IESE MBA Application Essays (2013-2014) for the Class of 2016

This is my analysis of IESE Essays (2013-2014) for admission to the MBA Class of 2016.

IESE offers an intensive case study based MBA program. It was founded with the active cooperation of HBS and its first-year is a core curriculum program where a section of approximately 70 students will take all the same classes together.  Learn about the case method at IESE here. While the first-year is set, the second-year allows for great flexibility including the opportunity to take courses in Spanish and opportunities to study abroad.  If you are looking for academic rigour, international diversity amongst students and faculty,  and want to spend two years in one the world’s greatest cities, IESE should be on your short-list.  Based on what I observed during my 2012 visit there and through talking with former clients over the years, IESE offers an intensive MBA education. The f irst-year at IESE is simply extremely hard.

In  2013, I had the opportunity to interview a faculty member at IESE who provides really good insight into the program. While he has since left IESE for another school, he was a longstanding member of the faculty and helped significantly with student recruiting in Japan, where IESE now has quite a strong alumni presence.

One of the nice things that IESE does is actually provide initial feedback to potential applicants. You can get feedback on your profile by completing this feedback form. Knowing whether admissions sees potential fit is a great way to determine whether to apply.

IESE is no party school. It might be in a town well known for having a good time, but if you have any thoughts of  enjoying the fun in Barcelona every evening, I think you will have to wait for the second year of the program for that even to be considered.  During your first year at IESE, expect to be reading cases and talking cases.  Last year, I also visited IMD, another program well known for being intense. I think it fair to say that these two European non-party schools contrast with LBS and INSEAD, the other top European B-schools, but ones well known as Party Schools.

My clients who apply to IESE, typically apply to some combination of the three schools I mentioned in the previous paragraph and/or top US two-year programs.  You can find testimonials from 2 of the 7 clients I worked with who were admitted to IESE in past years.

IESE has 4 deadlines, 2 of which have passed at the time of writing.  I wish I had been able to get this post up earlier.

Essays: Like with many top US schools, IESE has also reduced the total number of essays. Compared to IMD or INSEAD, IESE’s  essay set is small and relatively easy to answer. If you have already done the essays for IMD or INSEAD, the IESE essays will be particularly easy. When considering what aspects of your experience to discuss, I do suggest you reflect on IESE’s mission statement to emphasize aspects of your experience that align well with the program.


IESE Essay 1: Describe your short-term and long-term career goals (post MBA). (300 word limit)
This is a very standard goals statement. The fact that it is brief means you need to provide a future focused statement. Extensive discussion of your past experience or of why you want to attend IESE will just not fit here. However, I think it is important to explain why you want an IESE MBA at least briefly.  Your reader should both understand what your goals and have at least a clear idea, though not the details of why you want an IESE MBA.  This is the advice I have given to my clients applying to IESE.  As is generally the case, conceive of your short-term goal as a plan and your long-term goal as a vision.  Make sure that your goals intuitively connect together because you don’t have space for any sort of extensive discussion of goals that don’t connect together logically.

If you are having difficulty formulating your goals, please see my method for formulating goals, which can be found in my analysis of Stanford’s goal essay.

Essay 2: Describe a recent situation (1-2 years ago maximum) that demonstrates your fit with IESE's mission and values. (300 words)
You can find out about IESE’s mission here. I think any applicant should be able to provide a situation, most likely an accomplishment, which can be connected to IESE’s mission.  I would pay particular attention to this part of the Mission Statement:
“Believing that businesses are above all communities of people who work better in an atmosphere of trust, IESE's mission and core values are articulated in its programs and school culture and carried-out by faculty and staff who lead by example. These emphasize:

• Respect for others
• Commitment to the common good of companies and society
• Humility
• Learning and listening
• Teamwork

With these values as a foundation, IESE programs are structured around five pillars of leadership development:

• A general management perspective
• Human and ethical values
• International dimension
• Transformational impact
• Knowledge development”

The nice thing about both the mission and five pillars of leadership development is that they suggest a wide variety of themes for an essay.  In 2013, I  had an opportunity to attend IESE Dean Jordi Canals' presentation to alumni in Tokyo because I am a sponsor of IESE’s Japan Trek. One point he made was that ethics are incorporated into all the courses at IESE. While I don’t think it is necessary to write directly about ethics in this essay, I do think it is important that whatever you write about shows your  compatibility with IESE’s focus on ethical leadership. 

What I suggest doing is writing about an accomplishment which highlights your fit with IESE.  For a detailed analysis of  how to write an accomplishment essay, see my analysis of IMD Essay 1.

IESE Essay 3: I wish that the application had asked me… (200 word limit)
Think very carefully about how you want to use this.  I would avoid discussing something negative here unless absolutely necessary. Instead focus on something(s) that you think will help IESE understand why you belong in their program.

I don’t suggest using this as a place for simply explaining something negative like a bad GPA or GMAT or TOEFL, instead provide admissions with greater insight into who you are. Use this question to balance out the rest of your application by discussing some aspect of who you are that has not been sufficiently focused on.

Specifically ask yourself, What else can I tell IESE that help them understand why they should admit me?

While you will likely use this space for an essay that might be utilized for another application, it is critical that IESE not get the impression that you have done so. As with any school, I think it is important that IESE admissions gets the impression that you specifically tailored this essay to their school. Since you have already discussed your goals, I would not suggest using the essay for that purpose.

Some Questions to get you brainstorming:
1. What do you want IESE to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission?
2. What major positive aspects of your life have not been effectively INTERPRETED to the admissions committee in other parts of the application?
3. If you were going to tell admissions something about you that would not be obvious from rest of the application, what would they be? Why should IESE care?
4.  What could you discuss about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and want to admit you?
As you can see, these questions would lead to very different kinds of responses. There is no one way to answer this question, but I believe there are right ways for every applicant to do so.

However you answer this question, it should give IESE further reason to want to interview you.

-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.

Columbia Business School MBA Application Interviews

In this post I provide advice on how to prepare for a Columbia Business School MBA interview. You can find my post on Columbia Essays here.

The advice I offer here is based on having helped numerous clients prepare for interviews and gain admission to Columbia Business School.  My client results and testimonials can be found here.  

For my  detailed suggestions on overall interview preparation, please see:
-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
-and my more recent post, When to start MBA interview practice? How to prepare?

Columbia Business School offers only one flavor of admissions interview: “Columbia Business School Ambassador” alumni invitation-only interviews. You will get to select from multiple interviewers, so try to figure out who they are first before contacting them. I suggest using Google searches, LinkedIn, and perhaps your own network to do so. Select someone who you think you will be compatible with. While this interview is certainly important, it is not unheard of for admissions to admit someone the alumni did not recommend or ding someone the interviewer did recommend. The admissions office has the ultimate discretion over this issue and clearly sees the interview as only one factor for determining the ultimate result. That said, the interview is certainly quite important. In my experience, clients who report not having a great Columbia rarely are admitted, so you as a n applicant should assume that like with any interview, it is very important to do well.

In my post, General Characteristics of Admissions Officers, Students, and Alumni Interviewers, I discuss Columbia interviewers specifically: “Among top US MBA programs, the school with the most alumni interview horror stories is most certainly Columbia Business School.  Given their very open process where candidates choose from many possible alumni, there appears to be very little direct oversight over the interviewer selection process. It is no wonder that CBS admissions seems to frequently conduct short follow-up telephone interviews with applicants.”

Still, Columbia alumni seem to be particularly effective gatekeepers for the program. They are well known for relentlessly determining whether Columbia really is the applicant’s first choice. They are clearly told to do this as it is a consistent feature of interview reports. Not only should you be able to explain why Columbia is your first choice, but you had better explain why HBS, Stanford, and/or Wharton is not. Less then clear answers to the why is CBS your first choice question can prove fatal. Beyond that, I think alumni are really looking to make sure that you possess sufficient mental strength, personal drive (aggression), and career focus to become a part of their “club.”Some of the most common question topics you would encounter in a Columbia interview (Based on my colleague Steve Green’s review o f reports at accepted.com and clearadmit.com, which is consistent with what clients have been reporting to me):

RESUME

• Walk me through your resume.  (PICK AND PROBE CONTENT)
• Tell me about a professional achievement
• Explain your professional progression up until now and why you need an MBA?
• What is unique about you?

GOALS

• What are your career goals?
• In addition to applying for an MBA, what other steps have you taken toward your goal?
• Why an MBA?
• Why now?
• Why Columbia?
• How will you contribute to Columbia?
• What are your criteria for an MBA program?
• Where else did you apply?
• What other schools have you applied to?
• What will you do if you don’t get in anywhere else?
• What makes you unique from other (financiers / salesmen / IT specialists, etc.) applying to Columbia?  
• Are there any red flags you think the adcom will find in your candidacy?

LEADERSHIP

• What is your leadership / management style?
• Tell me about a time when you took the initiative.
• Have you ever been in a leadership role?

TEAMWORK

• Tell me about a time when you had a work in a difficult team at your first job.
• Tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult person.
• What role do you play on teams?
• Example of leading a team.
• Example of contributing to a team.
• Example of a challenging team/group situation.

SELF-AWARENESS

• Tell me about a time when you faced adversity?
• Tell me about a time when you made a major mistake at work and how you dealt with it.

ETHICS (NOTE: IT APPEARS THAT THIS QUESTION HAS BEEN ELIMINATED FROM INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED FOR ENTRY FROM 2013 ON. YOU SHOULD STILL BE AWARE AND PREPARE FOR IT IN THE EVENT THAT AN INTERVIEWER ASKS IT OUT OF OLD HABIT)

• What was an ethical dilemma you’ve faced, and what did you do about it? (Follow up with q's like "What would you do differently?")
• Describe a time, either professionally or academically, when you witnessed others behaving unethically–what did you do about it?

PERSONAL

• Tell me something unique about you
• Is there anything particular you'd like me to add to my report for admissions?
• What do you do in your free time?
• What do you get excited about? What turns you on?
• Why? (sports, hobbies etc.)

• What are 5 adjectives that describe your interpersonal skills and communication style?

If there is anything you wanted to mention that was not covered in your application that you want to bring to the admission committee’s attention, you will possibly have the opportunity to do so because interviewers frequently ask about this.

ANALYTICAL ABILITY / CURRENT EVENTS

• Tell me about a technology trend and how it will affect business.
• What is the impact of the financial crisis on (YOUR) industry?
• Topical questions about the current financial crisis, etc.
• Anything related to interviewee's field:  Future or real estate, health care, etc.

Either walk me through your resume or questions that amount to the same thing are always asked. Expect to be asked one way or another about how you standout professionally. Be honest, but very direct and sell your experience emphasizing your ability to make an impact. A common question is “What improvements have made in the position hold at work?”

Be ready to ask questions to the alumni. Prepare them ahead of time. Assume that unless the alum is a very recent graduate, they should not be asked about recent developments on the campus. This is a good opportunity to ask them about their Columbia experience and about the alumni network.


You probably will not be asked any weird hypothetical questions, but rather expect to cover some variation of the above questions in a great deal of depth.

Reported interview length is typically 60-75 minutes, but some interviews are shorter and some go for 90 minutes.

Brief Telephone Follow-up Interviews with an Admissions Officer: A number of my clients, especially, but exclusively non-native English speakers, have had short 5-15 minute interviews with the admissions office after the alumni interview.  Many of my Japanese and Chinese clients have experienced this for purposes of an English language check, but I have also had clients from the US and Canada who received such calls. Sometimes the admissions office simply as a point of fact in the application that they want to clarify. From what I can gather, getting such a call is neither positive or negative in terms of the final result.

-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.

Stanford GSB MBA Admissions Interviews

Stanford GSB’s is the hardest MBA admission interview invitation to get on the planet.  If you have been invited, your chance of admission just went from about 6.5% (depends on the year) to 50%.   The odds are much better, now you must close the deal.  While a poor interview is unlikely to result in admission,  the admissions process at Stanford is holistic and a great interview is no absolute guarantee of success.
You can find results and/or testimonials from my clients admitted to to the Stanford Classes of 2016 (2 in Round 1), 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010 here.  My full Stanford results prior to the Class of 2014 can be found here. My clients admitted to Stanford GSB have come from China, India, Latin America, Japan, South Korea, and the United States and have had extremely diverse professional and educational backgrounds. The advice I provide below is based on that experience.

Stanford GSB MBA admission  interviews, while so hard to get, are not necessarily hard interviews because (1) most of the questions are relatively predictable,  (2) the overall style of the interview is typically conversational,  and (3) time constraints are either minimal or non-existent.  This is interview about fit as typically determined by an alumni “gatekeeper.” Interviews with admissions or other Stanford staff do happen as well, but this is relatively rare.  Chances are good that this gatekeeper might be in your industry or in some manner have a complementary background for assessing you.  For example, if you might be perceived as lacking a particularly important attribute (professional experience in the field related to your goals or English skills for example), don’t surprised if the alumni is someone who is in a good position to judge this. While I imagine in some places with few alumni, a high level of complementary assessment (e.g., Mc Kinsey applicant interviewed by Boston Consulting Group alumnus) would be less likely, I can say that it is the rule rather the exception if you reside in a location with numerous Stanford alumni.

Interacting with the interviewer
You can typically expect a lively exchange and hopefully a good conversation. If your interview is scheduled for late on a workday or on a weekend or outside of the interviewer’s office, whatever you do, don’t make any plans for it to end on time as Stanford interviews are well known for going long.

Reported interview length for interviews is official 45 minutes, but can go on for longer than that. It usually consists of 30-40 minutes of questions from the alumni followed by 5-15 minutes of question to the alum, but often the interviews go longer, an hour or more is not uncommon. In my own experience with clients, I would say that if the interview goes for an hour or more, that is a good sign, but a 45 minute interview is not necessarily a bad sign. Interviews that last 75 minutes to 120 minutes are not uncommon.

Whoever you interview with, they are likely to be quite friendly and the style of the interview is conversational. Stanford alumni are provided with very clear guidelines for how to conduct interviews. The alumnus will be provided with a list of questions,  which they utilize.  The extent to which the alumnus does this appears to be highly variable. You may get more of an informal conversation with the occasional behavioral question or you might get something consists of many of the standard interview questions mentioned below.

Just because your interviewer is friendly, it does not mean that you are doing well. Don’t assume a friendly interviewer is not actually a super critical one. Alumni are the gatekeepers and Stanford can afford to reject anyone. Take nothing for granted.

Preparing for the interview
Given the mix of standard interview questions and behavioral  questions, I do suggest you prepare extensively for both kinds of questions.   For my  detailed suggestions on overall interview preparation, please see:
-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

• Tell me about your background/walk me through your resume.

• Tell me a bit about yourself

• What extracurricular activity are you most proud of?

• What did you take away from your undergraduate experience?

• What do you like to do outside of work?

• Tell about a time you streamlined operations/made things more efficient? What did you do?  How did you measure its success?

• What metrics did you use?

• Tell me about your international experience.

• What is your favorite place you've traveled?

• What is your company's strategy?  Is it succeeding?

• Tell me about a specific time when you realized you needed an MBA.

• Why a Stanford MBA?

• Why do you need an MBA?

• Why now?

• Why Stanford?

• How would you decide between schools if you got into multiple MBA programs?

• What will you bring that is unique to the program?

• How will you contribute to Stanford?

• What are your short-term goals? Long-term goals?

• Where else have you applied? How have those worked out?

• Explain how you are ready for academic rigor.

• Tell me about a time you faced an obstacle and what did you do about it?

• Tell me about a time you faced an ethical situation.

• Tell me about a time you had your beliefs challenged.

• Tell me about a time you had to stand your ground and how did you do it?

• Tell me about a time your values were challenged and you had to consult your moral compass?

• Tell me about someone difficult to work with that was in a position above you and what you learned from it.

• Tell me about a time when others have pointed out a weakness of yours.

• Tell me about the most valuable piece of feedback you’ve ever received. How did it change your relationship with that individual? Why was it important?

• What is a valuable piece of feedback you have received?

• Tell me about a time things didn't go according to plan and you failed? What did you learn from it?

• What did you learn from a failure?

• Tell me about an individual or group failure.

• Tell me about a time when you failed. What did you learn from that event and how have you implemented what you learned from that failure?

• How do you deal with failure?

• Name a book that you’ve read recently that was not for work. We then discussed that book.

• What is your favorite book that is not work related?

• What are your 3 favorite books?

• Tell me about what inspires you.

• Is there anything you've done merely out of passion?

• If money were not an issue, what cause would you pursue most vigorously?

• Tell me about a time you wanted to give up but found the motivation to keep going?

• What is your greatest accomplishment?

• Tell me about a time you had to make a trade-off between two equally attractive opportunities?

• Tell me about a time you worked with a difficult team member or manager.

• Tell me about an individual or group failure.

• Tell me about a team experience.

• Have you ever led a team?

• Tell me about a time when you had to lead a team of individuals. What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about leadership?

• Tell me about a leadership experience.

• Tell me about a time you knew you were an effective leader and how did you know?

• What is your leadership style? Give me an example of how you’ve led that way.

• When have you led peers and how?

• Tell me about a time when a leader fell short and you had to step up and lead.

• Tell me about a time when you’ve been challenged as a leader and what you learned from it.

-and my more recent post, When to start MBA interview practice? How to prepare?

The above posts are my general remarks on MBA admissions interview strategy and apply here.  For  answering behavioral questions, please see MIT Sloan MBA Interviews, which will teach you how to be a STAR (if you don’t know what I am talking about, read the post for sure).


Typical Questions
My colleague, H. Steven Green, has put the following together by reviewing interview reports of Stanford University GSB interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com.
RESUME
GOALS, REASONS FOR MBA, REASONS FOR STANFORD
CHARACTER & CHALLENGES TO YOUR BELIEFS AND VALUES
DIFFICULT WORK RELATIONSHIPS
CRITICISM AND FEEDBACK FROM OTHERS
FAILURE
BOOKS YOU'VE READ
INSPIRATION, PASSION
TEAMWORK
LEADERSHIP


Demonstrate Fit
You need to be able to explain in-depth why you should be admitted to Stanford, what you can contribute, and what you want to learn. Be willing to openly discuss what soft and hard skills you need to improve/acquire. Show yourself to be open, dynamic, change oriented, and a highly motivated person because the alum will be.

Prepare good questions
Since there is supposed to be time for you to ask questions to the alum, you need to give some significant thought to formulating those. Consider what year the alum graduated and any other background information if you can determine that through Linkedin or other sources of information. Develop four or more questions to ask.

For more about my interview services, please see 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.

HBS Admissions Interviews for the MBA Class of 2016

In this post I provide advice for HBS Admissions Interviews for the MBA Class of 2016.


HBS ADCOM HQ
I did not revise my HBS interview post  for Round 1 applicants, but that did not stop six of my clients from being admitted to HBS in R1 for the Class of 2016. You can find their results as well as some testimonials here.

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
-and my more recent post, When to start MBA interview practice? How to prepare?
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 (For better versions of these charts, see http://www.adammarkus.com/hbs-admissions-interviews-for-the-mba-class-of-2016/):

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 continually make 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 applic ations 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, the reports that I get from my clients and a number of  public reports indicate that the majority of questions are actually common ones.  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 interviewer 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 at HBS 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.

Have Mock Interviews that reflect both the range of questions and various kinds of interviewers you might encounter.   If I do multiple mock sessions with the same client, I will use different interviewer personalities.  Here is how I helped a client who was admitted to HBS for the Class of 2016 (The client’s full testimonial can be found here):

“Adam digs deep into your application to understand your vulnerabilities and asks challenging questions to prepare you for the worst.  He also exposes you to a number of interviewing styles that you may encounter at HBS – from the amiable interviewer who lets you take the discussion in a direction of your choosing (which can be very dangerous), to the probing style that challenges your statements and changes directions on a dime.”

The friendly interviewer will let you hang yourself, the aggressive interviewer will challenge you, the indifferent interviewer will give you very little feedback so you have to take charge, and  the rude interviewer will interrupt you and appear condescending. At HBS,  you are not likely to encounter a rude interviewer (That type is most common amongst alumni interviewers), but friendly, aggressive, and indifferent are very common types.   Whether you are being made to feel good about the interview or not by the interviewer,  your  mission is still to convince this interviewer that you are right for their school.  While you may have some idea of the personality of your interviewer before you interview, chances are you will not. It is therefore particularly important to prepare for a variety of different types of interviewers.


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.


For more about my interview services, see here.

See here for how to answer the HBS 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.

Oxford MBA 2014/15 Class Application Essays

In this post, I an analyze the essay questions for the Oxford MBA at the Saïd Business School for the 2014/15 class.   I have already had one client admitted to the program for this class of 2014/2015.  See here for my client’s results for Oxford as well as other schools. Oxford has six application rounds, so while this post is late, I trust it will be helpful to those making application in March, April, and May 2014.

If you are considering applying to Oxford, I would strongly suggest you take advantage of their pre-application assessment, CV review as discussed on their webpage. This is a great service to applicants as it really help you know whether it is worth making an application to the program. It also is a great way of getting the attention of the admissions office. I do recommend that you submit a great CV though. I regularly help my own clients with CVs, but even if you don’t use an admission consultant, make sure you put time into making a great CV. Here is one CV template.

Below are the essay questions. Keep in mind that Oxford also asks substantial questions in the application form that are in essence essays.  You can find my analysis of those application questions after the reapplication essay analysis.

1) What should Oxford expect from you? Maximum 500 words.*
Given that Essay 2 focuses on your goals and why you need an MBA, your focus here should be helping Oxford understand why they should admit you based on your background, values, and achievements.  I would recommend concentrating on 3-4 aspects of yourself that would best demonstrate your potential to contribute to and/or succeed at Oxford and subsequently.  I assume you will focus on how you will make positive impact at Oxford and subsequently.

Some Questions to get you brainstorming:

1. What do you want Oxford to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission?

2. What major positive aspects of your life have not been effectively INTERPRETED to the admissions committee in other parts of the application?
3.  What could you discuss about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and want to admit you?

4.  Based on who you are, what will you contribute to your classmates and the wider Oxford community?

5. Is there anything in your background that be a positive indicator for what kind of alumnus  you  will be?

2) How do you hope to see your career developing over the next five years? How will the MBA and Oxford assist you in the development of these ambitions? Maximum 500 words.*
“How do you hope to see your career developing over the next five years?”
Oxford Essay 1 is a completely practical question. Oxford is looking for something grounded and specific: A FIVE YEAR PLAN. Note the ambiguity in the question itself, the plan maybe written from the perspective of the present or from the perspective of after one finishes the MBA. I advise clients to treat it as as post-MBA five year plan as I think that is implied by the presence of the third part of the question (“How will the MBA and Oxford assist you in the development of these ambitions?“), but I would not insist on that. I think most applicants should treat it as a post-MBA five year plan, but if you prefer integrating the MBA directly into the plan, that is fine.

WHAT IS A PLAN?
A plan is practical. It has details. It shows you have really thought about what you want to do. It shows you have done research about your intended future employers and/or future entrepreneurial venture. It shows you are realistic. That does not mean that it should be boring or lack ambition, but it does mean that it has to rise beyond a level of mere abstraction. Treat it as seriously as you would treat a memo to your boss on the future direction of your department, a proposal to a client on an expensive project, or a business plan. Make sure you show how an MBA and Oxford fits the plan. If you can’t establish a tight connection between your plan and Oxford, either apply somewhere else or change your plan. And remember as long as you can speak effectively about your plan in an interview, the second after you are admitted, you have no obligation to stick to that plan.

How will the MBA and Oxford assist you in the development of these ambitions?
In this part of the question you need to explain why you need an MBA from Said. To really answer this question you need to know about Oxford. Fullly investigate what the program offers and how it will best help you.  BIG HINT: Find one or more professors and/or research focus areas at Oxford that really meet your needs as well as discussing more general aspects of the MBA program.  Another Big Hint: Oxford means more than just Said, it means the entire university as well as your college experience.

If you are having difficulty explaining your plans or reasons for needing an MBA, please see my analysis of Stanford Essay 2.
3) Please chose and answer one of the two essays below:
Sport is pure competition. What does it teach us about companies, individuals, and markets? Maximum 500 words.
OR
The business of business is business. Is this true? Maximum 500 words.*

Oxford is a school for people who can think. Both of these topics require you to express an opinion. There is no right or wrong, merely answers that are well argued and interesting to read and ones that are less analytically coherent and dull. Your job is to show your thinking at your best. Neither of these questions necessarily requires to bring your own experience into the topic.  A client who was admitted to Oxford in R1 wrote on one of these topics without specific to his or her experience. Instead that person’s answer was analytically sharp and revealed a unique way of addressing the question. That said, if your own experience fits here, feel free to bring it in.

Unlike with most questions, I analyze, I am not going to provide a detailed analysis of what these questions mean, but rather pose some questions that apply to thinking about each of these questions. Hopefully these questions will get you brainstorming. 

Sport is pure competition. What does it teach us about companies, individuals, and markets? 
-What is meant by pure competition? Does such a thing exist?
-How do you account for cheating in sports?
-Do you accept or reject the very notion that something as objectively ruled-based as a sport can be applied to much more complex systems (companies, individuals, markets)?
-Do you believe in free markets?
-What is the relationship between competition in sports and competition between individuals in general?
- In what ways do companies compete with each other in ways that are similar and different from competition in sports?


The business of business is business. Is this true? 
-Do businesses have responsibilities beyond the conduct of their business?
-Do you believe in corporate social responsibility?
-Can one do business without consideration for the society one is operating in?
-Is business an end in itself or does relate to something else/something greater?

Finally, my advice is to think about both essay options and writing on the topic that interests you more.  The more that you can show your active engagement with the topic, the better.


4) What improvements have you made in your candidacy since you last applied to the Oxford MBA programme? (for re-applicants only)Maximum 250 words.
This is a very standard reapplication question.
An effective answer here will do the following:
1. Showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate.
2. Refine your goals. I think it is reasonable that they may have altered since your last application, but if the change is extreme, you had better explain why.
3. Make a better case for why Oxford  is right for you.
For more about reapplication, please see "A guide to my resources for reapplicants."


Application Questions
On the “You at Work” page of the application,  there is the following:
Please list your main responsibilities, your most significant challenge and your greatest achievement  (5000 Characters including spaces, which means about 1000-1250 words maximum for answering all three of these).
These are three separate topics. You should address each of these topics.  In addition, given that Oxford application includes no place for any sort of additional information or explanation of issues about your application (test scores, gaps in employment, etc.), I suggest including that information here rather than using up your essay word count for it. 

The first topic, main responsibilities relates directly to current professional position and would simply be an extended version of what you have in your CV. I assume your CV emphasizes accomplishments, so here also mention your overall responsibilities as well as your accomplishments. 

For the next two topics, it is my understanding that you don’t have to focus on your most significant challenge and greatest achievement at your current position, but rather can discuss these topics more generally. You can, of course, discuss these topics in relationship to other jobs or even more generally.

Your most significant challenge
A challenge can certainly be a weakness, failure or setback, it is surely possible that a challenge could simply be a real test of your leadership and a great way to convey an accomplishment.
Structure
1. Clearly state what your challenge was.
2. Explain what actions you took. Think about what your actions reflect about your own skills and/or personality.
4. Explain what you learned and/or gained (a skill or a new opportunity, for example) from the experience.  It is critical that you learned or gained something, otherwise it will be difficult (probably impossible) to explain how this experience has helped you achieve success now and in the future.

Here are some types of challenges to get you brainstorming:
-Challenges that relate to lack of ability or skill. For instance having difficulty completing a task or being successful because of your limited capability.  Overcoming such a challenge involves a story about gaining or otherwise obtaining access to the necessary skill.
-Challenges that relate to relationships with other people or groups, such as conflicts within a team. Overcoming such challenges typically involves effective utilization of interpersonal skills.
-Challenges that relate to one's psychological condition, cultural understanding, or other deeper mental assumptions.  Overcoming such challenges typically involves a change in mindset.
-Challenges that relate to a really difficult task. It is possible that you write about a challenging situation which you use to highlight your abilities rather than a situation where you were initially deficient in some way.

Your greatest achievement
Please see my analysis of IMD’s Essay 1, What do you consider to be your single most important achievement and why? as that analysis fully applies here.

Best of luck with your Oxford application!

-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.