一些TOP SCHOOL申请者的面试情况

maryland

[转帖] 有讨论面试经历的吗？
trimedia

下面是我写的Michigan面试过程，今天刚面试了CMU，有空贴上来。
MBA interview with Michigan
上周五与UMBS(University of Michigan Business School)进行了校友面试，过程如下
：
6:45准时到达面试地点，进入会议室。非常巧的是，这位Michigan校友是90级清华EE毕
业生，所以开始用中文谈论了一下清华现状，顺便我恭维了一下面试官的年轻有为。过
了一会，我问“我们不使用英语吗？”，面试官回答“别紧张，先放松一下”。
然后面试正式开始，面试官用及其流利的英语作自我介绍以及面试流程介绍。他95年毕
业于清华，现在HP作sales,然后去big 5作consulting,99年被UMBS MBA program录取，
2001年毕业，然后进入某NASDAQ上市公司的Director of Corporate Marketing and St
rategic Planning. 以下是问题和我的回答。
Interviewer: introduce yourself briefly.
Me: First briefly introduced my work experience and education background; th
en described my short-term career goal and long-term career goal, and explai
ned why I chose UMBS and why I applied for it at present; and last explained
my unique background would make a contribution to the diversity of b-school
.
Interviewer: describe a failure or setback you have experienced. First, brie
fly describe the situation; then tell what you have learned from this experi
ence; and last explain why it is important for you.
Me: I described a failure I experienced during start-up. Actually I had well
prepared for this question, so it was easy for me to answer it.
Interviewer: now, let’s begin to talk with people. How do you communicate w
ith people and motivate them, especially engineers and sales.
Me: I first talked about how to motivate engineers, because I have a great d
eal of experience in this. Then I told the interviewer that I had less exper
ience in motivating sales.
Interviewer: then you mean you didn’t communicate with sales.
Me: No, actually I spend a lot of communicating with sales, because there ar
e often conflicts between sales and other departments.
Interviewer: then tell me how you deal with such conflicts?
Me: I found sales were apt to conflict with R&D. there are mainly two reason
s. First, R&D don’t really understand market requirements, and design softw
are which can not meet customers’ requirements. Second, sales sometimes don
’t well understand our products, and spend no time studying our product man
ual. For the first case, I’ll use my personal setback in the past to persua
de R&D to respect customers; for the second case, I’ll try to promote the c
ollaboration between sales and R&D. R&D will give sales training about our p
roducts, also they sometimes will compose product manual collectively.
Interviewer: why don’t you want to work for two more years before applying
for MBA? Why you need an MBA program now? Why UMBS is your first choice?
Me: I chose UMBS for three reasons: first, I want to broaden my skills and k
nowledge comprehensively, including corporate finance, corporate strategy, c
orporate accounting, and operation management. UMBS ranks above top10 in all
these fields; second, I like the climate of Ann Arbor; third, Ann Arbor is
the national performance art center of USA, and I like its yearly classical
music performance and film festival.
Interviewer: how many shares do you have in your start-up company?
Me: y%. Actually we experienced two rounds of raising funding. My shares wer
e diluted from the original x% to current y%. I raised both rounds of fundin
g from the same China’s traditional investor XXX. I think my experience in
dealing with China’s traditional investors and my lessons in raising fundin
g will definitely be colorful cases in the school’s discussion classes.
Interviewer: If you leave you company to study abroad, will you lose your sh
ares in the company?
Me: It’s an interesting question and also a hard question for me to answer.
(tacitly agreed)
Interviewer: Then why do you want to give up your shares to pursue an MBA pr
ogram?
Me: compared with my long-term career goal, the shares mean nothing. First,
if I stick to the company, over which I have lost control, I won’t have any
opportunity to develop it into huge size, because large shareholder is too
conservative in raising funding; second, I urgently need advanced management
skills and specialty knowledge of corporate finance, corporate strategy and
corporate accounting, I can systematically learn all these only in b-school
; third, in terms of my long-term career goal, I can easily start up another
IT business and develop it into huge size if I graduate from top b-schools
of America.
Interviewer: ok, I have finished my questions. Do you have any question to a
sk about UMBS?
Me: I have prepared two questions. The first, I know XXX institute provides
a lot of electives, as well as IMAP project for MBA students. I wonder if it
provides or will provide any opportunity for MBA students to take part in s
pecific research, especially those updated, cutting-edge researches?
Interviewer: definitely. …..
Me: I read from your brochure that Berlin Philharmonic will come to Ann Arbo
r every year. I wonder if it will really come there and give performance eve
ry year. Because I like classical music and Berlin Philharmonic is the orche
stra I like most; besides, I want to know how long the Ann Arbor Film Festiv
al will last each year. Because I also like movie very much.
Interviewer: ….
Me: thanks a lot for your detailed information about my questions.
面试到此结束，然后面试官将我送至电梯口，同时用中文问我，现在你还住学校吧，博
士课程是不是很忙？
我想可能这又是一个问题，因为我的full time work experience和PhD education 重叠
。我说虽然有宿舍，但是我已经在北京成家了，所以不回去。另外，你知道，清华的研
究生课程其实不需要花费太多时间，特别是我们计算机系比你们电子工程科研任务还要
宽松很多。我这么回答是要打消他对于我full time WE 的疑问。其实这是我最担心的问
题，在最后临走时，终于说出来了。
后来回来给面试官写了一封感谢信，着重解释了一下my lack of experience in deali
ng with sales 和the raising funding of the start-up. 他回信说：you did well
in the interview. And the questions are to test your skills to deal with con
flicts. 前半句是套话，不过看了后半句我还是挺高兴，因为在回答how to deal with
conflicts between sales and R&D时，我自我感觉回答还可以。这个问题我没有准备
，完全是现场根据以前的经历回答的。
我仔细回忆面试官整个过程中没有specially care about something in my resume. 想想好歹是清华校友，也许有些照顾吧。反正面试效果还不错，准备认真申请UMBS了。
下周一还有个CMU的面试，这次可是真洋人了，祝自己好运拉。

