MBA Personal Interview - Practice Questions
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    • MBA Personal Interview - Practice Questions

    Ashish Kumar

    Pursuing MBA

    Justify your decision to pursue the MBA programme?

    Don't tell the panel that you are looking for a "challenging job in a good firm with lots of money, status and glamour". Instead, you must convey to the interview panel that you have made a rational and informed decision about your career choice and your intended course of higher study. There are broadly four areas which your answer could touch upon :
    • Career Objectives: You could talk about your career objectives and how the two year MBA programme will help you achieve them.
    • Value Addition: Value addition will essentially be in two forms knowledge and skills.
    • Background: This is where you connect your past to your future. If you are an engineer, try and say that the MBA course and your engineering degree will help you do your job better in the company that you will join. You should be able to convincingly justify how your engineering qualification will help.
    • Opportunities and Rewards: You could also at this stage mention the opportunities that are opening up in organizations for management graduates. At this stage mentioning superior monetary rewards for management graduates may not be a bad idea.

    Why do you think you would enjoy your chosen area of study (Eg: Marketing)?

    Marketing is key to the success of any organization and the function has always appealed to me, because it requires a combination of creativity, strategic and analytic ability - all qualities that I feel I possess. Through discussions with some of my seniors, I have a pretty good idea of what it's like to work toward taking up a marketing job, and I know I will enjoy the work. 

    How do you spend your spare time?

    I have a good collection of books of different genre and enjoy reading. In addition, I love driving during late evenings or on rainy weekend afternoons. Also, for the last two years I've been volunteering at the local children's hospital on Saturday mornings. 

    What are your weaknesses?

    I used to be somewhat disorganized, but eventually this got me into trouble when I missed an appointment I hadn't written down. It was clear that I had to learn how to be more organized. So, with the help of my senior colleague we worked out a system that I still use today. Not only do I stay on top of things, but I'm more efficient, too. 

    The first thing you need to do prior to interviewing is assess yourself. This includes listing your strengths and weaknesses, your accomplishments and achievements, reviewing your strong and your weak subjects, and recording some of the key decisions you have made in your life.

    You should then review your interests, the disappointments you've encountered, your work environment likes/dislikes, your business and personal values, your goals, needs, restrictions, and life style preferences. It would help if you're ready to practice answering the following potential questions



    Prepare structured answers for the following potential questions.

    1. Why should we admit you into our MBA program?

    2. What are your strongest abilities?

    3. What skills would you be bringing to the classroom?(relevant if you have job experience)

    4. What are you looking for in this program?

    5. Tell me something about yourself?

    6. What are your greatest strengths/weaknesses?

    7. Where do you want to be in 5 years?

    8. Why do you want to study in this institute?

    9. What does "success" mean to you?

    10. What does "failure" mean to you?

    11. What are your three major accomplishments?

    12. What have you disliked in your past jobs? (If you have worked in more than one organization)

    13. What kinds of people do you enjoy working with? (If you possess work experience)

    14. What kinds of people frustrate you?

    15. How long before you can make a contribution (Not monetary) to the institute?

    16. In the past year, what have you been dissatisfied about in your performance?

    17. What according to you is your ideal job and how will this program help you realise the same?

    18. What can you tell me about your past bosses? (If you have work experience)

    19. Which is more important to you: money or the type of job?

    20. What have you learned from your activities in college?

    21. Were your extracurricular activities worth the time you put into them?
    22. What have they taught you?

    23. What qualities should a successful manager possess?

    24. What two attributes are most important in your job?

    25. What major problem have you encountered and how did you deal with it?

    26. What have you done that you consider creative?

    27. Who do you admire? Why?

    28. What do you get passionate about?

    29. What courses are you taking?
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