I am a first year HBS student who used these boards extensively last year.
A member of my section compiled the following information from members of my section. I hope this helps.
As an aside, we've just today finished our first semester of class with finals beginning on Monday. I can only say that this is a great place.
Good luck!
L7
Question:
A good friend of mine has an HBS admissions interview next week and was looking for some advice on how to prepare / what to expect, etc. I was wondering if anyone who interviewed with HBS could drop me a line or two of suggestions on what to tell him.
Reponses:
Most likely the interview will be focused around that area but it is difficult to know upfront what is it going to be. Therefore there is little point of preparing apart from knowing your own application - resume, essays - inside out, knowing what Harvard is about from the website, brochures, etc.
I guess the most important thing is to come across as passionate about what you want to do in your life and be able to convincingly demonstrate why HBS and HBS only is the solution for you.
Here are some suggestions
1. Practice answering some common questions
· Tell me about a time you showed leadership?
· Tell me about your job?
· Why do you want to go to business school? Why HBS?
These are often asked and practicing with a friend or family member beforehand is helpful
2. Now, think of things that make you stand out and come ready to talk about interesting things about yourself
· Any interesting experiences in travel or other activities?
· What book are you reading now? Do you like it? What is it about? Do you agree with it?
· What do you do in your free time? Why?
· What are your long-term goals in work and life?
3. Try to develop a rapport with the interviewer. Let her talk about HBS, herself, whatever (if you can get her talking about her self, that is a good thing)
4. Again, practicing beforehand can be helpful. Good luck to your friend. If he/she is anything like you, acceptance should be forthcoming.
Tell him to make sure he knows and can discuss everything on his resume and in his application. Most of the questions will be based on what he's written. He should essentially consider the interview his chance to augment what he has already sent in. So, he should be able to discuss any weak points in his application (i.e., if his grades were low in college, he should be able to explain it in a "creative" way). Overall, the interview isn't bad at all. It is really no different than a job interview - without any technical questions.
My interview was not the standard admissions interview. I walked in ready to tell my boring life story and my canned reasons for wanting HBS. Instead the interviewer (admissions staff person) asked me just 4 completely random questions-- from "Why I chose to live in DC" to "What book are you reading right now." I don't quite remember the other 2 questions, but then she asked me if I had any questions for her and after just 15 min my interview was over. The takeaway for me was that she was either tired that day or had a plane to catch, so all she wanted was to verify that I wasn't a drooling vegetable before they let me in. Either that, or I look really, really cute in a suit and won her over immediately! :)
For every essay regarding leadership, teamwork, challenges, etc., they asked me for another example of such experiences that did not appear in my essays.
They also asked: Why HBS? Why an MBA? How does an MBA help you achieve your goals? What is unique about you? What will you contribute to class?
Candidates should emphasize that they believe in the case method and are seeking an MBA to become a general manager with a broad array of skills, as opposed to extensive training in any one functional area (e.g., finance).
Other: Be passionate. I think they want to see that you’re very excited about HBS. Also: review every word in your application and essays, and think about what your referees said about you. The interviewer will know your application just as well as you do.
Be yourself. Smile. Laugh. Demonstrate your personality.
I interviewed before I received my acceptance letter. I must say that it was one of the toughest interviews of my life, but I survived. Tell your friend to review her application before she interviews. The admissions committee will expect her to be able provide more detail about most of what she has included in her application. Remember that at the end of the day, there are no right answers, so she should be just fine.
On a positive note, I was told by a reliable source that if you’ve been asked to interview then you have a very good chance of getting in.
It depends on the interviewer. I had a 3 hour interview with this guy in his office, and he grilled me on why I'd give up my high paying i-banking job to go for 2 years of no pay and massive cash outflow with an expensive degree from HBS. Man he was tough.
I believe the interviewers are given a set of questions or at least a direction for questioning, I think so because they supposedly have access to your essays and files, or the Admissions Office tells the interviewer to look for certain aspects based on one's application. So be prepared to defend oneself, and remember to go through the submitted documents just to make sure you're not mixing up what you wrote to Wharton with your conversation with the HBS interviewer.
But stay relaxed. I don't know if the Admission Office sends out the letter this year but last year I got a letter saying being selected for interview means I was already running ahead of 80% of the rest of the applicant pool. Though not all interviewed are offered admission and not all admitted students were required to have an interview, but just being granted an interview is by itself a good indication. So relax.
I would suggest reviewing your application. Know what you wrote about and be prepared to discuss.
