Before reading the rest of this post, I strongly suggest downloading a copy of MIT's excellent guide to behavioral interviews, The MIT Sloan Interview Guide, because reading it first will maximize the value of my comments below.
The behavioral interview method is not old:
“Bill Byham, CEO and founder of Development Dimensions International, originated the behavioral interviewing method in 1970.”
In fact, the STAR technique outlined in MIT’s guide was developed by Byham as THE WAY to answer behavioral questions:
Byham calls an example of past behavior a STAR, because a complete example consists of a situation or task, the specific action you took and the result of your action. The result you describe doesn't have to be positive; it could be that you learned a valuable lesson from doing something the wrong way.
In his book "Landing the Job You Want: How to Have the Best Job Interview of Your Life" (Three Rivers Press, 1997), Byham tells candidates how to identify the skills for a job; explore their own "behavioral dimensions" (the behaviors they use every day to get things done); and recognize and present a STAR with positive impact in an interview.
In addition to the MIT SLOAN Guide, I suggest also taking a look at the slightly different guide to the Star Technique that MIT Career Services provides.
The STAR technique is really the core method you need to use for answering behavioral questions in MIT essays. It is simply this (taken from the MIT Sloan Guide):
• Situation: define the situation or “set the stage.”
• Task: identify the task/project performed.
• Action: describe the action you took.
• Result: summarize the outcome
Just keep in mind that you need to be introspective as well, so in an interview say what you thought as well as what you did. Don’t just present “the facts” but actively interpret your actions. There is really nothing overly complicated about this as long as you understand that you need to tell a DETAILED story. Pure abstractions disconnected from a concrete set of action steps are highly likely to result in a weak answer. Similarly, grand actions not told in any depth are also likely to be weak. Identify specific actions that contributed to the result so as to establish a clear link between cause and effect.
As when answering any kind of question, another important consideration is to think very critically about what your story selection, understanding of the task, actions taken, and results say about you. Keep in mind that the whole point of asking behavioral questions is to determine how someone acts and thinks as a basis for selecting or rejecting that person. It is obviously critical to be aware of your own message. Specifically think of examples you can use to highlight your intelligence, creativity, leadership skills, interpersonal communication skills, and conflict resolution skills.
Since your interviewer will know your file well, you need to have alternative stories for answering behavioral questions. Unlike MIT's behavioral essays, you need not limit your answers to topics from the last three years. My suggestion is to have a mix of stories ready to deliver from different times in your life.
You can find behavioral questions in the interview reports found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com. In addition, the list of behavioral questions found at MIT Career Services site is actually quite good for preparing for answers to wide variety of questions.
Beyond answering, behavioral questions, you need to know your own application completely as you will likely be asked about content in it. Re-read your essays and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly.
You need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions as well. While the answers may be analyzed using behavioral analysis, don't be surprised if you get asked questions like "What do you want to after your MBA?" or "Why Sloan." See my previous post on basic MBA interview strategy.
The interviewers, all admissions staff, are generally reported to be friendly. They are the only ones who conduct interviews.
Based on reports, interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes with 45 minutes to 60 minutes being most common.
For more insight into MIT, please see here.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 インタビュー 面接
February 06, 2009
February 05, 2009
Duke Fuqua MBA Interviews
In my experience, Duke interviews are all about fit. Frankly, I would not characterize them as hard when compared to those of other top schools. For some of my clients, I think the hardest part was that their interviews were conducted in a busy hotel lobby by a student interviewer. One would hope that Duke would have a budget to either have a room for this or at least take the interviewee to a hotel coffee shop. Other clients report better off-campus interviewing conditions.
In addition to my experience, I have reviewed reports of Duke University 's Fuqua School of Business interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com
1. You need to know your resume completely as you will likely be asked about content in it. Review it carefully and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly. If it is on your resume, it is fair game. That said, don't be surprised if the interviewer is using a standardized list of questions.
2. You need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions. Most reported interviews simply consist of them. See my previous post on interviewing. Typical Duke questions include:
-Walk me through your resume.
-Why MBA?
-Why Duke?
-How will contribute to Fuqua?
-What are your short term and long term goals?
