Tips For The Harvard Business School Interview

Harvard Business School round two interview invites were sent out this week.

The interview is an opportunity for the admissions committee to see who you are off paper.

Andrea, consultant at Stacy Blackman Consulting (SBC) and former HBS Admissions Officer, recently offered a few tips on how to prepare for the HBS interview.

DEMONSTRATE DEPTH OF INSIGHT

The HBS interview plays huge significance in whether an applicant will be accepted or not.

According to Andrea, the number one tip is to demonstrate a deep sense of intellectual curiosity with a point of view. The point of the interview is to gauge an applicant’s personal qualities and characteristics.

“You cannot let even the smallest question seem surface level,” Andrea says. “Demonstrating depth of insight and the ability to cross-correlate are so important.”

One way to show depth, according to Stacy Blackman, is to share framing and context before you explain details.

“Motivations, learnings, anomalies, growth, hesitations, and realizations are all ways to show depth of character and genuinely connect with the interviewer beyond the facts they have already read,” Blackman writes.

KNOW YOUR RESUME

When preparing for your interview, it can be helpful to study your resume as it will be referenced throughout.

“Prepare to answer questions ranging from major industry headlines to hobbies and interests,” Blackman writes. “For example, if you’ve said you’re a historical fiction buff, be ready to talk about it.”

As your interview comes to an end, your interviewer will ask if there’s anything else you think the admissions committee should know about you. How you answer this question is critical.

“At the end of the interview, if you are asked what else should we know about you, know that it is not a throwaway question,” Andrea says. “You should have managed the interview to that point so that you know what you wanted to share that you haven’t and take the opportunity to work it in.”

POST-INTERVIEW

You’ll be given an opportunity to submit a post-interview reflection within 24 hours after your interview. This written reflection should be brief and concise.

“We suggest you keep it to one page or less in length,” Blackman writes. “In it, you should thank the interviewer(s) and recap what you enjoyed about your conversation. Don’t forget to answer the question they asked directly.”

Sources: Stacy Blackman Consulting, Harvard Business School

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