MBA面试：Prepare for interview Battle

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MBA面试：Prepare for interview Battle

by David Ingber on April 30th, 2010

Nearly every interview, whether it’s a job interview or a school admissions interview, has the following (loose) tripartite structure:

Step 1. Someone says, “Hi, you must be [NAME]. Thanks for coming in today.”

Step 2. (Some stuff is discussed.)

Step 3. Someone says, “Well, thanks for coming in. We’ll definitely let you know.”

Step 2 is generally what people are most interested in, and rightfully so. Accordingly, I tracked down several folks who have been accepted to some top business schools (Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia), and asked them about their personal experiences during Step 2.

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Do your homework
Many interviewers will leave a few minutes at the end to see if you have any questions. This is not a casual invitation. It is a measurable gauge of how enthusiastic you are about attending this particular school. A response of “No, I don’t really have any questions” or “Yeah, I got a question – where’s the bathroom?” will not be received favorably.

Additionally, do some research about the person interviewing you. Is she an admissions officer? Is he an unaffiliated alumnus of the school? Does she work for a company that is of interest to you? Erring on the side of being prepared (while not revealing so much data as to come off as a cyber-stalker, of course) is a good thing.

评论：if you have any questions.这不是一个简单的问题，认真思考一下作者的建议。英语有句话：the last is not the worst.不要以为最后的这句话是客套，也许就会决定面试官对你最终的判断in or out！我的博客里分享了一篇关于如何回答这个问题的技巧的文章，感兴趣的朋友可以搜索一下。

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Everything is fair game
Beyond mentioning the formalities (showing up on time, dressing appropriately, knowing how to shake hands, and the all-important “etc.”), everyone noted that you should be prepared to “defend” literally everything that you mention on your resume.

“[Interviewers] can smell bull**** a mile away,” one of the interviewees said. “So don’t have any for them to smell.”

One applicant listed hiking under his personal interests, and he was caught off guard when an interviewer grilled him on where he likes to hike, the names of his favorite trails, why he goes hiking, etc. If it’s important enough for you to list, then you shouldn’t be a charlatan. If the school senses that you’re inflating yourself a bit too much, they may ask you to, ahem, take a hike.

评论：知己知彼，首先也是最难的就是要了解自己。好好挖掘一下自己的简历，看看有什么地方给面试官留下机会进行提问。一般来讲，每个人都会有的，而且每个人又都是独特的。好好准备好。或者，mock interview一下，让第三者来审查一下你的简历，看看别人能挖掘出什么令你意想不到的话题。

我曾经有个客户在简历中提到从父亲那里“inherit”了一间公司，然后我就问她，你父亲健在吗？她说，还在的。看看，一个简单的动词都可以引起一个让你难堪的话题甚至影响面试官的对你的判断，所以，简历也不能马虎，一定要字斟句酌。

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Your Interviewer is pretty smart too
Another interviewee shared a similar story, in which he mentioned that he was currently reading a certain novel because he enjoys postmodern literature. The interviewer proceeded to ask him about Pynchon and DeLillo, which authors write similar books, which ones he likes and doesn’t like, and why. The lesson: don’t fall prey to the mistaken belief that a line on your resume is so esoteric that no interviewer would dare tread into that territory.

评论：如果你很强，可以故意把诱饵放下去，然后让面试官和你探讨你们都关心的话题。当然，这要看运气。面试时间有限，如果能够部分地左右面试进程，那你距离成功就近了许多，毕竟面试的时间是有限的。如果你被面试官牵着鼻子走，我相信面试官也会有感觉的。

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Identify your vulnerable spots
Did you get a C in a statistics class? Did you leave a job after three months? Did you amass $4,000 in unpaid parking tickets?

“Note any weaknesses in your application and know how you will respond when the interviewer asks you about them,” one gent told me, “because he/she will ask.”

评论：没有人没有弱点或者缺陷。对待这样的问题，就当是写一篇有关weakness的essay了，技巧和原则嘛，参见本人发布的有关essay写作的内容。坦诚、自信，找一条路让自己走出去！

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Get down to business
Treat the interview like it is a sales pitch, applicants have said. The only difference is that you’re not selling a product; you’re selling yourself.

If you were selling a new type of vacuum cleaner, you wouldn’t spend ten minutes discussing how it can clean a floor. Vacuums already do that. Instead, you would focus on the fact that your vacuum is quieter or more efficient or able to run on children’s laughter. Ask yourself: what are the two or three elements in your product (you) that would make a customer (MBA program) want to buy (admit you)?

评论：you’re selling yourself.我喜欢这句话！作者可能市场营销方面的知识比较匮乏，这段话是提醒我们，面试的时候要注意总结出自己的USP（独特销售点），每一个人都有自己独特的地方，都是一个独立的自己。有的学校也提供这样的essay题目，要求申请人写文章陈述自己的uniqueness，当然，往往还会跟着要求你陈述你是否fit in。对待这样的问题，就当是写一篇有关uniqueness的fit了，技巧和原则嘛，参见本人发布的有关essay写作的内容。

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Cite your sources
One question that several folks said they were not expecting was “Where do you get your news?”  There’s clearly no right or wrong answer to this question, but it’s not a bad idea to have something intelligent to say. Current events could easily come up in your interview. You don’t want the interviewer to mention some huge merger, while you haven’t even heard of the parties involved.