-Tell me about a time when you received a negative feedback and you did not agree with it?
-Tell me about a time when one of your team members did not participate well?What did you do?
-Discuss your strengths and weaknesses
- Tell me about a situation where you worked with a team and there was a difference in opinion and how you helped reconcile the situation to come to a solution.
-Do you have any questions for me?
3. While there are occasional unexpected hypothetical and/or critical thinking questions, especially from alum and adcom, this seems to be rare.
4. Interviewers (students, adcom, or alum) are friendly, passionate about Duke, and consistently try to create a very relaxed interview atmosphere. This is an interview about fit (just like Duke's essays), so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to become a part of Team Fuqua and how you will contribute to it. Previous contact with alum, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare.
5. Reported interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes, with most reported interviews taking 45 minutes.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 インタビュー 面接
In addition to my experience, I have reviewed reports of Duke University 's Fuqua School of Business interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com
1. You need to know your resume completely as you will likely be asked about content in it. Review it carefully and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly. If it is on your resume, it is fair game. That said, don't be surprised if the interviewer is using a standardized list of questions.
2. You need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions. Most reported interviews simply consist of them. See my previous post on interviewing. Typical Duke questions include:
-Walk me through your resume.
-Why MBA?
-Why Duke?
-How will contribute to Fuqua?
-What are your short term and long term goals?
-Tell me about a time when you received a negative feedback and you did not agree with it?
-Tell me about a time when one of your team members did not participate well?What did you do?
-Discuss your strengths and weaknesses
- Tell me about a situation where you worked with a team and there was a difference in opinion and how you helped reconcile the situation to come to a solution.
-Do you have any questions for me?
3. While there are occasional unexpected hypothetical and/or critical thinking questions, especially from alum and adcom, this seems to be rare.
4. Interviewers (students, adcom, or alum) are friendly, passionate about Duke, and consistently try to create a very relaxed interview atmosphere. This is an interview about fit (just like Duke's essays), so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to become a part of Team Fuqua and how you will contribute to it. Previous contact with alum, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare.
5. Reported interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes, with most reported interviews taking 45 minutes.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 インタビュー 面接
McCombs MBA Interviews
My comments below are based on my experience and my review of McCombs School of Business in University of Texas at Austin MBA interview reports found at accepted.com.
I think that there are five key things to consider when preparing for McCombs interviews:
1. A recent report indicated that interviewers had a two page list of questions. In addition to common questions, there were a few interesting questions reported, See especially the 11.15.2007 report. Also make sure to take a look at the 7.7.2007 report as this shows that some interviewers use behavioral questions. For more about behavioral questions, see here.
Also see my previous post on strategic interviewing for more about how to handle many of these questions.
2. The interviewer will only have access to your resume, so know the contents well, but unlike with some other interviews, assume the agenda for your interview will be set by the list of questions that interviewer has and not your resume.
3. I see no reports of any trick questions really, but you must be prepared to address weakness, failure, and what you want to learn at McCombs. Be prepared to ask questions about the program. If you have an alum interview, be prepared to have a number of questions.
4. Interviewers (students, adcom, or alum) are friendly and try to create a friendly interview atmosphere. This is an interview about fit and your own potential, so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to attend McCombs, how you will contribute to it, and what you intend to do afterwords. You may want to look at an interview I conducted with a former client who was a McCombs Adcom member. Previous contact with alum, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare.
5. Must interviews last about 45 minutes with some going for an hour and a few lasting only 30 minutes.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
-Adam Markus
I think that there are five key things to consider when preparing for McCombs interviews:
1. A recent report indicated that interviewers had a two page list of questions. In addition to common questions, there were a few interesting questions reported, See especially the 11.15.2007 report. Also make sure to take a look at the 7.7.2007 report as this shows that some interviewers use behavioral questions. For more about behavioral questions, see here.
Also see my previous post on strategic interviewing for more about how to handle many of these questions.
2. The interviewer will only have access to your resume, so know the contents well, but unlike with some other interviews, assume the agenda for your interview will be set by the list of questions that interviewer has and not your resume.
