HBS MBA Post Interview Reflection

This is the seventh in series of eight posts. My analysis of the HBS Application for the Class of 2015 (and 2+2 Class of 2017) consists of:

1. Changes to the HBS application
2. An overall introduction to HBS
3. Who should apply to HBS?
4. Essays
5. Recommendations
6. Interviews
7. Post Interview Reflection
8. 2+2 program comments

My comprehensive service clients have been admitted to the regular HBS MBA for the Classes of 2014, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2005 and one 2+2 client admitted to the Class of 2014. My clients' results and testimonials can be found here. In addition to providing comprehensive application counseling on HBS, I regularly help additional candidates with HBS interview preparation. I have worked with a large number of applicants from Canada, Europe, India, Japan, other parts of Asia, and the United States on HBS application. I think that this range of experience has helped me understand the many possible ways of making an effective application to HBS. In the posts in this series, I provide insights based on that experience.

Post Interview Reflection

Revised: 6/30/2012. After HBS clarified the content of the Interview Reflection. 
Dee Leopold has now stated the following on the HBS Director's Blog:

• This is the question that all interviewees will be asked: "You've just had your HBS interview. Tell us about it. How well did we get to know you?"
• There will be no word limit.
• We think the instruction memo will look something like this: "This is not an essay. Think of this as an email you might write after a meeting. We will be much more generous in our reaction to typos and grammatical errors than we will be with pre-packaged responses. Emails that give any indication that they were produced BEFORE you had the interview will raise a flag for us. We do not expect you to solicit or receive any outside assistance with this exercise."

Not that I am claiming credit, but I brought the issue to the attention of their Communications Department because of what was previously reported about the Post Interview Reflection by Melissa Korn from the Wall Street Journal and John Byrne from Poets & Quants. They both reported that the post interview reflection is 400 words long, but there was nothing previously on the HBS site indicating the length or specific format of this essay. I contacted Melissa Korn directly and she wrote that "Dee Leopold told me of the 400-word limit in an interview." I have not communicated with John Byrne, but these are both highly respected reporters who would not make up something like this up, but clearly the Post Interview Reflection is a work in progress and now HBS is officially providing better details. (July 2, 2012 update: Melissa Korn emailed me that she " followed up with HBS as well and they said they were initially planning on 400 words but changed their minds.")

You will have 24 hours to respond: Following the interview, candidates are required to submit a written reflection using our online application system. This must be submitted within 24 hours following the completion of the interview. Detailed instructions will be provided to those applicants who are invited to the interview process. -  Dee Leopold's initial description is worth keeping in mind: 
Have the Last Word

This is new. AFTER the interview, candidates are asked to do a written reflection on the interview experience which will be submitted via the online application system. This is a chance for you to have the "last word," so to speak."

If this is what Ms. Leopold wants, I am all in favor of giving it to her. She is, after all, like that illustrious HBS graduate, George W. Bush, the decider.

Tentative Suggestions for Preparing for the Post Interview Reflection

1.  Make sure your schedule is clear for 24 hours after your HBS interview.  If you are visiting Cambridge and not able to interview in your hometown, you should do as another consultant, Sandy Kreisberg, has suggested and book yourself into a hotel for the night after. Next, make sure you have a reliable internet connection at said hotel. If you are due back at work, be sick. 

2. If you are working with a consultant make sure they know when you are interviewing and will be ready to review your essay. If you are not working with a consultant, at least have someone around who can proofread what you have written before you submit it. 

3. Immediately after your interview, write up your notes on what just happened. In addition to recalling what your interviewer asked you, try to remember what you said. Next try to think about what you wish you had said but were unable to. Finally, without too much crying, vomiting, or otherwise becoming hysterical, consider any answers that you gave that were bad.  Try to spend a maximum of one hour on writing these notes.  If you are getting any sort of assistance on the Post Interview Reflection from a consultant or mentor, send your interview report to them. I will certainly ask my own clients for their interview reports so that I can fully understand the situation from their perspective and help them think about the proper way to respond to the interview.

4. After writing your immediate reaction notes,  go take a 15 minute to 1 hour nap, do yoga, workout, eat lunch, have a beer, or whatever else would get you to relax for a bit. This is to clear your mind and get you from being merely reactive in your thinking to being more creative and calm.  You want to write from a perspective wider than the 30 minutes of the interview. You need distance from it, but since you have very little time, impose a short rest on yourself to try and achieve this. In my experience, it sometimes works. 

