• Blog
  • >
  • MBA
  • >
  • Best MBA Interview Advice: Prep Once and You’re Done
Select viewing preference
Light
Dark

Best MBA Interview Advice: Prep Once and You’re Done

January 17, 2020 :: Admissionado Team

Office Space

Our MBA interview advice is simple. If you prepare for your MBA interview properly, you’ll be prepared for every interview you could get. Prep once, and you’re done!

There’s a myth out there that says that every school interviews differently and you have to prepare specifically for each school. Some say that alumni interviewers are different from adcom interviewers. Open interviews are different than selective interviews. Every school and every interviewer wants to hear certain things, so you should only say those things… right?

Wrong.

If you prep for your MBA Interview based on things that you think the school is looking for, you’re going to end up shooting yourself in the foot. Just like in your essays, manipulating your story to “fit” a school isn’t the best version of you. It’s not natural, genuine, or more importantly, believable.

You don’t need Jedi mind tricks to have a successful MBA interview. When we prep for the MBA interview, we focus on identifying your BEST stories (the ones that strengthen your brand and strategic positioning) and making sure you know them inside and out. You should know them so well that you can use them to answer whatever question comes your way. So no matter what’s asked, you can always present the best version of yourself.

That’s why the MBA interview is easier than any job interview. No matter how they’re phrasing the questions, all they really want to know is who you are, where you came from, and where you want to go. If you know those answers, then you’ll be prepared for anything.

It comes down to three things. From our MBA Interview Guide:

  1. Know your greatest hits. – Prepare your 3-4 strongest stories and be able to adapt them to ANY possible awkwardly-worded question.
  2. Know every detail of your resume. – Some interviewers will ask you questions about your resume; others will ask you to walk them through it. As long as you know your resume (which is really just a collection of your greatest hits), you’ll be golden.
  3. Know your back-up plans. – People are always prepared to talk about their goals, but less so when it comes to what happens to those goals when things don’t go as planned. Don’t let them trip you up.

And that’s about it. Knowing these three things will get you through ALL the common questions that you could face in an MBA interview. The only exception is for school-specific information. BUT since you’ve already written your essays, you should know all that information already :).

Then, the rest is practice, practice, practice. Because once your story is SOLID, then it’s up to you to SELL it.You want your MBA Interview to be a conversation, not an interrogation. You want to be natural, not rehearsed. Our MBA admissions consultants like to zoom in on things like tone, speech, and body language. We recommend recording yourself (or we can do it for you) and reviewing your footage.

People think that schools and interviewers are looking for certain things. But at the end of the day, you just want the interviewer to like you, to BELIEVE your story, and to REMEMBER your story.

==

Need more help? We’ve got your back. Learn more about our interview prep service packages.