Facing the interview and winning!...for an MBA aspirant

Facing the interview and winning!...for an MBA aspirant

This page contains tips for attending interviews, interviews include both for job and for B-Schools. Also included tips for facing the interview and Prepare for Stress Interviews & the frequently asked questions.

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In an interview how does one handle the question "Tell us about yourself?".

    An often asked opening question. Perhaps the most frequently asked question across interviews. Your opening statement needs to be a summary of your goals, overall professional capabilities, achievements, background (educational and family), strengths, professional objectives and anything about your personality that is relevant and interesting. This question represents an opportunity to lead the interviewer in the direction you want him to go e.g., your speciality or whatever else you may wish to highlight.

    Your intention should be to try subtly convincing the interviewers that you are a good candidate, you have proved that in the past and have a personality that fits the requirement.

    Remember that the first impression you create will go a long way in the ultimate selection. Keep in mind, most candidates who are asked this question just blurt out their schooling, college, marks and qualifications. All this is already there in the CV. Why tell the interviewer something he already knows?

    A final word on approaching this question. Once you have said what you have to say - shut up. Don't drone on for the sake of speaking for you just might say something foolish. Sometimes interviewers don't interrupt in order to give the candidate the impression that he has not spoken enough. This is just a stress/error inducing tactic. Don't fall for it, especially if you feel you have spoken enough. In case the pause gets too awkward for your liking, just add something like, "Is there something specific that you wish to know about me?"
 

Is it better to have a longer selection interview or a shorter one?

    The length of an interview in no way is an indicator of how well an interview went. This is especially so when there are a number of candidates to be interviewed for example in the civil services interview or the MBA entrance interview. In the past a number of candidates have reported varying lengths of interviews. Nothing positive or negative should be read into this. An interview is only a device whereby the panel seeks information about the candidate. Information that will help the panel decide whether or not the candidate should be selected. If the panel feels that it has gathered enough information about the candidate in 15 minutes of the interview commencing and that it has no further questions to ask the interview will be terminated in 15 minutes. If on the other hand the panel takes an hour to gather the information required to take a decision the interview will last for an hour. In either case the decision could be positive or negative. It is a fallacy to believe that interview panels take longer interviews of candidates whom they are more interested in. No panel likes to waste its time. If an interview is lasting longer than usual then it only means that the panel is seeking more information about the candidate in order to take a decision.
 

In the MBA entrance interview how do I justify my decision to pursue the MBA programme?

    When you are asked this for God's sake don't tell the panel that you are looking for a "challenging job in a good firm with lots of money, status and glamour". That is the first answer that most candidates think of. Unfortunately it is the last answer that will get you admission. In the answer to a direct question on this subject you must convey to the interview panel that you have made a rational and informed decision about your career choice and your intended course of higher study.

There are broadly four areas which your answer could touch upon :

Career Objectives :     You could talk about your career objectives and how the two year MBA programme will help you achieve them. This implies that you have a clear idea of what your career objectives are and how you wish to achieve them. For example you may want to be an entrepreneur and wish to set up your independent enterprise after doing your MBA and then working for a few years in a professionally managed company. You could explain to the panel that the MBA programme will provide you with the necessary inputs to help you run your business enterprise better. But then you must be clear about what the inputs you will receive in the MBA programme are.
 

Value Addition :     That brings us to the second area that your answer should touch upon. What is the value you will add to yourself during your two-year study of management. Value addition will essentially be in two forms knowledge and skills. Knowledge of the various areas of management e.g. marketing, finance, systems, HRD etc. and skills of analysis and communication. You will find it useful to talk to a few people who are either doing their MBA or have already done it. They will be able to give you a more detailed idea of what they gained from their MBA.

Background :     Remember, there must be no inconsistency between your proposed study of management and your past subject of study or your past work experience. If you have studied commerce in college then management is a natural course of higher studies. If you are an engineer this is a tricky area. You must never say that by pursuing a career in management you will be wasting your engineering degree. Try and say that the MBA course and your engineering degree will help you do your job better in the company that you will join. But then you should be able to justify how your engineering qualification will help.

Opportunities and Rewards :     You could also at this stage mention the opportunities that are opening up in organizations for management graduates. Highlight with examples. At the end you may mention that while monetary rewards are not everything they are also important and MBAs do get paid well. You must not mention these reasons as your primary motivators even if that may be the case.
 

What to Expect

In general, B-school interviews are not formulaic. The focus can range from specific questions about your job responsibilities to broad discussions of life. Approach the interview as a conversation to be enjoyed, not as a question-and-answer ordeal to get through. You may talk more about your hobbies or recent cross-country trip. This doesn't mean that it won't feel like a job interview. It just means you're being sized up as a person and future professional in all your dimensions. Try to be your witty, charming, natural self. Interviews are conducted by students, faculty, admissions personnel and alumni. Don't dismiss students as the lightweights;they follow a tight script and report back to the committee. However, because they're inexperienced beyond the script, their interviews are most likely to be duds. You may have to work harder to get your points across.

How to Prepare

Prepare for the interview in several ways: Expect to discuss many things about yourself. Be ready to go into greater depth than you did in your essays (but don't assume the interviewer has read them). Put together two or three points about yourself that you want the interviewer to remember you by. Go in with examples, or even a portfolio of your work, to showcase your achievements. Practice speaking about your accomplishments without a lot of "I did this, I did that." Finally, be prepared to give a strong and convincing answer to the interviewer's inevitable question: "Why here?"

Interview is not elimination round. So why do these MBA Institutes carry out interviews? They essentially conduct the interview in order to know the individual, his qualities and to assess his personality traits. In a nutshell, to know about the qualities which otherwise could not be judged in a written exam.

Fine, now that we are clear about the interview's purpose, lets look into what actually happens at the interview. So what does the panel ask in an interview? Well, before answering this question lets understand the position of the panel during the interview. The panel has to make a decision about choosing a candidate within a limited time constraint so the panel wants to communicate with the candidate to know the person.The panel obviously have some standard questions to begin with like "Tell us about yourself " or typically "why do you want to do an MBA" (we will be covering them later in the article) but after this the panel usually picks up the next question from whatever the candidate replies. Essentially speaking, whatever the candidate answers typically serves as the cue to the panel for the next question. So crudely speaking, panel asks whatever the candidate wants the panel to ask. One can do this by dropping hints while answering to the question.

As an example, we have two types of questions:
a) An open ended question
b) A close ended question

A closed ended question would typically be " would you like to have tea?" and a typical answer would be "Yes" or "No ". An open-ended question would typically be "would you like to have coffee or tea?" and a typical answer would be either of the two. Now the trick to manipulate is to change a closed-ended question into an open-ended question by a suitable reply. Say on being asked " would you like to have tea?" it can be suitably replied as No, I would like to have a glass of juice instead. The idea is that one can suitably manipulate the answer to prompt the next question from the panel and to take the interview in the direction where one feels comfortable, avoiding uncomfortable areas or weak points.

    With the right attitude, your interview could be a walkover for you. We wish you good luck for the same.

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This page is designed by Mothish Babu.