Most interesting conversation will not have that awkward long-pause when you are searching for the next topic. Before you learn to be a master conversationalist, cross the first hurdle – “How not to be boring.”
7 Steps to Stop Boring the MBA Admission Interview
The need for building rapport is because of our instinctive behavior – the more we like a person the more we want her to succeed. This instinct has led to the success of writers, artists, actors, sportsmen, politicians and even “YouTube” personalities. No matter how antagonizing their opinions are, or how boorishly they behave, we like them because they have built a rapport.
Here is how you build rapport in MBA Admission Interview
MBA Admission interviewer is unlikely to ask about innovation directly in an Interview, but the question would have variations like “What innovative solutions did you create during your employment?”. Don’t exaggerate simple solutions as innovation, or underestimate the innovative capacity of your solution.
An expert in your domain should be the one who should reflect on the solution. This exercise might seem a futile one, but shortlisting solutions and evaluating them one by one in an unbiased manner is the key to answering questions about innovation
Learn more about answering questions about Innovation
Switching jobs is a red flag for job interviews, and can be one for MBA Admission interview if the switch is more than two in a period of 3 years. You can change this weakness into strength by successfully articulating how your search for the right career started from the first year, on the job, and have led you to consider an MBA.
Your choice for an MBA must look like a logical step and not escapism from work. An MBA is a compensation for 2-3 years of experience. Find out how to answer about your constant job switching
Conflict in itself is not bad. In fact, most teams develop deep camaraderie after they settle their differences. The problem arises when the conflict about ideas or authority becomes personal dislikes. Most team would question the authority of the leader, at least initially, but once they realize the commitment of the leader, his competence (leadership & technically) and focus on the goals, the suspicion turns into trust and respect.
Four Types of Conflict Management And you Should Cite this One
Moving back from work to student life would be the biggest change that an MBA candidate would face after the exhausting MBA Admission process. Therefore, it is no surprise that the Interviewers ask this question – “How do you handle change?”.
For international students, the change is even more pronounced – they move to a different country, adapt to the weather, people, cuisines, and culture.
Learn how to answer the How did you handle change interview question
The phrase “Greatest Accomplishment” is intimidating, and you start searching for the extra-ordinary - the one achievement that is comparable with what other candidates have achieved. This approach is wrong.
Difficult Bosses come in two forms – the domineering and abusive for the sake of it, and the difficult boss who is behind your back to reach project or company goals. You might have realized this: once you understand the intent behind the pressure, handling their requests and interruption becomes an art. MBA Admission Interviewers ask this question for two reasons – is it difficult to work with you and how you handled authority.
Read how to answer: Handling Difficult Boss in an MBA Admission Interview
Most MBA Admission interviewers after going through your personal background and academics will focus on you career. The first question will start with a summary question – “Tell me about your career progression till now”, or “Tell me about your career. What motivated you to choose the current career path?”.
For Interviewers, the resume is the Bible. They are checking for inconsistencies, and preparing for follow up questions based on how you summarize your career.
Remember these three points while answering career summary question
MBA Admission interviews starts with “tell me about yourself”, and ventures into academics, work experience, goals and your future contribution in an ad-hoc or a sequential manner, depending on the interviewer’s style of conversation. Business Schools ask Original transcripts for a reason – measure your ability to complete an MBA program successfully. Your answer to questions regarding academics depends on three scenarios.
Read how to answer low grades in Academics
An MBA Admission interview typically starts with “Tell me about yourself”. It is easy to talk about yourself but understanding what is relevant, and guiding the interviewer to the next question depends on how you answer this question.
Follow the 10-20-30-40 rule when it comes to dividing the answer into four relevant segments.
MBA Admission interviews generally start with personal questions related to your education, work experience, and goals. This is followed by specifics, mostly related to on the job experience. The answers are personal, but make sure that you follow the best practices, and understand the intent behind each question.
Here are 6 Common Scenarios Asked in MBA Admission Interviews
Three aspects of your personality - Personal, Cultural, and Academic would play an important role in the selection process. Balancing them out is not necessary but understanding how to sell in these three dimensions is crucial. There are several techniques and attributes by which the interviewer evaluates personality traits. We have summarized important to dos under each attribute for MBA Admission Interview.
MBA Interviews are a critical part of the MBA Admission process; they can make or break a school’s decision to admit a prospective student. Students that look good on paper (via their MBA essays, resume and recommendation letters) are being tested in the interview - are they as good as they claim to be? Did they really write their own essay? Can they communicate and connect? The burden of proof is on the student.
