myice

Chicago Booth MBA Interview Share

今天傍晚时分和面试官见了面。老美，98年的校友，Senior的CFO。耗时1小时多一点点。

人很nice，没有挑战我。只问了几个很基本的问题：

1. 介绍工作经历
2. Career goal
3. why chicago

后来就和我大谈特谈讨论Chicago的好处，他超爱Chicago，非常active的alumni。

期间，也穿插了一些有关我要做的未来目标在中国怎么发展啊之类。我也举例说明我的一些thinking和fact以及sample company等等。包括从我的经历来看，我将来想要做什么具体的function之类。

还给了我不少建议，将来如果读书，要特别注意不要只是埋头读书啊之类的，因为他说他知道中国学生超爱死读书，他说要多Network。这个才是最有价值的，他说准备申请过程最辛苦，申请完了，读书并不辛苦。

还有虽然在Chicago要读Finance，如果主要将来要做管理的话，没有必要读的太深入等等，因为将来用不到，会有Staff帮你弄。所以选课和精力分配要有正确的focus。呵呵，还挺具体，有道理。

最主要的话题，就是不断在说Chicago的各种各样的事情和人之类的，幸亏之前做了一些功课，东拉西扯都还能牵扯的上，好悬。

在面试前，本来很没有底，以为会像朋友一样遇到很Tough的人，但总体看来，我接触下来的Chicago的人倒是都还挺好的。

在面试中，因为他基本都没有怎么问我typical的问题，很多时候，我只能自己想办法见缝插针把自认好的优势说出来，比如对学校的commitment的举例啊，要随机应变。

另外，要争取在面试前多了解你的面试官，确实对于准备面试会有一些帮助。

继续开始漫长的等待。

大家要加油哦，一定要尽力做好充分的准备。

myice

北美chicago and wharton interview

做的很滥, 我已经绝望了。

chicago 是个IB的, 问的很标准, why chicago, why mba...就是strength/weakness是我没准备的, 我也没想到校友会问这个，但是他并不问什么goal，他自己都说goal是会change的，这个还挺实在的。

wharton是consulting的，问题更标准，我觉得就是把first essay说了一次,就结束了，好象连我的resume都没看过。

两个都30-40分钟，我问的问题大概比他们问我的问题还多，也没有leadership/teamwork的，本来想硬说的，后来也没说，完全没有connection，完了。

赶紧写second round的essay，本来都不想写了。

myice

chicago booth campus interview

可能后面还有同学面30号的，在这里给大家汇报一下我的两天之行。我面的一般，有些问题答得不好，希望看帖的朋友给些意见。

1。学校：周一参加了visit program，真是印象深刻。以前看面经说学生怎么热心，合作的氛围怎么好，我都以为是表面的客套话。自己去了才真正明白了是毫不夸张的评价。也正因为学生们的积极参与，我想在booth, student admission officer参与essay evaluation是可行和有意义的。

2。面试：面我的是2年级的mckinsey consultant，很正式，问问题的顺序常规，而且他已经很仔细的看过我的简历了。他说预计20分钟，实际40分钟。
（1）解释简历上两个2007-present, 2009-present的职业经历
我错以为是介绍职业经历，被打断后才明白自己的简历没写清楚full-time, part-time，他只是想quickly clarify

（2）role in teams
I said no matter I am a team member or leader, I am a team player. And how I did that in a team experience.

（3）他说你这是两个人的小组，还是个比较好的team experience,有没有不好的经历？

（4）why mba, why now, why come to booth?
我是想创业的，所以原因比较直接易懂，他没有纠缠，说booth的时候我说了entrepre concentration, new venture challenge and internship,只是说了有些课感兴趣，他没有问名称，我就没有多说。然后提了头一天的visit的感受，他还比较高兴。

（n）contribute to booth
I mentioned classroom participation, sport team. He was curious what that sport is.

