onTrack: Master Your MBA Interview

No! Very few MBA programs have an “open” interview policy that allows everyone to interview. At most MBA programs, you must first submit an application, and after the admissions committee reviews your application, you might be invited to interview at that program.

MBA interviews are not all the same. Some MBA programs have blind interviews, in which the person conducting the interview has not read the candidate’s application at all or might have seen only the applicant’s resume, while others have comprehensive interviews, in which the MBA interviewer has read the candidate’s entire file.

If you are invited to interview at a business school that conducts “blind” interviews, you will probably be asked to start by introducing yourself to the MBA interviewer. Because the person will not know much, if anything, about your profile, you should explain your short- and long-term career goals, share your reasons for wanting to attend that particular program, and discuss your ability to contribute to the MBA program. Then, you will need to answer questions about specific situations that you have encountered as a professional or volunteer, or even in your personal life, such as “When have you faced an obstacle?,” “How did you navigate it?,” “When have you been part of a high-performing team?,” and “What did you learn from the experience?” To prepare for this kind of MBA interview, you need to truly understand your story. You need to be able to explain the decisions you have made in your life, your professional and personal journey to your MBA, your need for an MBA, and your goals for after you graduate with your MBA. You also need an inventory of experiences that you can draw from when asked questions about specific situations you have encountered in your life. In short, you must deeply reflect on your past decisions, key experiences, reasons for wanting to attend your target program, and short- and long-term goals and be ready to speak to them thoughtfully and succinctly. Then, consider having a friend—or a professional from mbaMission—ask you questions that interviewers have asked at your target programs so you can practice delivering your responses!

If you are interviewing at a school that uses a comprehensive format, the questions will be far less predictable. Your MBA interviewer will have read your file, so they might ask targeted questions based on your experiences. So, rather than posing open-ended questions, such as “Tell me about a leadership experience. What did you learn from it?,” your interviewer could ask, “You noted in your essay that you thrived in a cross team. What were the key experiences in your life that gave you the awareness to succeed?” The latter question is very specific and impossible to anticipate. So, you should prepare for your interview by reading your entire application and reflecting deeply on everything you shared in it. You need to think about the key stakeholders in each of your core experiences and try to consider every story and detail you shared in your essays, resume, and short answers from as many different angles as possible. By rereading and deeply reflecting, you will have your best stories top of mind when you walk into your MBA interview. Of course, by practicing with an mbaMission professional or on your own in onTrack by mbaMission, you can simulate the experience and be more comfortable in the moment!

The amount of time you should spend preparing for your MBA interview will vary depending on your familiarity with the program, your confidence level, and your previous experience with interviews. However, as a general guideline, we recommend that you commit several hours to brainstorming responses, refreshing your knowledge of your target programs, and completing mock interviews. Also, in most instances, you should come ready to ask some questions of your own, and preparing those questions can take some time.

Can you walk me through your resume/introduce yourself?

• Be prepared to tell a narrative that takes the MBA interviewer through the key decision points and growth experiences in your life.

Why do you want to pursue an MBA? Why are you interested in our MBA program specifically?

• This question aims to understand your motivations for attending business school and earning your MBA; you will need to demonstrate your knowledge of your target school’s program, faculty, experiential resources, and broader culture, and in doing so, explain why the program is the right one for you.

What are your short-term and long-term career goals?

• Your business school interviewer will want to know whether you have a clear vision for your career and that your goals are both ambitious and plausible, based on your professional experience to date.

What do you plan to contribute to our MBA program?

• You need to be able to explain how your skills, experiences, and perspectives will enrich the classroom and the community, and to show an obvious understanding of their applicability. Simply offering a list of resources is not enough; you must clearly demonstrate how you will contribute.

Do you have any questions for us?

• Use this opportunity to ask thoughtful questions about the MBA program. This is not the time to ask simple, introductory questions. You need to pose intelligent questions that reveal your understanding of the program, while also soliciting additional information.

You might also be asked about specific situations from your past and how you responded to them. These kinds of questions are known as “behavioral interview questions.” The following are examples of such questions:

• Describe a challenging situation you faced at work or in a team and how you handled it.
• What role do you gravitate toward in a team setting? Provide an example.
• Tell me about a time when you failed or faced a setback. What did you learn?
• When have you disagreed with your supervisor? How did you express your views?

