An interview forms an integral part of the process for business school admission for most universities, if not all. It is now a stated policy for the US business schools and a requirement for top European business schools. There are still a few universities which do not interview their top candidates (top 10 per cent of the admitted students). For most others, it forms a part of their admissions process, but given different weight as per the policy of the school and as defined by the strength of the application submitted by a candidate. It is a generally accepted fact that a good to neutral interview does not necessarily increase your chances of getting an admission but a bad interview can definitely influence the outcome negatively. In most cases, especially for international students, it is the most crucial part of the application process for various reasons. The interviews are usually in English and may be conducted by alumni, a current student or an admissions officer. An international applicant may have difficulty in conversing fluently in English or may not be able to understand the accent of the interviewer, thus increasing the chances of not being able to perform according to expectation or acceptable minimum standards. Most people also have huge performance anxieties and thus are afraid of appearing for an interview, where they can be judged at close quarters. People usually fear the worst when it comes to an interview, which is an over-exaggeration, especially in the case of business schools. In fact, it is more of a discussion that is meant to be informative as well as enjoyable. Let us help you in breaking this mental barrier and successfully getting past the interview stage of your admissions process.
An interview is used as a sounding board by the business schools for some or all of the following:
Most business schools follow two types of interviewing policies. One is the Harvard or Stanford type of interview, which is only by invitation and offered to a small set from the total pool of applicants. The other is the Kellogg or Duke type of interview, which is offered to everyone and is defined more by logistical constraints than anything else.
The first type of interview is characterized by a set of well-defined policies. In the case of Harvard, it is clearly stated that the interview is conducted exclusively by the admissions committee and is based on your complete application. The questions do not follow a set template and are clearly based on a deep understanding of your case and of the provided information (not to say that there are no usual interview questions, some of which are listed at the end of the chapter). The interview serves as verification as well as an opportunity to present your case again with fresh examples and reflect on your strengths and your fit with the school. It carries a significant weight and chances beyond an interview are with a 50 per cent probability. In the case of Stanford, they are conducted exclusively by alumni and are used as a verification of the personality profile as created by the admissions committee. The alumni uses your résumé as a reference and probes into your life, experiences and personality and then sends in its report to the admissions office which checks for gross negatives or any mismatch from their understanding of your application and then arrives at a decision. Both of the above create a subset of deserving candidates and then interview them all. The deserving candidates are then usually classified into subcategories. We define them as: top-gun (interview is only a formality), cowboy (surely in if the interview does not go badly) and fence-sitter (borderline case, interview is the deciding factor). For obvious reasons, cowboys and fence-sitters need to be really careful about their interview performance, but since we really can’t assess as to which category our application falls into, it pays to be careful and well prepared.
The second type of interview is characterized by literal chaos. At Kellogg, you need an interview and the admissions office helps set it up with either an admissions officer (travelling to your country) or with alumni (based currently in a nearby location). The interview follows a set pattern, is based on your résumé and the questions are well known, and well prepared by most applicants (we provide a sample set at the end of the chapter). The interview serves to check for gross negatives and except for rare cases (if you impress the interviewer beyond his/her dreams), does not add to your chances of an admission. It is only a point of the admission checklist. However, since the applicant volume is large, it is not always possible to call on the alumni again and again to interview a large set of candidates. In such cases, the school waives off the interview initially and then calls only those applicants for a telephonic interview, which it finds promising. In such cases the interview takes the form of the Harvard type interview. In the case of Duke, the process is almost the same as Kellogg but includes current students as interviewers and removes the interview waiver, making it compulsory to attend a personal interview.
Whether you are interviewed by invitation or on compulsion, it is useful to keep in mind its overall purpose. This helps in two ways. You are able to convince yourself of the utility of this tool as a powerful part of your application and are thus able to better focus on getting it right. It also helps to lower the performance anxiety by realizing that it’s more of a marketing game and a discussion than an evaluation of your person. You can draw the benefits of an interview by:
It should be sufficiently clear to you that an interview is meant to be about you, your thoughts, beliefs, experiences and questions. Keep it as such. Do not let the focus shift to the school or to the interviewer. Keep the control in your hand and direct it such that you are able to present the strong aspects of your personality in the best possible manner.
