Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington (Photo: Jeff Hart)
Unlike the other parts of the MBA application, the MBA interview is a little special. It doesnt like to get bundled along with the rest of its buddies the GMAT score, MBA essays, recommendations and the resume. It demands elite treatment and gets it.
Phase 1 of the MBA application is not very different from a big, public party (no bouncers to spoil the fun, thankfully). So gatecrashers force themselves in, along with the legitimate guests. And business schools dont seem to have a problem with that. If their average GMAT score has been hovering around 710 and you come in with a 600, they wont stop you from applying. You still get the opportunity to present your professional and personal accomplishments along with your post-MBA plans. But for the grand finale (the interview), youll only get an invite if youve performed exceedingly well in the preliminary stage.
They dont set the application barriers too high (due to several reasons that are out of the scope of this article). But when it comes to entry barriers, thats when the party changes from a free-for-all to one that is by-invitation-only.
Q1. What happens in the MBA interview?
Many things. The story that you narrated in your essays gets tested. The content in your recommendations might also come under a magnifying lens. Your pre-MBA career graph gets compared to your post MBA dreams to see if its really a dream or a hallucination. Your verbal communication skills and your ability to connect with a real person (which neither the GMAT nor any of your submitted material really proves) gets scanned. Depending on what youve written in your applications or how creative the interviewer gets, you might also get some mind-benders, general knowledge questions, case studies or estimation problems. And you get around 30 minutes to do some (or all) of this.
Q2. What makes the interview unique?
The rest of your (written) application material until now has been a one-man show featuring only you. The process allowed you the liberty to sit under an apple tree, stare at the chirping birds and wait for the moment of inspiration (since the launch of the expensive New iPad, a falling apple triggers concern more than inspiration). There was plenty of time to check your essays, identify the less-than-perfect parts and find better words and stories to replace them.
The interview follows a regular Question and Answer pattern. So you cant launch into a monologue and provide all the inputs you think are relevant. The pace and the tone would be pretty much set by the interviewer. Though it might seem like a completely spontaneous process, most questions are predictable. The silver lining is that you get all the preparation time in the world before you come to the interview. But once you are at the table, you get one shot.
Q3. I have the option of being interviewed in person on campus, or by an Admissions officer on Skype or an alumnus in my city? Whom should I choose?
If you can visit the business school, thats the best option. It gives you a chance to experience a day on the campus, interact with current students and maybe sit in an MBA class. If thats not possible (visa, cost or time issues), then a member of the Admissions committee (visiting your city or over Skype/phone) is still a better choice. They would be far more experienced than alumni. But thats not always possible, specially for the big schools that get tens of thousands of applications. In that case, an alumni interview works better for the admissions comittee rather than a very small team of Admission officers interviewing a lot of candidates.
Often you may not have the choice at all. The school might simply assign an alum who might be kind or arrogant or
Q4. What should I wear for my MBA interview?
A business school interview is a formal process. So you need to be formally dressed. Unless its a telephonic interview, where anything (or nothing) you prefer should be fine. All you need to do is sound confident, polished and formal, even if you are wearing boxers.
For in-person interviews, find out more about the venue. If its in a hotel, where the air-conditioners have a mind of their own, take appropriate precautions. Dont overdo it though (eg, mufflers, monkey-caps, gloves and a Japanese fan stuffed in a carry-bag are out). Travel light. Arrive a little early so your body isnt trying to acclimatise itself to the surroundings in possibly the 30 most important moments of your career.
Q5. Will the MBA interview make or break my chances?
Most candidates assume that the decision making in MBA applications always happens as a sequential process ie, youve crossed phase 1 of the application process (essays, GMAT, recos) because everything thing was perfect –> every person who has been called for the interview is at the same level –> the final decision will be taken purely based on your performance in the interview.
This is usually not how it works!
The inputs from the interview get added back to your evaluation and the Admissions Committee takes a holistic look at the overall profile. They would also look at the other candidates whove just been interviewed. If you have applied in latter rounds, they might want to see if you bring something new to their class from a diversity perspective which previously admitted candidates (maybe from a similar industry/role) didnt have.
So the process may not be as simple as it might appear externally. Do your best in the interviews but dont assume its going one way or the other just on the basis of those 30 mins.
Read up on how you can prepare for MBA interviews, get a helpful friend, start practising and knock out the gate-crashers.
Are there any other burning questions in your mind that youd like us to address in subsequent posts? Paste them in the comments below. Also, check out the earlier posts in this FAQ series if you’ve missed any.
Author Sameer Kamat is the founder of MBA Crystal Ball, an admissions consulting venture and author of the bestselling MBA book Beyond The MBA Hype where he shares insights and pitfalls that aspirants should be aware of before they embark on their international MBA journey. He completed his MBA from the University of Cambridge in 2005. You can connect with him on Twitter @kamatsameer