HBS Shanghai Hub Interview 03/05/2007

Goddezz

HBS Shanghai Hub Interview with Palson 03/05/2007 9:00am—9:40am:

Overall impression: It was so conversational....much easier than I expected...I got so relaxed that during the interview I totally forgot this is an HBS INTERVIEW so I ran into my bad habit to ramble on topics...I think this is the only thing i did wrong...very wrong...

Palson is nice, all the way keep smiling, encouraging with her friendly eyes to let me continue and continue and continue...(my godness....我最受不了温柔一刀了...)...so i continued and continued and continued...hahahaha....

The good thing is that I clearly passed on my passion --- which is exactly the real me---over to her...although she didn't ask me any leadership questions, my answers (maybe childish dreams) depicted my role as a pioneer in anything i am gonna to handle...

I arrived 5 mins ahead of time...she was still preparing...so asked me to wait outside for some mins...there was no sign anywhere indicating how you could find the interview place...(bad management, or just a small test to the interviewee???) Then I was called in, she started by applogizing to get me there during holiday...(i was confused...holiday???) Then she continued to talk about the fireworks she saw last night. Thus I realized she was talking about the lantern festival, so i talked about how we celebrate it in China as the last day of Lunar New Year...blah blah....so the interview started in a very conversational way...

Later, she talked about the interview process...she would write a report to include in my application package, then the adcom will decide my "fate" based on overall view of the package...

Tell me something about yourself, your education, work ....


I thought I had all the education info, extra-curricular, and work in my essays and resume...why i need to bother to repeat it again??? So i took a different angle to talk about the same thing....education, why that school and major, how i chose my self-learning, extra...what i learnt...For work, i focused on why i chose that company, how I transfer to another function, what's the responsibility change after promotion...so almost all new info I hvn't mentioned in any paper applications....i think she's interested...so she asked no question, no follow up, but kept me going for at least 5 min.....(ah...how gossip i am...first time to find out this quality...)

What is a working day in office like....typical day....----i did this one the worst....coz previously i saw this question somewhere and wanted to prepare, yet i did nothing....so rambled a lot...try to summarize my day, but it's hard.

What do u think are the challenges for u to achieve ur goal?---actually i prepared this one well before hand, but...on spot my mind circuit broke...and i came up with something new~!!! To explain this "new" challenge, I hv to use lots of explanation and example...which made me again ramble a bit...

What makes u sucessful?

What makes u unique?

What challenge you may face in HBS?

What's ur weakness / How u improved it?

What' the most constructive comment you got from ur mentor? how do u think?

What may be a misconception of u for people who first meet u?

Why u need an MBA?

What motivates u?

How did u reasearch about this interview?

What question u expected me to ask?

Do u hv any question for me? ----i immediately said "NO"....haha..i just thought i had rambled enough....
I thought about this interview in these days... So i think I hv recalled most of the questions....not sure whether i forgot something....

The ending part was the most interesting....She said with a big smile..." So that's it! We've done!"

I appeared surprised and said," wow...it's much relaxed than i expected..."

She said,"So how did u think it will be??"

I replied," You know there is one quote i believe in "Luck favors the prepared mind!" --So i was actually prepared to take whatever tough ur question is..."

She smiled and said she believed in the same thing...then she said she should put on a sign outside....

I said," Do you want me to help? I can arrange it for you with the hotel."

She declined...but I think she liked my pro-activeness...

The whole interview is somehow weird for me....coz nothing about leadership, team work, failure....nothing about my essays, nothing about extra-curricular activies that I put a tons of them on my package...no tough follow up...no "give me an example" follow up... She took very few notes...Don't know .....weird....