What all You could be Asked in an Interview

What all You could be Asked in an Interview


The first question in an Interview: Your Introduction

Almost all interviews commence in a relatively similar manner-you shall be asked to introduce yourself to the panel. You shall often hear this: ‘Tell us something about yourself”.

Since it is almost certain that you would be asked about yourself, make sure you know what to highlight while speaking about yourself! The mistakes which some candidates make are:

• Their introduction is far too short-they only mention their name and where they are studying or working and hardly anything else. This is a really poor introduction, for it does not tell the panel anything about you whatsoever.
• Many candidates often stick to repeating what is already written on the form that you had earlier filled-in and thus neither present themselves well nor add any information which the panel does not already know.

The important point here is that you need to present yourself well. Besides, the factual information about you (which, as mentioned above, is already known to the panel), what really matters is how you put across the details about yourself. How do you make the panel more interested in you both as a person and a potential student in the Business School they represent? Thus you need to make sure that you almost tell a ‘story’ about yourself, rather then appear to just be reading out a prepared list of bullet-point like features about yourself i.e. “I did my schooling from place X and college from place Y and am currently doing Z”.

Another important thing is that you must highlight your achievements during your introduction. Remember that many interview panel members form their impressions about you in the first few minutes and based on your introduction, so make sure you put across any points that you think may help you get a seat in their Business School. Any special things about you? Any major achievements? Anything unique about your personality that helps you stand apart from the crowd? Make sure you mention these.

Broadly, your introduction could cover some of these points (these are only guidelines and your introduction need not cover all the points listed below or may even go beyond these points):

• Something about your background (both family and academic background)
• Your achievements
• Any unique trait about you
• Your hobbies and interests
• Your goals or career aspirations
• Anything that makes you stand out from others

What all you can Expect to be Asked in an Interview

Post your introduction as discussed, the Interview panel can broadly ask you questions relating to:

• Your Background: Family and Place of Residence (both former and current)
• Your Academics-based on the subjects studied during your Graduation
• Questions pertaining to your Work Experience (if applicable)
• General Awareness/ Business Awareness related questions
• Career Goals, including questions such as:
• Why MBA?
• Where do you see yourself five or ten years from now?
• Your hobbies/ interests
• Your traits/ strengths and weaknesses or something like the following:
• Why should we take you?

We shall looks at these in some more detail now:

Your Background

You could be asked about your family background. For example, what your parents do. Please know a little about the company your father/ mother work in or if they have their own business, a little about the business. This shows the panel that you are interested in the corporate world or have business acumen. Think-if you state that you wish to establish your own firm a few years down the line, but have not shown any interest in your dad’s business, then what impression will the panel get? Certainly not a good one!

You could also be asked about your earlier or current place of residence. For example, if you belong to Delhi or Kanpur or Vishakhapatnam or any other city, you could be asked a little about that city. Make sure you know what your city is famous for, from an art & architecture, cultural or other standpoint. Which are the places of tourist interest? Please find out!

Academics

If you are still doing your Graduation and are in your final year or even if you have just completed your Graduation a few months back, you can definitely expect questions pertaining to your academics. These questions will centre on the basics or fundamentals of the subjects that you may have studied and applications of those fundamentals. For example, a B.Tech student may be asked to explain the principle of electromagnetic induction and where all electromagnetic induction finds an application.

In a separate module, we have listed out the various types of questions that you could be asked depending on your academic background. You shall find these useful in your preparation.

Thus it is important for you to revise your acads. If you are still in your final year, start paying attention in class (if you weren’t doing so already), for you could be asked such questions during your Interview!

Work-Experience related questions

For those candidates with work experience, you can definitely expect questions around your job. In fact, the higher the duration of work-ex you have, the more the panel will focus on this as compared to your academics. So be ready and remember the following:

• You could be asked about your role and responsibilities in your current job
• Importantly, questions will not be limited to just this (role and responsibilities). You could well be asked about:
• The industry in which the company where your form operates-size of the industry, major customers, sellers etc
• The major competitors of your firm
• Questions around the major issues facing the industry
• The future outlook for your industry
• The future outlook for your firm
• Your firm’s strategy and how you expect it to evolve over time based on changing market dynamics

The idea here is to test your business acumen and your initiative. Are you well suited to be a budding manager? Which means that do you go beyond just the current mandate you have been given (your current responsibilities in your job) and show an interest in finding out more about your firm, the competitors and the industry where your firm operates? In short, do you show an interest in the ‘bigger picture’?

For example, if you are working in the IT sector, you could be asked about the issues that the industry is currently facing and the challenges. Next you could be asked as to what you think your company could do to meet these challenges. What are your competitor’s doing? Where do you think future competition may come from?

General Awareness/ Business Awareness related questions

Especially for freshers, but also for those with work-ex, expect at least a few questions on General or Current Awareness and the recent important developments in the corporate sector. This is to test whether you keep yourself up-to-date with what is happening in the world and in the corporate sector-so important as you climb the corporate hierarchy after doing your MBA.

Make sure you know the latest big economic and political developments. In particular, keep a track of major Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) deals that have occurred. Try to form an opinion on why these occurred-what was the strategic rationale behind these? You could be asked for your views/ opinions.

Also, make sure you know a little about the Indian economy and the country in general. The latest important economic statistics etc. may prove useful both during GDs and to substantiate an opinion you express during Interviews.

Career Goals

Be ready for questions such as why you wish to do an MBA. Firstly, know about the course and subjects that you shall be taught. It is going to be pretty difficult for you to prove an interest in the MBA course if you are not even aware of what you are going to be taught!

If you are still a fresher and have not firmed up your career plans, it is okay to say so. However, you will need to tell the panel why you feel that an MBA will be useful for you. So you need to do the following:

• State what aspects of the course interest you, which is why MBA may be attractive to you-this could be the courses, the case study approach or the summer placement programme etc.
• How you feel an MBA will prove useful to you in achieving your goals.

Your hobbies/ interests

The interview panel may ask you about your hobbies and interests. Do not make up something here but try to be truthful about your interests and what you do in your spare time.

Also, it is a good idea to learn a little about the sport or hobby you have. For example, if you play Lawn Tennis, read about how and where the game originated, which are the current top-ranked players, who won the latest important tournaments (such as the Grand Slams), any latest major developments or controversies in the sport etc.

Your traits/ strengths and weaknesses

The panel may ask you as to what you feel your strengths are or what you feel you need to improve on-your weaknesses. This reflects your self-awareness.

Once again, do not try and invent some strengths and weaknesses and be as truthful as possible. The important point here is that you need to substantiate your points with examples when you have actually shown these qualities. Remember, if you state you have a particular quality, it needs to reflect in you as a person on a consistent basis-you cannot state you are hard-working when you have only worked hard once in your life so far!

This is another good opportunity to bring out your achievements and your unique traits. Once again, try and convert this answer into a ‘story’-tell the panel about some particular incident or occurrence and how a particular quality of yours was reflected in your actions.

Closing the Interview

At the end, you may find that the panel members ask you whether you wish to ask them anything. Although it is not necessary to ask a question, if you do have something to ask, please do so. Clarify anything you like with them or discuss any point which you feel is worthy of raising about their institute etc.
You may also use this opportunity to add on to something that you said earlier or some answer that you earlier gave. If you didn’t remember something earlier, but now do remember it, you could share that with the panel and give them the answer.