Read More MBA Admission Interview Prep Tips from Admit1MBA
Personality evaluation is one of the objectives of an MBA Admission interview. But interviewees often miss the chance to evaluate the personality of the interviewer – a task that can help them tune the tone and style of the answer. To make it easier for you to understand, and classify the interviewer, we have created four categories. Find out more about the categories and how to fine tune your answers according to the personality.
Handshake is a ritual that has been practiced from 4th Century BC in Ancient Greek as a gesture of peace and equality. In modern Businesses setting, handshake is the first point of contact with a stranger in most cases. For MBA Admission interviews, the first impression is created based on this simple gesture.
Avoid these 4 Handshakes
When MBA Applicants reach the Admission Interview stage, they tend to focus on the questions. The type of questions that are asked by the interviewer depends on the first impression. According to recent Studies in Personality and Social Psychology, first impression is primarily influenced by facial features, grooming, & posture.
Learn how to Control First Impression
An MBA admission interview can last anywhere between 15-45 minutes.The admission officers ask questions for three reasons – to measure your communication skill, to check whether the things you have written about yourselves truly represent you and to evaluate your motivation for doing an MBA.
Find out the best practices for MBA Admission Telephonic Interview
“What is your backup plan if you don’t get into our MBA Program,” can unsettle most MBA aspirants, as they take this as a hint on their performance. In fact, the Interviewer is measuring several characteristics with this question:the first is handling uncertain scenarios. Find out how to answer backup plan question in MBA Admission Interview.
The small talk at the beginning of an MBA admission interview set the tone for the interaction. After learning about the family, upbringing, and education, the interviewer quickly shifts the subject of the conversation to one topic- professional experience. Two sub-topics emerge in this conversation - industry and role.
Tips to Answer about Industry & Role: MBA Admissions Interview
MBA Admission Interviews are never evaluated in isolation. It is part validation and part discovery. The Adcom is primarily validating the personality that is conveyed through the essays.
They want to make sure that the essays are not the imagination of an MBA Admissions consultant or an expert editor, who has carefully constructed the essays to represent the candidate’s profile in the best possible light.
Here is how you can authentically Interact with the Interviewer
Likeability is not only important for sales, job interviews, movies, politics and marketing, but play a major role in MBA Admissions interview. The likeability factors are different for Skype Interviews and face-to-face interviews. The most famous example of Likeability is the first televised presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960.
Those who listened to the debate felt that Nixon had won while an overwhelming majority of viewers felt that JFK was the clear winner.
Here are five distinct qualities that make a candidate more likeable in MBA Admissions Interview
Almost all MBA Admission interviews will end with the question – “Do you have any questions for me”. Therefore, it is only appropriate that you learn the best practices.
Before we go into best practices, do the following tasks, the week before your interview: Research about the School, Research about the Interviewer(s) and create questions. Here are the details for this process.
How should I prepare for MBA Admissions Interview? What are the skills, personalities and fit that top schools like Harvard, Stanford and Wharton are trying to figure out through the interview? Are there any additional aspect of my application that should be highlighted in the interview or consistency is the key?
Best Admission Interview Tips for Harvard, Stanford and Wharton
Columbia MBA values Entrepreneurial mindset and loves MBA candidates who can make things happen. You have to project these traits in your Interview. Stacy Blackman has written a comprehensive Interview Guide for Columbia MBA Aspirants.
What you can Expect in Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Guide?
F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay into a life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.
+ Over 245 Sample Essays (Read Previews of F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide Sample Essays here)
F1GMAT's Essay Guides
Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)
Example #1: Persistence Narrative
Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.
Curiosity: Philosophy
Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.
Theme: Persistence
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #2: International Community Building
Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #3: Culture
Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
Theme: Culture
MBA Essay Strategy: Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #4: Addiction
Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
Theme: Addiction
MBA Essay Strategy: My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #5: Scarcity
Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
Theme: Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)
Example #6: FinTech
Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening.
Theme: Education, Child Welfare
MBA Essay Strategy: Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #7: Learning from the best
Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
Theme: Learning
MBA Essay Strategy: The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
Theme: Career Choice
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)
Example #9: Small Business Values
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
Theme: Customer-Centric
MBA Essay Strategy: The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
Theme: Authenticity
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #11: Creativity and Communication
Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance.
Theme: Creativity, Communication
MBA Essay Strategy: The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #12: Mental Health
Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
Theme: Communication, Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
Theme: Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.
Theme: Failure
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her.
Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
Example #16: Creative or Finance
Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views.
Theme: Passion, Talent
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.
Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)
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