It is very important for you to prepare for your B-school interview because there are many factors involved in it and uneasiness in any area may seriously dent your chances. We have tried to explain the importance and ways of preparation of the numerous aspects involved in this process.
The toughest part of the whole interview process is preparing for one. Don’t be surprised reading this because it’s true. It takes elaborate planning, to the last detail, to create the wow effect during the interview. The point to understand is that it is not as difficult as it seems. Your physical appearance is as important on the day of the interview as is your preparation for the questions based on your résumé and application. Then there are other considerations which add to the opinion of the interviewer. You only need to set your priorities and focus on achieving a win. A typical interview follows the format given below:
The interview will vary in the level of difficulty and style depending upon your interviewer. The easiest are usually the interviews conducted by the alumni in a relaxed and friendly environment, and are more focussed on selling the school to strong candidates and less on grilling the applicants. Also more often than not, alumni interviews are based on your résumé and hence, are more general in nature. Depending upon the nature of the alumnus and his/her level of comfort, the interview could be for 30 minutes or more. Admissions officers play this very carefully since they need to address the gaps in your application and grill you about inconsistencies noticed as well as try and sell the institution to you. These are very impersonal and usually conducted in a fixed timeframe of about 30 minutes and are based on your complete application. The interviews conducted by students vary from being very friendly to being the toughest, just short of hostile. The reasons for this are that students usually evaluate the applicant as a fellow student and hence look out for specific qualities which impress them the most. They usually take the view of potential winners and focus more on the applicant and less on the school and look out for a fit, as defined by them. These are again mostly based on résumé and last for more than 30 minutes in most cases.
Based on the above three different styles of interviews, you need to condition your responses as per the situation. However, the base of the interview continues to be your résumé and your application. We have provided a comprehensive list of questions at the end of this chapter, which covers almost everything that can be asked. When you start preparing, you need to answer these questions by looking at your résumé and your essays. The key to good preparation is to know these two parts inside out. You should be ready to answer anything that is asked based on the information provided by you. This includes questions on employment, responsibilities, gaps in education or employment, career plan, values and beliefs, leadership abilities, strengths and weaknesses and such others. Next, you need to research the programme well and understand as well as memorize the key features that differentiate it from the rest. This can be done by reading through the brochures as well as the programme Web site set up by the school. Also focus on the specific areas of your interest such as the institute for investment management and the fund run by current students or the social enterprise club. This will help reflect your keenness in attending the programme. Other than this, you should keep abreast with current affairs and especially, be well informed with the political climate of your own and the target country and the implications on your future prospects. If you have hobbies like playing tennis or painting, it would be nice to discuss those in detail, say about the people known in the field, or the different styles in use.
Good preparation on all of the above will let you relax during the interview and will help you to discuss or argue a topic in detail as well as support your views in a convincing manner. You will also be able to ask several intelligent and probing questions about the programme, which will impress the interviewer and help you increase your knowledge of the programme.
There are ways in which you can predetermine the flow of an interview or the type of questions to be asked. This is important for the Harvard type of interview which tends to be based completely on the application and hence does not allow for preparation based on a standard template. You need to look out for examples which have been insufficiently explained such as those pertaining to leadership or personal development. Strengths and weaknesses can attract attention if they are unusual or point to an inconsistency in behaviour. Ethics related questions usually attract probing to understand your response in detail. Your work experience, its quality and nature, invite questions particularly to understand your career planning and why you did what you did. Academics is usually left out of discussion except for cases involving college seniors or where your academic background differs from your line of work, in which case, it needs to be clarified that your choice of course was indeed thought out and not an irrational and illogical move. If you have been active in community service and extracurricular work then a few questions could be thrown at you regarding a few of your responsibilities, if there were any that were substantial (such as a director). A résumé-based interview is usually more relaxed and you have the opportunity to direct it yourself by explaining some points in more detail and hence drawing the conversation towards a particular topic closer to your heart. In cases where your file is the base, you have less leeway and are more or less directed by the interviewer wishing to get to know the maximum possible information in the least possible time. However, depending on the interviewer, even a résumé-based interview may involve deep probing and analysis of your behaviour and personality, such as the one conducted by the Stanford alumni. Hence, our advice is to prepare as much as you can before the interview, but to relax and let it flow during the interview.