5. Here are some ideas designed to get you thinking about what you should write about:

-Assuming you completed the HBS Active Interview Preparation Chart found in my prior post, you can actually use it to analyze your answers in the interview to quickly determine which of your key stories and/or key words about yourself that you either did not cover or only partially covered. This imposes a certain ordered logic, checklist process, on your response that will help to align what you write about with your overall MBA application strategy. Hopefully you will identify 2-4 key topics for you to discuss in your Reflection.

-By reviewing your answers, you will likely immediately identify which ones YOU THINK you did not answer well.  What you have to think about now is whether you are right or are being over-critical.  It can often be helpful to have a consultant or mentor or at least a trusted friend discuss this with you.  Sometimes we think we have given a bad answer and we have not. You don't have so much time to second guess yourself, but you try to do so from at least a position of relative calm. Either alone or with your trusted advisor (I would only pick one advisor in this situation as you really don't have time to take in that many perspectives), really determine whether you need to restate or expand on a topic or topics you handled less effectively than you wanted to.

-Don't use this space to apologize, but to sell yourself in as distinct and memorable a way as possible.  My basic suggestion would be to focus on the 2-4 topics that you think will most improve your likelihood of admission. If you did not answer a question as well as you should, simply indicate that you wish you had the opportunity to discuss topic X more in detail, not how badly you discussed topic X during the interview.  Be aware of your limitations, but go positive in the way you address them.

-Feel free to explain why you want to go to HBS if this topic was not addressed sufficiently in the interview, but don't provide a laundry list of courses or otherwise tell HBS about itself. Instead, explain what you need from HBS and why. If you have completed my GAP, SWOT, AND ROI MATRIX FOR FORMULATING POST-MBA GOALS found in my essay post and are well informed about HBS, this should be a relatively easy task. 

-If you think that you have some particularly valuable contribution to make to HBS, the can be good way of demonstrating what makes you unique. This relates to the importance that HBS puts on diversity (See this earlier post  if you don't know what I am writing about).

-While you can write at unlimited length, my suggestion is to keep it within 200-600 words, but the bigger point to keep in mind is that you don't have to have a highly polished essay which lacks any redundancy and where every word has to count, which is what HBS expects from admissions essays. Ms. Leopold has made her expectations very clear:

This is NOT another essay. We want your response to be much more like an email. Why? In the Real World, it is unlikely that you will be given months and months to craft essays of any sort. It just doesn't happen. In the Real World, it is almost a sure thing that you will be asked to write emails summarizing meetings and giving your opinion in a short time frame. Since HBS tries to be as "close to practice" as possible, this shift from essays to more real time writing feels appropriate.

I know this is hard to hear but this should NOT be a cause for anxiety. We want your genuine reaction to the interview experience. As is always the case in the Real World, this means there is no right answer to the question. There is no formula, no template. But, we can tell you what the WRONG approach is: to get lots of coaching and prepare the response in September for an interview in November. To have lots of people edit and tweak it. To avoid answering the question but instead jam in six more accomplishments or copy and paste an essay from another school. Please understand that we really do plan to be very generous and kind about typos and grammar. We're not looking for a polished response.

What the Reflection would look like for any particular interviewee will vary. Maybe someone will only want to focus on a single topic, but this could be rather narrow. Given that the longest HBS has ever given for an essay is 600 words, sending in something that much over that really seems intuitively wrong to me because HBS adcom certainly values clarity and brevity.  Personally, I think short, clear, and to the point is best because that is what is best with an effective email.

What not to do. Based on what HBS has said I highly recommend not doing any of the following:
-Giving them highly redundant content would be a bad idea. They are not looking for endless examples.
-Giving them a pre-written essay like content, such as a 200 word or longer new accomplishment would be a bad idea.  You may want to mention a topic you did not get a chance to present in the interview, but you should completely explain why you think it is worth mentioning.
-Providing highly detailed stories instead of focusing on clear analytical points backed up with a brief reference to a specific example.

A possible structure based on the topic, You've just had your HBS interview. Tell us about it. How well did we get to know you?, might look as follows:

Paragraph 1: Brief paragraph about how your overall feeling about how the interview went. 
Paragraph 2: Discussion of one key issue where they did not get to know you well enough.  
Paragraph 3: Discussion of another key issue where they did not get to know you well enough.  
Paragraph 4: Discussion of one key issue where they got to know you well, but you wanted to briefly expand a specific answer you provided in the interview.
Paragraph 5: Discussion of key aspect about why you want to go to HBS that you wish you had a chance to discuss.
Paragraph 6: Brief closing paragraph.

