Mr. Strategy Consultant

Congrats on your invite to interview. Your stats line up for USC and you hold an impressive job in a Fortune 10 company. Your big wins show you to be a real contributor. I’m assuming that over your seven years with your employer you also must have received a promotion or two to get you to the title of senior manager. I predict you’ll get an admit from Marshall, and they will be lucky to have you. Ditto for Georgetown and Said.

Hi there! It’s Stephanie Horn, Master Consultant with the MBA Exchange and recent Poets and Quants “Top 10 Admissions Consultants”. Congratulations on being invited to interview at Marshall, Georgetown, and Said. To ace these interviews, you will need to perform well in these two areas: first, you will need to succinctly convey that you have the skills and experience, both personally and professionally, to succeed in their programs, and second you need to show that you fully understand what the MBA program entails, how the degree will further your short and long term goals, and why you are a great fit for their program. It is time to do some research, and a lot of practice, my friend! Your challenge, I believe, is to winnow through your 7 years of experience to find your most impactful stories and to keep them clear, brief and impactful. They may also question why you are looking at a program after just 4 months into a new position. The schools you have applied to are very team-oriented, so be sure to stress your communication skills and your history building strong teams.

Hello Mr. Strategy Consultant! Krista Nannery from mbaMission here.
Congrats on all your interview invites! Great news. Here are my top tips to be successful at this stage of the process:
1. Talk to current students at each program and collect information that will help you show fit with each program. Classes, clubs, professors, experiential learning opportunities. Think about which items get you excited and which items fit with your goals. This way, when you get “Why this program?” during your interviews, you’ll have a compelling answer.
2. If you have friends who are MBAs, they will know what the interview process is like. Practice with them. In person or on the phone…doesn’t matter! Practice “Walk me through your resume” and “Why an MBA” along with standard behavioral questions. (“Tell me about a time when…”) The more you build your storehouse of different stories you can tell during your interviews, they better you will do. (Success, failure, teamwork, conflict stories etc.)
3. Be ready to address why you are applying to b-school when you’ve only been with your current firm for 4 months.
I hope that helps! I wish you all the best for these interviews!
Krista

Hi, this is Melisa from Status Admissions. Congrats on getting to the interview phase – and it is clear you did a great job on selecting your schools and selling your story since you are 3 for 3. My advice is practice, practice, practice – and make sure it is out loud with someone who can give you feedback. There is something that happens between thinking through and verbalizing an answer – with adrenaline rushing. I would suggest you think through 5-6 stories that you want to make sure come across in the interview and think about how those stories can answer the typical behavioral questions. Remember that most often these interviews are blind, meaning that the interviewer only has your resume, so you want to make sure they get a holistic picture of your experiences. When I mock interview with clients, I find that early on in our practices they are not able to cover all the experiences they want to come across. Practicing helps ensure that your whole self comes through. I think your chances across each of the school is very good. Best of luck!