（n+1）课外活动，课外活动怎样帮助了我的创业
一点意外的问题，我说不是直接帮助，而是通过和成功创业的人交流学到东西，得到network

（n+2）大概是ec中我的role是什么，怎么锻炼leadership

(n+3) 有没有补充的？
这种问题我总是不会答：I thought for a few seconds and said I want to add my leadership style and experience: a story of my recruiting start-up members. 有点长，有点和team experience 重复，答完了很后悔。

我问他三个问题，他很认真的答了，然后说严重超时，就送我出去了。

3．感受：visit中认识了一个consultant出身的同伴，我们一直聊到上飞机，觉得美国小孩真都是人精阿，懂得how to sell, how to diverge the conversation towards your familiar topics, how to read interviewers. 跟他说完觉得自己在面试中那些被动的生硬的回答，唉，一声叹息：第一个面世居然拿booth操刀了。

myice

CHICAGO 校友面试@ 香港

The interview took place in a coffee/restaurant setting in HK. He was a SVP from an asset management firm.

The interview was fairly casual. He started by asking me to talk about my post-secondary expereriences. But just to give him a better understanding of myself, I briefed him  on some of my older expereinces that have played a significant role in shaping my life.

After my briefings, he concentrated his questions on my experiences, such as extracuriccular activities at university, and my most recent job role.

He asked me about my strengths that have led to my successes at work, and weaknesses that I could improve. Also asked about why Chicago. However, we didn't really talk much about why MBA or my long term goals, which was a surprise to me.

The interview lasted about an hour. I did most of the talking, and he jotted notes. Thinking back, when I was answering, I forgot to mention about some of my plus points, because I was planning to talk abotu it when he asks me more questions -- but it didn't happen.

I am not sure of what to make of the interview. Hopefully it was a positive experience and now comes the dreaful waiting.

myice

Round 2 / Alumnus / On-campus (Published March 22nd, 2010)

Had my interview on campus on a Saturday morning. There were some Booth students in the lobby who served as greeters and answered questions before we were called into rooms for our respective interviews. I also took the opportunity to take advantage of scheduled tours of the Harper Center as well as a sandwich lunch with current students to get a better perspective of the program. I interviewed on the weekend due to work commitments, however my advice would be to interview / visit during the week to get a better feel for the school as it was pretty quiet when I visited. My interviewer was an alumnus who was friendly (though didn’t give much away during the interview) and was especially positive about his school and alumni experiences. The interviewer hadn’t had a chance to read my resume beforehand so we started with a walk-through.

Questions:

Resume walk-through (interviewer asked me to focus on why I pursued different jobs and activities)
Why Booth and why Chicago
How will I contribute to the community
Where do I want to live after school
Any questions
The interview took about 30 minutes. We had to wrap up quickly as we were running out of time in the end so only got a chance to ask a handful of questions. Besides the standard set of questions, I would advise potential interviewees to prepare also by

consider why you have decided to pursue a certain path / activity or career option
ensure you are to the point (but not too scripted) in answering questions – 30 minutes went very quickly.

myice

Round 2 / Alum / Off-Campus (Published February 19th, 2010)

The interview took place in a coffee shop. I reached 30 minutes before time and took time to settle down and got myself a coffee. I was dressed in business formals and waited till the alum arrived. He was a 2007 graduate. He had a copy of my resume with him. He got himself a coffee and we sat down to talk. He explained that the interview would go in as just another input to the whole application process and is just a way to verify what I wrote in the essays. He started asking questions then for about an hour and after that I asked him a few questions. The questions were all familiar b-school interview questions. He maintained good eye contact throughout and was NOT taking down any notes. It was a very long interview (1.5 hours)!

It was a pleasant experience and there was no stress at all. The interviewer was really helpful and gave a lot of insights about the school and the curriculum. He also had a lot of advice to give regarding the choice of career. He offered to talk later as well if I needed any help. I was very impressed with his eagerness to help.

Learning Points: Coffee shops can be tricky places for interview as they can get very noisy. Make sure you choose the quietest corner possible. Also, the alum was under the impression that I was a round 3 applicant which I found out pretty late in the interview but I immediately corrected him.

Questions:

Walk me through your resume and he asked follow-up questions about a few specific projects I had done.
Why MBA? Why now?
Leadership experience, Failure experience
How will you use these experiences at Booth.
You will not meet most of you classmates after the two years at school. How will you make sure you learn the most from this distinguished set of people? How will YOU make sure they learn from you? He later said that he was trying to basically ask: Why would you be a good fit at Booth?
He picked up two extra curricular activities listed on my resume and asked me to explain.
He asked me to pick up one substantial accomplishment that I am proud of. I picked a community service project.
Anything else that the Adcom should know.
Questions

myice

Round 2 / 2nd year student / On-campus (Published February 13th, 2010)

The campus visit was very well organized. I was impressed by the facilities in Harper center. My interviewer, a 2nd year student, was very friendly. He first explained to me that the interview is more like a conversation. He told me that he had received my resume only 5 mins before the interview and that he did not read my application. He told me that they wanted to keep it that way in order to paint an unbiased picture of me as part of the application.