Keep in mind that is just one possible way to write the Reflection. Of course, now that I have, don't  just copy it exactly in your own response. I provide it here merely as a possible example. There would be very different and effective ways to put this together.

Well, I suspect that I will have more to write about this topic in the future. I have now fully revised this post once. I will note on the post when and if  I make substantive changes to it in the future. 

In my final post in this series, I discuss the 2+2 Program.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

HBS Admissions Interviews for the Class of 2015

This is the sixth in series of eight posts. My analysis of the HBS Application for the Class of 2015 (and 2+2 Class of 2017) consists of:

1. Changes to the HBS application
2. An overall introduction to HBS
3. Who should apply to HBS?
4. Essays
5. Recommendations
6. Interviews
7. Post Interview Reflection
8. 2+2 program comments

My comprehensive service clients have been admitted to the regular HBS MBA for the Classes of 2014, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2005 and one 2+2 client admitted to the Class of 2014. My clients' results and testimonials can be found here. In addition to providing comprehensive application counseling on HBS, I regularly help additional candidates with HBS interview preparation. I have worked with a large number of applicants from Canada, Europe, India, Japan, other parts of Asia, and the United States on HBS application. I think that this range of experience has helped me understand the many possible ways of making an effective application to HBS. In the posts in this series, I provide insights based on that experience.


HBS ADCOM HQ 

In my experience, applicants who succeed at HBS MBA interviews go to their interview with a sense of confidence based on having done careful preparation. My clients who have failed the interview stage have often done so because of related reasons: lack of confidence and/or preparation.  Of course, there are times when the post-interview reason for getting dinged is never clear. The reality of having too many well qualified applicants means that many who would certainly make the post-interview cut don't, simply due to lack of available seats. While these issues could be the same for any interview, the reality is that HBS admissions interviews are simply more thorough than that of most other schools. Failure to take this interview sufficiently seriously is a recipe for disaster.

Before reading this post, I suggest reviewing some or all of the following previous posts:
-MBA Application Interview Strategy

-Interview Practice is ABOUT SPEAKING!

-Further Comments on MBA Admissions Interviews 
-General Characteristics of Admissions Officers, Students, and Alumni Interviewers
-Recovering from a bad answer during an MBA admissions interview
-10 Ways to Blow an MBA Admissions Interview
The above posts are my general remarks on MBA admissions interview strategy and apply here.

TAKE PREPARATION FOR HBS VERY SERIOUSLY! Any experienced admissions consultant will tell you that the HBS interview is one that really does require preparation even for those who previously aced alumni interviews.  My colleagues and I have often become depressed about cases where we had great applicants who did not take the HBS really seriously.  By the same token, our clients who really prep for this really do have a much higher rate of admission.  I have had clients who might do 5-20 hours of self-preparation for every hour of time spent with a consultant.  One of my clients admitted to HBS did 2 hours of prep with myself and another counselor and an additional 100 hours on his own. He already had been admitted to Kellogg and Booth, but knew HBS would be different.

I believe in the value of active interview preparation. That is to say, instead of focusing only what questions you might get asked, focus on what you want to say about yourself. A basic any school approach to this would be to connect key words and stories that you hope to use. Given that you can't know exactly what you will be asked, you can at least have prepared for discussing key things that you want to get across to the interviewer.  The following is an "any school" chart:

Active Interview Preparation Chart

Keyword: A selling point or even a weakness	Stories	Questions It Might Answer
Example: Analytical	Development of 6-sigma strategic framework for XXX, inc. Discovery of accounting errors during first year of work. Senior thesis on the S&L Crisis	Name three words that describe you (This would be one) What are your strengths?  Why? (This would be one.) How do you solve complex problems? How could you contribute to your classmates? What skill are you most proud of?

(You can cut and paste this into MS Word or Google docs)
In addition to outlining key words and stories as discuss in my general post on interview strategy, you actually more directly connect this to the specific four criteria (See my essay analysis post) that HBS values in order to see how well you are covering each of the criteria in your interview preparation. The chart below will help you map out your own HBS interview strategy.

