Alumni Interview

[motoki_bandai]

I have a quick question about interviews. I had one with an alum, and he only asked a few questions. I made sure to talk about my
background and inserted my short and long-term goals into why I want
a MBA, but he didn't ask me about
teamwork or leadership, so I didn't get a chance to promote myself in that respect. The rest of the interview was time for me to ask lots of questions.
>
How is this for a typical interview? I feel like I didn't get enough opportunities to talk about myself as much as I have been able to
with other interviews. It would suck if adcom rejects me because my interviewer skill was bad... Have you heard any similar worries from
your other clients? Any insight would be appreciated.

Thank you very much.

[MBAApply]

It's not that the interviewer was bad -- it's that you went into the interview with a preconceived notion of what the interview is supposed to be. They don't have to ask you a cookie cutter list of questions. What the interviewer is looking for is an overall impression of you in 30 minutes. You're not testifying under oath or in a police interrogation where they're writing everything down and microanalyzing every single word or phrase. As such, it's not about asking questions about specific things or themes - they just want to get an impression of whether you would fit into the school. Let the interviewer be the judge of that - not you. They will conduct the interview in a way that they feel best allows them to figure you out. In this case, it seems like the interviewer left time for lots of questions from you as a way to see how inquisitive you really are and what you really know about an MBA program based on the questions you ask.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
http://www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com