myice

Round 2 / Adcom (Published March 27th, 2008)

Of my interviews thus far, MIT was by far the most rigorous and thorough. They hold true to the "behavioral" interview model, where they spend most of the time asking you about a situation from your past where something happened and you need to say what you did. Note that they want stories that have NOT appeared in your essays. It sounded like they didn't mind if the stories were from my personal or professional life (I asked) as long as they were relevant.

The interview was conducted by a member of the admissions committee. It is exactly like a job interview and, while not necessarily pressured, is much more intense then my Tuck, Kellogg or Wharton interviews. The interviewer was cordial and friendly, but there was almost zero small talk.

The major questions I was asked:

What exactly do you do? What have you been doing in your position recently?
Tell me about a time when you were overwhelmed and asked others for help
Tell me about a time when you mentored someone
Tell me about a time when you butted heads with a co-worker/client/employee
Tell me about a time when you were part of a team that had poor dynamics/didn't get along well (say what you did, of course)
Tell me about a time when you had to deal with someone who wasn't pulling his/her weight
Why an MBA, why Sloan (although only briefly and at the end)?
I was then asked if I had any questions. You'll really only have time for one, so make it a good question that shows you've done your homework and will help you evaluate the school. I asked about how hard it was to get into classes, as this has come back as the most universal complaint I've heard from current top b-school students (Wharton especially).

My advice (along with others who have posted here) is to review the list of Sloan questions we've all posted and think of two or three stories that could work. If you do that, you'll have a good 30-40 stories that could be applicable for any question the interviewer might ask.

myice

Round 2 / Adcom Consultant / On-Campus / March 2008 (Published April 9th, 2008)

My interviewer was very warm and friendly and made a concerted effort to make sure I was relaxed and comfortable. She had clearly read my application thoroughly and after some small talk, she told me she had prepared 3 questions that I should answer with new stories in the STAR format.

Tell me about a time you led a team to a solution.
Tell me about a time you had to sell an idea.
Tell me about a time your idea was rejected.
She then allowed me to ask several questions about the program. We ran a little over 45 minutes.

I prepared for my interview by making 1 notecard for each of 5 good stories that were deep enough to answer a wide variety of questions and diverse enough to show characteristics of me that weren't emphasized in my application. My notecards were in the STAR format that MIT recommends - 1 bullet for each point. Finally, I looked at this wiki to see the range of questions and thought through whether or not my stories addressed most of them. I also did a mock interview.

Her line of questioning as we explored each story was very logical and she did not throw any major curve balls. I felt that I was stumbling through #3 at times, but she helped me stay on track. I was admitted in R2.

myice

Round 1 / Off-campus / Adcom (Published December 16th, 2008)

I had a somewhat different experience with my Sloan interview than I read from the wiki. I interviewed at an offsite location in my home city. My interviewer was an adcom and was very casual. Surprisingly, it was even more casual than my Yale interview which was with a student.

We exchanged small talk and then the adcom explained that MIT conducts behavioral type interviews and laid out other structural guidelines our discussion would follow. I was expecting to be battered with the "tell me a time when you..." type questions, but I actually did not get any. The questions included Why MBA / Why Now / Why MIT? And I was challenged or asked for more detail on each (but in a very non-threatening way).

We discussed my career goals and how I thought an MBA would help me to achieve them. I already have a masters degree which I received about 4 years ago so the adcom dove deep into why I need another degree, what I plan to get from an MBA that I didnt already get from an MS, etc. This was heaviest line of questioning. I was also asked about my current position and how my career plans after school would differ.

I was asked me to describe more about two or three of my application essays. The questions were pretty vague (i.e. "you mentioned your undergraduate experience in essay 3. tell me more about that"), so I recommend reviewing immediately prior to the interview.

I was asked what question I wished I was asked. I stumbled a bit because I was able to previously mention the two stories I had planned if this came up. I took some time to think and talked about what I would contribute to Sloan. I was then asked if I had any questions about the program. I asked about the career placement office and the downsides of having a small program.

The adcom spent a good amount of time checking over notes from my application and taking new notes based on our conversation. The silence felt a bit awkward, but I think I made a smart move by not rambling.

The interview lasted about 45 minutes.

myice

Round 1 / Off-Campus (Europe) / Adcom (Published 20 January 2009)

I met with a member of the adcom. He was perfectly friendly, and actually did not dig in to my answers as much as I was expecting. The questions I was asked were:

1. Tell me about yourself, what have you been doing in the last two years.

2. Tell me about something at work you have been proud of in the last year.

3. When were your expectation not met?

4. What do you do outside work?

5. Why do you want an MBA, why Sloan?

6. What do you wish I'd asked?

7. I'm meeting a lot of people today, what is going to make me remember you?

8. Any questions for me?

I would definitely recommend following some of the other advice on here of not just filling the silences. There were plenty as he was writing, but it didn't feel too awkward. I also agree with some of the comments on here that there is almost an air of disinterest from the interviewer, and he was VERY difficult to read to assess how it was going.