mjiirggh

谢谢

maryland

interview with Carnegie Mellon (1)

i was the first one to be interviewed this Monday. I tried to recall the whole procedure, and not to polish what i have said.
Interviewer(I): (coming in the business center of world hotel)morning!
Me(M):morning!
I:i'll be with you in a few minutes.
M:Ok!
I: are you XXXX?
M(M): yeah, you must be Ms. Stewart. nice to meet you!
I: nice to meet you too! come in this way. did you wait for some time?
M: no, I came here just now. actually I have seen your picture on the website of Carnegie Mellown, so I can recognize you at the first glance.
I: really? (smile), what's difference from the picture?
M: much younger than the piture.
I: (laugh)Thanks a lot for you to say so!
M: you're welcome!
(we both got sitted)
I: then, is Tsinghua University in the north of Beijing?
M: it's in the northwest of Beijing.
I: how long did it take you to reach here?
M: I spent about an hour taking subway.
(all above are small talks. In the past mock interview, I was told to pay much attention to be as natual as possible when having small talks, because interviewers can easily evaluate your real language skills in this way.)
I: when did you develop interests in technology?
M: actually I have developed strong interests in engineering, especially in computer science, since senior high school. After I entered senior high school, my parents bought me a computer, very few opportunity for Chinese children to have a computer then. But I was born in a small county, and thus had no experienced peoople to teach me computer knowledge. I almost studied computer by myself during high school.
I: why did you enter Tsinghua University?
M: As has been mentioned just now, I studied computer by myself during high school. when deciding to enter university, I wanted to systematically learn the knowledge of computer and broaden my skills to practice, I decided to enter Tsinghua, because it is the best engineering school of China, and also has the best computer science major in China.
I: did you get your education in Tsinghua, including Master and PhD?
M: yeah, I got all education in the school. Actually I started up a high-tech software company when I was undergraduate, four years ago. at the same time, I'm pursuing my Ph. d program in Tsinghua. It's a little strange here that I both work in the company and study in university. actually the ph.b. program in China is much different from that in America. we students don't have to spend much time studying, just do some reseach and write academic papers, much easier than America. So I spend most of my time in the company. (it's important to be honest here. because Ph.d program is very tough in America. If i am not honest here, the interviewer will think me to be cheating, both studying and working as entrepreneur)
I: why did you pursue you PhD program?
M: because I didn't think the education of computer was enough to meet the requrements of my future career.
I: then, tell me about your position and duties in the business.
M: you can see from my resume, I started up the company four years ago, and acted as CTO. ......... two years later, in addition to the original CTO, i acted as the director of xxxx business department, in charge of .......
I: tell me about your business.
M: ok, it was invested by one of largest China's traditional import and export enterprise, xxx. actually it is famous in America, because it was one of the only a few Chinese enterprises having great businesses in America. our company has about two hundred employees at current, and it has about three business department. the first, ...the second, ...the third. ...
I: how did you know Carnegie Mellon.
M: actually i have many classmates in CMU. of course, they are most in the computer science college. you know many students in Tsinghua, especially those in computer science department, pursue their advanced education in CMU. CMU has the best computer major in America.
I: (smile)then how did you friends desribe Carnegie Mellon.
M: actually i didn't communicate much with them. but i did thorough reseach on the webiste and applicaion brochure. I was happy to see that the culture of CMU-innovation and the transfer of knowledge(she smiling) -totally coincide with my life aspiration. it's amazing!
I: interesting! then what's your long term career goal?
M: i long term career goal is to start up, develop and run a huge IT business in China. this business will search and develop creative idears and advanced technologies, turn them into practicall services and products, and eventually provide these services and products to corporate China and Chinese people.
I: good idea! then why you choose the MBA program of Carnegie Mellon?
M: there are four reasons: the first, actually i have mentioned just now, the culture of CMU coincide with my life aspiration. -the innnovation and the transfer of knowledge. I want my classmates in b-school in the future to share with me the same vision for innovation, and i also want to stick to it both inside b-school and outside b-schook, into my long-term career goal. the second, the program itself. especially it's mini-semester system. (she nodding. )i read about that using this system, MBA students could choose twice as many as course in other universities in America. (she nodding and smiling). i think two years MBA education is too short, i need to learn more knowledge in the limited time. furthermore, i know the Donald H. Johnes center for entrepreneurship(she again smiling and nodding) provides much courses in entrepreneurship. alghough i have started up my own business, i think i'm far way from proven entreprenenur. i want those proven entrepreneur and high-tech investors in the center to share with me their successful experience and skills, thus i can start up my business much more quickly, and to reach my long-term goal more quickly. third, i appreciate the reseach and collaboration opportunities provided by CMU. i know that various colleges in CMU collaborate closely and MBA students can take part in some research. i think the management game system must use CMU's advanced AI technology, but i could confirm it. (she smiling and nodding). i want to promote the communication and collaboration between the designers and users of the system, and thus make it much better. furthermore, i have many classmates in the computer science college of CMU, i think i will have many opportunites to start up high-tech business with them. fourth, i like the city of Pittsburgh. a large-league city with small town virtues. i know it is one of the top10 livable cities in America. and it also has one of the best health care system in America. furthermore, i like Pittsburgh symphony orchestra. you can see from my resume, i like classical music. and Pittsburgh symphony orchestra is one of the best orchestras in the world. i think i will have many chance to enjoy their performences. (she smiling and nodding)
I: it seems that you did much research on Carnegie Mellon. (i was happy to hear that)then what's your most recent contribution to the business?and what's the challening task in it?
M: Last year, our business took part in the nation high-tech exchange conference in Shenzhen, the largest national high-tech exchange conference in China to demonstrate our new product, xxxxxx, the first such product in China.It is the core infrastructure for broadband operators to provde broadband services. you can see from my resume that more than 2,000 units of this product have been installed in the China's broandband community. it also contributed greatly to the sales and profits of the company. and at current, we are develeping the xxxx and xxxx, the future of the broadband services. I led the development of the product and the market expansion.
(to be continued)