3. I see no reports of any trick questions really, but you must be prepared to address weakness, failure, and what you want to learn at McCombs. Be prepared to ask questions about the program. If you have an alum interview, be prepared to have a number of questions.
4. Interviewers (students, adcom, or alum) are friendly and try to create a friendly interview atmosphere. This is an interview about fit and your own potential, so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to attend McCombs, how you will contribute to it, and what you intend to do afterwords. You may want to look at an interview I conducted with a former client who was a McCombs Adcom member. Previous contact with alum, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare.
5. Must interviews last about 45 minutes with some going for an hour and a few lasting only 30 minutes.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
-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.
February 04, 2009
Waitlisted? Now what?
Now that the 1st round results in all their joy, pain, and annoyance have more or less emerged, some people will find themselves in that netherworld known as waitlist. For some, the wait will actually end once 2nd round results are released, but for others, the wait might very well continue, well, for months and months.
Given the large number of applicants for Fall 2009, waitlisting is not likely to become less common. Schools waitlist because they actually are uncertain whether their estimated yield- the percentage of admitted applicants who accept an offer of admision, see here for more about it- will be sufficient to fill their class. They waitlist because they don't want empty seats. They waitlist because they have too many qualified applicants for too few slots, but want to reserve the possibility of eventually letting someone in. Schools don't waitlist because their are sadistic fiends, but from a waitlisted applicant's perspective, it might feel that way.
In the rest of this post, I will provide advice on what do if you are waitlisted by an MBA program.
IF YOU ARE WAITLISTED....
1. Don't panic or become depressed. The reason you were waitlisted is because there were too many qualified applicants and adcom likes you, but they don't know that they love you yet. Now is the time to think clearly and act effectively.
2. For those waitlisted in the first round, you should, of course, know that adcom likes you, but they really wanted to see the main pool of applicants, before making any decisions. You might be waiting for a quite a while longer, but be patient.
3. For those waitlisted in the second or third round, adcom also likes you, but they are not yet convinced that it would be right to give you a spot because there were simply too many qualified applicants. Your wait could go on for months. Consider other alternatives, but don't give up because it is possible to get off the waitlist.
4. Be proactive, but not aggressively annoying, with admissions. Adcom will let you know what additional materials they will accept and you should most certainly provide them. That said, the worst thing you can do is send a continuous stream of correspondence or otherwise annoy the admissions office. If you turn yourself into an annoying freak, you can assume you will not get admitted.
5. GMAT & TOEFL: If you can take it again, do it, if your score goes up report it. Higher scores always help.
6. Additional recommendation: If they will take one, provide it. It is fine to send more than one recommendation if the school allows it. Think very strategically about your selection(s). You don't want a recommendation that will not add something substantially different from what your previous recommendations stated. Try to use a recommender (or recommenders) who will do one or more of the following:
(a) A recommender who will provide support for any areas of professional weakness in your background.
(b) A recommender who will provide a perspective on different part of your background.
(c) A recommender who will provide support for earlier or more recent period of your life.
(d) If academic recommendations are acceptable and your GPA is not great, consider getting an academic recommendation if you can get a strong one.
(e) If your English ability maybe the issue, consider getting a recommendation from someone who can speak positively about your English communication skills. This is especially important if your ibt TOEFL or IELTS score is not that high or if you think your interview was not so strong because of your speaking skills.
Additionally, many schools will also take informal recommendations from alums or current students, so if you can get one from someone who knows you, it can't hurt.
7. Waitlist essay. Write one! The typical components:
-Additional reasons why you want to attend to show your real commitment and passion for the school. Think classes, school's culture, or any other reason that would make the school ideal for you.
-Discussion of changes that have taken place in your professional career after your applied. If anything new and great has happened, you should most certainly write about it.
- New content that was not emphasized in your application. Use some combination of the following possible topics:
(a) If you did not sufficiently discuss your leadership or teamwork abilities, you should most certainly do so.
(b) Write about contributions you can make to the school based on your experience, background, personality, and network.
(c) If your academic potential was not obvious, you should try to demonstrate that.
(d) If you have SUBSTANTIAL personal or professional accomplishments that you did not discuss, you should do so.
