myice

两个小时零十分钟的Darden面试
面试在一家不错的酒店的咖啡吧里进行。我提前到的，挑了一个靠窗的位子，可以看到酒店后园子里的假山，喷泉和池塘。面试开始时，咖啡吧里还有很多人在喝下午茶，我还把遮阳帘子拉下来，我们离开时，已经开始提供晚餐了，天都暗下来了。

校友是个很认真、很严谨的人。问题细到我每个时间段的每个细节，结束时我说：you have already asked everything happened in my life, (note: the thing we could really consider it a thing. 他说，这是件很重要的事，对你对学校都一样。

最后十分钟我的提问时间，谈到读MBA的感受，他说：他去时年龄稍大，所以对他的职业生涯帮助没有想象中大，建议读B-SCHOOL要趁早。但即使如此，他认为无论如何都是非常值得的，对今后20年都会有影响。

闲言少续，问题有：(不过大多数人估计都面完了，留言在此供明年的申请人参考吧)

1.introduce youself (the only traditional question)

以下分阶段提问:

第一部分: education.

what's your average grade?
why isn't it above 95?
which subject you like most? why?
which subject you hate most? why?
第二部分:分公司提问,

what's your position in your organization? tell me about your organization.
one project you involved and impressive most.
how is your performace when interviewed by your third company.
style of leadership.
how do you understand Excel?
do you ever touch any field related to finance in your daily work?
why do you choose such career goal.
who is the general manager you admire most? who is the second one.(the current CEO of my comany was ever the CEO of his company).
tell me something you know about your CEO.

myice

The interview was not a difficult one, I guess one major objective is to evluate the interviewee's English communication skill, which I am OK. I was quite nurvus when waiting for the interviewer - since I didn't do interview for almost 2 years, all the time was I interviewing others. But when the guys comes and we started to talk, all things get fine.

Tips - be clear on why MBA, why Darden, show your knowledge on Darden(I didn't do my homework well that when he asked me one question about what particular entrepreneurship in Darden attracted me, I didn't answer well).

Darden requires HUGE working pressure - we talked a lot on that. He asked about a typical week of mine - to understand if I can have good time management skill.

The guy is a quite nice guy, very flexible when we arrange the time and place, very nice.

myice

今早晨印度时间8:15在孟买Parel一个宾馆的大厅进行了我的面试。回到孟买办，先是发了一个邮件给面试人表示感谢，然后就来写我的面试经验了.

和预期的一样，面试是比较放松的，面试我的是一个非常年轻的小伙子，他是02-04的毕业生。他也是IT行业的，所以我们共同的话题比较多些。他直接问我的问题比较少，上来就给我说你来说吧，个人背景，教育，工作什么的，以及为什么mba 为什么darden 之类的很多问题，列了一大堆出来，这样提问也还不错，可以让我随心所欲,天马行空，想到哪里就说道哪里，中途说到Dean Bruner亚洲之旅，去参观了泰姬陵，我说泰姬陵真是个奇迹，我一定还要再去看一次，可是很多印度人都没去过，很可惜，然后我说昨天帮我修电脑那个dell工程师也没去过。突然发现好像自己离题太远了，赶紧打住。

他问我项目中最大的挑战是什么 我说领导跨文化团队，举例我在德里做标书的事情，如何对不同的人进行不同的attention和关怀之类的。 我用了一个有印度特色的数量词lakh，他说看来你对印度确实还是挺熟悉的，这个词都习惯用，我内心挺得意,其实我由于习惯中国的万的进制，平时遇到million ,billion什么的都要进行半天的转换，没想到随口说了一下居然受到夸奖。 我又讲了在bangalore和我们的代理做项目的沟通，如何调动他们的积极性等等。说到印度和中国的比较，我说中国的硬件建设可能走在前列 可是软件，比如制度，经济体制等方面还是有待提高的，而印度的优势却正好是中国所缺少的，比如印度的金融体制，软件CMM等方面都是世界一流的。呵呵 我说中国和印度这两个国家是competitive yet complememtary的，很多方面存在共性，可以更好的偕同发展，然后还说道看报纸说中国春节期间很多中印关系会得到巨大推动。呵呵