HBS Active Interview Preparation Chart

Keywords: A selling point or even a weakness	Stories	Diversity	A Habit of Leadership	Analytical Aptitude and Appetite	Engaged Community Citizenship	Questions It Might Answer
Example: Analytical	Development of 6-sigma strategic framework for XXX, inc.			Analytical		-Name three words that describe you (This would be one) -What are your strengths?  Why? (This would be one.) -How do you solve complex problems? -How could you contribute to your classmates? -What skill are you most proud of?
Cooperative	Overcame team conflict when developing 6-sigma strategic framework for XXX, inc.		-Demonstrates consensus based leadership -Can lead others			--Name three words that describe you (This would be one) -Tell me about a project that you’ve worked recently where you exhibited leadership. -What kind of leader are you?

(You can cut and paste this into Google Docs or Microsoft Word and alter it to include more rows.)

To use the above chart: Try to develop 10 or so keywords and stories that relate to HBS's four criteria for admission. Don't forget to include weaknesses when you do so.  Your objective is be ready to tell your best stories as effectively as possible. Use the above chart to help determine which key words and stories will convey the most about you.  Remember that you want to use stories that are different from the ones you used in your essays. You might be asked about something in your application, which you should be prepared to discuss, but also assume you will need to provide new stories as well. 

You need to know your application very completely as you will be asked by adcom about its content. Review your entire application (not just resume and essays, but everything including the transcript) very carefully and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly. Remember: Anything is fair game. Assume that the weakest parts of your application will be topics in the interview. Assume the worst-case scenario and be very prepared to address their concerns. Given the annual failure rate at HBS, if you have any academic weaknesses (low GPA, a relatively weak TOEFL, insufficient proof of a quantitative background), be ready to address those issues. Be prepared to tell new stories and alternative versions of the stories you told in your essays.

If you think that either your English ability and/or interview skills are somewhat weak, be prepared to do extensive practice both with other people and alone. The self-study component can be particularly effective if you are trying to cover a huge range of questions and also master telling your best stories.

A point I will be making to own clients who have been invited for the HBS interview is that proper preparation for this interview really requires that you look for all the weak points in your application: Rip yourself apart in order to try and determine what you need to be especially ready to address. Getting a fresh perspective by reviewing your own application is certainly helpful. In addition, you should consider having one or more other people who can help you prepare for this and who will review your entire file. If you use any paid services, make sure that the mock interviewer (admissions consultant, admissions counselor, interview coach) will be reading your application first and developing a list of questions based on that review and with an understanding of what HBS asks, otherwise they are not really helping you prepare for an HBS interview. When I do mock interviews for interview-only clients, I always ask to read their applications if they are not doing a blind interview. For schools like HBS and MIT, which are never blind, reading the whole application (especially the essays) is critical for simulating the real thing.

The questions you get will be specific to you. Most questions will not be odd, but they may be unexpected. On the other hand, a number of reports indicate that the majority of questions are actually common ones. See my previous post on interviewing. Be able to articulate clearly what you want to learn at HBS and what you can contribute. While it is important to be able to discuss leadership, don't assume the interview will be entirely focused on it. The interviewer will come in knowing what they want to ask you.

In addition to my own knowledge, I have reviewed reports of Harvard Business School interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com.  My colleague, Steve Green, has collected and organized some of the commonly asked questions from those sites.
His general conclusions about HBS interviews:

• Expect to be asked for more details about most every topic discussed
• Expect topics to change as the interviewer will pursue detailed answers to topics that interest him/her
• Expect questions to feed off your responses rather than to be scripted
• Don’t be surprised if the interviewer does not allow you to ask questions: they treat this interview as a chance to learn as much about you as possible in a limited time
• Bottom line: Harvard interviews are quite rigorous compared to other MBA admissions interviews  

Here are the questions Steve has collected and organized.

RESUME, CURRENT POSITION

• Explain your career path. / Take me through your resume.
• Describe your career progression, and talk about the most important things you learned about yourself along the way.
• Why did you choose to join this company?
• How did you pick your current job?
• What are the best and worst things about your current job?
• How did you end up at your company?
• What do you think about their training program?
• What's the company's position compared to its competitors?
• What was different about your previous job compared to this one?
• What was the most surprising aspect about this company when you first joined?
• What worries you about the company?
• Explain your career path.
• Why did you want to work in _____________?
• How has your leadership evolved with your promotion(s)?
• Who do you admire in your current industry?
• Where is the industry heading?
• Who do you admire in your post-MBA industry?
• Where is the industry heading?
• Tell me about your typical day?
• How do you find the time to do all you do?
• What’s most important to you outside of work?
• Why did you choose to major in X at your undergrad university?
• Why did you enjoy (SOMETHING FROM UNDERGRAD)?