I was asked to describe a typical day. I thought the interview was peppered with questions that started with Tell me more about...meetings I held, the company I worked for, why I want to go to business school, what I want to do afterwards.
It was pretty standard. She went through some resume stuff, asked about my current project, what a typical day was like, and how I was being a leader.
Remind your friend to go through his resume and make sure he can answer why? to all the points. In his response, he should recall what he learned and how he does things differently because of the learning (impact on himself and/or others). As you know, HBS really likes the reflective, self-awareness stuff.
In my interview, they had very specific questions about my resume for which they were looking for direct answers. Fortunately I had anticipated some of them, and responded just fine. However, I understand that the interview process is definitely not a 'make or break' to a person's chances. The admissions committee is trying to interview up to 90% of those accepted this year. I would tell him to re-read his application and resume to prepare, and then to just relax for the interview. It's not too big of a deal.
I applied in second round last year and I interviewed with HBS admission. Just to let you know, the interview was on the phone, as I could not travel from the country I lived in. They asked me mainly about myself, and especially for my leadership skills. The first question I remember was What it is your leadership style? They also ask me for specific actions I did that explained why I considered myself for example a team player.
I would suggest your friend to go over his essays and resume and be prepared to give more examples about what he wrote or to be more specific (actions, speech) on how he managed a situation or why he succeeded or whatever. At the end of the interview, you ask you
- If you want to add for the knowledge of the HBS admissions or clarify any point (I think I explained something better)
- if you want to ask any question (I did not ask any)
I was very disappointed and frustrated after the interview because most of the questions were very unexpected and it was hard to explain myself on the phone. But I was admitted
Be really prepared and passionate!
I did an interview they basically asked me and a lot of other people
1.) What is your definition of a leader
a. Is a team player
b. Has a vision and can energize others towards it
c. Empowers and creates other leaders
d. Listens
2.) How have you demonstrated leadership?
I did the interview by phone. As I remember, some of the questions were:
1. Talk about a recent leadership experience (what role did you play, how many people involved, achievements and mistakes)
2. What is your leadership style?
3. What are the three things that make you unique? (i.e. what you will bring to the class that others can't)
4. Why do you want to earn an MBA?
5. Strengths and Weaknesses (typical)
I had a very good experience in the interview. They know the high level of anxiety that you are experiencing and try to make you relax before start asking questions. I felt that the most important thing was to be very honest as opposed to try to come up with perfect academic-formal answers... Hope this helps and good luck!
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I know that there are a lot of HBS interviews coming up over the next few weeks, so I thought I should share my interview experience with my BW Fam.
I interviewed yesterday on the HBS campus - if you've never been, it is very impressive! The HBS interview is the only one that I've had that hasn't been 'blind' (the interviewer has read through your app extensively and therefore has very targeted questions in terms of your candidacy). As such, I did the following for preparation:
- Read through my app very closely trying to anticipate what questions I would have if I were the interviewer - This was very helpful, because I correctly guessed that he/she would probably have some questions about my career goals, due to the short length of the essay that addresses that topic
- Examined my resume with the same eye for detail
- Researched the HBS curricullum including faculty names and expertise
- Thought about the last few books I've read and what I go out of them
- Further defined my career goals - so I could easily address bullet #1
The interview went well. It was much more laid back than I anticipated - I think who you interview with largely determines this. I had the opportunity to interview with the assistant director of admissions and he was great. Very kind, articulate and laid-back. Because he had read my essays his questions were much more targeted and the interview ran more like a dialouge than a question/answer session.
Some questions that were posed were:
- Tell me more about your career goals and what you would like to accomplish
- What would be your dream job when you graduated?
- What is your biggest weakness?
- Tell me about a time where you exhibited leadership?
- How do you deal with clients that are uncooperative
- Tell me more about your business plan and how you think it will be effective?
- What do you like to do outside of work?
There were a lot of follow-on questions that were framed just for me (for example we talked a lot about my views on generic drugs, business plans and some community service activity that had caught his eye).
Final Tips/Thoughts
- I don't think I could have been better prepared - I would suggest following the same steps for preparation that I took
- Questions I could have been asked, but surprisingly wasn't - What will you add to the Harvard dynamic, how are you unique, why HBS, why now
- I always try to bring a little bit of humor into my inteviews, once I feel comfortable. I succesfully cracked a few jokes and made him chuckle a few times - this shows that you aren't all academic
- Smile and always show your passion for the program, for your career goals and for life in general!
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