最后问我有没有什么问题提问。我问了case study是不是挺tough的啊，我说我跟在校学生联系(我和dukesongyi电话聊过，得到他的很多帮助，也在此表示感谢) 他说确实有的时候非常紧张，然后说如果你想在你的mba学习中enjoy life那darden绝对不适合。呵呵 我说我和校友聊天的时候校友对我说，像我这种习惯每个星期工作70-80小时的人来说这个不是什么问题。然后他又说了darden的国际推广和提高知名度，这是dean bruner的重要环节。像上文提到的Dean Bruner的亚洲之行，我说我本来想趁dean来印度的时候来一下印度，请adcom帮我安排面试，可惜他们那个时候正在审材料，没来得及为我安排。他说Darden现在正在着力提高全球的知名度，他说在ISM (Indian School of Management)有客座教授等待。我后来又问，相对印度学生来说，中国学生的语言方面肯定是不足的,这是个事实，问他情况如何? 他说这个你不用担心，你的英文和我一样好，厚厚，他说我绝对属于well above avarage的，听他这么说，心里很开心，连说thank you。他说确实印象中有的中国学生英文不是很好，但是第一个学期过后，他的进步是令人吃惊的，因为他先前在中国公司，而且也是对内业务,英文用的少。

中间还海聊了很多的，说到我的印度同事，跳槽到Nortel 还经常回公司看我们,说到我参加他的婚礼的情景。还是我们的商务专家毕业于印度著名的管理学院IIM-B等等.

大概就这么多吧，值得一提的是，他确实非常忙，我们把时间安排在早晨8点，上班之前，我估计其实是白天确实太忙了，本来我的面试是安排在周一的，已经推迟到了今天。他今年好像面试了8位申请人，工作量比较大，呵呵。说这个周末会给学校反馈的。

myice

Round 2 / 2nd Year Student (Published April 2nd, 2010)

The interviewer said I would have about 30 minutes to "Tell me your story, you can start from wherever you want, high school, college, your choice" He said he would chime in with questions every so often but after 30 minutes he would have some additional questions. It was very relaxed, more like a conversation than an interview. My advice would be to make sure to get through the early part of the story pretty quickly because my interviewer asked a lot of questions and I had to shorten the second half of my story because of it. After he asked the basics:

Why MBA?
Why Darden?
Why now?
Goals?

myice

Round 2 (Published March 10th, 2010)

Tell me about yourself. I want to get to know you.

Very informal and conversational (most conversational by far!!! of 7 interviews I completed)

myice

Round 2 / Adcom / Video Skype (Published March 8th, 2010)

The interview was blind (i.e. the interviewer had not seen my application), and was conducted by Kathy Grant, the Assistant Director of Admissions. As mentioned by several candidates, the interviewer simply asked me to "tell my story", but to hit points like Why I picked my undergraduate degree, Why an MBA, Why Darden, Why Now, and also asked to highlight issues of leadership.

The interview was quite informal and pleasant, and the interviewer seemed to be trying to gauge my personality more than my experiences. She asked very few follow up questions and obviously expected me mostly to lead the discussions.

She seemed to be genuinely interested in my experiences and travels, and was generally enthusiastic. Only time will tell.

myice

Round 1 / Adcom / Telephonic (Published January 28th, 2010)

I applied to Darden in round 1. Got interview invite in last week of December. It was a telephonic interview with adcom on January 7th. It was a telephonic interview and it was very casual. Adcom interviewed me and it was a blind interview. Adcom had no access to my application or resume. As I was an international applicant, I was offered an telephonic interview.

There was only 1 main question - tell me your story. But the interviewer asked me to cover information about my childhood, my education, my jobs and why mba would make sense. Also touch upon why you made certain decisions in your life.

