Mar 17, 2014

We met in a quiet coffee shop close to his work. It was an alumnus who had graduated in the mid-2000s. He had my resume in hand, and after some small chat, he asked me to take him through my resume. Mid-way through my discussion however, he became interested in one particular part of my work experience and started asking me more in-depth questions about the clients I worked with, and the larger social issues that had led to them needing services. We talked about this for a bit before he realized that it was less relevant to my specific work experience, and we returned to my resume review.

The bulk of my interview, which I did not expect or prepare for, was actually focused on talking about my long-term goals – what exactly would I be doing, why did I need an MBA for that role, what would my day to day look like, who would be the stakeholders I would engage with, what organizations were currently doing similar work, and what were my short-term goals and how did they relate to my goals long-term.

My interviewer was unfamiliar with my field or end goals, so the main purpose of the interview really seemed focused on him trying to understand why as an untraditional applicant I needed an MBA, and exactly what my goals entailed, since he was not familiar with the concepts. After about 45 minutes, the formal portion of the interview ended and we chatted casually for about 15 minutes, returning the original  conversation we were having on the social issues that he had been interested in discussing early on.

The interview was not at all what I expected or prepared for, but it did reinforce for me that Haas is really a school that values you as a whole person, and that even alumni who are not within the social impact field really still are interested and care about social issues.

Mar 7, 2014

I am currently an American living internationally, so my interview was abroad with a local alumnus who graduated about 11 years ago. It was in the middle of downtown at his office. He hadn’t done interviews for a few years and it kind of showed. He seemed like he had read my resume but didn’t have many questions prepared so it seemed a bit rambly. But, he was very polite and made me feel like he was on my side.

1. Why did you move abroad?
2. What accomplishment on your resume are you most proud of?
3. What did you do at your company and what are you most proud of accomplishing? (Although I only answered what I did before he asked me another question)
4. What would you do differently than your managers at that company if you ran the business unit? (Good question!)
5. What do you think your managers would say about you?
6. You worked for your company in many roles; were they all in the same part of the company?
7. Goals
8. Why Haas?
9. Why now?
10. How can you contribute to the Haas community?
11. You led teams with people with way more experience than you. How did you do it?
12. What if you couldn’t resolve a problem in your team?
13. Have you ever disagreed with your manager? If so, what did you do?
14. He asked about the Bay Area and if I’d visited campus.
15. Towards the end he came back to why I had moved abroad. He said that Haas was curious about it so it sounded like his job in the interview was to kind of test this aspect of my application.

There wasn’t much conversation before or during the interview so I tried to drag some info out of him at the end via a few questions.

I thought the interview went great overall but perhaps not perfectly. It was nice to hear from an alum who had spent some time using his MBA, because he had a unique perspective.

Feb 18, 2014

My interview was very conversational and friendly. I didn’t stumble and remained positive and enthusiastic throughout. The questions were:

9) How do you anticipate Management Consulting would be different and what type of skills you’d need to develop to succeed there?

Feb 17, 2014

The alumnus was very flexible in finding a time that was convenient for both of us. We met at his office.
After brief introductions and small talk, we started into the interview. It was all-around pretty casual, with no big curve-ball questions. There were none of the typical behavioral questions. Most questions focused on my motivation in pursuing an MBA.

- Why do you want to get an MBA?
- Have you considered whether your goals would be more likely achieved in continuing to gain experience in the industry? (I work in a fairly specialized field to which I hope to return.)
- What attracts you to Berkeley specifically?
- What specific unique opportunities do you plan to take advantage of?
- How will you contribute as a member of the Haas community?

After his questions, I was given time to ask him any questions I had. While the interview was only scheduled for 30 minutes, it ended up lasting closer to 50. All in all, a very casual and comfortable experience.

Apr 9, 2013

I was greeted by a 2nd year student to conduct my on-campus interview. The interview was blind, but the interviewer did have a copy of my resume which she had briefly read-over before beginning the interview. They started off by asking me to introduce myself and talk about my resume with a specific focus of my current job/role. After that, she asked me about why I wanted an MBA, what I hoped to do it with, and why specifically I was interested in Haas. After those questions, they began probing into more of the behavioral questions around my working style, she asked about what role I like to play when working in teams, what my managers would say about me (strengths and weaknesses) what my friends would say about me (strengths and weaknesses) Finally, the ended with some Haas specific questions, such as what clubs and organizations I wanted to explore and if I had an idea of what companies I would want to explore in the internship process. Last question was about what accomplishment on my resume was I most proud of? Afterwards, she left some time for me to ask some questions and then the interviewed ended. The entire interview was very conversational and laid back.

- Talk about your resume (focus on current role)
- Why an MBA?
- Why Haas?
- What are you going to do after you get an MBA?
- What role do you play when working on a team?
- What are 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses that your manager would say about you?
- What are three words your friends would use to describe you?
- What clubs/orgs are you interested in?
- What companies would you want to intern with?

