Your MBA admissions interview process can be a daunting one, especially if you go in unprepared. After all, you’re being assessed for a spot back in school, to be a student all over again! Besides, aren’t there many of us out there who might be able to ace a written test with barely a sweat, but just the thought of facing an interview panel would be enough to put butterflies in the tummy.
To help you out, here are four vital must knows before stepping into that interview room. Think through these four key elements and you would definitely feel more comfortable and confident handling the questions from your interviewers.
Tip #1: Know yourself
The focus here is you – how well you know your strengths and qualities, and how they complement the school’s program. Go in confident about selling yourself as a good fit into your choice school. You might want to prepare this by writing down some qualities you want to highlight in your interview and your experiences which has enhanced these qualities you hold. Typical questions your interviewer would ask about you are your reasons for doing an MBA, career goals and how you think an MBA would help you achieve this, and your wish to enrol in this particular school’s program.
Tip #2: Know the school
You must have your reasons for picking particular dream schools. Chances are the admissions committee would want to know your reasons, and how you reckon you’re compatible with the school. Familiarise yourself with the school – its mission, structure, intake procedures, teaching style – and the MBA program on offer. You might even want to prepare a few questions to ask the interviewers. Show them that you know what you’re after and that it is important to you.
Tip #3: Know what type of interview you are going into
If possible, try to find out whether the school conducts its interviews “blind” or informed. Basically, a blind interview means the interviewer has only seen your resume before the interview and hence it’s up to you to leave an impression on a relatively fresh slate during the interview. Alternatively, during an informed interview, your interviewer would have gone through your application and accompanying documents prior to the interview.
If you’re sitting for a blind interview, prepare all the highlights from your application to present to your interviewee; these should be points that represent you best and show that you meet their admissions criteria.
Otherwise, your interviewer would have seen all these information from your application packaged before in an informed interview, so adopt a different approach. This is your chance to fortify your application verbally so be prepared with the information that you didn’t have space for in your application, but want to make known anyway. You can also use this opportunity to bring them up to date with your accomplishments and significant and relevant events that took place between your application submission and the interview.
Also, be upfront about your flaws if asked and show that you are able to address it, and express how you hope the program will help you improve yourself. Overall, be careful not to simply provide a rehash of what’s already in the submitted documents though.
It will be a bonus if you could find out who your interviewer is, and what topics will interest him or her. This will better help you prepare your presentation, and allow you to enter the room more confident knowing the person you are speaking to.
Tip #4: Know your interview goal
Ultimately, the goal of your interview process is to strengthen and complement your whole application package to show the school that you deserve a spot in their program. You should aim to show that you are academically, professionally and personally a good fit in the school and program.
This interview is also a platform to demonstrate your strong communication and interpersonal skills that complement your book smarts. This is important as schools definitely want good representatives of their schools, and if you can’t carry yourself well, that might just make them think twice about accepting your application. If you’ve not been particularly adept with this, then make sure you practise or seek help from a coach before walking into that interview room!
Author Resource:
Joel Lee is an independent test preparation consultant (http://www.icon-plus.com/ ) specialising in GMAT prep. Apart from helping candidates to improve their scores through a customized GMAT course, he actively contributes to websites related to GMAT test.
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