Be ready to give a 30 minute monologue. Practice a lot because there will be no hint from the interviewer regarding how you are proceeding. So you should be able to drive the interview in the right way. Be ready to show a great fit with Darden.

myice

Round 2 / Adcom (Published February 26th, 2009)

I interviewed on 16 Feb. The interview was with an ADCOM member.

The only question was “tell me your story”. This is typically a 30-45 min interview and we are looking to get a better sense of who you are as an applicant. This leaves a whole lot of wiggle room in how you approach the question but this is the only “question” that was asked…everything else was guided based upon how you answered the question…From the 1st question in talking about myself I she asked about my major (why I picked it), why I thought I would be a good fit to the case study method, what my aspirations were after graduating. The interview took 35 min and left me about 10 min to ask questions (asked about how internships were filling up and how the economy has impacted the application numbers)….All in all I left and felt it was a really friendly, easy interview. It seemed very “stress free” and I definitely walked away confident in how it all turned out.

myice

Round 1 / Off-campus / Alumni / Admitted! (Published February 25th, 2009)

I was told by alumni and friends to prepare well for the 20 minute monologue in response to 'tell me something about yourself' opening. While I was getting ready to embark on the monologue, the first question came from the most unexpected quarters of my resume. I was asked - 'What did you do differently that you were able to record highest sponsorship in your undergraduate festival'. My interviewer was as ex-Mckinsey Associate Principal and I guess he was adept at startling candidates.

I was thoroughly probed on the reasons for choosing a US business school over IIMs (India) which give equally good ROI. He wanted to see if I have a good enough reasons to invest a fortune in the US MBA education. I was able to convince through the argument of diverse class profile at Darden, compared to IIMs where more than 60% of class comprised of engineers.

I was then questioned on my experiences of leading teams on client projects and how I improved my team's performance. Here my interpersonal skills were thoroughly evaluated. I had sufficient content to appease the appetite. But a person who has had limited people interaction would have not fared well. Overall, almost 25% of the interview (~15 min) time was spent discussing my experiences with colleagues, clients and peers. One needs to prepare well for this section.

Finally, my interviewer spent around 10 minutes evaluating my business acumen (I guess he was validating my professional achievements). I was probed on some client projects (consulting). I was able to strike chord with the interviewer when I told him about my experiences of working in a restaurant. He also had similar experiences during his graduate education and we had lot to talk and laugh about. So if you have anything interesting or out of place to talk about, do not hesitate to share as it will make you stand apart.

Finally, I was able to improvise my questions based on my interviewer's background which I think was well appreciated. I asked him about his experiences of working in Consulting vis-a-vis Industry and his recommendations for me (I told him earlier that I would not pursue consulting after MBA).

Overall the interviewer was very friendly but with no-non sense demeanor. He had not read my essays and only had access to my resume prior to the interview.

I received admit, so I guess all went well. Good Luck!

myice

Round 1 / On-campus / 2nd Year Student (Published December 16th, 2008)

Based on my own experience, and from what I heard from other applicants while I was down there, these are not difficult interviews. As other people have mentioned, the only real question that they ask you is to 'tell us about yourself,' and the applicant takes it from there. While I was expecting this question, and went through it a bit in my head before hand, I would recommend that folks sit down for 30 minutes and practice it. Even record it if you can and listen to yourself speak. In my case, I found that I had to track back a few times to provide context to something that I was saying as well as to ensure that I was headed on the right track. That part went on for about 40 minutes and I led my remarks towards any potential follow up that could be asked, or at least that I had anticipated. I then used the next 15 minutes to ask questions, and I was surprised by the frankness and honesty of the student. All in all a great experience.

This was my second visit to campus (I had already participated in an open house day in September) and I have to admit that every interaction that I've had with Darden has been exceptional. From the receptions that they've hosted in DC to the actual campus visits, I've found the entire organization to be extremely well run, professional, and frankly warm and welcoming.