General Interview tips for MBA Schools

• Ice-breaker / Introduction
• Why "this school"? Why MBA? Why Now? What is your "USP"? 
  • How do you differentiate yourself from fellow applicants at MBA?

• Academics related questions 
  • How do you rate your GMAT score / undergrad CGPA?
  • Why did you choose a particular under graduation branch e.g. Computer Science, Manufacturing engineering etc.?

• Profession / Experience related questions 
  • What have been your key achievements at work?
  • Leadership / Managerial examples
  • Industry / Domain specific awareness

• Personality questions 
  • What do you want to accomplish in life?
  • What are you passionate about apart from your work and why?

• General Awareness / Current Affairs 
  • Cite a global or national issue/news that has influenced you or your way of thinking in a way and how?
  • Key Economic Indicators
  • Personal perspectives on current affairs

• What if questions 
  • What if we do not offer you an admit?
  • What if your Company lays you off?

• Business case questions 
  • Guesstimates
  • Estimate the market size...

• Questions for the interview panel

• Content
  • Knowledge about your field
  • General Awareness
  • General Aptitude (Analytical Ability, Thinking on the feet, et al)
• Examples from your work experience or training/education
  • Leadership examples
  • Situation of Crises and how effectively you handled them
  • Examples from leadership positions held at college or otherwise
  • Hobbies, Areas of Interests, books you read...
• Communication Skills
  • Clarity of thought
  • Articulation
  • Ability to hold a discussion
  • Body Language and Eye Contact

• To meet the candidate in person
• To assess the skills which cannot be tested otherwise, like in exam
  • People Skills
  • Leadership Insights from past experiences (work or non-work)
  • Negotiation Skills
  • Listening Skills and Articulation etc.

• To leverage the opportunity to market themselves (the school)
• To assess whether the applicant is likely to join the school if admitted (high yields is a critical parameter of international B-school rankings)

• Learn about the institute thoroughly - "Why MBA?", Know about:
  • History, Main strength, Established by... & Prominent Alumni
  • Which clubs you would like to join

• Be ready and thorough with your area of undergrad specialization (for applicants with less than 2 years of experience) or Industry trends and imperatives (for experienced professionals)
• Be thorough with the Hobbies and Interest part of your resume, e.g. for cricket enthusiasts a common question is: What makes the cricket ball reverse swing? Or other sports related questions such as:Why there are holes on golf ball etc.

• Regularly read a few prominent Magazine and/or Journals and develop your own perspective about current affairs and other issues of national / international relevance
• Add humor to your talk, ... learn a clean joke (but only if you are good at it!)
• Do not bluff, be honest (no ambiguity about this)
• Avoid slangs (guys, folks etc)
• Listen to the question completely before answering it
• Your responses should not last more than 1-2 minutes per question. Remember the attention span of an average listener is 30 - 60 seconds. Once in a while, take brief pauses (1 - 2 seconds) to let the panelists ask any questions that might have popped up based upon what you have said
• Be ready with a couple good questions to be asked at the end (V. IMP!). The first one should preferably be an open ended one
• It is advised that you form a group of 5-10 serious and sincere people and discuss regularly
• Engage in a perspective building discussion on a regular basis
• Use facts (statistics) and illustrations (examples, preferably from your experience), where you can
• Be Assertive (polite, firm and objective) but not Aggressive

• There is no substitute to practice (record, mock interviews) for preparation of interview

• Speak and think like an MBA (at least try to - it is all in the mind!). Use the right phrases during a discussion
• Have an in-depth knowledge about two industries other than your original industry

• To a large extent, your responses decide the direction of the interview (V. IMP!)
• Tell me something about yourself - Tell me something that is not in your resume...
• How do you differentiate yourself from a typical IT/ (or any other) candidate? 
  • Write about it so that you are comfortable speaking it for 4-5 mins - then condense to make an impact
  • What value would you add to the MBA class (inside class and outside)?

• How will an MBA from MBA help you? - this is the single most critical question that needs absolute clarity. (V. IMP!) You will be probed on this numerous times during the 30 minutes
• Career Roadmap - short to medium to long term horizon?
• Why this particular field - Marketing/Operation/Fin...
• Strengths and Weaknesses
• Failure at Work/College
• Success at Work/College
• A team working situation - leading the team....
• Extra-Curricular
  • Hobbies
  • Social Service
• What special aspects of your education or training have prepared you for this job?
• Your greatest achievements to date? Creative thing?

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• Discussing candidate's background, profile, career plans and interests and getting the list of schools (limited to two) to which the candidate wants the interview preparation service.
• Discussing with the candidate, the most suitable answers to the likely questions to be asked in the interview of a  particular school, given the candidate's profile and career plans.
• Two Mock Interviews after the candidate is well prepared with the answers to the suggested questions.
• Detailed feedback on the interviews performance and suggested answers
• All discussions will be done either by emails or over the phone. Mock interviews will be over Phone or Skype /G-Talk /Yahoo Talk.
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