The easiest way to practise for an upcoming interview is to do mock interviews. Call up a fellow applicant, who is applying to the same school as you are, but whose application and story differs substantially from yours and get him/her to interview you. It will help in many ways. Since the person is applying to the same school, he/she will be acquainted with the school and its personality and culture. He/she would be able to judge your responses well and point out the inconsistencies in your responses. He/she will grill you mercilessly and hence, will possibly ask you all sorts of questions, which will help you overcome your anxiety and performance pressures. You would get to know the problem areas and will have time to work on them and improve before the actual interview. It would help immensely if you could record the sessions in either voice mode or video, for it will help you analyse your facial expressions, the tone of your voice and your body language and will allow you to address the problem areas in detail. Your friend will benefit in similar ways and hence, it will be a win-win situation for both of you. However, you must be careful with the selection of the person. This is to avoid a competitive spirit to come into the picture and destroy the objective. It needs to be fair and impartial to both so that each benefits from the sessions and comes out better prepared for the final interview. Finally, when the actual interviews start, we suggest that you interview first with lowest priority schools where interviews are compulsory and are more or less based on a standard script. You would be able to address your fears in a real setup, without losing out much if you are unable to put up a great performance. And it will give you a chance to improve upon in the next interview. A few schools like the University of Chicago and Emory University allow you to interview without submitting their application. This is a great opportunity for you to test out your interviewing skills with two of the top business schools in the US. Finally, always reflect after completing an interview on how you performed and on your responses so that you are able to analyse yourself and discover the mistakes, which need to be corrected the next time.
Relaxation
Appearance
Meeting
The interview begins with general questions about your job and the reason for wanting to do an MBA. Remember that the interviewer is making a mental picture with each response that you give and so be very guarded when answering any of these questions. Questions about your family and academic background are easily linked to your choice ofjobs and the reasons for pursuing an MBA. Be clear about your story and let it come out naturally through each of these questions. Keep in mind that the direction of the interview will be based upon your initial responses and so give crisp answers and remember to keep them short and sweet.
This level of questioning is usually followed by more specific questions about things stated in your résumé, such as a project which you completed or a successful public service campaign that you initiated. Sometimes, your background matches with that of the interviewer and the questions can be more personal in nature such as a discussion about college life or about changes in the company that you work in, where he or she might have spent some time earlier. The questions can also be based on common interests such as cricket or football or the recent trip that you made to Ladakh, which he/she has been planning for a longtime. Be sure that you do not twist facts and politely answer in the negative. If you do not know the answer, never try to make a guess.
At the end, the interviewer would usually invite you to ask any questions that you might have about the programme. This is the time for you to show that you are well prepared and have done your homework. Ask relevant and pointed questions about certain recent developments or related to a faculty member or with regard to a particular major such as finance. But keep in mind that if you are being interviewed by alumni, he might not know the specifics about the latest developments and it is better to avoid embarrassment for him, where he has to say that he does not know or that he would have to get back to you. Ask relevant questions, which impress him and make for a meaningful dialogue. And lastly, religiously avoid asking the interviewer about how you performed and what he thinks are your chances of getting an admission.
