The overall process to get into an MBA school is an exhaustive one that has many layers like an onion you need to carefully peel to get to the core. One of the key layers in this process is the interview stage, for it is one step away from that dream school admission you have been waiting for. Remember, the interview is not just for the school to know you better but also for you to know the school. It allows you the opportunity to connect with the key figures at the school so as you can evaluate how their specific MBA programme and the school offerings will support you to achieve your career goals.
This is your one of its kind and unique opportunity to gain more information about the school from the faculty, present students, alumni, staff or anyone else who represents the school in the interview. The goal is to make a practical decision on how the programme will benefit your goals, but also to help yourself make an impression on the interviewers that you are serious about your choice of school and want to determine what would fit best for your b-school goals and hopes.
2. Let’s align perspectives here – yours and the course we are opting for.
You aim here is to put them in your shoes.
Ask them if they were you with a career goal specific to yours in a niche sector, what would the top 1-2
assets in the school’s MBA programme be that would be advantageous to you.
You are seeking information that supports your goals here, vital to understand that their answer here
will offer you information that can be key to your final decision.
This aspect also lets them know you are serious about achieving a specific goal of your MBA, hence,
putting forth your choice of school.
A – What would you do?
3.
4. B – Campus/ School assets
Let’s understand the offerings of the place where you will spend long days and sometimes burn the midnight
oil.
Considering you will spend long hours at the campus during your programme journey, you must enquire
about the school’s campus and its assets that will help you gain perspective. Is it a lean campus? Or a wide
open one with a flexible working space, simulation rooms, group learning, are there support programmes for
students that school prides in, does the campus style and their offerings match your personality and needs?
What is their campus culture like – is the atmosphere more inclusive and accessible?
Ask them about the salient features that their current students and alumni always find interesting and most
fascinatin
5.
6. C – Asking the present students/ alumni
Let’s gain more information from the alumni / current students – if you are being interviewed by them.
B-schools set a round of interview calls, one of them is usually with an alumni or current student. This is a
great places for you to understand from another (ex) candidate how they feel about the campus,
programme, school’s overall features and more.
Ask them how the school helped them achieve their career goals, how far have they come from where they
were prior to the MBA programme to where they are now, how tight knit is the school’s industry
networking and engagement, also how frequent is it.
7.
8. D – Industry connect/ placement cell/
incubation programme
Let’s get clarity on the placement numbers, the entrepreneurs raised and supported and how
strong are the industry ties for the school.
Your interview is the perfect setup for you to find out the average placements number for the past
2-3 years, the highest package to the lowest package and an average – what sector hires the most,
what profiles are most sought after. All these answers should help to highlight your career path and
how the school may possibly help to achieve it.
If you are aiming at a programme where you can seek the support of the incubation cell to raise,
grow and push the entrepreneur in you, ask them about who are the incubation industry partners,
how frequently do they meet, what are the numbers for the past 4-5 years for the incubation cell.
