How to crack MBA interview for B-school admission

Now that the testing season comes to an end and most of you looking forward to prestigious calls as you take the final few exams it’s imperative that you move your focus to the final frontier – the interview stage of the MBA admissions.

Any premier B-school is looking for a student with the right attitude to excel, thorough on his concepts, ability to handle pressure, socially aware, self-aware, and goal-oriented to say among other life skills once aptitude and academics are taken care of.

Essentially this breaks the question into bouquet depending on the individual:

Bouquet 1 – Academic and Job Profile: Academic excellence and profile make the bulk of questions in the top B-School interview. Similarly, the co-curricular and in area of work experience clarity is expected and the aspirant should have displayed sincerity/excellence in the same. The aspirant needs to be aware of the latest happenings around in the subject/domain of choice. A focused preparation with an interview date insight is essential to be on the top of the game here.

Bouquet 2: Personal: This is a space where the interviewer explores the student’s family background, upbringing, interests, extracurriculars, strengths, and pitfalls. This requires introspection and maybe researching to find answers. A good one hour daily to explore this area of preparation is advisable at this stage.

Bouquet 3 – Social and Business Awareness: An essential skill to be successful in today’s professional career is awareness of the environment around us, the latest developments, and their potential impact on the future world. An aspirant is expected to be aware and sincere in his attempt to be up to date here.

An understanding of modern-day India and World and events that has shaped is of paramount importance.

It might be a good idea to start watching some good documentaries on Indian, global history, and modern-day events.

Bouquet 4: Vision and Statement of Purpose: When the aptitude level is at par what is important with limited seats in a B-School is what the aspirant envisions to achieve out of the 2 years at B-School. If there is no specific vision or purpose, there is a great chance of aspirants getting lost.

Interviewer ensures that purpose of student and that of institute are aligned and student will be able to find his goal and institute will get a worthy alumnus.

This will entail being updated on the business world, but also require research on various career options and specific b-schools and their expectations.

Develop depth to excel at interview

Typically, an interview is of 15 to 30 minutes in duration and though all the above areas might be touched upon in the interview, the interviewer will check the depth on few subject areas, and hence two or three question areas might take even 70% of your time. Students fell short of went they are probed beyond the surface.

So, ensure you are not scratching the surface and gaining in-depth also and not just the width.

So, what can be done on daily basis?

Spend at least a couple of hours tracking the social environment. This means tracking the Domestic environment including the economy, society, and polity as well as the international environment. Ensure you are tracking daily news bulletins and analysis. Identify the key political and social events in the last one year and go through in-depth analysis from your trusted source.

A couple of hours daily should get you reasonably updated till the first week of February.

If you have not started reading financial dailies or business magazines or watching business shows you need to start allocating some time. You need to be more aware of the business world and activity and add to it start researching on subject areas and career opportunities MBA open doors to.

The idea need not be concrete but there must be a sense of direction on where you are heading by the time you sit in front of that interviewer and start your interview.

So, a couple of hours focused on tracking the business environment and subject research on a daily basis should get you aware and confident by the interview date.

All the Best

(Authored by Vivek Tuteja, Chairman, CEO and Cheif mentor, Endeavor Careers)

Courtesy: India Today

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