Once the interview is over, thank the interviewer for taking out the time to see you. Smile warmly and shake hands with confidence and walk out at a relaxed pace. If he comes to drop you at the door, thank him again and say a goodbye. If the secretary or a subordinate walks you out, be careful and do not make any loose comments about the interview or the interviewer. The person could easily go back and convey the impression to your interviewer. Simply talk with confidence and if asked, state confidently that the interview went well and that you would not know what else to say. Thank him at the door and shake hands while saying a goodbye.
A few pointers about your behaviour during the interview are listed below:
There are some unwritten rules to be followed in an interview, especially a business interview which looks at selection or recruitment by either a business school or a company. Always remember the following points:
In most cases, especially for business school interviews, it is a one-on-one affair between you and your interviewer. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule which have been discussed here.
These are more impersonal than others and are usually very formal, with two or more people in the panel. Expect the interview to focus more on your work experience, learnings and academic experience. Time is limited since each member has their own constraints and hence it is strongly advised that your answers be concise and to the point. Do ask, if any additional information is required by the members. Always address the person who asked the question but look at other people as well when answering the question and always end by again looking at the questioner. Finally, when taking leave, remember to address the panel as a collective for three or more people and wish goodbye to the group, but address individually in case of two people and then leave.
Sometimes a case study or a topic is given to a group of people and they are asked to discuss the same and come up with solutions to a problem, with recommendations, results or strategy. This involves a group discussion and allows the interviewer to test a candidate’s ability to work in teams, leadership skills, communication skills, creativity, thinking ability, analytical skills, and ability to handle pressure among others. Since everyone is trying to get the maximum airtime, the situation can get ugly sometimes, but you need to keep your cool and try to project your strengths onto the group and try and get the maximum leverage with the interviewer. Do not worry about getting noticed. Think only about how you can use the exercise to your advantage.
There are various types of interviews and then there are different types of interviewers. Check below to understand each type and your suggested response to each one of them.
This person comes across as cool and relaxed and talks about everything else except the business school. Even when he discusses it, it is only in the manner of a passing thought and readily suggests that you would make a great fit for the school. Beware of your interviewer and be guarded because more often than not, this person is trying to catch you off-guard and ready to open up completely, so that he can analyse you thoroughly through your actions and words. Share the jokes and the laughter but never make loose statements, maintain a respectful distance throughout the interview and you will sail through.
There are times when the person interviewing you is more interested in being heard and interviewed. This means that he/she will be able to gather less information about you, since you get little chance to express yourself. In such cases, be creative and very attentive. Use the opportunities presented to pick up his/her statements and express your views by adding onto them and explaining them with suitable examples from your application and otherwise. For example ‘I have had an experience similar to yours when I was working at...’ Also try and fit in information about your background into your responses so that he/she gets to hear it all without realizing the same.
When your interviewer has a tendency to loose the thread of current discussion and launch into another one or rather get off-track, again and again, be very polite but tactful to draw the discussion back by using statements such as, ‘I would like to understand that point you mentioned earlier…’ Avoid confrontation and be friendly so that it does not appear as if you are trying to control the interview and he/she does not get offended.
In such cases, be extra attentive to keep a track of when the last interruption happened, so that you can pick up the discussion from the same place. Also remain cool and never lose your focus, which is to leave a good impression on the interviewer. Be patient and listen carefully so that you are able to use opportunities to highlight some of your strengths.
This person loses the discussion time and again and asks you as to what point you were explaining last. Be very polite and patient and explain the point again. Be very concise with such a person, as he/she is likely to have a short attention span or might be pre-occupied with another business on his/her mind. If you notice that you have lost him/her, ask politely to allow you to summarize your answer, which will get him/her back into the discussion. Be careful to avoid getting irritated since your aim is to answer his/her questions in the best possible manner and get a positive feedback.
Such cases are rare but they do happen. Sometimes the interviewer starts probing your personal life such as relationships, family, girlfriend, etc. While it has not been explicitly stated that such questions cannot be asked, it might become uncomfortable for you to answer them. Again, their utility to evaluate your fit with a business school is questionable in itself. If you do face such a person, then politely refuse to answer these questions. If the person persists, then ask to leave the interview and immediately inform the admissions office of the school about the incident and let your displeasure be clearly known to them. Also ask them to schedule another interview for you. Be assured that the school would not hold it against you that you reported the incident to them and would be more than willing to help you in such a case.