the asked questions i haven't listed include:
how people working with you evaluate you, especially your strengths?
what's short-term career goal?
what aspect you need to improve?
in the end, i ask here two question:
please tell some detailed informtion about FAST lab?
will MBA students have any opportunity to take part in some specific research, such as the development of management game and FAST software.   



i did CMU in Shanghai.

Questions:
why MBA?
What is your recent contribution to your company?
why did you choose this college? what is your criteria for choosing an MBA program?
what do you do for fun?
what is short long term goal?

Financial background is not necessary for a student who wants to pursue a MBA in the field of finance. Though I do not believe that, my friend told me that one of his classmates can not even add numbers during the first year
UNC's admission official stated the similar idea.

i have spoken with some adcom poeple ... it's pretty clear to them that many of their best candidates apply in the first round ... let me ask you this ... which school's essays will you prepare the first? your dream school or your backup school?

when you apply a school early, it usually showes that you are confident ... and you like the school a lot, plus you are good at time management ...

of course, what's most important is the quality of your application package ... bottomline: forget about the round 1 or round 2 issue, and submit your application when you think you have given your best ... however, try to apply during the first two rounds because later rounds basically meaning ding for international students


funnytiger

I have talked to tons of admin people and MBA students. the impression is:
1. first round is easier, because fewer people have everything ready to apply.

2. admin people will consider more factors than they do in first round. if you are a normal person with a normal job, you will have problems getting attention.

Go first round if you can, but of course if you are extrodinary, we will get in even if you are third round.

well, usually GMAT score is only part of the whole story, good schools will consider other factors like your employment history, your achievement, etc. The reason why you see so many High score people goes to the first round is because usually those are the people who have nothing significant to tell other than a good GMAT score.
so my advice is quite simple. if you are like me, who has nothing to shine but a good GMAT scores, go first round.


wonder whether you have heard of "M7"... basically these are the best 7 US b-schools that have been really recognized by everyone (and the 7 schools treat each other as peers) ... so "top 10" is NOT really  very meaningful (Michigan, although consistently ranked as a top 10 school,  is forever a backup school to many - just look at Michigan's yield rates)  - to many american top candidates, only M7 schools are worth the effort.
fyi, M7 - HBS, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Columbia, Kellogg, Chicago