Since you are here, so, hopefully, you have cleared the first and the most regress part of the selection process of the B-Schools. Cheers for this wonderful achievement! Now the most crucial part of the admission process is the personal interviews (PIs). The time period for this is very short but it’s a make-or-break part for all your effort that you have put in till now. If you prepare systematically and seriously and get admission, it will open a window of hell lot of opportunities for you. Interviews are basically a way to communicate properly who you are why you want to do an MBA and why you are different from a pool of thousand students. Read on!
The interviewer will try to judge “How different you are from other candidates in terms of aspirations, knowledge, experience and attitude, and how you will add value to the schools.” Interviewers, generally judge you within 3 minutes from the start of your interview. So, the first impression is the last impression here.
Therefore, a candidate appearing for the interview, needs to concisely answer some basic questions, like tell me something about yourself and why MBA? Although there would be many more questions, but these 2 questions are crucial for all MBA admission interviews.
Broadly, interview questions can be categorised into- 5 categories, now let’s see what to focus on these question types.
1) Tell me/us something about yourself? In more than 90 % of cases, the interview starts from this question. For the rest of the 10 % of cases, questions can be started from your profile which can be anything that you have written on the interview form or any random discussion.
To answer this question, the candidate must write it, make it concise and short. This answer should not take more than 3 minutes, better to end it in 2 minutes. It can include your education (better only highest) work experiences, skills, why MBA, interest/ hobbies.
2) Why MBA? This depends from candidate to candidate but makes sure that it allies with your future goals and is better if you can justify it from your current profile.
3) GK and Academic based questions: Be honest here- They are master of it. All of them know much more than you do. If you know the answer, good, if not sure, tell them the same (I can guess but I am not sure). If no idea at all, say I don’t know. If you give wrong answers in this category, they might start suspecting the credibility of your other answers, so be cautious!
4) Situations/ cases-based questions: First, try to understand the situations, ask questions (not more than 2 or 3 questions). By this type of question, they check, whether you start answering without understanding the question or not (person of action or thoughts) and they also try to check your analytical skills.
5) Achievements based questions: For this type of question, it’s advisable to follow the STAR (Situation, Action, Task, Result) Framework. For example, “In the college XYZ, I was cultural secretary, we conduct cultural events every year, due to COVID in 2021, it was impossible to conduct it offline, so we did it over zoom where 50 different participants performed, this is the highest no of performers in XYZ’s history.” Better to farm your answers in this format.
By following above mentions approach and taking care of all nitty-gritty, candidates can increase their chances of converting interviews into admissions, substantially. All of these will come from your resume and past experience.
Prepare to convert all calls!
All the best!
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