{"id":4165,"date":"2010-12-06T11:09:19","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T17:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=4165"},"modified":"2022-02-07T14:01:24","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T19:01:24","slug":"managing-the-mba-interview-what-is-the-interviewers-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/managing-the-mba-interview-what-is-the-interviewers-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing the MBA Interview: What Is the Interviewer&#8217;s Approach?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>With the release of first-round interview invitations and the  subsequent increase in pressure on MBA candidates, we present a  five-part series with our friends at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vault.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vault<\/a> to help applicants  decompress and thoughtfully manage the MBA interview process. In this  second entry in the series, mbaMission founder Jeremy Shinewald  describes the two main kinds of business school interviews and explains  how you can prepare accordingly and ensure your strongest stories are  shared, no matter which approach you encounter at your target school.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Two Interview Types: Blind vs. Comprehensive<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/29\/managing-the-mba-interview-your-interviewer-actually-wants-to-know-about-you\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Last week<\/a>,  we debunked the myth that your MBA interview will be complicated and  cover unfamiliar topics, and established that most business school  interviews are in fact casual conversations in which you discuss your  life and experiences to date.  So, now that we have covered what to  expect with regard to the content of your MBA interview, we can address  what to expect in terms of the context of the questions you will be  asked. MBA interviews fall into two categories, <em>blind<\/em> and <em>comprehensive<\/em>.  Although their styles vary dramatically, the important thing to keep in  mind (as we established in Part I of this series) is that you already  have the answers, because the questions will always be about you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Blind Interview<\/strong><br \/>\nIn a blind interview, like those conducted at Kellogg, Tuck, Cornell  and Duke,  your interviewer will not have read your file and will be  coming into the meeting with very little information about you beyond,  perhaps, what is listed in your r\u00e9sum\u00e9. As a result, you can expect to  be asked primarily open-ended questions.  For example, your interviewer  may start with a fairly basic question like \u201cCan you walk me through  your resume?\u201d or \u201cTell me about yourself\u2014who are you?\u201d As you answer  this opening question, your interviewer may interject with a few  questions along the way in response to certain topics as they arise. Or,  he or she may just sit quietly and allow you to finish your response,  then follow up with additional questions about why you feel you need to  go to business school and why you have chosen this specific school.  Later, your interviewer will likely ask you about your leadership and  team experiences, both your successes and failures, and may finish with  questions about your personal interests and community activities. Blind  interviews follow no real standard form. Your interviewer will pose the  questions, but you can control a lot of the direction and tone of the  interview by selecting the nature and content of your responses, and  will thereby be able to reveal your strongest experiences.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Comprehensive Interview<\/strong><br \/>\nIn a comprehensive interview, like those conducted at Harvard,  NYU-Stern and London Business School,  the interviewer will have read  your entire application file and will already have questions in mind,  most often ones that focus on how you make decisions or respond to  certain situations.  For example, a question for someone who was  transferred for a promotion might be \u201cWhat were the differences  culturally between the Los Angeles office and the Boston office\u2014and how  did you adjust?\u201d Or, alternatively, someone who gained an early  promotion might be asked, \u201cWhy do you think ABC Consulting made the  choice to promote you ahead of others?\u201d Although such interviews do not  tend to follow a predictable path, and you will not be able to control  the agenda, as you can more easily do in a blind interview, you will  probably not end up feeling \u201cgrilled,\u201d but simply challenged. The  interviewer is not trying to poke holes in your stories or trip you up  in any way, but rather to better understand your choices, motivations  and personality by probing into your experiences in more depth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>* * *<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before your interview, find out whether your target school conducts  blind interviews or comprehensive ones and prepare accordingly. Last  week, we mentioned that you should review your application in full and  consider the inflection points in your life as a basic step in your  preparation. Now that you have, we hope, refreshed your memory in this  way, we strongly suggest that you practice your responses\u2014using a  stopwatch! Your answers do not all need to be a specific length, but you  do want to be sure you are not taking too long to respond to each  query. Two to three minutes per response is a good target. Stand in  front of a mirror, sit down with a friend or practice with an mbaMission  consultant\u2014regardless of how you choose to rehearse, you should not go  into your interview cold. You should understand the types of questions  you will face and get comfortable with your responses and stories.  As  the old saying goes, \u201cHow do you get to Carnegie Hall?\u201d\u2014or in this case,  into business school?\u2014\u201cPractice, practice, practice!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the release of first-round interview invitations and the subsequent increase in pressure on MBA candidates, we present a five-part series with our friends at Vault to help applicants decompress and thoughtfully manage the MBA interview process. In this second entry in the series, mbaMission founder Jeremy Shinewald describes the two main kinds of business &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/managing-the-mba-interview-what-is-the-interviewers-approach\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba-interviews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Managing the MBA Interview: What Is the Interviewer&#039;s Approach? | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/managing-the-mba-interview-what-is-the-interviewers-approach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Managing the MBA Interview: What Is the Interviewer&#039;s Approach? | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the release of first-round interview invitations and the subsequent increase in pressure on MBA candidates, we present a five-part series with our friends at Vault to help applicants decompress and thoughtfully manage the MBA interview process. In this second entry in the series, mbaMission founder Jeremy Shinewald describes the two main kinds of business &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/managing-the-mba-interview-what-is-the-interviewers-approach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-06T17:09:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-07T19:01:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Managing the MBA Interview: What Is the Interviewer's Approach? | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/managing-the-mba-interview-what-is-the-interviewers-approach\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Managing the MBA Interview: What Is the Interviewer's Approach? | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"With the release of first-round interview invitations and the subsequent increase in pressure on MBA candidates, we present a five-part series with our friends at Vault to help applicants decompress and thoughtfully manage the MBA interview process. 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