You begin eagerly awaiting the MBA interview invitation from your desired business school as soon as you press the “submit” button. Even though top schools have admission rates of around 10-15%, once you get an interview and are in front of the interviewers, you have a better chance of securing a spot there—if you handle it properly, that is. For more information on MBA interviews, please read this article.
How Difficult Are MBA Interviews
MBA interviews can be challenging if you do not adequately prepare. Spend a lot of time researching the kinds of questions that are likely to be asked in an MBA interview before the interview.
Discover the best responses to offer by becoming familiar with these inquiries. The following are a few of the queries that most people find challenging to respond to what is your most outstanding weakness? What was your biggest failure? Which of your past managerial experiences was the worst?
When the interviewer asks you to describe yourself, it can be another challenging task. Because they don’t want to come across as arrogant, the majority of people find this question difficult.
They ponder what to say so that you don’t come off as arrogant and without omitting the most crucial details. You can answer these questions in an organized manner if you do the appropriate amount of research. Be prepared for a variety of questions when you enter the interview, though.
MBA Interview Tips
Be Proactive And Not Reactive
As soon as you submit your application, you should start getting ready for the MBA interview. It serves no purpose to wait around until you are invited to an MBA interview.
Business schools prefer go-getters, so if you choose to do this, you’ll be putting off necessary tasks. Be proactive rather than reactive.
Understand The Interview Process Of Your Target Business Schools
A particular method is used by each business school when conducting an MBA interview. While some panels might only have one interviewer, others might have more. Additionally, interviews can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or longer.
For example, Two interviewers will conduct your MBA interview at Harvard Business School (HBS), and they will have access to your entire application.
The interview is primarily focused on your resume in order to understand your vision for yourself and the events that influenced your decision.
Additionally, you’ll have 24 hours to send the HBS admissions committee a post-interview reflection. A typical HBS interview lasts 30 minutes.
Research The Most Common MBA Interview Questions
There is a standard set of questions that are asked during every MBA interview. These could be general inquiries made to everyone or specific inquiries made to applicants with profiles similar to yours.
You can begin by looking at these seven of the most typical MBA interview questions. The list has been compiled by GMAC. These are some MBA interview inquiries:
- Tell us about yourself
- Why are you considering an MBA?
- Why did you pick this particular program or business school?
- Tell us about your leadership traits
- Tell us about your strengths and weaknesses
- What qualifies you as a viable applicant to this business school?
- Do you have any inquiries regarding the business school or the course?
One other source of good questions will be the transcripts of MBA interviews shared by the business schools. The transcripts have been slightly edited, but they still give you a good idea of how an MBA interview is structured and what good questions to ask about both your resume and other topics.
Prepare Answers For MBA Interview Questions
Referencing your previously submitted resume and essay is the best way to get ready for the questions that will be asked during the MBA interview. The key is identifying your key selling points and anecdotes to support them.
Be mindful of the guiding principles of the business school as you prepare responses to MBA interview questions. You must make a connection between your key strengths and their guiding principles in order to demonstrate how your program fits their needs.
However, during this process don’t forget to prepare meaningful questions for your interviewers. The inquiries ought to show that you’re genuinely interested in the business school and that you’ve given them some thought.
If you have alumni in your interview panel, it’s a great opportunity to ask about their post-MBA experiences and how that business school shaped their careers.
Additionally, you can ask admissions officers specific questions about campus life and the way the business school community fosters development.
Be ready for the challenging questions because the actual interview may not go as planned. The best way to respond to challenging questions (which will almost certainly be about your shortcomings or failures) is to be sincere and discuss how those experiences improved you.
In addition to highlighting your capacity for reflection and personal development, this will present you in a favorable light.
Practice The MBA Interview Questions
We cannot stress enough how crucial it is to prepare for MBA interview questions. With a list of potential MBA interview questions and possible responses in hand, you should set aside some time to work on your delivery.
It’s important to be genuine in your responses so that you don’t come across as overly rehearsed when speaking in front of the interviewers.
To perform a dummy MBA interview with someone is the best strategy. Make sure to record the interview so you can review your conversational expressions.
Not only is it to see how well you speak, but it’s also to see if you’re straying from the subject. The interviewers value your resourcefulness, which is demonstrated by your ability to stay on topic. A valuable skill is the ability to say more with fewer words.
Toughest MBA Interview Questions
Question 1: “Tell Me About Yourself.”
It’s not a coincidence that the first item on this list is this seemingly innocent question.
Whether you interview with an alumnus, the admissions committee, on campus, or at a global hub site, this question (or its sibling, “Walk me through your resume”) opens nearly every MBA interview.
In your response, highlight your greatest accomplishments and the reasons behind each career move you’ve made (both why you left and why you joined any position), and use this information to contextualize your CV and tell your overall story.
Question 2: “Tell Me About A Time You Failed.”
First of all, if you answer too honestly and choose, for instance, to mention a time when you leaked private information about an impending IPO to the media, your response will reveal behavioral “red flags” that will ruin your chances at your top choice programs.
Despite how challenging this question may be, the following steps can assist you in creating a strong response.
Step 1: Pick a “Goldilocks” failure that is just right—not too hot or too cold.). Bring a professional example with you if your interviewer asked you to describe something related to your work.
Step 2: Describe what happened to utilize the STAR methodology. Be sure to concentrate on your part in the failure. For instance, if you were a member of a team during the failure in question, avoid saying “we” constantly because it may appear that you’re attempting to deflect blame.
Although you’re not required to use “I” in every response, make sure you’re the obvious culprit. Finally, make sure you clearly define what the failure was.
Step 3: Discuss what you’ve discovered. The best MBA candidates aren’t those who have never failed; instead, they are those who are mature enough to reflect on past failures, learn valuable lessons from them, and then use those lessons to succeed in the future.
By describing what you took away from the failure and, if appropriate, adding a brief anecdote about a later time when you successfully applied this lesson, you can demonstrate that you have learned from your mistake and are the type of candidate that elite MBAs dream about.
Question 3: “Do You Have Any Questions For Me?”
Just like in a job interview, the answer to this question is always YES.
You ought to demonstrate through the questions you prepare that you have done extensive research and are genuinely interested in their MBA program. Depending on who is conducting the interview, you should have various questions ready.
Avoid questions like “Which classes do you think I should take?” in all interviews.” since you should already know your answer to this. Avoid asking questions whose answers can be clearly and quickly found on the institution’s website.
In short, take advantage of this opportunity both to show your genuine interest in the school and to learn something new.
Question 4: “where Else Have You Applied?”
Even though it’s one of the trickier questions, very few candidates practice it before the interview. This is a major mistake since one of the main concerns your interviewer has is whether or not you will accept a spot at their program if offered one.
There are many criteria by which to evaluate an MBA program’s prestige, but one important one is the yield or the ratio of spots offered to applicants to those who enroll in the program.
The higher the yield, as you probably already guessed, the better, as it demonstrates how well-liked the programs are among applicants.
As such, when your interviewer asks you where else you applied and how you will decide where to ultimately enroll, they are really asking you how serious you are about taking a spot in their program.
Question 5: How Will You Improve Our Community?”
Though you’ve likely spent most of the application process thinking about how you can benefit from the MBA programs you’ve targeted, one of the most important considerations from an admissions perspective is how much value you will add to their overall community.
The simple truth is that highly selective business schools receive far more applications from qualified applicants than they can accommodate. Therefore, the admissions committee must decide who can most significantly improve the overall learning environment.
Thus, when you receive this question, you want to make sure you are prepared with a thoughtful answer on how you see yourself adding value on campus and contributing to your classmates’ learning experience.