REASONS FOR MBA, HBS

• What is your career vision?
• What are the steps you plan on taking to get there?
• What are the challenges you will face?
• How will an HBS MBA help you?
• Why do you want an MBA?
• When did you decide to get an MBA?
• Why HBS?
• In class, what type of profiles are you looking to meet? From who would you like to learn something?
• What can you contribute to HBS case method discussion?
• What experience outside the classroom are you looking for at HBS?
• What will you do if you don't get into business school?
• If we called you and said there is only 1 seat left in the class and 10 candidates remaining, what would you say differentiates you from them?
• How do you want to impact HBS?

LEADERSHIP & TEAMWORK

• Tell me about a project that you’ve worked recently where you exhibited leadership.
• What kind of leader are you?
• Who is a leader that you admire and why?
• Name a business leader you admire (non-government).
• Tell me about a time you had to work with someone you did not get along with.
• Give me an example of a project you’ve had a difficult time with.
• Tell me about a time when you raised an unpopular idea?

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

• What do you feel you need to improve most at your current job?
• What would your supervisor say is a weakness?
• How would your colleagues describe you?
• Your recommender mentioned that you excellent at what you do: Why do you think that is?
• Give me an example of a project you’ve had a difficult time with.

VALUES & PERSONALITY

• How did you find the application process? Did any of it surprise you?
• Is there something about you that has not been addressed in your application?
• What is a recent non-fiction book you’ve read? (FOLLOW UP)
• What is the most recent fiction book you’ve read?
• What do you think the author was trying to say about society?
• What is the most interesting article you’ve read lately?
• Did you agree with it?
• What is a common misperception people have about you?
• Can you tell me about a time when people’s perceptions about you turned out to be wrong?
• What words would people use to describe you?  
• What would your 5 closest friends say about you? Why?
• What would a peer that knows you well say you should keep doing, start doing, or stop doing?
• Is there anything that would surprise me?
• What do you do when you have a really bad day?
• What TV shows do you watch?
• What sources do you use for news?
• Given what you know now, if you could go back to university and pick your subjects, which ones would you?
• What motivates you to get out of bed every morning?
• What drives/motivates you?
• If you could have lunch with anyone in the world who would it be?
• Who would you want to sit next to in your first year at HBS?
• What would be your dream job?
• How would the people who know you best describe you?
• What are people surprised to learn about you?
• How do you fit with different cultures?

CONCLUSION

• What’s a question that you thought I was going to ask you but didn’t?
• Is there anything else that you haven't mentioned in your application that you would like to share at this time?

Assume there will be at least one question for which you might not be ready for, but don't panic. Take a deep breath. Answer the question and do not become flustered. Be ready to answer questions about a hypothetical case study, conflict with colleagues, and the latest book you read as these have all been reported frequently.  For example,  If you are asked what is your favorite flavor of ice cream is (I have had clients asked questions almost like this) and you hate ice cream say that.  If you like ice cream just briefly state why for whatever flavor you like and assume that the recommender is just seeing how you react to a question you were not ready for.

Adcom interviewers are usually friendly, but to the point. They don't do stress interviewing exactly, but they will question you intensely. They will be taking notes. Anything you say can be subject to inquiry, so speak concisely, answer questions precisely, and try to avoid voluntarily bringing up any topics that you really don't want to talk about. Assume the you will be asking follow-up questions, expect to be able to analyze/explain in a great deal of depth. Your interviewer will know exactly what he/she wants to ask you because the purpose of the interview is (1) to see if you look as good in reality as you did in paper and (2) to address any concerns that they have about your suitability for HBS.

Don't Psych yourself out! It is particularly important that you don't worry too much about your perception of the interviewer's attitude as this can be a particularly good way to become nervous.  I have had too many reports of clients doing this with HBS.  Your interviewer maybe less friendly or more friendly, maybe more aggressive or less agressive, but whatever their attitude focus on your answers.  Feel free to panic and cry after you have exited the interview, but avoid doing so during it.

Reported interview length for all interviews is 30 minutes.  HBS is totally consistent about this.  So part of effective preparation on your part, means really considering time management and not wasting time in the interview by providing answers that are too long.

In my next post, I discuss the Post Interview Reflection. 

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.