The MBA interviews will be your first interaction face-to-face with an admissions committee member, so it is very important that you go in feeling confident and the perfect way to do this is preparing: do your homework! Schools will be looking for your leadership and communications skills, your ability to articulate your career ambitions within the context of the MBA, and whether you’re a good fit for the school. 

Interviews are usually conducted by alumni or students, or AdCom members. If you are being interviewed by alumni or students, they have probably only seen your CV, not your essays or LORs. If the interviewer is an AdCom member, they will probably have read all the material you submitted. They usually last between 30-45 minutes. 

What are schools looking for?

If an Adcom has read your application material, this will be a chance for them to assess you on a personal level: team work, collaborativeness, leadership. Will you play nice with others? How did you resolve a difficult situation? They look for maturity and self-awareness. Can you engage in conversation? Are you personable, approachable, willing to listen to others? Remember that networking is a huge part of the MBA. So they will try to see if you are a good fit for the program beyond the classroom.  

Standard questions that can be expected

• The interview will probably begin with an ice-breaker; chit chat, or you’ll be asked about a hobby you included in the CV, or they will ask you to walk them through your resume. Don’t answer more than what you are asked.  
• A very common first question is Tell me about yourself: It is good to start from college (how it is tied to your chosen MBA, your shot/long term goals, stories about leadership or initiative taken at university), continue with your first/previous job(s), and conclude with your current job. Always highlighting leadership and big steps; the whys behind each move (career, job, changes, etc.) This question is not your personal history, family, etc.  Ideally, this question should  take 2-3 minutes.
• What are your goals? As we have highlighted many times before, having your short and long term goals defined and the ability of clearly conveying them is very important! You should be able to explain how these goals are linked to your chosen MBA program. But also, have a plan B prepared: What if you cannot get that dream job? What would you do?
• Why MBA? Why now? This should also be lined up with your long term objective. Explain how the MBA will contribute to achieving this goal. 

• Why this school? You need to focus on what makes this program different from others, be specific about the courses, teachers, teaching methods, clubs that interest you the most. For this, you have to research the web site, talk to students, and alumni. 

• Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses: Again, be specific! Tie your weaknesses to actions you can take to tackle them. For strengths, provide examples or anecdotes to back them up. 
• Ask questions at the end of the interview. It would be very strange if you don’t have any questions for the interviewer. But don’t make questions that are answered on the website. 

Behavioral interview

This is the most common type of interview for an MBA. Behavioral interviews are open-ended questions that give the applicant the chance to explain how they managed certain situations in the past. They reveal personality, ability and skills. Here are a few examples: 

• Describe a situation where you demonstrated strong leadership.
• Tell me about a dysfunctional team you were on. 
• Tell me about a situation where looking back, you think you could improve. 
• Tell me about an accomplishment or project you are most proud of.

An efficient and effective way of answering these questions, is to use the STAR method:

• Situation: Set the scene and give the necessary details of your example.
• Task: Describe what your responsibility was in that situation.
• Action: Explain exactly what steps you took to address it.
• Result: Share what outcomes your actions achieved.

This is a very helpful structure to frame your open-ended questions, it will stop you from digressing or giving unnecessary information. For each question, think about different situations, don’t talk about the same project over and over. 

Other schools might invite you to participate in a Team Based Interview. The school brings together a group of candidates and gives them a real-world business scenario to work through together. This dynamic format allows admissions to observe how you’ll operate in a team setting and gives them a sense of how you’ll perform in an MBA setting where interaction is extremely important.

Tips for preparing your interview strategy

1. Prepare and practice: In order to speak fluently and without hesitation, you need to be prepared. Be ready to offer how you’ll contribute to the community, with examples of your leadership and teamwork. You can write down answers, rehearse on camera or practice with other people. You have to do this outloud, it would be a big mistake to think about the answers but not practice them first.
2. Identify your key stories. If you are going to talk about your entrepreneurial spirit, be ready to give examples, anecdotes, etc. All the work you will have done with essays will help you prepare for the open ended questions. 
3. Think about hard questions beforehand: Talking about your weaknesses is a good chance to expand on your skills to overcome tough situations, take advantage of them! You are not expected to be perfect, but be honest and humble.
4. Look your best: Whether the interview is in person or online, you have to pay attention to the way you look: clothing, grooming. Talk in front of a camera and watch yourself, body language is very important too!

These are general observations about interviewing, make sure you do a deep research on the type of interview the school you are applying to uses, talk to former students of alumni and always be prepared!

If you need help with the GMAT or the admissions process we can help. For more information on our different GMAT products see:

• GMAT private classes – see the stories of Will, Teddy, Jessica and Nico and how they approached their GMAT journey with Merchant.
• Merchant Academy – a GMAT teaching innovation that makes taking the GMAT, like an MBA. Click to find out more about the Merchant Academy format.
• Merchant GMAT Hall of Fame – a gallery of some of our clients over the last eight years.

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