FAQs In A B-School Interview || Tips By Anuj Gupta, FMS '22

Many of you might have read my previous article on How to prepare for a B-school Interview. If not, you can visit How To Prepare For A B-School Interview? I am writing this post as a continuation to that article. This post will cover the basic and the most asked questions in a B-School Interview. These form a part of the initial questions in an interview and decide the future course of an interview. The other questions branch out from these basic sets of questions. Once, you are prepared with this, you can build a network of questions as discussed in the previous post. So, I have curated and categorized a list of questions which are as follows: Introduction

1. Introduce yourself
2. Walk us through your resume
3. Tell us something about yourself which is not in the resume/application form
4. Five words to describe yourself
5. Meaning of name
6. Questions about the birthplace and place where you reside currently
7. Question on family background and basic information about family members
8. The family member that had the greatest influence on you and why
9. How the environment you are brought up in played a role in shaping your character

Academics and Career-related questions

1. Questions related to your school/college days (Like influence it had on you, how it shaped your character / Positive change it brought in you)
2. Questions from your undergraduate degree (Prepare at least one or two subjects but must have a basic knowledge of other main subjects too as sometimes the interviewer doesn’t ask you your favorite subject)
3. Why is there a drop in marks? (If there is any)
4. Why MBA after Btech? (If you are an engineer)
5. Why a gap? (If there is any gap in your education. The gap is not looked at as a negative in your CV if you can justify it properly in the interview)
6. Why MBA? (Should look natural and your own rather than copied)
7. Why a particular B-School?
8. Why a particular domain in MBA? (Marketing, Finance, Operations, etc.)
9. What are your short-term and long-term goals?
10. What’s your ultimate career goal/dream? (Spend a great amount of time on this and if you mention entrepreneurship as your future goal, then you must have an answer that makes it clear in the mind of the interviewer that without an MBA your dream of becoming an entrepreneur is too difficult to achieve.)
11. Where do you look yourself after the next 5 years?
12. Questions about the work-ex organization
13. Questions about your work profile
14. Your alternate plan of action if could make into any B-school

Hobbies and interests

1. Basic technical questions related to your hobby (Like if you mention badminton then question on court dimensions)
2. Current affairs related to your hobby
3. Famous personalities
4. Last book/movie/web series watched
5. Why not pursue your hobby as your career

(Unable to answer such questions can make an interviewer think as if you are faking a hobby) POR and Achievements

1. Questions on POR  are basically asked to know your behavioral qualities which will be discussed in the next section
2. All the basic information about your achievements (No. of participants, Organization that organized the competition, etc.)
3. Learnings from the PORs, accomplishments, etc.

Strengths & Weaknesses and Success & Failure

1. Prepare 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses
2. For each strength, prepare one story where it helped you
3. For each weakness, prepare a story where it harmed you
4. For each weakness, prepare a list of actions you are taking to overcome it
5. Your greatest moment of success
6. Your biggest failure
7. Learnings from success/failure
8. How you deal with failure/success

Behavioral Questions This category covers all the questions that are asked to know your behavioral characteristics. It basically involves the interviewer asking you an instance in your life where you showed a particular quality. Sometimes an interviewer asks you why you are fit for an MBA or he/she implicitly tries to gauge whether you have those characteristics that are required by a manager. So, below is a list of behavioral characteristics. You can build stories around them and can frame your answer to reflect such qualities during the interview.

Adaptable to change
Ambitious
Analytical Mindset
Build Relationships
Confident
Conflict Management
Creativity
Communication
Commitment
Decision Making
Delegation
Emotional Intelligence
Eager to learn
Flexibility
Honesty
Innovative
Interactive
Leadership
Motivation
Problem Solver
Positive Mindset
Strategic Thinker
Supportive
Trustworthy
Visionary

***

Recommended For You:

• Your Ultimate Personal Interview Prep Checklist 2021
• 15+ Current Affairs Topics Explained To Help You Ace WAT-PI
• My IIM C, XLRI, MDI Interview Experience Ft. Sohum Sen, CAT 19' 99.98%iler