To prepare, I went through eight projects / stories I had, and matched each of them to a number of different categories of questions. I felt I had an answer for most of the stuff he asked. The "what do you wish I asked" one is tricky to decide what to talk about on the spot, but not too bad.

The interview was less than 45 minutes, probably about 35.

myice

Round 1 / Off-campus / Accepted! (Published February 9th, 2009)

My interview seemed like the standard MIT Sloan interview. I was told to recall stories that I had not mentioned in my application.

I cannot remember all the questions, but here are most of them.

Tell me a time when something unexpected happened to you
Tell me when you did something innovative
Tell me a time when you influenced someone (Then a follow up question to my answer was: Can you tell me what your plan was?).
Tell me how Sloan ranks against the other schools you applied to
Is there a question you wish I had asked?
What questions do you have for me?
My interviewer was very friendly and laid back. He didn't ask me too many follow up questions to my stories -- he listened intently and wrote down a lot of notes. My interview was 35 minutes long.

I prepared about five versatile stories that could answer most of the questions that have been listed in this Wiki. It's also important to weave in themes that Sloan finds important into all stories (e.g., collaborative, laid-back, respectful of everyone's opinions, humble). I made sure that my answers were no longer than 3-4 minutes each (this forced me to be precise about what I was saying and gave the interviewer a chance to ask more questions). Once the interview questions began, the interviewer became more serious. I would take advantage of the few minutes before and after the formal part of the interview starts to slip in something interesting about yourself (in a natural way) that you think wouldn't be asked in the interview.

I got accepted in the first round .

myice

Round 1 / Off-campus / Accepted! (Published February 12th, 2009)

My interview went exceedingly well from the beginning. The interviewer explained that her role was to be my advocate to the admissions committee, and that my task was to give her good material so that she could effectively make my case. This put me at ease, and surprisingly, the interviewer wasn't as stone-faced and dig-downy as the MIT interview guide had led me to believe. I was accepted in Rd 1.

Here are the questions that I remember:

Tell me about something you've done that you're proud of.
Tell me about a time you failed.
Tell me about a time you convinced others to follow your plan.
What do you do for fun outside of work?
What do you wish I had asked?
Why an MBA, and why MIT?
Any questions?
The interview ran long--about 50-55 minutes. I'd give the same suggestions as others on this wiki: be concise, follow the STAR method but in a natural, human, storytelling way, and be genuine about why you're excited about Sloan. Your enthusiasm will shine through and hopefully differentiate you from all the others who woodenly give canned answers. I found myself framing my stories/answers in terms of Sloan's "mens et manus" (mind and hand) philosophy, and it worked really well. Lastly, it's important to show smarts-plus-humility (which is a proxy in some ways for the other personality attributes Sloan likes).

Good luck!

myice

Round 2 / Off-campus (NY Hub) / Adcom / Accepted! (Published March 10th, 2009)

My interview went smoothly. After a casual exchange about urban versus suburban life, the interviewer went over the behavioural interview format and noted that she's looking for new examples and experiences, not ones that I used in my essays. She was very polite and cordial, and that helped me feel comfortable from the beginning. Unlike others, my interviewer provided positive feedback throughout the meeting. She smiled and said things like, "That makes sense." and "I can see why you did this." She even commented on what she liked. It was more conversational than I had expected.

These are the questions that I recall:

Do you have your transcript?
Do you have any recent achievements/promotions that you want to share?
How did you find out about MIT Sloan? How did you decide to apply? Tell me about your thought process.
What's a personal goal that you've set for yourself recently?
Tell me about a time when you had to convince someone to follow your plan.
Where do see your business heading?
How would a friend describe you? A client?
Tell me about a time when someone needed your help.
Tell me about a time when your expectations were not met.
Tell me about a time when you had to step out from your comfort zone.
Tell me about something that you've encountered, at work or outside of work, that made you feel uncomfortable.
Any questions?
The questions are roughly in order. The interview was about 35-40 minutes long. I remember leaving the building at a quarter to. Because of my past experiences, throughout the interview, I expressed my interest in and knowledge of design and construction. So as I was getting ready to leave, I naturally gave an introduction to two iconic buildings viewable from the meeting room's windows. My interviewer was genuinely interested and appreciated the information.

Like others before me, I recommend preparing a handful of good examples that can be used to answer a variety of questions. Also, go through the questions listed in this wiki and have a couple of examples ready for each. Good luck!

myice

Round 2 / Off-campus (Seattle) / Adcom / Accepted!!! (Published April 6th, 2009)

I was notified of my interview fairly late and only had a few days to prepare. I was *extremely* nervous due to everything I was reading about MIT interviews and how insanely difficult they are. I was expecting a barrage of questions and then probing on everything I said... but the questions really weren't too bad, and his style was laid back. We talked a lot about my nonprof stuff which probably took up a good 10 min (and helped me calm down too). The interviewer was very, very casual and genuinely interested in what I had to say. We got into a rhythm early on and the conversation flowed like gravy...

