Preparing for Your MBA Interview Questions

You’ve scored your MBA interview invitation–what great news! We know you want to make the most of this opportunity, so we wrote these tips to help you plan for success.

Doing well on your MBA interview is the last hurdle before a program decides to accept you–or not. You do not want to wing this, and the more prep you do before the big day, the smoother, more confident, and more seamless your answers will be.

You’ll be asked lots of questions during your interview, with topics ranging from your background to your skills, your goals, and more. The following are the most popular MBA interview questions, and while you may not be asked these exact questions, they are likely to come up in one way or another during your interview.

1. Walk me through your resume.
   
   
2. Why this MBA program?
   
   
3. What questions do you have?
   
   
4. What is your weakness?
   
   
5. Why do you need an MBA?
   
   
6. How will you contribute to the program?
   
   
7. How have you been affected by the COVID pandemic?
   
   
8. Additional MBA interview questions

MBA interview question 1: Walk me through your resume.

What are they really asking?

This question (or some version of it) is very often the first one asked in an MBA interview. It should be fairly easy to answer and provides a foundation upon which the rest of the interview can be built. As you answer, they will be observing whether you remain focused while speaking, whether you seem particularly nervous, and how well you can summarize your work accomplishments succinctly while at the same time providing a narrative about your career progression. All  this information helps the interviewer manage the interview.

While the interviewer has already had the chance to look at your resume, this is your chance to explain the “why” of it. Now sitting in the “candidate seat,” it’s your responsibility to highlight some career accomplishments. But remember, your primary goal is to explain the reasoning and motivation behind your most significant career moves.

How to prepare your answer

The answer to this question should be 2-3 minutes long, so once you have chosen the things you would like to highlight, practice your answer several times to make sure it fits into that timeframe. Believe it or not, you can say quite a lot in 2-3 minutes provided you are making every sentence count and are not speaking generically or repeating yourself. In this answer, you do not want to summarize everything you have done at every job. You do want to briefly discuss your accomplishments and the circumstances surrounding moves from one role to another.

The logical starting point is your graduation from college. Explain why you chose to pursue the degree you earned and how it made sense to pursue the career you did based on your education. From there, look closely at your jobs. In 1-2 sentences, how would you discuss your time in each role? What motivated you to move from one role to the next one? For your current job, lay out your current responsibilities. While it may be tempting to continue on and also answer “why an MBA,” wait until that question is asked.

How to highlight particular circumstances

Situation 1: Worked two years at a consulting firm, then switched to work in marketing at a pharmaceutical company.

“While at ABC Consulting I had an extended engagement with a major pharma company. Working there made me realize the growth and potential of the industry, and I no longer wanted to be an outsider looking in. I wanted to accomplish specific goals of XYZ.”

Situation 2: Worked in operations at a manufacturer, then switched to finance.

“During my time in operations, I worked closely with the finance group in preparing our supply chain forecast. Through that experience, I came to realize that I really loved numbers, and that finance more closely fit with where I saw my career going. I made the case to senior management, and after recognizing my capabilities in the area they found a spot for me.”

Situation 3: Moved up in the organization from analyst to senior analyst to associate.

“I was fortunate to be involved in projects that gave me a lot of responsibility early on and had supportive mentors along the way. This allowed me to be recognized for my contributions and move up in the organization.” (In this type of situation, mentioning a few details of the projects would be appropriate.)

Key points to remember

• The focus in these answers is on the “why” more than the “what” in your career thus far.
  
  
• Don’t offer details that the interviewer doesn’t need or want to know. Highlight the most important things and move on. If the interviewer asks, “Tell me about yourself,” it is appropriate to give the details about your work experience while also sharing some relevant personal background. These details might include where you grew up, interesting information about your childhood/schooling, why you chose to go to the university you did, and why you chose to study what you did.
  

MBA interview question 2: Why this MBA program?

What are they really asking?

This question gauges the sincerity of a candidate’s interest in the school.

