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.
Business = Change
Online Businesses are not the only model that experience transformational changes every year. Brick & Mortar Businesses adapt to a competitive landscape, changing price sensitivity, and the demand of the customers. Management professionals should be comfortable with change, and excel in an environment where there are several moving parts. The parts include human resources, technology, company structure (mergers & acquisitions), customer service, and product pipeline.
Fast Learners
What the interviewer is measuring is your ability to create workable solutions by learning new concepts, and collaborating with subject matter experts, on a tight deadline. General experience working on a complex project will not convince the AdCom that you have the ability to adapt. If you are lucky enough to work in an environment where you were given autonomy and control over implementing projects, from inception to product release, narrate the example, citing the challenges that you faced in the initial stages. As with other answers, what you learned deserves amplified attention than what you achieved.
Team Diversity
Interviewers are also measuring your ability to work with a diverse team – both in experience and nationality. For most multinational projects, you would have had the opportunity to work with project members from different cultures and nationality. Although overcoming communication barrier is a challenge, most fruitful learning experiences happen through international collaboration. Narrate what you learned from other team members, and the work ethics you picked from them. MBA programs maintain 30-70% class diversity - mostly in nationality. The learning experience of the class is influenced by your participation, and your ability to overcome communication barriers. Therefore, it is an untold prerequisite to have some kind of working experience with team members from different nationalities.
Result Achieved – Numbers
Don’t quote numbers loosely but demonstrate how your contribution influenced the project and company goals. Sit with your project manager or supervisor, and get a sense of the budget, revenue per employee and strategic importance of your project.
Conclude the experience with the positive results achieved, new friends made, and the overall experience of working with interesting minds from across the world.