Here are the questions - more or less in the same order.

Q. From my resume (he exclaimed that i was all over the world) - he asked me to describe how I transitioned from place A to place B (both geographically far away) A. I explained why that transition was challenging and how I handled it. Filled in details about my role, how i secured the job in place B.
Q. Tell me about a project/activity you executed in your latest stint A. explained a people/leadership role which made an impact on the company, personnel
Q. Why booth?
Q. Why mechanical engineering?
Q. An unusual, interesting question: say you have graduated yesterday, what would you be doing now? -- another way of asking: what's your short term goal.
Q. What are your hobbies?
Q. Anything else you want to be included in the package?
Q. Any questions for me?
Overall, Booth visit was a great experience.

myice

Round 2 / Alum / Off-campus (Published February 1st, 2010)

I interviewed for the R2 at Chicago Booth with an alumni and off campus ( I am an international candidate). We met at his office and he received me 10 minutes before our appointment (I arrived a little early). The interview was overall a great experience, and relaxed. - It lasted a little over an hour and he asked me if I was fine spending a little more time in our conversation (which I obviously was). It flowed like a conversation and he kept following up on my answers. In the end, it felt very natural, but covered all the basics:

Walk me through your resume and highlights in your experience
Why did you chose your under graduate degree
How did you chose your industry / current job
Major accomplishments
An example of once you have failed
Why an MBA
Why now?
What do you expect from Booth?
Why Chicago Booth?
Which other schools are you applying to?
What leadership experiences you have? How is your interaction day to day with your team?
What do you expect from your MBA in the long term?
What are you specializing in?
What are the differences you've found between different nationalities while working in a multinational?
How is a regular day in your line of work?
Your relationship with your current supervisor?
Why changing careers?
Questions for me (I focused on his experience, clubs, how he chose his line of work, and living in Chicago)
Overall, friendly and relaxed. We did discussed in detailed what was the point of difference that made Chicago my first choice, and he went in depth into that. I recommend having a clear understanding on how Chicago is different from the other top programs and how those differences make it a better fit for you. My interview flowed as a continuity of follow up questions that felt like a very natural conversation. Also, it seemed like me having visited campus and understood the differences of Chicago vs. my other options was a high point of the conversation. I was nervous, and ended up feeling like I was the one setting the pace of the interview.

myice

Round 1 / 2nd Year Student / On-campus (Published January 12th, 2010)

I applied in Round 1 and interviewed on campus in mid-November with a 2nd year student. The whole process was pretty friendly and relaxed. While waiting in the admissions office for my interview students would come in and just sit and talk with us, to answer any of our questions and put us at ease. It was a nice touch. Questions I was asked:

Walk me through your resume.
Why MBA?
Why now?
Why Chicago Booth?
What will you contribute at Chicago Booth?
How will you engage the city of Chicago? (I was a little confused by this one, my interviewer was not a native English speaker, and I don't think the intent of her question came across correctly)
Do you have any questions for me?
As mentioned above, the tone of the interview was very relaxed and friendly. There was certainly a focus on why I wanted an MBA (she asked a follow-up question to my answer) and why Chicago Booth. My interviewer seemed intent on focusing on why Chicago in particular, so I would recommend having a strong answer as to how Chicago is the best place for you.

myice

Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus (Published December 1st, 2009)

I was interviewed by an alumn off-campus in his business office. The whole interview lasted for approximately 1 hour, where the last 15 minutes were dedicated for my questions towards him. It was a pretty casual talk. Being international, my interview was conducted in English, which I did not expect.

He took a look at my resume and asked me to briefly walk him through it. He then made the following questions:

Why did you choose to work with my current employer?
What have been my successes so far?
What do I plan to do after my MBA?
Why do I think now is the best time for an MBA?
Why Chicago Booth?
Which other MBA programs did I apply to?
Which is my top choice?
What was my undergraduate experience like?
Which was my favorite undergraduate course, why?
What do my parents do for a living?
Do I plan to join the family's business? Why?
What impression did I get when I visited Chicago Booth's campus?
I felt very confident at the end because I felt I was talking to a friend.