How to prepare your answer

Your job is to show that your reasons for applying to the program go well beyond the obvious reputation, network, or location: you need to display genuine, though not gushing, over-the-top rah-rah cheerleading. Be as specific as possible. Appropriate reasons include:

1. Distinctive curriculum necessary to reach your goals
   
   
2. Faculty you are excited to learn from (and why)
   
   
3. School clubs or organizations you are excited to join
   
   
4. Value-added components of the program that intrigue you – study abroad, internships, entrepreneurship projects, etc.

If you had the opportunity to visit the school, mention aspects of that visit that added to your excitement about being a part of the community: classroom environment, conversations with students, admissions officers, or other prospective students, the overall feeling you had while on campus.

Key points to remember

• Make sure your answer is specific enough to the program that it could not also refer to other schools you are looking at. Ideally, this will be an easy question for you since you are legitimately enthusiastic about the prospect of attending. Even if the school is not a top choice, or possibly even a safety school, you still need to convince your interviewer that it makes sense to offer you admission, and that if admitted, there is a decent chance you would attend.

MBA interview question 3: What questions do you have?

What are they really asking?

The interviewer wants to confirm that you have thoroughly researched the program and have pertinent, thoughtful questions to round out your knowledge about it.

How to prepare your answer

This is probably the only question you can be certain will be asked in the interview, so take enough time to consider what you want to ask. Write down your questions so you don’t have to stress about remembering them during the interview. 

Avoid procedural questions such as, “When will I find out about your decision?” You can ask those types of questions at the end of your interview, if the topics weren’t covered already. Thoughtful questions could focus on “big picture” things like school strategy or trends, or relate to various features of the program and how those features, such as particular coursework, are relevant to your goals. 

The best questions will prompt the interviewer to dig deep into their knowledge of the program. Possibly, they may need to do a bit of research and get back to you with the answer, providing you with one final opportunity to connect with someone critical to your admission decision.

Key points to remember

• Even if you have memorized all the content on the school’s website, visited the campus, and already asked (and had answered) all the questions you think you could possibly ever have, come up with two or three non-procedural questions when you are asked. A blank stare or “I have no other questions” just looks bad.
  
  
• This will most likely be your last opportunity to ask questions about the program before you find out the admission decision, so make sure the questions count.

MBA interview question 4: What is your weakness?

What are they really asking?

Nobody is perfect. Your interviewer wants to measure how introspective you can be in an assessment of yourself and whether you register a healthy degree of humility.

How to prepare your answer

Spend some time reflecting on how you are striving to be your best self. In a work context, what are the areas where you need to develop? Where do you find yourself stuck? Is there a consistent theme or issue that comes up in your performance reviews? Sometimes we don’t want to acknowledge our weaknesses to others, but acknowledging them is the precursor to growth. Once you have identified a few areas for improvement, you can plan to portray those weaknesses as the flip side of strengths. For example, being too detail-oriented might bog you down with too much work, but it ensures you are thorough, leaving no stone unturned. In this particular example, you are overworked, but you also have a strong work ethic.

Key points to remember

• When discussing your weaknesses, focus primarily on how you are working to improve them and how they also double as strengths.
  
  
• Try to have at least two weaknesses to discuss that are not situational, such as, “My professional network is weak since I am primarily surrounded by IT people.”

MBA interview question 5: Why do you need an MBA?

What are they really asking?

They want to know that your reasons for getting an MBA match up with what the MBA degree will provide you.

How to prepare your answer

Coming from almost any function, such as marketing, finance, IT, engineering, the likely answer to the “Why MBA?” question is that you have a significant amount of depth in your particular field. In order to break free of being labeled as simply a subject matter expert, you need more breadth.

Most people pursue an MBA in order to move into a management role or to change fields. To succeed in management, you need to have an understanding of all functional areas of business, from finance to operations to technology and more. An MBA degree provides the toolbox you need to succeed in management in the shortest amount of time.

For career-switchers, a full-time MBA program provides one of the best opportunities to make that transition. It gives you access to critical coursework, training in “soft skills” and leadership, the all-important summer internship, and more.

Key points to remember

• This is not meant to be a “gotcha” question. The interviewer simply wants to ensure that your expectations for the MBA are in line with what the program delivers.
  
  
• There is no doubt that adding an MBA degree to your resume will bolster credibility and prestige. Still, you don’t want to come across as someone interested in an MBA degree only because of the pedigree. That is a big turn off.

MBA interview question 6: How will you contribute to the program?

