Intern
Joined: 15 Dec 2010
Posts: 23
Schools:LBS 2013, Foster, McCombs, Stanford, Kellogg, Haas (Interview, w/d), Fuqua (Interview, w/d)
Re: The London Business School 2011 Thread
[#permalink]
10 Feb 2011, 22:08
For those interviewing, here’s my R1 experience and some key takeaways. Hope the post isn’t too long. Send me a PM for more details.
In case you don’t already know, LBS provides your full application to your interviewer, which naturally gives some insight into your strengths and weaknesses and lends itself to an in-depth interview. What your interviewer does with this info is obviously up to him or her. It seems, based on other debriefs, that some will stick to stock interview questions (why MBA, why LBS, short & long term goals, give me an example of …) and expect you to give answers different from your essays.
Another possibility is that your interviewer will dive into your weaknesses. This was definitely my experience, as my interviewer didn’t ask any of the usual MBA questions. After a couple minutes having me share some stories about my resume, he started asking about how my previous experience pertained to my future goals. I wrote in my essays about viewing LBS as bit of a launch pad into international work but was also upfront about how I currently lack international experience. My interviewer kept saying that he didn’t see how my previous experience pertained to my future goals and then would ask me to explain/clarify. I kept bringing it back to how LBS would fill this gap in my experience. This circle of questioning ultimately made me nervous and a bit defensive towards him hammering me on a weakness I was very upfront about in my essays. Needless to say, the interview was not going well, and I was starting to feel my dream school slipping away.
Ultimately, he admitted that he was testing me and pushing me to better sell myself. I wish I had perceived that at the time. Rather than recognizing the test, I thought he was actually suggesting I wasn’t qualified for LBS and my goals were pointless. I must have rebounded really well in the impromptu presentation, however, because when I finished, he told me it was the best he had seen in his several years of LBS interviews. I left the interview with very mixed feelings, but in the end, I was accepted.
So a couple takeaways. First, LBS interviews can vary immensely. It ultimately depends on the personality of your interviewer, and since they have your full application, they can take the interview wherever they want. Second, your interviewer may try to test you or push you. While it may come across as abrasive, don’t be fooled into thinking that your interviewer is actually questioning your qualifications. If you’re invited to interview, there are certainly no deal breakers in your application. Just remember that you are undoubtedly a potential fit for the school.