Mar 5, 2013

The alum that interviewed me was aware of my information beforehand, so he asked many questions regarding my past experiences and my studies.
Nonetheless, he first told me to talk 5 minutes about my resume and then he started with the questions:

• Tell me about this job which you listed in your resume. What did you learn?
• Have you ever had any bad experiences in your past job?
• Why did you choose Haas for the MBA?
• Is there anything that you did not mention in your application that you would like the adcom to know?
• What do you do in your free time?
• What books are you reading? Why?

And a couple more questions which I can’t just remember know. I have to say I felt relaxed the whole 40 minutes or so that the interview lasted, thanks mostly to the interviewer and also because I had a very good preparation.

Mar 5, 2013

Mine was a blind interview with an alum. Seeing that he was young, I became a little less nervous. The interview started with him asking me “Where are you from?” and “Please walk me through your resume”. He asked me why I wanted an MBA and why did I choose Haas. After that, he asked about my short and long term goals, and how an MBA would help me achieve those goals. He asked me if I had any trouble working in a team, and to describe a bad experience working in teams. Asked me about my leadership skills and if I had any questions to ask him.

Overall it was a very conversational interview, and he was a very good interviewer, in my opinion.

Mar 5, 2013

The interview lasted about 30 minutes.
The questions they asked me were:

• Walk me through your resume.
• Asked some specific questions about my experiences and seemed to be testing my technical and market knowledge.
• Why MBA?
• What are your short and long term goals?
• Why Haas?
• Tell me about a time when you displayed good teamwork.
• Tell me your leadership style.
• Was there any other question I wished he had asked me.

Very comfortable interview overall!

Mar 1, 2013

Interview scheduled with an alum in a coffee shop
He explained the what a blind interview was, and told me the duration was 45min.
He then asked me:

• “Tell me about a time when you were given constructive feedback. How did you respond?”
• “Have you ever experienced conflict with someone on your team? How did you resolve it?”
• “Tell me about your experiencing managing people. Have you managed direct reports?”
• “What kind of leader are you?”
• “Tell me about challenges you’ve faced you have faced at your workplace and how you resolved them?”
• “Which book are you currently reading? Why did you choose it?”
• “Tell us something that you wished you could do differently

He then asked me about any questions I had.

The questions were hard, but it became fairly conversational and casual. We discussed for a while and I should say that I had foreseen this kind of interview and those questions, so I was happy that Berkeley didn’t have any surprises for me. It was a relief.

Feb 28, 2013

I had the first round of the interview on campus, and to be honest it lasted less than I had expected (30 minutes). I was a bit nervous at first, but when I finished I was calm and I felt the interview was very promising. They asked all kind of questions:

• Why Haas?
• What excited me most about the program?
• My long-term plans
• Discussion on the state and future of the sector
• What my most embarrassing moment in my professional career had been
• Walk them through my resume
• my leadership experience
• My goals
• What do I know about Strategy Consulting?

So, not easy questions, but I was very prepared and I think it had been really worth the hard work.

Feb 26, 2013

We interviewed at a local Starbucks and it was fairly conversational and friendly. The focus was more so on my background and behavioral questions along with a focus on “why Haas?”. It was a blind interview and so she had not seen anything until we got there, I brought a resume for her to reference and review.

I think the graduates of Haas really make an effort to stay in touch with the school and are very willing to vet the future students to ensure that the tight community stays in tact.

The alumna followed a few pages of outlined questions. So I imagine that is a standard prompt that interviewers will use. It is about one hour long.

Questions:

• Walk me through your resume. Tell me where, why and what you did in school and then the jobs that you have had since as well as the progression of roles. (Will randomly ask questions throughout interview that delve into specifics on resume. e.g. Tell me about this organization, your involvement in X, what was Y like?)
• What is your definition of success? And what is the top success that you have had in your current role? — What about the future, what is your most desired success?
• Referencing a leadership or management position held, what is your style of leadership and how have you been effective?
• Tell me about a time that you had a problem while leading a team, how overcame it, what was the result?
• Do you have a mentor? (*More so professionally, try to provide someone senior to you. Maybe give example of why, how, what have learned from him/her)
• Describe three adjectives that friends would say about you… Three that your family would say about you … Three that your co-workers/subordinates would say about you.
• What is your number one weakness?
• Why Haas? What is something that was unexpected that you discovered about Haas? What programs/classes/ECs would you join while attending Haas?
• Why an MBA? When did you decide? Why not another degree or continued professional education?
• Do you have any questions for me? Or about Haas?

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I found it interesting that she did not send the prompt to the school in a timely manner, so the admissions office contacted me weeks afterward as though I had never interviewed. I had to tell them with whom I interviewed and that she should have a record of the meeting. Afterward, I was surprised to get a call from the interviewer (now 3-4 weeks later) and get “one last question asked over the phone that was not originally asked”. That being “what is a challenge that I foresee in going to business-school/Haas?”.

Altogether, I have been happy with my visits and the people I have met who are affiliated with Haas. I am excited to hear the admission decision in the next couple weeks along with the Consortium Fellowship announcements in the middle of March.