Most likely Interview Qs:

• Run me through your resume.

• What are your major accomplishments at work?
• How have you displayed leadership at work?
• Why do you want to do an MBA?
• Why now? Why this School?
• How would you differentiate yourself from applicants of a similar profile?
• What would you add to the diversity of the School?
• Explain your poor GMAT?
• What are the latest trends in your industry?

Sample MBA Interview Questions

A group of applicants have offered the following as questions asked of them when they interviewed
for admission to MBA programs:

• Discuss your career progression.

• Give examples of how you have demonstrated leadership inside and outside the work
environment.
• What do you want to do (in regard to business function, industry, location)?
• Why the MBA? Why now?
• Describe an ethical dilemma faced at work?
• Describe your career aspirations?
• What would you do if not accepted?
• What are your long- and short-term goals? Why?
• Why are you applying to business school?
• Why does this school appeal to you?
• What is an activity you are involved in? Why is it important to you?
• Talk about experiences you have had at work.
• Why are you interested in a general MBA program?
• Why did you choose your undergraduate major?
• Discuss yourself.
• What contributions would you make to a group?
 • Name three words or phrases to describe yourself to others.
• What is most frustrating at work?
• How would co-workers describe you?
• Describe a typical workday.
• Have you worked in a team environment? What were your contributions to the effort?
• Discuss any experience you have had abroad.
• How did you choose your job after college?
• What do you do to relieve stress?
• It's 2 years post graduation, what 3 words would your team members use to describe you?
• Describe a situation where you brought an idea forward, and it failed.
• How do you define success?
• What would you do if a team member wasn't pulling his own weight?
• Is there anything you would like to ask me/us?

Guidelines to answer typical Interview questions

A) Career and Goal – type Questions -

Career progression/ run through resume

Remember you have to run the interviewer through your resume just the way it is
presented/submitted to the respective School. Always start with what you are currently doing and
backtrace the progresion. You must follow a descending order so that the interviewer doesnot have
to search which part of the resume are you referring to.

Give your work profile, Career progression quantifying achievements (clearly indicate names of
prestigious clients – if allowed, worth of projects handled, outcome). Remember, “Numbers are
powerful”. Project descriptions can be kept to minimal focusing only on team/leadership & other
soft skills; avoid technical details. Mention the name of the company first and what is it into, then
state in a line of what your responsibilities include. Conclude with a line that summarizes your career
experiences so far. Generally you put in your Education post that, in which very briefly cover your
grades, as they would be evident from your transcripts, remember to talk about your extracurricular
activities in College. Close with the points you have addressed in Additional information section –
like Courses/certifications undertaken, Social initiatives, Interests etc.

Why MBA?

A good way to frame this answer is to discuss how the MBA makes sense in light of your
background, skills, and achievements to date. Why do you need this degree? One common reason is
being stymied in your work by a lack of skills that can be gained in their program. Or you may want
to use the MBA as a bridge to the next step. Clearly demonstrate why you need only an MBA degree
and not other program. Don’t show herd mentality, clearly demonstrate your present position, say
X, and say where you would like to be in near future say for eg: 2 to 3 years from now. Hence why
MBA? Also articulate your long-term goals well, give a realistic time frame say 8 to 10 years. Also
becoming the CEO of a company or opening up one’s own venture, are clichéd answers. However
having said this, stick to your goals in your Essays.

Why this school?

Here you need to give specifics, do not make generic statements. You have to precisely tell them
why you have chosen this school. Specify certain electives and relate them to your goals. Mention if
you have interacted with any current student/alumni of the School. What inputs did you get from
them? Are you particularly interested in studying under a specific Professor? Any professional clubs
of interest in particular need to be mentioned. However note just a mere mention of names of any
of these wouldn’t help, you need to know about the profile of the people and why exactly would you
quote them. Also if you mention names of Clubs, better know the activities of the Club.
Alternatively if you are well versed with some thing and would like to initiate a club related to the
activity, don’t be afraid to mention the same. However be realistic and showcase a reasonable plan
on what you plan to offer as a Club founder.

Potpourri of reasons to choose a school may include (however they should be tailored to the school
you choose) -

4 Students learn beyond the confines of the classroom.

4 World-class reputation.

4 Faculty, curriculum and industry association.

 4 Faculty’s themselves are practicing Consultants and Business professionals.

4 Participants with significant professional experience gives you the opportunity to interact

with a group of high caliber leaders.

4 Integrated and thematic approach towards management.

4 Conventional methods of class lectures and case studies.

4 Focus on organizational visits.

4 Experiential feedback.

4 Live case discussions.

4 Simulations and guest lectures.

4 Regular interactions with alumni and industry experts.

4 Any accreditation to the school.

Note: Do not use all the above criteria’s to choose the school. Make it more personalized by relating
these to your goals and how these will help you achieve them. Note: Any kind of general statements
would not impress the interviewer. Making it more case specific will go a long way to tell the School
how genuine your interest in the program is. Remember: The interviewers may have lined up
interviews at a stretch, and you need to appear genuine and interesting.

