The Tell Me About Yourself MBA admissions interview question, in some variation, is the most common question that you are likely to get.
We have recommended the 10-20-30-40 rule, where 10 seconds should be about your family, 20 seconds about your education – formal and informal, 30 seconds about your work and career progression, and 40 seconds about your passion and post-MBA goals. I have offered strategies and tips for answering MBA admissions interviews with F1GMAT’s MBA Admissions Interview Guide.
Even with the 10-20-30-40 rule, you can miss out on one important question that the admissions team is trying to validate – what is your immediate value to the MBA Class, potential value to the School’s Alumni network, and post-MBA value for Employers?
Once you get an interview invite, go back to the Essays and see which story from your Essay could have influenced the invite.
Which Traits and Values stood out?
Example – Changing a Culture
If it was your initiative to change a company culture, what influence did the family and your education have on such a behavior?
When I conducted a mock interview with F1GMAT’s Mock Interview Service, one of the clients shared how his mother’s attitude of questioning the traditional approach of solving a Math problem or defining the problem reinforced a value of Entrepreneurial thinking and a mindset for finding ways to improve a system. And the client cleverly used a line to mention this in the Tell Me About Yourself Family section of the answer. Then, when he transitioned to explaining why he took a double major in Entrepreneurship and Economics, the answer made sense. He started an initiative for the school’s entrepreneurship club that changed how startup ideas are evaluated, reaffirming his branding as an entrepreneurial thinker.
Example – Effective Negotiator
Another example was an applicant who was extremely effective in sales in three different company cultures. Here, the applicant used his narrative as a middle child to establish early exposure to negotiation, communication, and understanding the family’s emotional state as influences on decoding stakeholder’s motivations.
Just by adding a simple branding narrative, the answer was elevated.