How my Operations experiences help my goal 7. A time when I had a disagreement/conflict within team 8. A time when I didn't have the information I needed. What did I do. 9. Experiences working with people from different cultures 10. Since I mentioned that I live in Singapore, a culturally diverse country - what are the differences I notice. Elaborate on my bosses who are from different countries 11. Any achievement that I am proud of outside of work (I shared about my learning a third language recently) 12. Any question to her I realized that I got asked an awful lot of questions in 35 min. Not sure whether it's because I talked too fast... Maybe next time I will talk real slow to eat away the time..."

"I had my interview yesterday with Tepper. The format seemed to follow the majority of what has been reported in last year's Intake thread. It was as follows: - A statement that it was a blind interview. Only saw my CV but not my application. I was encouraged to repeat, if necessary, what I may have outlined in my essay(s). - Walk me through your CV and how you got to where you are - I am working as an Independent Consultant - so I was asked how difficult it was to get new clients - Why I am doing the MBA - Plan B, if Plan A does not work out - Behavioral Interview Phase: - Time when I had a difficult time working with some. What did I learn - Time when I had learnt something when working with someone in a group. What did I learn - Asked me about what I do outside of work (whether I learned something that was not related to work) - so I talked about me being a Muay Thai Practitioner - Final Portion was questions about Tepper. Compared to the past, I know the behavioral section was quite small - but I had problems with Skype every now and then and the call got dropped once as well. So it was a bit of a mess but hopefully I did enough. Interviewer did keep me relaxed though I did feel nervous at times but that is to be expected I supposed. Anyway, hoping I dont get the "decline" email/message in December."

"Done with my interview with Emily on the 9th. Background: I am a re-applicant and was admitted in Round 1 last year and I had my interview with her last year too The interview was a general conversation with regular questions: 1. Why MBA, why now? 2. Why Tepper? 3. Leadership situation? Your style of leadership 4. Some follow up questions about what did you learn and where did you implement the learning. 5. Difficult situation at work? 6. Some follow up questions about what did you learn and where did you implement the learning. 7. Cultural awareness and questions about working in different cultures? 8. Some follow up questions about what did you learn and where did you implement the learning. 9. Unpopular decision? What would like to take back from that decision? 10. A situation when you had lack on information? What did you do what did you learn? 11. Situation when you had to deal with different teams? What did you do what did you learn 12. Questions about my short-term goal? 13. Plan B if I do not get recruited in the company I want? 14. Questions about what has changed from last year? 15. Questions about my start-up? 16. Any questions to ask? I think these were the major questions that were asked. Did not look these many while i was answering them :D Make sure you have 4 - 5 situations ready to use in various scenarios. You can use one situation in multiple scenarios though. Treat it like a conversation and you will do well."