Immediately after the interview, take a few minutes to reflect on your performance. Try to focus on any mistakes that you can point to or any visible negatives. Make a note of such issues so that you can work on them for your other interviews. Never ever feel disheartened about an interview that did not go as per your expectations. Sometimes, the points that we think work against us are not even considered by the interviewers in making the final assessment about the interview, for they had been asked to specifically comment on only a few of the qualities by the admission office.
Send a thank you note to your interviewer, and try to make it personal by including a statement that you liked or some such other thing from the interview. Remember to spell the name correctly and get the title right, as it can be a real put-off for most people. You may not be able to do it in the case of admissions officers but still do try to get information about their e-mail IDs and send an e-mail. In case of alumni and students, it should be done without fail, as you would also automatically include these people in your network for life, so it pays to generate as much goodwill as possible.
Fill up the following sheet as soon as possible to aid you in modifying your interviewing behaviour over time:
Review your responses as you progress with your application process and face more interviews and consciously try and address your shortcomings.
The following tips are designed to help you gain familiarity with the Kellogg (Northwestern) type of interview process. This information should be used in tandem with all of the other preparatory material. We are also noting down the information provided by the school on its interview process on the Web site for quick reference.
Other schools with similar patterns: Duke, University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)
Type of Interview: Blind, résumé based
Most likely to be conducted by: Second-year student or admissions officer (if on campus), alumni (if local).
Weightage: The interview counts as just another component of your file, and is not a determining factor in the process.
The admissions committee requires every applicant, both domestic and international, to request an evaluative personal interview. Interviews with a member of the admissions staff, student admissions counselors or Kellogg’s Alumni Admissions Organization (AAO) are conducted throughout the year. Interviews also allow candidates to learn more about Kellogg. The interview is an important element in evaluating an applicant’s level of maturity, interpersonal skills, career focus and motivation. However, the interview is only one criterion used in the admission decision. The interview is an independent assessment, therefore, the application is not reviewed by the interviewer. Applicants must bring a current résumé to the interview. Applicants requesting an off-campus interview will be notified of their assignment by e-mail, after Part I of the Kellogg application has been received by admissions office. If no e-mail address is provided, candidates will be notified by post, which may take several weeks. During peak season (November-March), expect to receive the interview assignment two to six weeks after the admissions office receives Part I of the application.
Alumni Interviews Members of Kellogg’s AAO are located in most metropolitan areas around the world. Candidates interviewing off-campus will be contacted to schedule the interview. Applicants should not contact alumni directly to request an interview. The admissions office will make every effort to assign an alumni interview to each candidate. However, in a few cases of unusually heavy demand or remote location, we may be unable to meet all requests. In these instances, candidates will be notified of an interview waiver. Waivers have no negative impact on candidacy, and many applicants who receive waivers are admitted to Kellogg every year. The admissions committee reserves the right to contact candidates directly to seek additional information regarding their candidacy during the application process.
On-Campus Interviews On-Campus interviews are conducted Monday through Friday year-round, and also on Saturdays from late fall to early spring. On-Campus interviews are generally for 30 minutes.
Kellogg type interviews (despite their claim that they are of 30 minutes) can range anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours (especially when alumni are involved), so be flexible. Specific questions and questioning along the lines of your career goals, professional choices and interest in the MBA programme are relatively common. Don’t be intimidated by these questions, just try to stay enthusiastic and answer them. Keep in mind that in particular Kellogg (and others too, more or less) pushes three things in their marketing materials:
The interview serves a two-fold purpose:
In addition to the regular barrage of questions, you may expect something along these lines in a Kellogg type of an interview:
When you walk into an alumni interview, keep in mind that this is not just your casual graduate who feels like helping out with an interview here and there. Unlike many schools, Kellogg actually puts its alumni interviewers through a fairly strict training process to give these interviews a consistency with what happens in a campus interview. There is also limited movement from one year to the next; so many alumni interviewers have done this for several seasons running.
