11 am zoom call with 3 alumni and one adcom. Started at 11.30 am. I was not given any intimation of delay (which is not normally the case), so I was staring at the screen for 15 minutes, waiting. Then I called the number on the email. He seemed to be an overall supervisory person and not the mentioned adcom. He mentioned delay might be because of panelists reviewing your profile. Got a call at 11.25 am from the adcom that call will start at 11.30. All this is to say that such things can and will happen. Don't be unnerved. Think of other things to keep you calm.
The interviewers - 3 panelists - 1 from consulting, 1 working in culture experience in Singapore and 1 more (which I don't recall - he was the first one to introduce himself and I was a bit hassled by the delays myself)
Questions:
1. Tell me about your life story
2. Why ISB - I mentioned academics, experiential learning opportunities, club culture and alumni network
3. Why not get into IIM executive education programs - you will get the same if not better experienced cohort and all other points you mentioned? Also, you are at the higher end of the spectrum in terms of work experience for ISB while you will be around average there.
(I did not expect to be asked for such a direct comparison with another school)
I mentioned good qualities of ISB first (similar to the previous answer). I mentioned that I have not heard good reviews of the IIM course. Also, I don't want to be in a learning zone and performance zone at the same time and want to upskill in a structured way. Plus, all my connects I spoke to were of similar work experience as me when they joined, so not sure why the work experience is a problem.
3. Further deep dive into Current work experience
4. Biggest deal in current job - Challenges, value add, what did you do there?
5. Why did your company get the above deal (Grilling over this)?
6. Show example of conflict at work - Here, the panelist wanted to hear of IB-like conflicts over mandates.
I had to be frank about it and mentioned that it doesn't happen in my firm. We are not at each other's throats for stuff like that and work as a strong team. I said that I can provide you with examples of other conflicts that I have handled and proceeded to do the same.
7. Some questions on the sector - Cross questioning on the same
8. Any questions you have - I asked 3 questions on their ISB experience and careers.
Few things to note:
1. Sometimes I had to answer the same questions twice to get the point across. I did not say something different from what I said the first time and just went about explaining the same thing in detail.
2. I did feel like they were trying to look at my work through their own preconceived notions of what it might be (may be it was an interview tactic). I had to go to deep lengths to tell them how it is different from what they are thinking it may be. I did not change the narrative as it would lead me to a hole that I would find difficult to come out of.
3. I would call my interview tough and a "grilling". They did not ask questions about goals, prior work experience, leadership qualities, team work qualities etc. They grilled me on my current work ex with a lot of counter questions. My wife (also admitted) had an interview in October and her's was a bit more conversational and like a general MBA interview with questions on leadership and teamwork.
4. I worked really hard on interviews and have a word document with more than 80 fully answered questions that I have read on GMATClub debriefs or thought of myself based on my work ex. It helped me a lot with my interview but this approach of writing full answers to questions can sometimes make you sound like you are reading from somewhere, rather than speaking from the heart. I had to practice a lot to remove it out.
5. Be ready to defend your decisions and answers without changing your stance. It is not that difficult if you have various things to talk about to complement your answer.
6. One technique that really helped me was to create situation banks - Pick a few situations in your life that you can speak of. Write them out in detail using SCAR framework, ensuring that you don't get technical with your terminologies in case your interviewer is from a different background. You can use these situations for answers to various questions. I got this idea from a youtube video of a guy who got admits from Wharton, Booth and MIT. He advised to have 5-6 situations. I had 12-14. I also classified them in order of importance.
7. Constantly think about your profile as to what questions they can ask you, apart from the common ones (why mba, life story, why isb, example of team conflict, example of leadership etc). Note down these questions in your own word document and then formulate answers as and when you arrive at them.
All in all, your interview can go in various ways - friendly and conversational (like my wife's) or tough and grilling (like mine - although I must say that at any given point of time there was at least one panelist who was smiling and being nice). Enough prep and you can do well in any scenario.
I got my admit email 6 days later.
30 Nov 2020, 04:31
