Hella

Now that my interviews for the season are over, I thought I’d post some tips on common areas. Overall, the interviews did not feel a lot different from round-to-round implying that a similar quality of applicants was invited over the course of the season.

• Anticipate (but don’t all out assault!) questions that are likely to be asked. The Wharton on-campus interview is about having a conversation, not about reciting canned thoughts you’ve rehearsed many times. If at any point you feel like you’re giving a speech or trying to be overly convincing, you’re probably coming across that way.
• Take time to formulate your answers. Silence is ok. I tried to remind each candidate of this fact at the start of the interview or before I asked detailed or more thought provoking questions. For the most part, people did ok with this one.
• Expect answers you provide to lead to follow-up questions. If you’re saying something because it sounds good but you’re not really passionate about the answer, it can spell trouble when you’re asking for even more detail. For candidates that have trouble following up, sincerity can be a possible issue.
• Give your resume a good polishing. Read it. Re-read it. Have a friend look over it. Typos just give the interviewer a reason to question your orientation to details and professionalism.
• Further on the resume not, get rid of jargon. Almost all of it. Your resume bullets should describe what you do to someone with a decent background in business but it shouldn’t be technical in nature. Highlight percentage improvements and impacts you’ve had that can be quantified. But keeping in something that sounds good within your division that is meaningless to the interviewers … well, it’s meaningless :-)
• And one more; boil your resume down to only the most important items. Expect to be asked about anything and have a solid story for each bullet. You might have a good deal of work experience but you want the interviewer to be able to quickly focus on the most significant accomplishments you’ve had. At any point, if you find a truthfull response to be along the lines of, “well, that really wasn’t all that important,” then it wasn’t important; leave it off!
• Beware of the time limit of the interview. Wharton on-campus interviews typically consist of 25 minutes of questions. Rambling on or giving an overly detailed response to the first question can leave little time to explore other important areas. A good way to gauge time if you’re unsure is to finish a thought and pause. If the interviewer wants to redirect you, you’ll know. If they’d like you to continue, that will also be communicated. It boils down to being a good communicator. Sure, we want to hear from you, but if we’re hearing you for 25 solid minutes with only 3 breaths in between, not so good.
• During the 5 minutes at the end where you can ask questions, really take advantage of the opportunity to ask things you still don’t have an answer to. Asking the interviewer about her/his own experience can be a good strategy if you’re stumped/nervous/can’t think of a question. Also, again be aware of the time limit. Don’t keep firing away if you know 5 minutes is up.
• Thank you notes: it has often been posted on student-2-student, but I find it worth mentioning here. It’s nice to receive these from candidates but it really has no impact on your outcome. Interviewers often already have your report submitted. And if they do not, rather than changing their decision from a “deny” to an “admit”, it’s more likely to remind them that they need to get it turned in.
• “The Wharton School”. That’s the name. It’s not “Wharton Business School” or “The Wharton School of Business”. Get it right in your application. Get it right in the interview. I think more people might actually get this wrong than right. Current students are also guilty.

That does it for now. There’s surely more to add so I might follow-up on advice in other areas.

[tags]b-school,mba application,wharton mba[/tags]

Filed under: B-School