(e) If you did not focus very much on non-professional content in your application, focus on it here.
If the length is not stated, I would try to keep it to between 500 and 1000 words. More is not inherently better, quality is, so don't write about everything you can think of. This essay is quite important, so make sure that the content is at least as good as that of your original application.
8. If you have not visited the school and can visit the school, do so. Make a point of letting admissions know this, either in your waitlist essay or through contact with them.
9. Get a fresh perspective on your application by rereading it now. By doing so, you will probably have a good idea about what kind of recommendation to get and waitlist essay to write.
10. Consider seeking the advice of an admissions consultant. If you have already worked with one, you can go back to that person if you are otherwise pleased with their work. They know you and they could help you put something together that caught admissions' eye. On the other hand, you might want to pay for a fresh perspective. I offer waitlist, reapplication, interview, and comprehensive consulting services.
11. Do you need a PLAN B? If you are waitlisted and/or dinged everywhere you applied, it is now time to start thinking about whether you are going to apply for more schools for Fall 2009, reapply for 2010, or give up. Whatever the case, you need a Plan B in place. If you are thinking about applying to more schools for Fall 2009 or just reconsidering school selection in general, please see here.
Best of luck and may your wait be short and culminate in admission!
If you are interested in my waitlist counseling or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my recent post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング 大学院 合格対策 MBA留学
Given the large number of applicants for Fall 2009, waitlisting is not likely to become less common. Schools waitlist because they actually are uncertain whether their estimated yield- the percentage of admitted applicants who accept an offer of admision, see here for more about it- will be sufficient to fill their class. They waitlist because they don't want empty seats. They waitlist because they have too many qualified applicants for too few slots, but want to reserve the possibility of eventually letting someone in. Schools don't waitlist because their are sadistic fiends, but from a waitlisted applicant's perspective, it might feel that way.
In the rest of this post, I will provide advice on what do if you are waitlisted by an MBA program.
IF YOU ARE WAITLISTED....
1. Don't panic or become depressed. The reason you were waitlisted is because there were too many qualified applicants and adcom likes you, but they don't know that they love you yet. Now is the time to think clearly and act effectively.
2. For those waitlisted in the first round, you should, of course, know that adcom likes you, but they really wanted to see the main pool of applicants, before making any decisions. You might be waiting for a quite a while longer, but be patient.
3. For those waitlisted in the second or third round, adcom also likes you, but they are not yet convinced that it would be right to give you a spot because there were simply too many qualified applicants. Your wait could go on for months. Consider other alternatives, but don't give up because it is possible to get off the waitlist.
4. Be proactive, but not aggressively annoying, with admissions. Adcom will let you know what additional materials they will accept and you should most certainly provide them. That said, the worst thing you can do is send a continuous stream of correspondence or otherwise annoy the admissions office. If you turn yourself into an annoying freak, you can assume you will not get admitted.
5. GMAT & TOEFL: If you can take it again, do it, if your score goes up report it. Higher scores always help.
6. Additional recommendation: If they will take one, provide it. It is fine to send more than one recommendation if the school allows it. Think very strategically about your selection(s). You don't want a recommendation that will not add something substantially different from what your previous recommendations stated. Try to use a recommender (or recommenders) who will do one or more of the following:
(a) A recommender who will provide support for any areas of professional weakness in your background.
(b) A recommender who will provide a perspective on different part of your background.
(c) A recommender who will provide support for earlier or more recent period of your life.
(d) If academic recommendations are acceptable and your GPA is not great, consider getting an academic recommendation if you can get a strong one.
(e) If your English ability maybe the issue, consider getting a recommendation from someone who can speak positively about your English communication skills. This is especially important if your ibt TOEFL or IELTS score is not that high or if you think your interview was not so strong because of your speaking skills.
Additionally, many schools will also take informal recommendations from alums or current students, so if you can get one from someone who knows you, it can't hurt.
7. Waitlist essay. Write one! The typical components:
-Additional reasons why you want to attend to show your real commitment and passion for the school. Think classes, school's culture, or any other reason that would make the school ideal for you.
-Discussion of changes that have taken place in your professional career after your applied. If anything new and great has happened, you should most certainly write about it.
