{"id":30716,"date":"2022-10-01T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-10-01T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=30716"},"modified":"2022-10-04T12:25:37","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T16:25:37","slug":"hbs-interview-expert-devi-vallabhaneni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/hbs-interview-expert-devi-vallabhaneni\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Devi Vallabhaneni, Harvard Business School Interview Expert"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Prepare<\/a>

Prepare for Your Harvard Business School Interview with a Former HBS Interviewer: Devi Vallabhaneni, mbaMission<\/p><\/div>\n

Meet Devi Vallabhaneni<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Devi Vallabhaneni<\/a>\u00a0has almost two decades of admissions experience, including interviewing and evaluating Harvard Business School (HBS) candidates, a passion she first developed when she herself was a second-year student at the school. She is a Managing Director at mbaMission, as well as our Harvard Business School Interviewer in Residence, offering\u00a0HBS Intensive Interview Simulations<\/a> to HBS hopefuls. In fact, her services are so popular that she always has a waitlist of candidates who want to prep with her for the coveted HBS admissions interview. Here, she answers some questions about the Harvard Business School interview.<\/p>\n

How do you prepare to prepare applicants for their Harvard Business School interview?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The HBS interview season is only about eight weeks over the two rounds, so it\u2019s what I do the remaining 44 weeks that\u2019s important. There is a through-line between each year\u2019s MBA applicant pool and current events in business, which is why I think of admissions as being in the business of business.<\/p>\n

CNBC or Bloomberg is always on in my office. I love following the markets, which allows me to be several steps ahead of my interviewees, who are working on the most newsworthy SPACs [special purpose acquisition companies], latest innovations across industries, newest business models, and the most pressing societal problems. My job isn\u2019t to give them answers but to ask the right questions and challenge their thinking for them to formulate their own viewpoints.<\/p>\n

I hear you give homework to your clients. What does that mean?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Recently, I was helping an interviewee who was sharing his struggles at his service-based start-up. He was advising leadership that to be customer-centric, they had to be employee-centric first, but leadership was having a hard time making this connection. I gave him homework: to study the Service Profit Chain developed by HBS Professor James Heskett. He shared it with his leadership, who started listening to him. Because there is no divining rod of who will be accepted, I make sure to leave them with something tangible they could use on their job as well as during the HBS interview.<\/p>\n

How do you address EQ [emotional quotient]?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Some clients haven\u2019t fully processed their emotions around their path and inadvertently infuse their answers with regret and negativity. The interview process can be emotional, and at times, people cry telling me heart wrenching stories about their setbacks or disappointments. The more that is processed during practice, the better. Confidence comes when you understand yourself emotionally, so if that\u2019s the bottleneck, that\u2019s what we focus on. It\u2019s amazing to see the lightness of their persona when emotions are processed in a safe and nonjudgmental way.<\/p>\n

Why is Harvard Business School interview prep so important to you?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Prepping clients for the HBS interview is a strangely intimate, intense, and personal experience for me. They know nothing about me, yet I know everything about them. Our exchanges become their biggest priorities for a few weeks. They place their past, their future, their hopes, their disappointments, their goals, and, most importantly, their trust in my hands. I\u2019m constantly thinking,\u00a0What do I need to ask them to get them to where they need to go or for them to see their path differently?<\/em>\u00a0My process is more of an art than a science. I view each client like a protagonist in a case study. Instead of analyzing whether a company should launch a product or build a new plant somewhere, the case study is their life.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a privilege to be trusted with someone\u2019s yet-to-be-written story. It\u2019s a privilege to be the second call after their immediate family to share in their acceptance!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Be sure to check out Devi\u2019s top five tips for acing your MBA interview!
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