Why now?

The reasons that you give should sound realistic. Why do you think professionally and personally it
is the right time now for you to pursue your MBA? Why considering your academic and professional
background do you need an MBA now. Why not 2 years back why not 2 years hence. This would
require an honest self-introspection.

________________________________________________________________________

B) Situation-based Questions -

B-schools after getting an understanding of your brief profile and career objectives, might want to
understand certain situations that you have faced either personally or professionally and your reaction to
the same. When confronted with such Questions follow the STAR approach:
Situation or Describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to
accomplish. You must describe a specific event or situation, not a
Task
generalized description of what you have done in the past. Be sure to
give enough detail for the interviewer to understand. This situation
can be from a previous job, from a volunteer experience, or any
relevant event.

Action you took Describe the action you took and be sure to keep the focus on you.
Even if you are discussing a group project or effort, describe what you
did -- not the efforts of the team. Don't tell what you might do, tell
what you did.

Results you achieved What happened? How did the event end? What did you accomplish?
What did you learn?

Team failure/crisis situation

Talk about a situation when you did really blow it? What did you learn from the experience? How
have you changed as a result?
Open by describing the situation and giving a brief picture of the scene or background. Then discuss
your reaction when you realized that you had made a BIG mistake. What did you do to recover from
the failure? Have you handled a similar situation successfully? Bring evidence, like better grades,
promotions, or increasing responsibility, to prove that you really changed your ways and turned
failure into success. As indicated above, key to answering this question is candor and authenticity.
Note: Do not get into project details; what matters here is what the failure was, how you handled it
and what you learnt in retrospect. The key with this question is to share a legitimate story that
highlights the ways in which your failure might have been a valuable learning experience.

Leadership example

Choose an instance that clearly depicts your leadership skills. Your answer should bring out your
leadership/ managerial ability clearly, basically a team scenario and how you led it efficiently.
Stress more on “I” rather than “We”. Highlight the efforts you took, challenges faced… how you
faced them/dealt with them. Understand it is your leadership stint so your actions/thought
process/communication/decision making/delegation/listening skills/interpersonal skills/crisis
management/motivation/rapport building/strategies developed/ team conflicts/ team size…
should be visible precisely. Quantify results wherever possible.

________________________________________________________________________

Contribution to the school/ OR diversity you bring in

This Q basically tries to gauge at how diverse you are and how you can contribute to the School’s
culture and community. This response is a great place to showcase specific knowledge of the
School’s culture, and introduce information that will help you stand out from the applicant pool.

Schools are looking for an interesting learning environment. They don’t want people who are just
from one field. Focus on bringing that out by educating the interviewer about your company or your
industry, if it really is unusual. If you come from a small firm or from an unknown firm you
probably got more cross-functional exposure or more leadership roles. Mention the same.

How would you contribute - 1) Professionally 2) Personally

Professional– Talk about work interactions with clients from different geographical locations and
your learning’s/initiatives with respect to cross-cultural sensitivity, adaptability and ability to deal
with people from diverse backgrounds. You can highlight any languages learnt. If you have had an
early progression in career, or if you are from Marketing background and have undertaken certain
Finance certifications, do mention the same.

Personal- Students learn as much from their interaction with each other as from the formal
curriculum that is taught in the classroom. Schools encourage involvement in out of class
extracurricular activities through clubs where students are involved in organizing events and
activities. Student involvement is also encouraged in several other administrative aspects of running
the school. The school through its clubs also organizes several social events of which you may wish
to be part of. Specifically name the Clubs and highlight your contributions… may be you can initiate
a club of your interest, which currently does not prevail at the school campus…Being specific as
much as possible, is the key.

________________________________________________________________________

Strengths and weaknesses

In this question, you need to come across as a person. Showcase your personality. It should not
appear like a list of qualities.

Strengths - Find out 2 or 3 key strengths that you make the person you are today and you feel have
been important to your professional success so far. Illustrate each of them with examples.
Remember you are applying to an MBA program and hence saying your technical skills are your
biggest strength, would work less. Strengths need include soft skills.

Weaknesses - Mind you, B-schools rarely refer to weaknesses as “Weaknesses”, they would rather
refer to it as “Areas of Improvement.” There is a noticeable difference. It means once identified a
weak area, it no longer remains a weak area it turns into an area of development. So for any weak
area that you identify, it is highly important that you also showcase what steps you have taken so far
to improve upon it. If you rate yourself low on any one of the skills, project it as an improvement
area and talk about concrete steps you have taken or plan to take to overcome it. Also make sure not
to select a weakness that can go against you and prove highly risky. For example: Saying poor
communication skills or poor client-management skills. It's never a good idea to avoid questions
about failure or weaknesses - since most interviewers can see right through this sort of thing. Even
worse is to present a strength/ disguised as a weakness/failure! Best way to handle this is to be
honest about yourself. Admit that you have a weak area, but are genuinely trying to work upon it.
Typical Strengths include:
4 Leadership