- New content that was not emphasized in your application. Use some combination of the following possible topics:
(a) If you did not sufficiently discuss your leadership or teamwork abilities, you should most certainly do so.
(b) Write about contributions you can make to the school based on your experience, background, personality, and network.
(c) If your academic potential was not obvious, you should try to demonstrate that.
(d) If you have SUBSTANTIAL personal or professional accomplishments that you did not discuss, you should do so.
(e) If you did not focus very much on non-professional content in your application, focus on it here.
If the length is not stated, I would try to keep it to between 500 and 1000 words. More is not inherently better, quality is, so don't write about everything you can think of. This essay is quite important, so make sure that the content is at least as good as that of your original application.
8. If you have not visited the school and can visit the school, do so. Make a point of letting admissions know this, either in your waitlist essay or through contact with them.
9. Get a fresh perspective on your application by rereading it now. By doing so, you will probably have a good idea about what kind of recommendation to get and waitlist essay to write.
10. Consider seeking the advice of an admissions consultant. If you have already worked with one, you can go back to that person if you are otherwise pleased with their work. They know you and they could help you put something together that caught admissions' eye. On the other hand, you might want to pay for a fresh perspective. I offer waitlist, reapplication, interview, and comprehensive consulting services.
11. Do you need a PLAN B? If you are waitlisted and/or dinged everywhere you applied, it is now time to start thinking about whether you are going to apply for more schools for Fall 2009, reapply for 2010, or give up. Whatever the case, you need a Plan B in place. If you are thinking about applying to more schools for Fall 2009 or just reconsidering school selection in general, please see here.
Best of luck and may your wait be short and culminate in admission!
If you are interested in my waitlist counseling or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my recent post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング 大学院 合格対策 MBA留学
Dartmouth Tuck MBA Interviews
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth interview is about fit, so make sure you can explain in great depth why you want to become a part of Tuck's small intensive community in Hanover. If you interview on-campus expect to be asked about how you liked it. If you have never been to Hanover, contact with alum and intensive school research are all great ways to prepare. Keep in mind that the objective of this research is to determine what you really like about the school, about how Tuck is right for you, and how you imagine yourself contributing to it. Try to focus on what you need from the school, not merely stating obvious information about it.
Demonstrated enthusiasm to attend Tuck is very helpful. Based on my experience, that enthusiasm in combination with the ability to provide solid answers to routine MBA questions. Most reported interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com simply consist of standard questions. See my previous post on interviewing. Expect questions about teams, friendship, and extracurricular activities.
You need to know your resume completely as you will likely be asked about content in it. Review it carefully and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly. If it is on your resume, it is fair game. Even an admissions officer interviewer will only have your resume, but you should assume they will know the contents of it fairly well. As Clear Admit states, "Tuck employs a ‘blind’ interview process, using only the resume as a basis for the interview.
Interviewers, according to the Tuck FAQ:
Interviews on campus are scheduled primarily with admissions associates (second-year students) and occasionally with members of the admissions committee. Off-campus interviews with an alumni interviewer, admissions committee member, or admissions associate are scheduled by invitation only.
Reported interview length: 30 to 45 minutes.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my recent post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 インタビュー 面接
Demonstrated enthusiasm to attend Tuck is very helpful. Based on my experience, that enthusiasm in combination with the ability to provide solid answers to routine MBA questions. Most reported interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com simply consist of standard questions. See my previous post on interviewing. Expect questions about teams, friendship, and extracurricular activities.
You need to know your resume completely as you will likely be asked about content in it. Review it carefully and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly. If it is on your resume, it is fair game. Even an admissions officer interviewer will only have your resume, but you should assume they will know the contents of it fairly well. As Clear Admit states, "Tuck employs a ‘blind’ interview process, using only the resume as a basis for the interview.
Interviewers, according to the Tuck FAQ:
Interviews on campus are scheduled primarily with admissions associates (second-year students) and occasionally with members of the admissions committee. Off-campus interviews with an alumni interviewer, admissions committee member, or admissions associate are scheduled by invitation only.
Reported interview length: 30 to 45 minutes.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my recent post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 インタビュー 面接
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