Kellogg is a friendly place. The students, admissions staff and alumni emphasize collaboration and are not looking for pushy applicants who lack humility. They also do not look for candidates who lack an outgoing and enthusiastic nature. At the same time, your Kellogg interviewer will be trying to gauge your level of interest in the school and probing to find out whether or not you know why you need a Kellogg MBA (weeding out those candidates who are using the programme as a backup to Harvard, Stanford or Wharton). As such, despite the friendly, team-oriented nature of Kellogg, you may find that the interview is somewhat challenging. As long as you do your homework on the school and practice your answers to the typical interview questions you should be in good shape from a preparation standpoint. The rest will come down to your ability to show enthusiasm (for Kellogg and your goals), demonstrate intelligence (by having reasons for the decisions you have made) and indicate a collaborative nature (without forcing it).
While this is an extensive list of likely questions, remember that the actual questions asked may differ (substantially in some cases) from the questions listed below. The key point is to become comfortable with the different types of questions, so that you can answer any question asked of you. Remember, the interviewer has wide latitude in the interview. For example, the questions might be open or close ended, friendly or hostile in nature. The only real advice is to be completely in control of your application and resume and be prepared to face questions based on those, which will form a major chunk of your interview.
Other schools that follow this pattern: MIT-Sloan, Wharton
Type of interview: Résumé, application, essays and recommendation based.
Most likely to be conducted by: An admissions committee member or alumni (if local, in only a few cases).
Weightage: The interview can be a determining factor in the process and carries significant weight in the final outcome.
Since there is no script to this type of interview, our advice is to thoroughly prepare all the relevant questions from the previously noted general questions and then fine-tune the preparation keeping in mind the below mentioned points specific to a Harvard type of interview.
There is no script. Beyond the usual barrage of questions on subjects like career goals, need for the MBA, interest in HBS, professional and extracurricular experience, the HBS interview typically hones in on a few key elements of your profile. These elements vary from person to person, since the interviewer designs your interview based on the questions/concerns they have after reading your file.
In essence, the best way to prepare is to:
The short answer is ‘not exactly’. The schools have never stated that they hold stress interviews, but they do have a reputation for asking tough questions and forcing candidates to go beyond the polished/prepared answers you may have offered in your essays. Here is a sample of the sort of dialogue that we’ve observed in quite a few cases (taken from MBA forums and bulletin boards):
Admissions officer: I noticed that you received a substantial promotion about 8 months ago. Can you tell me about that?
You: Yes, I had worked very hard, and was selected from a group of
…
Admissions officer: How is the new post going?
You: Wonderfully. I have done x, y and z…
Admissions officer: If things are going so well, why not stay on at the firm then? Is there a particular reason you are ready for your MBA at this juncture?
You: Well, yes, I feel that I have excelled at my duties and that the learning curve has become less steep. I need to return to the classroom to get the tools associated with the next step on my career path, etc. Admissions officer: I see. So, if you were only promoted a few months ago and you have already mastered your new post, then it couldn’t have been that challenging, right?
Keep in mind that all of this is said with a friendly smile and that applicants often just have this subtle feeling that they are being questioned and pushed to defend what they have accomplished. The key to surviving this sort of situation is to avoid sounding defensive. Just stay on your message and be confident of your accomplishments. In the instance above, the suggested response is to say: Actually, I have found the post to be quite challenging and it took me quite some time to achieve the results and comfort level I have currently attained. At the same time, I have a clear vision of where it will take me over the next few months and I am confident that I will be ready to move on by the time my MBA studies would begin.
Besides judging how likely you are to become a business leader (e.g. a CEO, or prominent official), the interviewer will be looking at the following: