The interview is the most unpredictable portion of the application process. While it is important to prepare, it is virtually impossible to predict what you will be asked. Every interviewer is different and even the same person may differ depending on “mood” that day. That said, all you can do is your best, and there is a set of questions that you absolutely must be prepared for.

Make sure that you have outlined answers for the following questions and that you practice out loud:
“Why do you want to go to business school?”
“Why do you want to go now?”
“What are your career goals?”
“Why do you want to attend our program?”
“Walk me through your resume.”
“Name three personal strengths and weaknesses.”

Beyond that, you should have a handful of personal stories prepared. The questions should be flexible enough to serve as examples for a range of questions about teamwork, leadership, creativity, failure, facing challenges and more. If you have this group of stories prepared and ready, you can access them as needed to answer any unpredictable situational questions that arise.

To learn more about interview formats for particular schools, feel free to contact us for interview prep services at info@stacyblackman.com.

When I was at Kellogg going through on campus recruiting for my summer internship, I learned about an interview technique called the STAR method. I consider it to be one of the most useful frameworks for effectively answering interview questions and pass it on to all of my clients.

The STAR technique can be applied when asked “situational” questions.
“Tell me about a time you…”
“Tell me about a time you failed.”
“Tell me about a time you came up with an innovative solution.”
“Tell me about a time you managed a difficult project.”
“Tell me about a time you led a team.”

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result.
The power of the STAR method is that it allows you to formulate a very complete answer, but keeps your answer organized and keeps you from rambling on and on…a common occurence in interviews.

For example:
Situation - “Product A was losing market share to a new competitor.”
Task - “I needed to create a plan to regain our lost share.”
Action - “I led a team to implement tactics A, B and C.”
Result - “We regained lost share, plus 10%”
And then you stop.

Often, the interviewer will probe further, asking for very specific details related to your story, so you need to be prepared. But just start with the basic elements of your story - STAR will help you get there.

Now that we are officially immersed in the interview phase of application season, I thought I would devote some time to discussing how you can best prepare for your interviews.

My first piece of advice is to practice. By practice I do not mean writing a script and rehearsing until you have everything memorized. But I also do not mean quickly scanning a list of questions and thinking about what you would say. I suggest that you practice - out loud and frequently. Ideally, you have a friend who is also applying to school. The two of you can alternate doing mock interviews and providing feedback. You can even practice in front of a mirror. The key here is to practice out loud.

Knowing what your goals are, and what you would say if asked, is very different from actually forcing yourself to say it out loud. When you say it out loud for the first time, you will find that you ramble, lose your train of thought or simply do not effectively articulate yourself. Make sure that this first time is a practice run, and not the real thing.