I had my Haas interview yesterday during the school’s ‘Super Saturday’ event for Round 2 applicants. Comprised of the interview, student & career panels, lunch, a tour and welcome/closing remarks by the admissions directors, the event was a 6 hour affair. Fortunately, my interview took place during the first two hours of the day, allowing me to enjoy the rest of the event free of pre-interview nerves.
A first year student conducted my interview. After some initial chit-chat, we got down to business. Her questions ran like this:
- Walk me through your resume.
- The admissions committee told me to ask you this: Why have your career goals changed? (I am a Haas reapplicant)
- Discuss your leadership style. How do you lead?
- Discuss a time when you were part of a group of peers and you failed to meet your objective. How did you deal with this?
- What is it about Haas, specifically, that makes you want to attend this program?
- If you are admitted to Haas, what attributes will you bring to the program? How will you contribute?
- Do you have any questions for me?
Number 2 was somewhat of a surprise, given that I explained this change in my application (and that this was a blind interview). I assumed that the adcom wanted to ensure my interview response was consistent with my essays, so I kept the response as such, while providing additional detail about the broader 12-month process I had undertaken in determining the post-MBA field that 1.) I was most attracted to/passionate about, and 2.) would ideally leverage my existing experience.
After 30 minutes of providing answers, I had 15 minutes to ask my interviewer some questions of my own. This was great, because there were definitely some elements of the Haas program that I wanted to hear more about. Given the program’s small size, I asked a several questions and follow-up questions about the process of on-campus recruiting vs. the process of working through the career center to pursue an employer not recruiting on-campus. I also inquired about academics, clubs and I asked my interviewer about her own goals and how she was structuring the Haas program to help her achieve these goals.
In parting, I should add that the depth of the Super Saturday program helped answer a lot of lingering questions I had about the program, especially in regards to career services and recruitment.