Here are the general questions:

transcripts?
recent achievements/promotions? (showed him some community awards)
tell me about yourself. what do you do at work? (i work in tech and brought in some product samples. he seemed to like the fact that i brought something to "show and tell". this also ate up some time and allowed me to go into engineer mode and ramble a bunch of tech stuff
what do you enjoy outside of work? (talked about my love of snowboarding/baseball/nonprof)
tell me about a time when you had to convince someone to follow your plan
tell me a time when you thought outside of the box
why mba? why sloan?
are you sure you need an mba? you already have a lot of "mba" experience.. (wasn't really prepared for this one so watch out for it..)
I studied by arranging the questions here into different categories, then choosing different stories based on the category for each question. I probably had 7-9 different scenarios ready but only talked about 2 of them in depth. Most of the follow up questions are straightforward and natural: why did you do it that way? any difficulties with people? how would you do it differently next time? what's the greatest thing you learned from the experience? etc etc

Probably the best advice is to be yourself and pretend like you're talking to a friend. I even slipped up a few times and said "man" just like I was talking to a classmate. Another thing I'd do is keep your answers short (maybe 1-2 min). When I rambled he looked away but when i said something interesting he would nod and write. If you're from tech like me, try to pick stories that have nothing to do with work. Remember you are trying to show why you'd be a good business leader and not a good IT/tech guy. He seemed to be more interested in my nonprof/community stories (he was even interested in my snowboarding experiences). Just show passion, conviction and be humble about your accomplishments. Another tip: show up early. I was fortunate enough to overhear the interview before me which helped calm me down a bit and get a feel for his interviewing style. Finally, when the interview was over I asked for feedback (i didn't ask outright but did so in a creative and non-obvious way). He basically said I did fine which made me feel a lot better about the whole ordeal.

The interview lasted ~40 min. I was accepted Round 2.

myice

Round 1 / Off-campus (Paris) / Adcom / Accepted! (Published January 19, 2010)

I was notified three weeks before my interview date of two possible days to interview. I registered on the interview time slots portal, which had about 17 interview slots. I was lucky to get a slot which would allow me to travel to the interview location comfortably the same day.

Preparation

Reading the forums for MIT Sloan interview questions, I got a pretty good idea of what sort of questions I needed to prepare. I rummaged my brain for interesting stories from the past year, making sure to think about situations which I had not described in my essays. I thought of stories which could be used to answer a couple of questions. I used the STAR interviewing technique to write down these situations. I "tagged" these stories with topics, e.g. handling opposition etc., to be sure I had enough stories covering a variety of topics. I went through my application quickly, as I knew more or less what I had written in the essays. I did that just to be prepared for some detail questions my interviewer might have had. He did not, however, ask any questions from my application.

I practised giving the interview answers by recalling the situations and sort of giving a speech to myself. I had a couple of mock interviews with my wife. I made sure that I did not learn my answers by heart, so that my answers came out natural.

The day before the interview, I relaxed.

Interview

I reached the venue, made sure my suit was ok, and asked to see my interviewer (whose name was on the interview invitation). He came down and seemed a pleasant chap. My interview, overall, was pretty informal. He started by talking about how I like living in Europe, and when I hesitated thinking this was part of the interview, he explained this was not part of the interview. after a few minutes, he explained how the interview will run. The questions he asked me:

Walk me through your resume and some detail questions based on what I said
Situation about persuading/convincing people and details
Situation in which I had to present something to someone who I did not like, and details
Why MBA and why MIT Sloan?
What question do you wish I had asked you
What do you do Outside of work
Questions for him
These questions were not really asked in any order, instead it seemed as if we were having a conversation. He took notes when he needed to, during the interview. He was also willing to share his thoughts and comments with me. This helped keep the atmosphere informal. In my opinion, he was looking to strike a good conversation instead of having a formal interview.

Tips

Read the MIT interview guide and prepare stories with a beginning, middle and end (result). Use the STAR technique and prepare stories that show you handling professional relationships well. Mention the accomplishment at the end.
Be prepared for unexpected questions and try to think on your feet (Show presence and listen to your interviewer). Be confident in your answers. Stay cool.
I can only second what Angel Navedo said during an MIT admissions chat: "Presence is important in your interview. Poor presence is one quick way to be unsuccessful in the interview. This means demonstrating a confident, composed presence, strong communications skills, etc."

myice

Round 1 / Off-campus (SF) / Adcom (Published January 20th, 2010)

The admissions committee member was very warm and friendly and really didn't press me too hard on the questions. For various reasons, hadn't really had any time to prepare in advance so I was pretty much walking in cold. I am also not the type of person who performs well on the fly. She started off explaining the application process and timing and then the interview format. Here are the questions she asked:

do you have your transcript?
how do you have time for all the things that you do (referencing my resume); basically a question on my extracurriculars
tell me about your job, have your responsibilities changed since your promotion
tell me about a time you had a challenging interaction with someone
tell me about a time you had to convince others to see your perspective
tell me about a time you had to ask for help
tell me about a time when your expectations were not met
how did you decided to apply to Sloan?
is there anything you wish I had asked?
any questions for me?