What are they really asking?

The admissions committee is looking to put together a diverse group of people, not just in terms of work experience and ethnic background, but in terms of life experience as well. They want to know that you can already visualize how you will add to the overall MBA experience of your class.

How to prepare your answer

In thinking about this question, you should consider:

• What makes you truly individual, uncommon in your thinking, background, talents, and energy?
  
  
• In what classes might your work experience be particularly useful to the learning environment?
  
  
• How does your ethnicity, culture, experiences, and/or places you have lived inform your view of the world?
  
  
• What personal interests or hobbies might provide you with a unique perspective to an activity or aspect of the school?
  
  
• What would you like to initiate at the school?

Key points to remember

Imagine that the admissions committee must choose between you and someone else with a similar demographic profile and work experience. What will make them choose you?

MBA interview question 7: How have you been affected by the COVID pandemic?

If you are asked how you have been affected by the COVID pandemic, consider approaching it in two parts:

1. In Part 1, offer a clear, literal answer. Let the interviewer know if you or a loved one caught COVID; whether you were furloughed or lost your job; had to begin home-schooling your children; and any other ways in which the pandemic affected your life.
   
   
2. In Part 2, address the sub-text to this question: How did you respond to the challenges you’ve just mentioned? How did you cope with job loss; the loss of loved ones; prolonged illness; lack of childcare; or anything else pandemic-related?

What if you were relatively unaffected by COVID? In this case, perhaps you did something to help ease the suffering, vulnerability, or loneliness of others during this time. Did you use your technical and organizational skills to organize or volunteer with a food delivery service? Perhaps you got involved with a church, synagogue or community group offering Zoom “socials” or other programming, or you connected with people who lived alone and made sure to check in with them by phone a few times a week. 

The point here is to show that whether you suffered directly from the pandemic or whether you have fared relatively well, you had the emotional and internal strength to contribute to your community despite the extraordinary circumstances. This helps bring out your resilience, initiative, teamwork, empathy, and leadership.

Additional MBA interview questions

Some of our clients have shared a variety of questions they were asked during their MBA interviews. Many of the following were expected questions and match or are very close to those discussed above. Others may take you by surprise. Here they are for you to think about in advance–just in case:

• Discuss your career progression.
  
  
• Give examples of how you have demonstrated leadership inside and outside the work environment.
  
  
• What are your short-term and long-term goals in regard to business function, industry, and location?
  
  
• Why are you pursuing an MBA? Why now?
  
  
• Describe an ethical dilemma you faced at work.
  
  
• Describe your career aspirations.
  
  
• What would you do if not accepted?
  
  
• Why does this school appeal to you?
  
  
• What is an activity you are involved in? Why is it important to you?
  
  
• Can you share some of the experiences you have had at work?
  
  
• Why are you interested in a general MBA program?
  
  
• Why did you choose your undergraduate major?
  
  
• Describe yourself.
  
  
• What contributions would you make to a group?
  
  
• Name three words or phrases to describe yourself to others.
  
  
• What do you find most frustrating at work?
  
  
• How would your co-workers describe you?
  
  
• Describe a typical work day.
  
  
• Have you worked in a team environment? What were your contributions to the effort?
  
  
• Discuss any experience you have had abroad.
  
  
• How did you choose your job after college?
  
  
• What do you do to relieve stress?
  
  
• It’s two years after graduation; what three words would your team members use to describe you?
  
  
• Describe a situation where you brought an idea forward and it failed.
  
  
• How do you define success?
  
  
• What would you do if a team member wasn’t pulling their own weight?

Well, do you feel much better prepared now for your MBA interview? We hope so! Our goal for this report was to help you nail this interview, and it’s always a good idea to bolster your preparation with our expert advisors at Accepted. Check out our Mock MBA Interview Packages and get the guidance you need to GET ACCEPTED!

Jen Weld is a former Accepted admissions consultant and Assistant Director of Admissions at Cornell’s EMBA program. She has an additional 10 years of experience in higher ed and corporate marketing. Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• MBA Interview Prep: How to Ace Your Interviews, a free guide
• 4 Ways to Show How You’ll Contribute in the Future
• Seven Tips for MBA Interview Prep

The post Preparing for Your MBA Interview Questions appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.