MBA interviewees are most impressive when they are in the moment, giving thoughtful answers rather than canned responses. If you can clearly demonstrate that you are thinking during your interview, rather than simply producing memorized responses, you should impress. Further, MBA applicants impress when they have a depth of knowledge about their target programs at their fingertips and have carefully considered goals that are plausible but ambitious.

The questions you ask will vary, depending on who conducts your interview. Students and admissions officers will be more aware of what is going on at your target program in the moment, whereas alumni are often quite removed from the school’s day-to-day happenings.

In general, your MBA interview is not an appropriate time to ask basic, introductory questions about the program. You cannot ask, for example, “What is special about your marketing program?” If you are interested in marketing and are interviewing at the school, you should already know as much as possible about that topic. At the interview stage of the MBA application process, you should not still be gathering basic information; you should be critically evaluating your target program. So, you need to ask advanced questions that demonstrate your foundational knowledge of the program. For example, long before your interview, if you meet an admissions officer, you might ask, “How active is the dean in student life? Do students interact with them in any unique ways?” In an admissions interview, you might ask, “The dean has been in place for two years now. What kind of impact have they had on the program? What are their major initiatives?” These questions reveal advanced knowledge of the business school—the starting point is your knowledge of the dean’s tenure. Do your best to ask those advanced questions.

The MBA application process is holistic in nature, so we cannot assign an exact value to the interview component. However, most programs will invite applicants to interview selectively, only after reviewing their entire application. So, in many circumstances, being invited to interview indicates that the MBA admissions committee views your candidacy favorably, and your interview can help distinguish you further from your fellow applicants.

Most MBA interviews are thirty minutes long, though some interviews can stretch to forty-five minutes or even an hour.

At the most basic level, MBA admissions committees are evaluating whether an applicant will fit in their classrooms and community. Successful MBA applicants can be introverts or extroverts, Democrats or Republicans, South Koreans or South Carolinians. No one particular “type” of applicant is guaranteed to be admitted. The admissions officers, alumni, and students who conduct MBA interviews on a school’s behalf seek to get to know you, your values, and your life experiences to understand how you might contribute to the program. Of course, part of revealing fit is showing direction in your life and career, grasping how an MBA will play into your future, and truly understanding your connection to the school to which you are applying!

The most common mistake MBA applicants make in their interview is being overly rehearsed or delivering prepared or scripted answers. Your MBA interviewer wants to get to know you and learn more about you, and this happens when they experience your authentic personality, not your script. During your MBA interview, you need to enter into a dialogue with your MBA interviewer. Strive to be in the moment, paying active attention to their questions and sharing your optimal experiences. When you share rehearsed answers instead, you are very much doing the opposite. That puts you “outside” the moment, and you often end up forcing responses to fit the MBA interviewer’s questions—depriving them of the very purpose of the MBA interview experience!

Another MBA interview mistake is simply not knowing enough about the program at which one is interviewing and therefore not being able to articulate fit. At this point, you should have deep and thoughtful reasons for wanting to attend the MBA program at which you are interviewing. You need to have a clear plan for your MBA studies! Know the courses, experiential learning opportunities, professors, extracurriculars, and other offerings at the school that align with your specific interests and goals, and do not simply list them for the interviewer. You need to truly share with your MBA interviewer your vision for your time on campus.

Finally, applicants get into trouble when they cannot properly articulate their short- and long-term goals. Again, at this point, you must have a clear plan in mind and a profound sense of purpose in pursuing your MBA.

Sending a thoughtful thank-you email to your MBA interviewer is both totally appropriate and a wise move. In doing so, be sure to note details from your actual discussion and refer to specific points that your interviewer shared. If your MBA interviewer discussed a new initiative on campus or noted how they still leverage the school’s alumni network, you can incorporate this information into your thank-you note. Offering just a generic “Thank you for your time. I appreciated your interest in my candidacy and hope to gain acceptance to your program” would be meaningless! Instead, write something that acknowledges the other party’s experience and shows that you were truly listening and thoughtful, such as, “Thank you for sharing your experience as an alumna. As an aspiring entrepreneur, I was heartened to learn how many doors your classmates and other alumni opened for you during your product launch. As I look to my future, I know I will need not just coursework but a real community to succeed in my ambitious endeavors, and your experience proves that this program provides that network of support.”