4 Risk taking

4 Proactive

4 Systematic

4 Courageous and calculated

4 Time management
 4 Punctuality

4 Communication

4 Interpersonal skills

4 Analytical skills

4 Curiosity to learn

4 Motivator

4 Ability to take initiatives

4 Negotiation skills

4 Out of box thinking

4 Diplomatic rather than direct

Typical Weaknesses include:

4 Workaholic

4 Hesitate in saying “NO”

4 Time management

4 Non-assertive

________________________________________________________________________
Which other schools are you applying to?
It is obvious to a B-school that an applicant would apply to at least 2 to 3 other colleges. Hence it is
not a good idea to say that you haven't applied to any other school. Do not give a laundry list of
schools even if you have applied to so many. Restrict to 2 or maximum 3. Make sure the one’s you
select show some reasonable semblance. For example: You select one school very highly ranked and
one that doesn’t at all appear in the rankings, one well known for Marketing and the other well
known for Finance, one a two-year program and the other a one-year program; it would obviously
raise eyebrows. Having said this, you still need to stress on why the particular school you are
interviewing with is a tailor made fit for you and the only apt option that you would like to choose
amongst schools applied.

What would you do if not accepted?

This is a question that will check if you have a back up plan ready, in case you don’t make it.
First set a confident tone that you would get in to the School. Then say, however if you cannot
make it this year, you would continue to work and re-apply the next year. Showcase, what would be
the changes in your work profile, in that one year. May be getting more hands on experience,
different role/ company/ industry, as applicable. Say how the added year is going to add value to
your profile and give more muscle to strengthen your application. If you plan to pursue any
additional value added courses, for example, if you are a marketing person and would gain some
finance basic knowledge by enrolling yourself into a short-term program that would help.
In the end demonstrate your keenness to attend the school, if not this year, next year.

Do you have any Questions for us? Or would you like to ask anything?
Usually students ask for any doubts they may have about the program/curriculum. In addition, one
can usually also ask queries related to campus/student life, exchange programs, alumni network in
India and globally etc.
Note: One should be sensible not to ask questions already available on the website, since obviously
it reflects on your poor study of the School specifics and shows your shallow research on the school.
Also strictly avoid asking questions related to financial aid, scholarship, placements, and salary.
_____________________________________________________________________

You are in an elevator with the CEO of the firm you would like to work with. Do you have a 30-
second elevator pitch prepared on how to convince him to take you?

People work up a sweat when asked to answer this question! And if you are between jobs, the
question “what do you do?” is even more anxiety-laden. But it’s a question you’re going to be
asked - guaranteed.

What Not to Say in an Elevator Pitch - “Well, actually I’m unemployed.” Also, avoid the needy
answer: “I’m looking for job.” Worse yet is the dreaded war story: “I worked for company XYZ
for 8 years and was emptied out last month. It was unbelievable what happened!” This tale of
woe is definitely not the right story.

“Why not say, ‘I just spent 5 incredible years with Global Networks as IT specialist. It was an
amazing learning experience, and now I am looking forward to applying my experience to a new
opportunity.’ Tell this as a quick upbeat story about yourself. Remember, you are a champion, not
a victim.”

Create Scenarios about What You Do

Create a number of scenarios for how you will respond to “what do you do?” One size does not fit
all. Practice your positive responses. Actually write out your answers. It will force a reality check
when you see it in black and white. The key thing is, does it sound authentic? Is it something that
you would really say?

Project Positivity

Even if your job search is challenging, project a positive attitude: “I’ve met some wonderful
people.” “There are amazing opportunities out there.” Give the impression you have simply not
found the right fit. Do not paint the mental picture of being someone who is sitting around waiting
for the phone to ring. If you have been taking specific courses to upgrade your skills or if you’ve
committed some of your time to rewarding volunteer work while looking for paid work, share that
information.

Practice Positive Networking

As a Positive Networker you know networking is all about discovering what you can do for others.
While this may seem like a time in your life when you feel you’re the one who needs the help, keep
the conversation focused on the other person. By being genuinely interested in their firm or
industry, you are making the right impression. What’s the most important thing? Make a memorable
impression; one of these folks might help you realize your dream job.

Short note on GD

Some schools ask for Group Discussions as part of the Interview process.

Common methodology - Normally 8-10 students are taken as a group, though in some cases, it
may go up to 16 people. It lasts for 10-15 minutes. For a topic-based GD, 2-3 minutes of thinking
time may be given; though the group is often told to start right away. The evaluation is done by
one or two experts, usually professors from the B-School itself. Please remember that these people
are experts with a lot of experience and can be counted upon to observe all details, even if the GD
is chaotic. Candidates may be seated in a circle or in a rectangular arrangement, with or without a
table. Arrangements may be prefixed or there may be free seating. The discussion may be stopped
at the set time or even earlier. A conclusion or consensus may be asked for, though it usually does
not occur. A written or oral summary may asked for at the end from each candidate.